Special Halloween Edition

6 Classic Horror Film Locations That No Longer Exist

A little special something for my regular readers. This is a piece I researched a couple of years ago, originally for Cracked, that didn’t make it to the site. Horror fans of a certain age will remember these original (several have been remade) movies and their landmark locations that helped create an air of spookiness. Grab a Reese’s and revisit them, or what’s left of them, with me.

Horror movie fans are a pretty rabid group of people. Sometimes literally. They go to conventions, they dress up like their favorite characters from their favorite scary movies, they collect lots of statistics and anecdotes. And they love visiting some of the scary locations that have provided the settings for their favorite scary films. But sometimes they hit a dead end. Why? Because sometimes the sands through the hourglass are not always kind to these locales. Below is a list of some locations for famous classic horror movies that have been demolished, destroyed, or remodeled beyond recognition. 

Saltair Pavilion: Carnival of Souls

There really isn't another horror or drive-in movie quite like Herk Harvey's Carnival of Souls. The story follows a young woman who shows up in town to become the church organist and live in a boarding house. Thing is, she was involved in a drag racing accident wherever she came from. The car went over the edge of the bridge into the river and two of her friends drowned. Now she is haunted by the face of a mysterious apparition, and by the strange abandoned carnival she passed on the way into town...

"Sorry , Mr. Christie, we're fresh out of corndogs"

That abandoned place was Utah's Saltair Pavilion, and it entranced Harvey, who was a 37 year-old director for Centron Corporation, producer of educational and instructional films with titles like Mechanical Death and Judy Has VD. He was driving back from a job in California to his home in Kansas when he passed by the abandoned Saltair Pavilion, once the greatest amusement and entertainment complex west of Coney Island. He instantly knew it would make a great setting for a movie, and despite never having made a feature film, Harvey was inspired to complete Carnival of Souls solely on his belief in the specialness of this amazing location.  

The Saltair that Herk Harvey saw, abandoned after a fire had closed it down, was actually the second Saltair Pavilion constructed on the site. 

http://www.robertklara.com/w,p-content/uploads/2013/09/Carnival-of-Souls.pdf  Article on Saltair and Carnival of Souls, reprinted from American Road magazine by the article's author.

Hatra, Iraq: The Exorcist

What everyone remembers about The Exorcist is its Georgetown setting and that long flight of stairs the demon Pazuzu Gabor threw Father Karras down. Well, that and a sudden aversion to pea soup. But the movie opens with scenes shot at ruins in the Iraqi city of Hatra. The opening scene shows Father Merrin, who will later be called upon to perform the titular exorcism, at Hatra's temple complex where there is an archeological dig going on. Merrin finds a talisman and sees the face of Pazuzu, whereupon he realizes that he has released the demon into the world. The film's subtitle states only that it is 'Northern Iraq', which is true. 

This was filmed in pre-Saddam Hussein Iraq. After Saddam came to power, he closed Hatra, as well as many other cities of historic significance, to tourists. Following the American invasion of Iraq and the fall of Saddam, it was thought that Hatra and its ruins might become a tourist attraction in the new Iraq, but this never came to pass as the country quickly became unstable and unsafe. 

In spring 2015, the Islamic State (ISIS) stated that it had destroyed ruins at the ancient city, and as usual released film showing the destroyed site. The Islamic State has said that the ruins at Hatra and other Iraqi locations are 'false idols' and must be destroyed. No word yet on what Pazuzu's next move will be. 

Welcome to Iraq. Please keep all wings, cloven hooves, and phallic attachments inside the ride at all times.

For most of the 40 years, Hatra and its Hollywood connection have all but been forgotten. Under Saddam Hussein, the site was effectively closed to outside visitors, and since his fall, Iraq has been largely too dangerous for tourists.

But its potential as a tourist site was spotted by US troops from the 2-320 Field Artillery Regiment who guarded it after Saddam’s fall, when they were billeted in a disused hotel nearby.

As The Telegraph reported back in 2003, they stumbled on its movie connection by chance, when a captain serving with the regiment watched The Exorcist on his DVD player and realized that the opening sequence, showing the sun rising over the temple’s distinctive skyline, had been shot from his hotel window.

The troops then trained up local guides, hoping what they called “The Exorcist Experience” would help attract tourists. But Iraq’s growing insurgency meant the scheme never came to fruition.

Morristown, Tennessee Abandoned Cabin, The Evil Dead

This was literally an abandoned cabin selected by Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell as the filming location for the film Evil Dead. The cabin, located in Morristown, Tennessee, was the object of much fan attention as well as vandalism. It eventually burned, with only the fireplace and part of the chimney brick remaining. 

The cabin was so much a part of the movie that it was as though it was another character in the film. The crew had to dig a hole to serve as the cabin's cellar, since it didn't have one. Raimi has claimed that he purposely burnt the cabin down after the film was complete, but he's also said that it was struck by lightning. 

Fans that make the trek to Morristown will find very little of the cabin left, although Bruce Campbell has claimed that fans have shown up at horror conventions with bricks from the cabin and asked him to autograph them. The crew also supposedly created and buried a time capsule at the cabin site while filming there, but to date no one has found it. If you go out there to look for what's left of the cabin, be sure to watch out for those predatory trees. 

http://www.moviefone.com/2011/10/14/evil-dead-30th-anniversary/

Shortly after filming was completed, the cabin burned to the ground. Raimi initially claimed it had been struck by lightning, a fitting coda to the old ghost story about the thunder-traumatized girl. Later, Raimi claimed he'd burned it down himself. The crew supposedly buried a time capsule at the site, and though fans of the movie have picked the site clean over the years (Campbell says fans have brought him bricks from the fireplace to autograph), no one has unearthed it yet.

Monroeville mall, Pennsylvania, Dawn of the Dead

Let's get some entrails at the food court!

This two-level shopping mall that opened in 1969 in the town of Monroeville, PA was the scene for virtually all of the action in the 1978 horror classic Dawn of the Dead. Director George Romero has shot all of his zombie movies around or near Pittsburgh. Filming began at the mall in October 1977, with shooting usually taking place at night after the mall had closed. Romero would often shoot until dawn when it was time for the mall to reopen. Production was halted when Christmas decorations were hung shortly before Thanksgiving, with filming of the mall's exterior done until filming could resume indoors in January. 

Originally the mall housed a Living Dead Museum and Gift Shop that displayed props and photographs from the film, and people would travel internationally to see the escalator that the zombies rode or the fountain where the bikers were disemboweled, or the ice skating rink where Jennifer Beals...Oh no, that was Flashdance.

Over the years the mall has undergone a number of renovations, as such properties usually do, with the result that almost nothing of the mall's original décor that was seen in the film still exists. The escalator is gone, the fountain is gone, the ice skating rink is gone. And in 2015 another renovation threatened to remove the last item still left, the small footbridge that is a signature item seen in many movie scenes. The Living Dead Museum, now located in Evans City, PA, where the original Dawn of the Dead was filmed, sought to preserve the bridge either at the mall or in the museum.

So, yeah, you can still visit the Monroeville Mall and shop there, maybe sit quietly and try to pick up on some zombie vibes. But for all intents and purposes, the mall that served as a fortress for the characters in Dawn of the Dead is gone.

Sable Ranch, Motel Hell

Made in 1980, Motel Hell injected something into horror films that had been missing for awhile: humor. Farmer Vincent, portrayed gloriously by Rory Calhoun, is definitely farm to table. He knocks unsuspecting tourists out, then plants them up to their necks in a secret garden. He fattens them with cattle feed and then harvests them (which means slaughter them), then smokes 'em up and serves 'em as sausages that Bob Evans would envy at his roadside stand. "It takes all kinds of critters...to make Farmer Vincent's fritters."

The exteriors were filmed at Sable Ranch near Santa Clarita, CA, a location that was used in many movies and television shows, frequently set in the Western United States. It was also used in "The A-Team," "Maverick," and "24." The white brick stable building was used as a primary location for Motel Hell. 

In July 2016, a large California wildfire destroyed Sable Ranch and all of the buildings that had been used as movie sets, including Motel Hell. 

Prairie Dell Lake Amusement Park, Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2

Prairie Dell Lake amusement park served as the abandoned Texas Battle Land amusement park in Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2. The freaky cannibal family that included Leatherface used a space beneath the park as its headquarters while slicing and dicing up various hapless teens. 

Prairie Lakes opened in 1983 or 84 but ended up going out of business after a year. It closed and was then used as a location for Chainsaw 2. A short time later the park was demolished. The land was used for an RV park for awhile, but it now appears to be private land once again, with owners looking to develop it. 

A key feature of the park was a large replica of the Swiss Matterhorn, one of the largest replicas that had been built at that time. Unfortunately, not even Dennis Hopper, who starred in the film, could save Prairie Dell Lake Amusement Park from the wrecking ball...or chainsaw.

http://www.texaschainsawmassacre.net/sequels/tcm2/tcm2.htm

The Park was opened somewhere between 1983-1984, but quickly went out of business after about a year.

After the park closed, it was used solely for the purpose of the movie. The park was demolished sometime after the movie was completed. The site is now called Emerald Lake RV Park. Owner Betty Nastasi was asked how it feels to be the owner of a place once used in the movie.  She says “It’s very nice here; people come out here all the time and ask about the movie”. 

Wising all my readers a safe and happy Halloween. I’ll be back shortly with the usual musical stuff. In the meantime, enjoy this piece on Italian band Goblin, Kings of the Euro Horror Soundtrack.