5 Real-World Locations Of Stephen King's Frightening Cinematic Universe
Whether it is creepy child apparitions, monstrosities emerging out of a mist, werewolves or creepy child-eating clowns, the works of Stephen King have an undeniable effect on modern pop culture. And on a fan's skin, thanks to goose bumps.
King's latest cinematic seminal coming-of-age novel “IT” hit theaters for its big-screen adaptation to critical acclaim and box office records. In honor of *ahem* “IT's” success, Bisnow is showcasing the real estate that played supporting roles in other King movies.
Shawshank Redemption
Among Stephen King's most successful cinema adaptations, "The Shawshank Redemption" — based on his short story “Rita Heyworth and The Shawshank Redemption” — is one of King's few stories without a supernatural bent.
The film's most noteworthy real estate piece, of course, is the prison itself. In the real world, that is the former Ohio State Reformatory at 100 Reformatory Road in Mansfield, Ohio. The circa 1834 reformatory was among the first jails built in the Columbus area, and by 1955 it housed an all-time high of more than 5,200 prisoners. The prison was closed by the state in 1984.
But, like any good King story, Ohio State Reformatory (also known as the Mansfield Reformatory) has its own horror stories, including one of a 1958 escape attempt in which two prisoners killed the facility's superintendent and his family.
Today, the Mansfield Reformatory Preservation Society is attempting to rehabilitate the prison while holding tours and its own Halloween attraction.
The Shining
For many Stephen King fans, the name The Overlook Hotel fills them with visions of ghostly children, a deluge of blood from an elevator and Jack Nicholson breaking through a bathroom door with an ax screaming, “Heeeere's Johnny!”
While the hotel is fictional, its iconic exterior scenes are very much real. Today, it is known as the Timberline Lodge & Ski Area in Mount Hood, Oregon.
Built in 1937, the Timberline Lodge sits 6,000 feet above sea level on the south slope of Mount Hood. While the movie's hotel interiors are not that of the Timberline Lodge — those were shot in England — and there is no hedge maze, hotel officials say Room 217 — the haunted room in the novel — is more often requested than any other room at the hotel.
The Mist
Most of "The Mist," directed by Frank Darabont, is set in a fictional grocery store where local townspeople — including the main character, David Drayton, and his son Billy — are besieged by otherworldly tentacled monsters. Drayton has to fight them and a radical group of survivors convinced Billy's sacrifice will end the supernatural siege.
The store is a real place in Vivian, Louisiana. It was previously called Tom's Market, and was in operation as a grocery store until it shuttered in 2016, according to the store's Facebook page, and it was an exterior stand-in for the fictionalized store in the movie.
Silver Bullet
Based on the novella “Cycle of the Werewolf,” the movie "Silver Bullet" was mainly filmed throughout North Carolina. Those locations include a misty night search for the werewolf at Greenfield Lake Park & Gardens in Wilmington, various stretches of West Freemont Street in Burgaw that stood in for the town of Tarker's Mill and, pictured, 100 Wright St., home of the Pender County Government building. Filmmakers used the town square around the government building to film scenes of the town festival.
The town of Burgaw has since become the site for other films, but Pender County librarian Michael Taylor told the Star News in 2014 that “nothing took the town the way 'Silver Bullet' did because of the level of excitement.”
He said the film hired more than 350 Pender County residents as extras, and many others would come to the area to gawk at the production.
“It was one big party,” Taylor told the paper.
Stand By Me
"Stand By Me" is based on the short story “The Body” about a group of friends who trek to find the body of a train collision victim. While largely set in rural areas, there is one key harrowing scene in which the four boys have to run across an elevated bridge to escape an oncoming train, which narrowly misses two of the characters.
That bridge is somewhat off the beaten path in Northern California. Called the Lake Britton Bridge, it is a couple of miles from Burney Falls in the McArthur-Burney Falls Memorial State Park. The bridge, down a gravel road named Eagle Mountain Lane, is barricaded to prevent people from walking across it today, but fans can still get close for photos.
