9 Halloween Movie Filming Locations You Can Visit, From Vermont to Japan

17.10.2024 - 18:09 / cntraveler.com / Tim Burton

Whether your cinematic tastes tend more toward spine-tingling suspense, bloody gore, cheesy horror, or light-hearted fantasy, watching spooky movies is one of the best ways to get into the Halloween spirit. Since we can’t quite hop aboard flying broomsticks of our own and travel directly into the worlds of such films, visiting halloween movie filming locations in real-life is the next best thing. Although these destinations can be visited any time of the year, planning your “location vacation” during October often comes with special seasonal perks, like film screenings and even whole town transformations into their on-screen counterparts.

From creepy cabins to haunted hotels, these 10 halloween movie filming locations all have something to offer. Since some of these movies were filmed in part in private homes and businesses or small, off-the-main-tourist-path communities and landscapes, set-jetting cinephiles should remember to respect locals and follow “Leave No Trace” principles. Happy h(a)unting!

The quaint Vermont hamlet of East Corinth stands in for the fictional Winter River, Connecticut in Tim Burton's Beetlejuice.

Nestled among the rolling hills of eastern Vermont, the village of East Corinth is as quaint and picture-perfect as its on-screen miniature model in Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice. A small hamlet within larger Corinth, this quiet community became the fictional town of Winter River, Connecticut for the 1988 film and again in 2023 for the sequel. Sorry, no sandworms or Maitland house (it was only built for the films), but fans can see landmarks like the white-steepled East Corinth Congregational Church, the building that housed Maitland Hardware, and the old Masonic Lodge which stood in as Miss Shannon’s School for Girls. This is a teeny-tiny town, albeit one of great beauty, best visited as a stop on a larger leaf-peeping New England road trip—perhaps on an arcing drive between Woodstock and Burlington.

Used in both the Halloweentown films as well as Twilight, St. Helens, Oregon has some major Halloween movie cred. Luckily for fans of both franchises, it happily leans into its reputation. Each fall, the Spirit of Halloweentown festival takes over this riverside town with themed decorations like the Halloweentown Square with a giant jack-o-lantern statue, a haunted house, and pumpkin lighting ceremonies.

For New Moon, St. Helens stood in as Port Angeles in scenes including when Kristen Stewart's Bella Swan goes book shopping at the Thunderbird & Whale bookstore (which is actually a private residence). It's also the site of Bella’s house, which can be booked as an Airbnb and is furnished to resemble the film sets. Apart from St. Helens, Twihards will find plenty of filming locations around