Emerald City Terror: A Local Native Examines Seattle Horror Movies

It’s no surprise that the Seattle, Washington area is attractive to horror filmmakers. The region’s reputation for rain, mist, and clouds gives it an aesthetic that fits well with the mood of many genre movies. As someone who was born in Seattle and still lives in the area, it’s always fun to see the area portrayed in horror movies. The older films are especially interesting because they often showcase important artifacts from the region’s past.

A consistent pattern emerged as I was researching these movies. Most of them weren’t actually filmed here. Many Seattle horror movies are filmed in Canada, presumably because of the tax incentives. The province of British Columbia, which is located directly north of Washington state, has a similar climate and has done a decent job of impersonating the Seattle area in several films.

The Changeling (1980)

After his wife and daughter are killed in a tragic accident, music teacher and composer John Russell (George C. Scott) moves from upstate New York to Seattle to take a job at his alma mater (which also happens to be my alma mater), the University of Washington.

Russell struggles with loneliness and grief. His problems become even worse when he realizes that his new house is haunted by a child ghost. As Russell investigates the haunting, he uncovers a shocking scandal involving a local politician.

The late George C. Scott had a long and distinguished acting career. He was best known for playing gruff authority figures like General Patton in Patton (1970) and Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol (1984). Scott always exuded authority in his roles, so playing a respected teacher was a good fit for him.

Most scenes in The Changeling were filmed in Canada, but the filmmakers did visit Seattle for some establishment shots. The film features several scenes at UW. The campus’s Red Square is shown a couple of times. It’s remarkable how little its appearance has changed over the past 45 years.

The funniest part of this movie is that UW has a Department of Psychic Research. There has never been any such thing at UW!

Watch The Changeling on Shudder

Fear (1996)

Reese Witherspoon and Mark Walhberg co-star in this over the top but entertaining thriller about a naive teen girl, Nicole (Witherspoon), who is manipulated and seduced by David (Wahlberg), a mysterious stranger.

After Nicole’s father attempts to end their relationship, David becomes unhinged. But of these future celebrities were young unknowns in ’96. Maybe I should have included them in my Future Stars Who Appeared in Obscure Horror Movies article.

Fear was mainly filmed in British Columbia, but it features several shots of the ’90s downtown Seattle skyline. It isn’t all that different from the current skyline, but one old building that stands out is the Kingdome.

Seattle’s old pro football stadium, which was known for its thunderous crowd noise, crappy beer, falling ceiling tiles (yikes!) and conspicuous lack of bathrooms, was already something of a relic by the ’90s. It was imploded in 2000 and replaced by the current outdoor stadium, Lumen Field.

There’s also a Supersonics banner that can be seen in the background of one scene. The Supersonics were Seattle’s NBA team from 1967 until 2008, when they became the Oklahoma City Thunder. There has been recent speculation about a Sonics resurrection but, for now, the banner is a bittersweet reminder for Seattle NBA fans.

Watch Fear on Tubi

M3gan (2022)

M3gan is about a young aunt, Gemma (Allison Williams), who becomes the guardian of her niece Cady (Violet McGraw) after Cady’s parents die in a car accident. Gemma, a robotics engineer, makes the well-intentioned but misguided decision to gift her niece her company’s new robotic doll, M3gan.

At first, M3gan seems like the perfect friend for lonely Cady. But the doll quickly develops an unhealthy fixation with her. Anyone perceived as a threat is eliminated. When Gemma tries to stop M3gan’s rampage, she realizes that her creation is far more intelligent and dangerous than anyone could have imagined.

Despite being set in Seattle, M3gan was filmed in Los Angeles and New Zealand. There isn’t much that’s Seattle-specific, other than some establishment shots of the Seattle skyline. I’m not sure why the filmmakers decided to set this movie here. It could easily have been set in any major American metropolitan area. My guess is that it was because of Seattle’s reputation for being a homebase for tech companies.

My full review of M3gan be found here.

Watch M3gan on Hulu

The Ring (2002)

The Ring is about a cursed videotape that kills viewers seven days after they watch it. Naomi Watts plays Rachel, a journalist who is investigating the tape. After her niece dies a week after seeing it, Rachel is determined to discover the tape’s origin. The stakes get even higher when her son watches the eerie footage. Will they both perish within a week? And who is the eerie dark-haired girl that appears on the tape?

The Ring has some of the darkest cinematography I’ve ever seen. The rainy, dreary Seattle winter setting is perfect for its bleak, grungy aesthetic. Unlike many of the other movies in this list, The Ring was actually filmed in Washington.

Rachel works at a newspaper called the Seattle Post Intelligencer. The P.I., as it was commonly called, was one of Seattle’s major newspapers from the 1860s until 2009. It no longer exists as a print newspaper, but still survives online. The movie’s infamous horse death scene takes place on a Washington State ferry.

Watch The Ring on Paramount Plus

The Stepfather (1987)

The Stepfather opens with a shocking murder scene set in the wealthy Seattle suburb of Bellevue. A father, Jerry Blake (Terry O’ Quinn), has murdered his family. He gets dressed and leaves for work as if nothing is out of the ordinary. Later, Jerry boards a ferry. As he wistfully looks out at Puget Sound, Jerry tosses his suitcase into the water, symbolically abandoning the last remnants of his previous life.

A year later, Jerry has relocated to a different Seattle suburb. He becomes the stepfather of troubled teen Stephanie (Jill Schoelen). Stephanie is suspicious of her stepdad’s mysterious past. After some secret investigating, she discovers that he is a serial killer. Meanwhile Jim Ogilvie (Stephen Schellen), the brother of Jerry’s previous spouse, is conducting his own search for the maniac.

Although it was mostly filmed in British Columbia, The Stepfather has some scenes in the Seattle area. One part takes place at the old Bellevue Public Library. But it’s mostly just set in a generic American suburb.

Watch The Stepfather on Peacock

Twilight (2008)

Twilight technically doesn’t take place in the Seattle area, but what the hell, I’m including it anyway. It’s set in the town of Forks, Washington, which is located on the Olympic Peninsula, about a 3-4 hour drive/ferry ride west of Seattle. This movie was mainly filmed in southwest Washington and Oregon. The rain and darkness of Washington state is used as a plot point: the movie explains that vampires are attracted to the area due to the lack of sunlight.

Arizona transplant Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) has recently moved to rainy, misty Washington state with her dad. She is struggling to adjust to her new surroundings. Bella misses Phoenix’s sunshine and heat.

Forks is portrayed through Bella’s eyes as a dreary place. If she is to be believed, there isn’t much to do there except local gossip, watching baseball, and drinking Rainier Beer. Many of the townsfolk have the misfortune of being Seattle Mariners fans so, needless to say, they’re unhappy people.

All the boys at school want to date her, but Bella falls hard for Edward Cullen (Mark Pattinson), a brooding, mysterious dude who turns out to be a vampire. The two begin a torrid love affair that apparently lasts for several movies (I’ve only seen this first one).

Personally, I could never live in a desert. I don’t mind being cold, but I can’t stand excessive heat. I’m sure this preference is based on where people grew up and what climate they are accustomed to.

Watch Twilight on Amazon Prime

Set in Seattle, but filmed Elsewhere

As I mentioned previously, most of these movies weren’t filmed locally. The Ring is the only one that was primarily filmed in Washington. Clearly, it’s easier and cheaper for producers to film their movies elsewhere.

This article describes how the state legislature is trying to enhance film incentives to better compete with other states/provinces. Maybe more movies will be filmed in Seattle, rather than just set here, in the future.