The historic Doheny Greystone Mansion is the most filmed location in the world, appearing in more than 300 movies, TV episodes, and music videos, including both original Ghostbusters films, Tales From the Crypt, Covenant, House of the Damned, Stigmata, The Puppet Masters, Flowers in the Attic, and many more.
Many of the most iconic horror houses featured in movies and TV shows still stand in the Los Angeles area. Even though most are privately owned with interiors off-limits to the public, these houses featured in Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Poltergeist, American Horror Story, and House on Haunted Hill offer unique photo ops for respectful fans willing to seek them out.
Although many of these horror houses are located in and around Los Angeles, some of the classic movies in which they appear are not set anywhere near the City of Angels. The houses in John Carpenter’s seminal slasher film Halloween are located in South Pasadena and West Hollywood, but the movie takes place in the fictional town of Haddonfield, Illinois. Nancy’s house in Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street is also located in West Hollywood, but the movie takes place in the fictional Springwood, Ohio.
Many common Los Angeles-area filming locations — such as the Santa Monica Pier, Griffith Observatory, and Union Station — are easily accessible to the public. The Bates Motel and Mansion from Psycho are part of the tour at Universal Studios Hollywood. The following horror houses, however, are tucked away in residential areas away from tourist crowds.
‘It Was the Boogeyman’
The opening shot of 1978’s Halloween shows the Myers house, the childhood home of mass murderer Michael Myers. As a young boy, Michael snapped one Halloween night and killed his sister in the upstairs bedroom of this house.
To escape demolition, the actual Myers house was moved from its original location to 1000 Mission Street in South Pasadena, where it now houses several offices. Located directly behind the Myers house is the Sugarmynt Gallery, a gallery specializing in horror-themed artwork “where every day is Halloween.”
Fifteen years after killing his sister in Halloween, Michael Myers escaped from a mental institution and came home to Haddonfield to terrorize several babysitters, including Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis). Laurie’s home in the movie is located down the street from the Myers house at 1115 Oxley Street. Previous owners of the house left a ceramic pumpkin on their porch so visitors could pose with it while sitting on the cement stoop at the end of the yard, just like Laurie did in the movie while she waited for her friend Annie to pick her up.
In Halloween, Annie and Laurie each babysit kids at houses across from each other. Although they look like they are on a sleepy street in the movie, the real houses are located steps away from bustling Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood.
Laurie babysits at the Doyle house at 1530 Orange Grove Avenue. You can still see the balcony off which Michael Myers falls after getting shot by Dr. Loomis at the end of the movie. Across the street at 1537 Orange Grove Avenue is the Wallace house, where Michael slashed Annie, Bob, and Linda. A previous owner completely remodeled the exterior of the house, making it unrecognizable today to Halloween fans.
‘One, Two, Freddy’s Coming for You’
A Nightmare on Elm Street final girl, Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp), lived at 1428 Elm Street, which is actually 1428 N. Genesee Avenue in Los Angeles. Only a few blocks from the babysitter houses in Halloween, Nancy’s house is where she battled Freddy Krueger — a badly burned former child killer with a razored glove, fedora, and dirty red-and-green sweater — whom she pulled out of her dream. Nancy’s mother put bars over all of the windows for security. A few bars on the windows on either side of the front door remained for years until an owner removed them.
While outside of Nancy’s house, glance down the street at 1419 N. Genesee Avenue. In A Nightmare on Elm Street, Nancy’s boyfriend, Glen (Johnny Depp), talks to Nancy on the phone while looking at her from his bedroom window upstairs.
‘Where Dreams Come True’
In the movie Poltergeist, based on a story by Steven Spielberg, the Freeling family lives in the fictional suburban Los Angeles community of Cuesta Verde. The sign welcoming visitors to Cuesta Verde reads “Where dreams come true.” That dream became a nightmare for the Freelings, whose house along with others in the development was built over a graveyard.
It seems the developers relocated a cemetery but only moved the tombstones, leaving the caskets to cut costs. This resulted in terrifying supernatural activity, including the house imploding and getting sucked into another dimension at the end of the classic horror film.
In this real-life dimension, the Freeling house still stands at 4264 Roxbury Street in Simi Valley and looks much the same as it did in the 1982 movie. If neighbors are outside while you stop to snap a photo, expect them to gently tease you about what you are doing or ask you about your affinity for Poltergeist.
‘This House Will Make You a Believer’
The so-called Murder House featured in season one of American Horror Story is a haunted house of horrors that traps the souls of people who die on the property. Jessica Lange plays Constance Langdon, a former owner of the house who lives nearby because the soul of her son is trapped there.
Like in the series, the real Murder House is located at 1120 Westchester Place in the Koreatown neighborhood of Los Angeles. Built in 1902 by Alfred Rosenheim, the Tudor or collegiate Gothic home was once a convent. For a brief time in 2016, one could rent the house as an Airbnb. Today, the owners seem less than thrilled about the house’s notoriety. If you take pictures, make sure not to trespass on the property.
‘The Only Ghoul in the House Is You’
In 1959’s House on Haunted Hill, Vincent Price plays an eccentric millionaire named Frederick Loren who invites five people to stay one night at a haunted house that he has rented. Whoever can do so will pocket $10,000, but the house is filled with many terrors.
The house in question in the Vincent Price horror classic is the historic Ennis House located in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles. Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for Charles and Mabel Ennis, this 1924 exquisite example of Mayan Revival architecture was also used in the movies The Day of the Locust, Blade Runner, The Replacement Killers, The Thirteenth Floor, and on the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, to name just a few.
Although the Ennis House was once open to the public for guided tours, billionaire Ron Burkle currently owns the property at 2655 Glendower Avenue and does not allow tours now that it is again a private residence. Even though visitors can’t peek inside the property anymore, they may still snap some pictures of the impressive structure’s blocky exterior, which seems in perfect harmony with the surrounding hillside.
