Halloween is just around the corner, making it the perfect time for a scary movie marathon.
If you’re in the mood for a psychological thriller, a zombie apocalypse movie, or a good old-fashioned slasher flick, you might be interested in movies set in Toronto, Hamilton, and southwestern Ontario.
Here are 15 local movies to watch this Halloween.
Even though American Psycho is set in New York City, it has a distinctly Canadian flavor, at least in the background. The film stars Christian Bale as an investment banker named Patrick Bateman who leads a double life as a serial killer.
The scene in which Bateman berates the dry cleaner for failing to deal with the “cranberry juice” stains on his sheets shows the façade of the dry cleaners at 38 Church Street.
Other filming locations include the Dominion Bank Center at 66 Wellington St. W., which is used as the office of Pierce & Pierce. There is a scene in a restaurant at 100 Simcoe Street and a glimpse of 145 John Street on Richmond Street West.
A police shootout scene was staged on Pearl Street. Biff’s Bistro at 4 Front St. E. can be seen towards the end of the film.
In this chilling thriller, a man on his way to a job interview in another city collides with a car carrying five friends, and they become victims of a family of cannibal mountain men. The film features scenes filmed in the Dundas area of Hamilton and Webster Falls.
In Dawn of the Dead, survivors of a worldwide plague that has created aggressive, flesh-eating zombies take refuge in a Midwestern mega-mall. The interior of this shopping center is Thornhill Square Mall in Markham. The mall opening was shot on Royal Orchard Boulevard, under the Bayview Bridge. The scene on the pier, where the zombies chase the survivors, was filmed in Ashbridge Bay along Lakeshore Boulevard East.
In another horror film adapted from the video game Apolcalis, the first sequel to the Resident Evil series, the main character finds herself in the fictional Raccoon City. The climax of this scene was filmed on the green roof of the Toronto City Hall podium.
The rest of the film was filmed at North High School (851 Mt Pleasant Road, Toronto) and at the Westwood Theater (3743 Bloor Street West, at the intersection of Bloor, Dundas West and Kipling Avenue).
GTA stands in for the city of Pittsburgh in several scenes of the zombie apocalypse film directed by George A. Romero. Note the Strauss-Trunion Swing Bridge on Cherry Street and Brookfield Place on Bay Street.
The Saw film franchise includes extensive filming in Toronto. Although the 2004 debut film of the same name was filmed in Los Angeles, several sequels, including Saw II to Saw VII, Saw (2017) and Spiral (2021), have had scenes filmed on location .
In Saw 2, you may recognize the Wilson Steel building at the Hearn Power Station at 440 Unwin Ave.
“Spiral” uses the city morgue building on Lombard Street as the exterior of the police station.
In Changelings, a 12-year-old boy and his mother are targeted by two warring packs of werewolves, each with different intentions and motives. Some filming took place in Hamilton at Century Manor, near St. Joseph’s Fifth West Campus.
This award-winning sci-fi horror film explores the pitfalls of splicing animal and human DNA to create hybrid animals for medical purposes. Scenes were filmed at York University in North York, Black Creek Pioneer Village, Cinespace Toronto, and other locations in Toronto and Hamilton.
The adapted film franchise based on the Silent Hill video games includes filming locations in Toronto and Brantford.
Silent Hill includes downtown scenes filmed in Brantford, which is the main street of Silent Hill. The city of Hamilton also appears in the film, and hotel scenes were filmed in Lister’s James Street North block. The Road to Silent Hill was filmed on the Sewell’s Road Bridge in Toronto.
The 2012 sequel features scenes filmed at the Cambridge Farmers’ Market and Main Street Bridge, as well as Toronto Central Technical High School at 725 Bathurst St., depicted as the Brookhaven Orphanage. Scenes at Lakeside Amusement Park were filmed at Cherry Beach, while scenes at the mall were filmed at Woodbine Center in Etobicoke. The film also features Hull’s Valley Estate, Rouge Park and the Richard L. Hearn Power Station at 440 Unwin Avenue.
Filmed in various locations in the Greater Toronto Area, Chloë Grace Moretz plays Carrie in the remake of the classic 1976 film based on the popular Stephen King novel. The film, which also stars Julianne Moore, is about a high school student who uses her telekinetic powers to get revenge on classmates who harassed her.
Scenes were filmed on Newmarket’s historic high street in 2012.
The scene where Carrie realizes the full extent of her powers was filmed on Islington Avenue in Etobicoke.
Carrie’s one-and-a-half-story gabled house is a real home on Near Avenue in Mississauga.
The scene showing the exterior of Carrie’s school was filmed at Toronto’s North High School.
This horror thriller tells the story of a young couple who take in their two nieces only to realize that their family has become attached to a supernational spirit named Mom. The film features filming locations in Hamilton, Cambridge’s Water Street North and Dixon Street, and Toronto’s waterfront areas.
Ethan Hawke and Emma Watson star in the Harry Potter franchise in this 2015 psychological thriller in which a police detective investigates claims of sinister paranormal activity in a small American town. Filming took place in the center of Newmarket back in 2014.
Neighborhoods of Hamilton’s West Mountain are depicted in creepy scenes from the remake of the classic ’80s horror film. The film depicts a family whose country house is haunted by evil forces. A family must rescue their youngest daughter after she is taken captive by ghosts.
In Isabelle, a young couple’s dream of starting a family is shattered when they become paranoid and forced to fight to survive the presence of evil that threatens their lives. The film includes scenes of Victorian houses filmed on George Street in Hamilton.
In this remake of another Stephen King horror classic, a group of bullied kids team up to take down a shape-shifting monster who disguises himself as a clown and is preying on the children of Derry, Maine. Although the primary filming location was Bangor, Maine, scenes were also filmed at the Elora Quarry, a house in Oshawa, a covered bridge in West Montrose, Ontario, and Port Hope.
In It Chapter 2, 27 years after their first encounter with the terrifying Pennywise, the members of the Losers’ Club have grown up and moved away, until a devastating phone call brings them back. The sequel’s filming locations also include scenes filmed in Toronto, Oshawa and Port Hope.
The film stars Samara Weaving, Adam Brody and Mark O’Brien. Filming took place at the Parkwood Estate in Oshawa, Casa Loma in Toronto and the YWCA in Oshawa. According to the IMDB plot summary: A bride’s wedding night takes a sinister turn when her eccentric new in-laws force her to take part in a terrifying game.