September 22, 2026
Bye Tri-State!
I just moved to Mexico. It’s the first time I’ve ever made a massive move, and leaving the Northeast behind feels completely surreal. My life has been a constant loop between New York and New Jersey. I grew up in Washington Heights, moved to Bergen County for my teenage years, and eventually headed back across the river to go to college at The New School in Manhattan.
Before my publication enters this new chapter, I wanted to put together one last tribute to the places that actually shaped me. Naturally, for me, that means looking at them through the lens of genre cinema.
To lay out a proper farewell, I’ve picked 12 horror movies set in New York City and 12 set in New Jersey (along with a “Geographic Grit Meter” that measures how realistic the setting feels). With a long list of 24 films total, here is my homage to the Tri-State area.
Also, a little fun fact: New Jersey is the birthplace of film!
- It was home to the world’s first movie studio: Thomas Edison’s Black Maria
- America’s first drive-in theater opened on Crescent Boulevard in Camden on June 6th, 1933
- The world’s first major filmmaking hub was in Fort Lee two decades before Hollywood even existed!
PART I: NEW YORK CITY
1) Scream VI (2023) - dir. Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett
Geographic Grit Meter: 📍📍📍▪️▪️ (3/5)
Synopsis: Following the latest Ghostface killings, the four survivors leave Woodsboro behind and start a fresh chapter.
I remember when this movie was announced and I was so excited to finally see Ghostface in a NYC backdrop. Although, the Ghostface reveal isn’t my favorite, the fast paced energy of the city adds to the paranoia of being attacked. I love how everything is intensified even though it does really look like it was shot in Montreal.
2) Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth (1992) - dir. Anthony Hickox
Geographic Grit Meter: 📍📍▪️▪️▪️ (2/5)
Synopsis: Pinhead is set loose on the sinful streets of New York City to create chaos with a fresh cadre of Cenobitic kin.
A gritty, industrial 90s Manhattan was the perfect nightscape for Pinhead. He gets trapped inside a bizarre sculpture inside a sleazy nightclub called The Boiler Room which makes for a loud and chaotic turn of events. I love the way it channels the downtown Manhattan club scene as sweaty, dirty, and neon-drenched (which honestly is how Brooklyn nightlife feels now).
3) Rosemary’s Baby (1968) - dir. Roman Polanski
Geographic Grit Meter: 📍📍📍📍▪️ (4/5)
Synopsis: A young couple, Rosemary and Guy, moves into an infamous New York apartment building, known by frightening legends and mysterious events, with the purpose of starting a family.
This is what people think of when they hear NYC. Rosemary’s Baby features the Upper West Side as almost a luxury gothic prison. The Bramford (which is modeled after the real life Dakota building) creates this tone of domestic horror. It captures the isolating feeling of living in a crowded apartment building surrounded by strangers. When I first saw this movie, it really did make me wonder who is living around me and how much we don’t know about the people that have the same address as us. Absolutley terrifying.
4) Ghostbusters (1984) - dir. Ivan Reitman
Geographic Grit Meter: 📍📍📍📍📍 (5/5)
Synopsis: After losing their university jobs, three parapsychologists start a ghost-catching business in New York City and uncover a supernatural threat that could destroy the world.
I know I saw this classic as a kid, but for some reason I didn’t really remember it. Upon rewatching, I mean, this is a love letter to NYC architecture. There are so many filming locations that are here, and it feels like that. The city is a living, breathing character, which I think makes it stand out on this list.
5) American Psycho (2000) - dir. Mary Harron
Geographic Grit Meter: 📍📍📍▪️▪️ (3/5)
Synopsis: A wealthy New York investment banking executive hides his alternate psychopathic ego from his co-workers and friends as he escalates deeper into his illogical, gratuitous fantasies.
I do know only a few exterior and establishing shots were filmed in here but I mean what doesn’t get more NYC than corporate soullessness. It was incredibly smart to make a movie centered around Wall Street offices and ultra-sterile apartments. Patrick Bateman’s character fits the stereotype of these men that run around the city. It is such a good sharp satire of Manhattan’s elite class (even though it is now shifting) and the material obsession that defines them.
6) Cloverfield (2008) - dir. Matt Reeves
Geographic Grit Meter: 📍📍📍📍▪️ (4/5)
Synopsis: Five young New Yorkers throw their friend a going-away party the night that a monster the size of a skyscraper descends upon the city. Told from the point of view of their video camera, the film is a document of their attempt to survive the most surreal, horrifying event of their lives.
If you are looking for an awesome found footage movie this is it. It is complete modern-day urban panic. It’s immersive stress and real-world scale is what makes this so terrifying for me; it evokes that eerie and visceral collective memory (especially in a post-9/11 world) about how a city is an active obstacle towards survival.
7) Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990) - dir. Joe Dante
Geographic Grit Meter: 📍📍📍▪️▪️ (3/5)
Synopsis: Young sweethearts Billy and Kate move to the Big Apple, land jobs in a high-tech office park and soon reunite with the friendly and lovable Gizmo. But a series of accidents creates a whole new generation of Gremlins. The situation worsens when the devilish green creatures invade a top-secret laboratory and develop genetically altered powers, making them even harder to destroy!
I have loved Gremlins ever since I was young, and there is just something about watching them terrorize NYC that I thought was the funniest thing ever. It also doubles as a satire of corporate America, as Daniel Clamp and The Clamp Center are inspired by Donald Trump and his tower. It has themes of hyper-capitalism, corporate greed, and media saturation all while being presented as a kids movie. In a way, it was very meta considering the time of its release and how it mocks the very idea of sequels.
8) Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989) - dir. Rob Hedden
Geographic Grit Meter: 📍▪️▪️▪️▪️ (1/5)
Synopsis: Jason ships out aboard a teen-filled “love boat” bound for New York, which he soon transforms into the ultimate voyage of the damned.
I’m not even sure if this one counts for me because I feel like they spent more time on the boat rather than in New York, but it does have that heavy, campy grit that makes 80s slashers so good. I can at least appreciate the five minutes of actual Times Square footage with Jason, as they actually shot on location, but other than that, everything is obviously Vancouver (like the subway scenes are painful). But other than that, it is still a campy fun time and undeniably has that late-80s cult appeal.
9) C.H.U.D. (1984) - dir. Douglas Cheek
Geographic Grit Meter: 📍📍📍📍📍 (5/5)
Synopsis: A rash of bizarre murders in New York City seems to point to a group of grotesquely deformed vagrants living in the sewers. A courageous policeman, a photojournalist and his girlfriend, and a nutty bum, who seems to know a lot about the creatures, band together to try and determine what the creatures are and how to stop them.
I love how this was shot on location in SoHo and Lafayette. I have always been scared of what is really in the tunnels and the sewers, and this movie just made my fear even worse. It is pure low-budget 80s grit and shows underground city decay. To me, this movie immortalized the grimy era of the city, and I love it for that.
10) A Quiet Place: Day One (2024) - dir. Michael Sarnoski
Geographic Grit Meter: 📍📍📍▪️▪️ (3/5)
Synopsis: As New York City is invaded by alien creatures who hunt by sound, a woman named Sam fights to survive with her cat.
I thought it was a good choice to put one of the loudest cities on Earth in apocalyptic silence, but I do think this quiet, tense trek across Manhattan was still a little slow. It is a good enough watch for the setting alone, even if it was filmed entirely on soundstages in London.
11) Queens of the Dead (2025) - dir. Tina Romero
Geographic Grit Meter: 📍📍📍📍📍 (5/5)
Synopsis: When a zombie apocalypse breaks out in Brooklyn on the night of a giant warehouse party, an eclectic group of drag queens, club kids, & frenemies must put aside their drama and use their unique skills to fight against the brain-thirsty, scrolling undead.
Now this is a modern camp classic. Drag queens in a Bushwick warehouse club in the middle of a zombie outbreak directed by George Romero’s child is just perfect. You can tell it is an homage to NYC nightlife and the people that built this genre and contributed to the culture of the city.
12) Vampire in Brooklyn (1995) - dir. Wes Craven
Geographic Grit Meter: 📍📍📍▪️▪️ (3/5)
Synopsis: Detective Rita Veder is assigned to a baffling serial murder case. After examining the crime scene (a corpse-filled ship found adrift at sea), she meets Maximilian, a smooth-talking Caribbean playboy determined to romance her.
Who can say no to an old-school vampire aesthetic that is mixed with brownstones and the dark streets of 90s Brooklyn? Craven fully embraces the architecture, and you can tell he wanted to capture the essence of culture since most of it was built on a Paramount backlot.
PART II: NEW JERSEY
1) Frankenhooker (1990) - dir. Frank Henenlotter
Geographic Grit Meter: 📍📍📍▪️▪️ (3/5)
Synopsis: A medical school dropout loses his fiancée in a tragic lawnmower incident and decides to bring her back to life. Unfortunately, he was only able to save her head, so he goes to the red light district in the city and lures prostitutes into a hotel room so he can collect body parts to reassemble her.
I have this film first in my Jersey list because even though it has many scenes in Times Square, it is mainly set in Ho-Ho-Kus. It perfectly balances the suburban manic madness of New Jersey while accentuating the grime and sleaze of NYC.
2) Friday the 13th (1980) - dir. Sean S. Cunningham
Geographic Grit Meter: 📍📍▪️▪️▪️ (2/5)
Synopsis: Camp counselors are stalked and murdered by an unknown assailant while trying to reopen a summer camp that was the site of a child’s drowning.
How could I create a New Jersey list without one of the top classics set in the state? Of course, the ultimate summer camp nightmare is set in New Jersey and filmed at the actual Camp No-Be-Bo-Sco in Hardwick and highlights the authentic Jersey woods and eeriness in the quietest, most scenic parts of Warren County.
3) Bride of Chucky (1998) - dir. Ronny Yu
Geographic Grit Meter: 📍📍▪️▪️▪️ (2/5)
Synopsis: For ten years, the tortured soul of serial killer Charles Lee Ray has been imprisoned inside a child’s doll. Chucky is reborn when his old flame, Tiffany, rescues his battered doll parts from a police impound. But Chucky wants his new playmate cut down to size, so he transforms his blushing bride into a stunning little terror. Chucky and Tiffany can’t wait to start their own homicidal honeymoon. When this demonic duo hits the road and hooks up with a pair of unsuspecting newlyweds, they leave a trail of murder and mayhem behind them. Chucky’s back!
I absolutely love this movie, but I am a bit biased since Chucky is from Hackensack. Although the plot is more of a road trip and the goal is to get to New Jersey, the chaotic, neon-lit Bonnie and Clyde-style killing spree is entertaining, and the setting really helps its case. New Jersey is known for being a commuter and trucker state, so having a road trip movie was the perfect choice to bring Chucky and his new bride to the Garden State.
4) I Saw the TV Glow (2024) - dir. Jane Schoenbrun
Geographic Grit Meter: 📍📍📍📍▪️ (4/5)
Synopsis: Teenager Owen is just trying to make it through life in the suburbs when his classmate Maddy introduces him to a mysterious TV show — a vision of a supernatural world beneath their own. In the pale glow of the television, Owen’s view of reality begins to crack.
If you are looking for a film that is pure suburban isolation and nostalgia, this is it. Growing up as a 2000s kid, the quiet, stagnant stretch of suburbia always scared me, and Schoenbrun knows how to capture it perfectly. When I found out it was filmed all over Passaic, Morris, and Union counties, you can tell that it really is a blueprint state of strip malls and high school fields. There is such loneliness growing up in a place where nothing ever seems to change, especially when you are right next to a major city.
5) Alone in the Dark (1982) - dir. Jack Sholder
Geographic Grit Meter: 📍📍📍▪️▪️ (3/5)
Synopsis: A quartet of murderous psychopaths break out of a mental hospital during a power blackout and lay siege to their doctor’s house.
A tense and highly underrated home invasion that is filmed entirely on location in Newark and Elizabeth. After researching, I also found out that it was the first horror movie produced by New Line Cinema (which funnily enough is an iconic studio that started out in New York and New Jersey). In my opinion, it doesn’t get more Tri-State than that.
6) Brainscan (1994) - dir. John Flynn
Geographic Grit Meter: 📍📍▪️▪️▪️ (2/5)
Synopsis: A lonely teenage horror-movie fan discovers a mysterious computer game that uses hypnosis to custom-tailor the game into the most terrifying experience imaginable. When he emerges from the hypnotic trance he is horrified to find evidence that the brutal murder depicted in the game actually happened – and he’s the killer.
Even though legendary actor Frank Langella, as the detective, is a true New Jerseyan (from Bayonne), the film was entirely shot in Montreal, Quebec. However, the 90s cyber-paranoia makes it worth the watch, and anything with a horror-obsessed teen as a lead makes it relatable.
7) Alice, Sweet Alice (1976) - dir. Alfred Sole
Geographic Grit Meter: 📍📍📍📍📍 (5/5)
Synopsis: Alice is a withdrawn 12-year-old who lives with her mother and her younger sister, Karen, who gets most of the attention from her mother, leaving Alice out of the spotlight. When Karen is found brutally murdered in a church, suspicions start to turn toward Alice. But could a 12-year-old girl really be capable of such savagery?
As someone who was incredibly close to Paterson, New Jersey, I absolutely loved that it was filmed on location and captures a gritty, authentic Garden State Catholic working-class life in 1961. It is a proto-slasher that operates as an American giallo with themes of religious dread. What’s not to love?
8) The Prowler (1981) - dir. Joseph Zito
Geographic Grit Meter: 📍📍📍📍▪️ (4/5)
Synopsis: Thirty years after a murder on the night of Avalon Bay’s graduation dance, the sleepy town’s teens meet grisly ends at the hands of a prowler once thought to be a jilted soldier home from war.
Despite it being narratively set in “Avalon Bay, California,” the entire movie is actually an authentic love letter to the eerie, off-season atmosphere of Cape May, New Jersey. Cape May’s historic Victorian homes provide a beautiful yet haunting backdrop for the massive bloodbath, which I love.
9) The Toxic Avenger (1984) - dir. Lloyd Kaufman, Michael Herz
Geographic Grit Meter: 📍📍📍📍📍 (5/5)
Synopsis: A gang of thugs devise a cruel hoax that goes horribly wrong as Melvin, a nerdy emaciated janitor at the local health club, is cast through a third story window into a vat of hazardous toxic waste.
I think all horror fans in New Jersey have heard of Tromaville. Troma Entertainment shot it independently on a shoestring budget, and it's unapologetically New Jerseyan. It captures the local, gritty, punk-rock attitude and celebrates New Jersey as the birthplace of the state’s first, and most grotesque, superhero.
10) Y2K (2024) - dir. Kyle Mooney
Geographic Grit Meter: 📍📍▪️▪️▪️ (2/5)
Synopsis: Two high school nobodies make the decision to crash the last major celebration before the new millennium on New Year’s Eve 1999. The night becomes even crazier than they could have ever dreamed when the clock strikes midnight.
If you like millennial tech-pocalypse movies, this production spent $13.5 million filming across the Garden State. It nails the Jersey basement party aesthetic and highlights the state’s landscapes, towns, and local talent.
11) Don’t Go in the House (1979) - dir. Joseph Ellison
Geographic Grit Meter: 📍📍📍📍▪️ (4/5)
Synopsis: As a child, Donald was tormented by his mother who used fire as a punishment. Now a deranged adult, Donald stalks women at clubs, then takes them home where he kills them with a flamethrower.
For the people who love Jersey gothic vibes, put this on your list immediately. The movie’s terrifying killer’s home was filmed on location at the actual Strauss Mansion in Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey. The Victorian house was saved from demolition and is now the headquarters of the Atlantic Highlands Historical Society, and you can still visit today.
12) Smile (2022) - dir. Parker Finn
Geographic Grit Meter: 📍📍📍📍📍 (5/5)
Synopsis: After witnessing a bizarre, traumatic incident involving a patient, Dr. Rose Cotter starts experiencing frightening occurrences that she can’t explain.
While Smile doesn’t name a particular city, it is fictionally set in an unnamed town in New Jersey. It was filmed across Bergen and Hudson counties, and it weaponizes the landscape of the many medical centers and suburban homes. The second I saw a Jersey license plate in the film, it was a confirmation of the geography feeling way too local and accurate.
Thank you to everyone who supported GOREHOUND GRINDHOUSE when it was based in the Metropolitan area. This move is a massive shift, but I will definitely be writing more. I’m incredibly excited to dive headfirst into Mexico’s legendary genre film scene and start covering it here.
If anyone who reads my publication is also based in Mexico, I would love to connect and support each other! Definitely reach out to me!
