7 U.S. Towns That Inspired Famous Books and Movies

Many movies and books have been inspired by real towns. Sometimes, the inspiration is over a specific event, while there are times that the towns serve as inspirational places for the feel and theme of the movie.

Of course, movie and book fans will want to visit these locations, and in many cases, it’s the horror genre that takes a town and builds on it. There’s something about ghost towns, right? There are surprisingly plenty of them to use, along with real-life locations where writers and directors had formative experiences.

1. Centralia, Pennsylvania
2. Elm Street in Dallas, Texas
3. Gainesville, Florida
4. Silver Creek, Colorado
5. Northbrook, Illinois
6. The Stanley Hotel, Estes Park, Colorado
7. Durham, Maine

Centralia, Pennsylvania

The town of Centralia in Pennsylvania has become the inspiration for many a ghost story. After all, it is a ghost town in real life. The population has declined from around 1,000 people in 1980 to just five people in 2020. Yes, just five, and it’s all thanks to the coal mine fire that has been burning underneath the town since the 1960s.

This fire underneath the town has helped to create a sense of Hell being just underneath. The real estate has been condemned, and the ZIP Code was discontinued in 2002, leading to many people moving out. The only people still living there are those who were there before the condemnation, and they cannot pass on their properties to their families after their deaths.

So, it’s been used as inspiration for ghost towns, with Silent Hill being one of those movies—only the movies and not the games. It’s also been the inspiration for novels such as Vampire Zero by David Wellington and Strange Highways by Dean Koontz.

Elm Street in Dallas, Texas

While the original story for A Nightmare on Elm Street was inspired by Wes Craven’s own experiences of areas in Los Angeles, there is one element of the franchise that was inspired by a real-life event. Elm Street was taken from the real-life street of the same name in Dallas, Texas, where President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.

As for the town—the fictional Springwood, Ohio—the idea was to create something that looked seemingly ordinary. That’s why the town has a suburban community look. Then, underneath the normal-looking town, there is the supernatural element.

It’s that reminder that no matter how sweet and innocent a town looks, there is often something lurking underneath. In this case, it is the legend of Freddy Krueger.

Gainesville, Florida

At first, you wouldn’t think that Scream was based on anything that happened in real life. After all, the movie is more of a spoof of other horror movies, pointing out all of the flaws that the characters would make and all the rules that were in place for characters to survive.

However, it turns out that Scream was inspired by Gainesville, Florida. More like, it was inspired by an event there. Five students were killed when a man went on a murder spree in 1990. Kevin Williamson was watching the news and a documentary about it, which led to the development of the movie.

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Silver Creek, Colorado

Another horror movie that took inspiration from a small town in the U.S. was Misery. Well, really, it was the book by Stephen King that took the inspiration first. King once lived in Colorado—Boulder, to be exact—which is where he wrote Misery, The Shining, and The Stand.

Like Centralia, Silver Creek was once popular due to its mining business. However, once the silver crash happened, the mines started to close. Despite a small boom during World War I, the boom didn’t last, and eventually, the people all left. It’s now a ghost town, which would make it very easy for someone to disappear in.

Northbrook, Illinois

While The Breakfast Club was set in a fictional town called Shermer, Illinois, the town itself was inspired by the very real town called Northbrook in the same state. This was John Hughes’s own town growing up, and he was inspired to create the movie based on his own experience in high school.

Glenbrook North High School was the inspiration for Shermer High School. It was even used for some of the interior shots in the film, but most of the filming took place in Maine North High School in Des Plaines, due to the location being closed for a few years.

Shermer was also mentioned in other Hughes movies, including Weird Science and Sixteen Candles. This could suggest that everything is connected in the same universe.

The Stanley Hotel, Estes Park, Colorado

Okay, so not quite a town, but it is a famous U.S. location. The Stanley Hotel was used as inspiration for the fictional Overlook Hotel in The Shining. You can just take a look at the outside of the hotel, and you will immediately be able to feel like you’re in the movie.

Once again, it’s the book that initially took the inspiration and turned it into a fictional location. Stephen King had stayed in The Stanley Hotel when he had a nightmare of his son being chased down the hallway. This, naturally, formed an idea for the horror writer. The Timerline Lodge in Oregon was the actual location used for the movie, though.

The Stanley Hotel is said to be haunted. In fact, Room 217 and the fourth floor are both known for paranormal activity, so it looks like King took a lot of inspiration from this hotel for his story.

Durham, Maine

King fans know that many of his works take place in Maine. Some of the towns themselves are inspired by real towns in the state, and Durham is one of them. This is the inspiration for Jerusalem’s Lot, which was the location of Salem’s Lot.

King hasn’t gone into too many details about why he used the town he moved to when he was 11 years old. However, there was an abandoned house in Durham that became the inspiration for Marsten House, likely just with the way he could connect a story to the location—and how the story came to life in his head.

Jerusalem’s Lot has become an ongoing town in many of King’s books, along with Castle Rock and Derry.