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Director George Romero, lauded as the father of the zombie film, studied art, design and drama at Carnegie Institute of Technology, now Carnegie Mellon University. Pittsburgh became his second home. He went on to film several movies in Pittsburgh and the surrounding towns.
Not limited to zombie films, Western Pennsylvania has played host to vampires, a crazed miner, Mothman and even Hannibal Lecter himself.
With October right around the corner, now is the perfect time to celebrate those spine-chilling movies with a tour through West Pennsylvania’s famous filming locations.
Evans City Cemetery
Fans of George Romero’s work will know Night of the Living Dead, the 1968 movie which focuses on seven people who are trapped in a farmhouse, being attacked by flesh-eating reanimated corpses. The opening scenes follow two siblings as they are attacked by a ghoul while visiting their father’s grave at the cemetery. Notably, the film refers to the creatures as ghouls, not zombies.
That cemetery is the Evans City Cemetery, which leans into the fame from the movie with a sign welcoming visitors, saying, “Home to Night of the Living Dead.” Visitors can recreate the famous scenes of Barbara clinging to the gravestone of Nicholas Kramer or walk in the footsteps of the actors as they made their way through the tombstones.
The Evans City Chapel, which appeared briefly in the film, was slated for demolition in 2011. Fans were able to raise $50,000 to restore the chapel, ensuring that this iconic piece of movie history remains. It officially reopened with a ribbon-cutting ceremony in 2014, with George Romero cutting the ribbon himself.
The film premiered in Pittsburgh at the Fulton Theater in 1968.
Evans City Post Office
The Crazies, George Romero’s fourth film based on the Paul McCollough novel The Mad People, depicts a military takeover of a small town infected by a biological weapon that causes madness which was released in their water supply.
Filmed in and around Evans City and Zelienople, the film features many of Evans City’s buildings, including the local high school, which still has the same blue-painted lockers.
The Evans City Post Office is a key location in the film. Fans visit to get a photo in front of the post office’s sign, standing in the same spot where the hazmat-suited team stands guard.
Many locals were used as extras, portraying the background townspeople and “crazies” after the water supply becomes tainted.
The film wasn’t a box office hit, with Romero citing poor distribution as the reason. It has since taken on a cult-classic status for horror movie fans.
Margaret Morrison Carnegie Hall
Creepshow, a horror and comedy anthology directed by George Romero and written by Stephen King, was released in 1982. Primarily shot throughout Pittsburgh and the surrounding suburbs, the film is a homage to EC horror comics from the 1950s.
The Crate segment was filmed at Romero’s alma mater, Carnegie Institute of Technology. The rotunda entryway of Margaret Morrison Carnegie Hall was shot as the fictional Amberson Hall. The Crate is about a janitor at a university who discovers an old wooden crate containing a beast captured from an Arctic expedition 140 years before.
Additional scenes were shot at a school in Greensburg.
Monroeville Mall
George Romero’s follow-up up Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead was filmed at Monroeville Mall.
Beginning production in November 1977, filming in a retail space during the holiday shopping season caused constraints. Romero had to film after the mall closed for the night, shooting from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. Recording shut down for three weks in late December and into early January, so the team didn’t have issues with Christmas decorations messing up continuity.
Visitors can recreate scenes from the film, following in the footsteps of the zombies on the escalators and by the fountains.
While at the Monroeville Mall, visitors can tour the Living Dead Museum. It takes fans through the visual history of zombies in film and pop culture, featuring props and memorabilia for an interactive experience. The mall celebrates Romero’s films and the zombie genre by hosting a Living Dead weekend.
Fans can also take photos with the bust of Romero that the mall had made as a tribute.
Washington and Jefferson College
Romero filmed college campus scenes for The Dark Half at Washington & Jefferson College.
Released in 1993, the film is an adaptation of the Stephen King novel and follows a writer, Thad Beaumont, whose pen name alter ego, George Stark, begins committing murders similar to the ones in his thriller books.
Visitors can view the chapel in the Old Main building, which served as Beaumont’s classroom and the office of the college chaplain, used as Beaumont’s office. Students and members of the faculty served as extras.
In the Netflix’ series Mindhunter, Washington & Jefferson College was filmed as different campuses in Virginia and Boston. The John A. Swanson Science Center and Lazear Hall were featured in scenes throughout in the series.
Le Mardi Gras
Opened in 1954, Le Mardi Gras is the oldest and only cocktail lounge in Pittsburgh.
George Romero featured the bar in his anthology horror film Two Evil Eyes, an adaptation of two Edgar Allan Poe short stories, “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar” and “The Black Cat.”
Celebrities who have visited the bar include Alice Cooper, George Clooney, Russell Crowe and Ted Danson.
Hillman Library at the University of Pittsburgh
The George A Romero Archival Collection is available to view at The University Library System at the University of Pittsburgh.
It consists of “hundreds of drafts of produced and unproduced screenplays; script notes; treatments; budgets; shooting schedules; cast lists; production tests; dailies; artwork; correspondence; contracts and agreements; news clippings and magazines; ephemera, including props and set dressing; promotional materials; posters; and a treasure trove of audio-visual materials,” according to the library’s website.
Visitors can trace Romero’s projects and view insight into his filmmaking. The System’s goal is to establish a place of scholarly resources for research and the study of horror and science fiction.
Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall
In The Silence of the Lambs, Anthony Hopkins’ Hannibal Lecter escapes from his cell at the Memphis Town Hall, a scene that was shot at the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall.
Part of the University of Pittsburgh, the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall is a military museum. In previous years, the museum has hosted the “Silence of the Lambs Cage Night” where the movie will be screened and fans can pose with the life-sized replica of Hannibal Lecter and the famous cage.
Carnegie Museum of Natural History
In The Silence of the Lambs, Jodie Foster’s character, Clarice, meets the entomologist at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in the Carnegie Institute, walking past the skeleton of the T. Rex on her way to the museum’s bug room.
Another filming location included the administrative building of the Western Center, an old psychiatric hospital in Canonsburg. The building was used as the exterior of the Baltimore Hospital, where Anthony Hopkins’ Hannibal Lecter was kept. Unfortunately, that building was demolished in 2011, despite it having historic landmark status.
Filming also took place at the Allegheny County Jail in Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Airport and Keystone Commons, the abandoned Westinghouse turbine factory.
The house used as Buffalo Bill’s residence, in Perryopolis, has been bought and renovated into a private rental and museum. Fans can take guided tours and stay overnight at the iconic location.
Little Italy in Pittsburgh
Spots of Little Italy in Pittsburgh’s Bloomfield neighborhood can be seen in the 1992 horror film Innocent Blood. The movie follows a French vampire who immigrates to the United States and gets involved with a mob working out of Pittsburgh.
Many iconic Pittsburgh landmarks can be seen throughout the movie, such as Point State Park.
Kittanning
In 2002, The Mothman Prophecies filmed the Kittanning Citizens Bridge to portray Point Pleasant’s Silver Bridge. The Silver Bridge in West Virginia collapsed in 1967, resulting in the deaths of 46 people. The day of the collapse, many locals claimed to see Mothman flying over the Silver Bridge.
The Mothman Prophecies is based on the novel by John Keel and follows a reporter, played by Richard Gere, who is researching the legend of Mothman after his wife’s death reveals a drawing of the creature. The Kittanning Citizens Bridge was used as a backdrop throughout the film and in the climax of The Mothman Prophecies, its collapse fulfilling the movie’s prophesied tragedy.
Other filming locations included the campus at the University of Pittsburgh, Mellon Square and the Duquesne Club.
My Bloody Valentine 3D was also filmed in Kittanning and the surrounding cities outside of Pittsburgh.
Starring Jensen Ackles, the film was a remake of the 1981 movie, where a miner who had almost died in a mining accident is bent on taking revenge on the town.
Kittanning served as the main street in the film’s fictional town, Harmony, and Sprankles Neighborhood Market was changed to Mercer’s Friendly Family Grocery Store for the film.
Other filming locations include the Ford City Police Department, the Kittanning Citizens Bridge and exterior shots of the mines were filmed at the Logansport Mine in Bethel.
The team filmed for 13 days in the Tour-Ed Mines, which has been out of production since the 1960s and serves as a museum. Visitors can schedule tours and follow in the footsteps of the actors.
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