Fright Night, Scream 2, What Lies Beneath and more
By Keldine Hull
Ranked among the top universities in the world, the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) is known for its strong academic programs and groundbreaking research. It’s also a filming location for hundreds of movies and television shows. With Halloween just around the corner, here’s a look at some of the horror movies filmed at UCLA.
Fright Night (1985) and Fright Night Part 2 (1988)
For the 1980’s horror movie aficionados, Fright Night combined just the right amount of camp and horror to place it among some of the best horror films to come out of that decade. After a teen discovers the newest member of his neighborhood is, in fact, a vampire, he seeks help from an actor in a television show. Starring Chris Sarandon, William Ragsdale and Amana Bearse and written and directed by Tom Holland, Fright Night took home four award wins including Best Horror Film at the 1986 Saturn Awards. Fright Night Part 2, starring Roddy McDowall, William Ragsdale and Traci Lind, continues the story with even more vampires out for blood-sucking revenge. Both movies were filmed at UCLA.
Scream 2 (1997) and Scream 3 (2000)
The Wes Craven classic starring Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox and David Arquette picks up two years after the first series of murders in Scream. Sidney Prescott, played by Campbell, is once again at the center of a murderous rampage by a masked killer. According to the International Movie Database (IMDb), the scene where Randy, played by Jamie Kennedy, and Dewey, played by Arquette, have coffee and talk about the rules of scary movies was filmed at UCLA’s Kerckhoff Hall. Trouble continues to follow Sidney in Scream 3, this time on the set of the fictitious movie within a movie, Stab 3. According to IMDb, the scene where Gale Weathers, played by Cox, talks to a group of young reporters was filmed at UCLA’s Moore Hall.
What Lies Beneath (2000)
Starring Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer and directed by Robert Zemeckis, What Lies Beneath received seven award wins, including Best Horror Film at the Saturn Awards. Pfeiffer plays the wife of a beloved research scientist, played by Ford, who fears that her Vermont home is being haunted by a ghost. While the film was mostly set and filmed in Vermont, a few scenes were also shot at Royce Hall in UCLA.
Other horror movies filmed at UCLA include: The Reincarnation of Peter Proud (1975), starring Michael Sarrazin, Jennifer O’ Neill and Margot Kidder; Night of the Creeps (1986), starring Jason Lively, Tom Atkins and Steve Marshall; A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987), starring Robert Englund, Heather Langenkamp and Craig Wasson; Nightwatch (1997), starring Ewan McGregor, Nick Nolte and Anais Evans; The Eye (2008), starring Jessica Alba, Parker Posey and Alessandro Nivola; and Happy Death Day (2017), starring Jessica Rothe, Israel Broussard and Ruby Modine.
