Seven Cemeteries and Gothic Graveyards
By on Apr 12, 2012
If you like the 1986 Stephen King adaptation Stand By Me, then you’re in for a real treat with Chiller's original film Ghoul. Based on the novel by Brian Keene, the film stars Modern Family’s Nolan Gould and explores what happens in a small town in the 1980’s when a teenage couple goes missing in the local cemetery. Twelve-year-old Timmy and his two best friends decide to find out for themselves just what’s lurking in their sleepy little town. Ghoul is a heck of a lot of fun and it gave us the inspiration for this list of seven spooky horror movie cemeteries. What’s your favorite?
PET SEMATARY (1989)
Awww… What a cute idea! A special cemetery just for deceased pets. That must be a beautiful film. Ha! Just when you thought it was safe to bury your pets, you realize that the real Pet Sematary is an old Indian burial ground that turns Fluffy into Zombie Kitty From Hell. Not to mention the fact that, if your kid dies, you probably shouldn’t take him up to that very same cemetery and bury him in hopes that he’ll come back as sweet, innocent Gage because he definitely will not. Oh, no. He’ll actually return as Crazy Achilles Tendon Slicing Zombie Gage. Yikes!
LADY IN WHITE (1988)
While the cemetery in Frank LaLoggia’s cult classic Lady in White isn’t nearly as front-and-center as some of the graveyards on this list, it does play a memorable role in the film. When Frankie Scarlatti (Lukas Haas) gets locked in his school’s cloakroom for the night, he has one little window that overlooks the cemetery and that vision alone adds tremendously to the fear he feels when he’s visited by the ghost of a murdered little girl. Later in the film there’s a fantasy sequence where Frankie flies over that very cemetery. If you’ve yet to see this great little film, now’s the time to pick it up. Trust us on this one.
NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968)
“They’re coming to get you, Barbra.” And come they did. The film that turned the zombie movie into a pop culture phenomenon starts in a cemetery in rural Pennsylvania. Here we get to see our first zombie before heading over to the iconic house where most of the film’s action takes place. Cemeteries don’t get much more legendary than the one in Night of the Living Dead.
PHANTASM (1979)
It’s not enough that there’s an extremely creepy dude named The Tall Man wandering around the cemetery all day. No, the guy also has to be nearly impossible to kill, even with silvery flying orbs. Don’t worry, though. The ice cream man is on the way and he should be able to save you. No, seriously. The ice cream man. I love this series of flicks.
CEMETERY MAN (DELLAMORTE DELLAMORE) (1994)
How would you like it if it was your job was to live in a cemetery and kill the re-animated dead when they rise seven days after being buried? Doesn’t sound very fun, does it? And imagine trying to find love while doing all that. Well, that’s exactly the situation in which we find Francesco Dellamorte (Rupert Everett) in the 1994 cult hit Cemetery Man. The guy just wants to find a pretty girl to settle down with. Unfortunately, when he finally finds one, he decides to consummate the relationship atop her late husband’s grave. Not the best idea, Francesco.
RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD (1985)
How could anyone possibly forget Resurrection Cemetery in Dan O’Bannon’s 1985 classic Return of the Living Dead? Aside from a zombie-rific reanimated party going on, you get to see a fully naked Linnea Quigley dancing on the gravestones. Now that’s a dance party I want to attend. You know, except for the whole zombies-trying-to-eat-your-brains part.
POLTERGEIST (1982)
Here’s a quick breakdown of what happens when your real estate developer moves a cemetery to build your house, but actually leaves the bodies buried beneath it: Your daughter gets sucked into the television. A tree comes to life and grabs your son out of his room. And your wife ends up swimming around in the muck at the bottom of your empty pool with a few dozen skeletons. Clearly, bad things happen. Bad, bad things. The only upside is that we got an awesome movie out of it in Poltergeist.
