Halloween, Chucky, Nightmare on Elm Street, Candyman: there's no shortage of scary movies out there during spooky season. But did you know some of the holiday's most frightening -- and iconic -- characters have ties to Illinois and the Midwest?
You might also be surprised to learn that a handful of popular Halloween-time movies are set in Illinois.
As Oct. 31 approaches, here's a look at some of Halloween's scariest characters, and how they wound up connected to the Chicago area
Michael Myers/Halloween — "Haddonfield," Illinois
The question comes about like clockwork during the spookiest time of year: where is Haddonfield, Illinois?
It's the place where Michael Myers embarked on a reign of terror in the long-running horror franchise "Halloween," more than a decade after killing his 15-year-old sister Judith Myers -- when he was just six years old -- on a chilly Halloween night in 1963.
Michael returned 15 years later, terrorizing the quaint community with numerous killings over decades.
Haddonfield, Illinois, isn't a real place, though it possesses many features of "small town America" that can be found in other communities.
Its name comes from another Haddonfield - Haddonfield, New Jersey, a borough in Camden County, where Halloween producer Debra Hill was born.
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"Haddonfield was a place that I loved,'' she told the Courier-Post newspaper in 1999. "It's really a beautiful community...Basically, I used the name to pay homage to the town where I grew up.'
The fictional Illinois community was the setting for the vast majority of the films in the franchise, including the most recent installment, "Halloween Ends," which premiered in 2022.
“We were looking for a mythical, small-town America where this whole drama could play out. So we invented Haddonfield, Illinois,” John Carpenter, who wrote and directed the 1978 film and has executive-produced the more recent films, said in an October 2022 by WGLT radio in Bloomington-Normal. “The name hit perfectly for us.”
Chucky / Child's Play — Chicago, Illinois
Trigger warning for those who are afraid of dolls: Child's Play stars Chucky, a serial killer trapped in the body of a "Good Guy" doll, but the story actually begins on the East Coast.
In the 1988 film, serial killer Charles Lee Ray, originally from New Jersey, was shot and injured in Chicago while being chased by police officers.
Ray, also known as the Lakeshore Strangler, goes on to hide in a toy store behind a box of "Good Guy" dolls. He then uses a voodoo ritual and the Heart of Damballa amulet to transfer the soul of his body into the nearest doll.
The doll then goes on to terrorize the Barclay family after being given to a mother as a gift for her son, Andy.
Several Chicago locations are used in the movie, including Playland Toys at 418 S. Wabash St., the Brewster Apartment Building at 2800 N. Pine Grove Ave., and Andy's school, at 249 E. 37th St.
Freddy Kruger / Nightmare on Elm Street — "Springwood," Ohio
The iconic 1968 Wes Craven slasher film begins in the fictional town of Springwood, Ohio.
As the backstory goes, Freddy -- later known as the Springwood Slasher -- was born to Amanda Krueger, a nun working in a mental hospital. Freddy later became notorious for targeting children.
"The parents of the children tracked him down and found him in the boiler room where he took his victims," according to fandom. "The parents poured gas into the room and set him on fire, which caused his melted-like facial features."
Kruger goes on to become an urban legend in Springwood, hauntig the dreams of teenagers living on Elm Street. According to Potter's Wax Museum, Kruger exacts his "revenge for his own death" by terrorizing teenagers in their nightmares.
"With his bladed glove and ability to manipulate the dream world, Freddy Krueger has become one of the most iconic and feared figures in the horror genre," the site said.
Candyman — Chicago, Illinois
The 1992 film holds "particular resonance with Chicagoans," Chicago Humanities said. "After all, it’s set in the city’s Cabrini-Green Homes, and drew inspiration from a real-life Chicago crime."
The film follows Helen Lyle, a graduate student in Chicago, investigates the Candyman while writing a thesis on urban legends and folklore. Lyle's research leads her to the legend of "Candyman," a spirit who kills anyone that speaks his name five times before a mirror.
Lyle then learns of a recent murder at the Cabrini-Green Homes public housing projects, which locals attribute to Candyman. Lyle goes on to discredit the legend, which ultimately then leads to a series of bloody crimes.
5 other scary movies filmed or set in Illinois:
- Amityville Horror (2005): Filmed in Antioch, Illinois and Salem, Wisconsin
- The Rite (2011): Filmed in Blue Island, Illinois, Rome and Budapest
- The Relic (1997): Filmed and set in Chicago at the Field Museum
- Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest (1995): Set in Chicago
- Silence of the Lambs (1991): Set partially in Illinois
