It's all in the setting

Some say setting is everything and can even be another character in your novel. One of my all time favorite shows, True Blood, which sadly is off the air takes place in the fictional town of Bon Temps, in  northwestern Louisiana where humans co-exist with vampires, wolves, witches, shifters and a host of other magical creatures. This gave me the idea for the setting for my urban fantasy Midnight series. The story takes place in the fictional northern New Jersey town of Raven's Hollow, (right next to Hoboken)and much like Bon Temps, a variety of mages try and co-exist with humans, and not always peacefully.

Sometimes a dark and spooky setting can make all the difference in the 'wow' factor. Think of the book, and the film Rebecca. Can you picture Manderlay anywhere but off the Cornish coast of England? 

The creepy, gothic look of the place was enough to send a chill down your spine. 


When I think of other films with scary settings, The Shining automatically comes to mind. The Overlook Hotel in Colorado was the setting for one of the scariest films of all time in my humble opinion. Would you be as terrified of Jack Nicholson's character yelling, "Here's Johnny," (granted he's wielding an axe at the time)if the hotel was in NYC rather than out in the middle of nowhere? Even the season, the dead of winter, makes it spooky, the snow, the ice and the isolation factor, all add to the overall characters sense of desolation, which makes it even scarier. 

Who can forget the stormy night when Janet Leigh's character drives up the winding road that leads to the Bates Motel in Psycho? The dilapidated house where Norman converses with his dead mother is enough to make even the most seasoned horror film enthusiast shake with fear. I still cannot take a shower alone without locking the bathroom door.   

Don't you want to tell her to turn around and go back from where she came?Jail would be way better than this!
How about you? What are some of your favorite creepy settings?