Some towns exist only on screen, yet they feel more familiar than the places we actually drive through. A water tower, a diner sign, or a single main street can be enough to tell you where you are. Fictional settings do a lot of quiet work for the stories set inside them.
Here are ten invented towns from well known films, each with a few details to help you place it. Try covering the movie title and see how many you can name from the clues alone.
Amity Island
This small New England resort community depends on summer visitors. Its beaches are the whole economy, which is why its officials are so reluctant to close them. The setting is a fictional island, though the story was inspired by a novel by Peter Benchley.
The film is Jaws, released in 1975 and directed by Steven Spielberg. Much of it was shot on Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts, which stood in for the fictional island.
Hill Valley
A courthouse clock tower, a town square, and a deeply changing skyline define this California town. The story visits it in several different decades, so the same streets look very different from scene to scene. The clock tower is central to the plot.
That makes it Back to the Future, from 1985. The courthouse square used in filming was on the Universal Studios backlot in California.
Springwood
On the surface, this is an ordinary American suburb with tidy lawns and quiet streets. The horror comes from what happens when its teenagers fall asleep. A boiler room and a rhyme about a scary figure are part of the lore.
The film is A Nightmare on Elm Street, released in 1984 and written and directed by Wes Craven. Springwood is the Ohio town where the story takes place.
Bedford Falls
Snow, a bridge, and a building and loan office anchor this small town. It is shown in two versions, a warm community and a darker alternate one, and the contrast is the point of the story. A man learns what his town would have been like without him.
This is It’s a Wonderful Life, from 1946 and directed by Frank Capra. The large town set was built at RKO’s ranch in California.
Hawkins
Hawkins is a small Indiana town with a secretive government laboratory on its edge. Kids on bicycles, arcade games, and walkie talkies give it a nostalgic feel. Yet that calm surface hides something strange.
This one is technically a television setting, so it’s a bit of a trick. It belongs to Stranger Things on Netflix, and I’m including it only as a reminder that the same kind of fictional town works in series too, though it isn’t a film.
Woodsboro
Woodsboro is a small California town where a masked killer begins terrorizing teenagers. The setting looks wholesome, with quiet streets and a local high school. Its normalcy makes the violence feel sharper.
The film is Scream, released in 1996 and directed by Wes Craven. It spawned several sequels, and Woodsboro keeps returning as the franchise’s home base.
Radiator Springs
This Route 66 town was bypassed when a new interstate was built. Its neon signs, desert rock formations, and sleepy storefronts give it a distinct look. The residents are all vehicles.
It’s the setting of Cars, Pixar’s 2006 animated film. The town was inspired by real communities along Route 66, according to Pixar’s own accounts of the research trips the filmmakers took.
Whoville
Perched on a snowflake, this town is known for its cheerful residents and an enormous holiday celebration. A grumpy neighbor lives on a nearby mountain and watches everything from above. The town’s love of the season is its defining trait.
The story comes from Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Film versions include the 2000 live action movie directed by Ron Howard and the 2018 animated film from Illumination.
Pleasantville
Everything in this town starts out in black and white, and its residents follow rigid routines. Two modern teenagers get pulled into a 1950s sitcom world. Color slowly arrives as people begin to change.
The film is Pleasantville, released in 1998 and written and directed by Gary Ross. Its visual idea, adding color to a monochrome image, was a notable technical feat for the time.
Castle Rock
Castle Rock is a fictional Maine town that appears throughout Stephen King’s writing. It is the setting of several of his stories, and its history is dotted with dark events. Readers of King will recognize the name at once.
Film adaptations set there include Stand by Me, released in 1986 and directed by Rob Reiner. That movie, based on King’s novella The Body, follows four boys who set out to find a missing body.
