A Dozen-Plus Spooky Movies Set in San Francisco
San Francisco wears fog like a costume—romantic by day, eerie by night. No wonder filmmakers love to haunt it. From shadowy Victorians to the wind-whipped waterfront, the city has starred in decades of horror, suspense, and supernatural thrillers. Here are 13 films that prove San Francisco’s charm can also chill your bones.
A Cold War-era masterpiece of paranoia. In the fictional California town of Santa Mira, townspeople are replaced by emotionless duplicates—a fear that feels disturbingly familiar. The film’s suburban dread set the tone for decades of Bay Area horror.
A noir-thriller hybrid that doubles as a time capsule of mid-century San Francisco. A pair of hitmen chase a drug shipment hidden in tourists’ souvenirs, winding through landmarks from the Embarcadero to Sutro’s ruins.
Alfred Hitchcock’s haunting psychological masterpiece turns San Francisco into a dreamscape of obsession and illusion. Its iconic locations—Fort Point, Coit Tower, and the Golden Gate Bridge—still radiate mystery.
Also known as Full Circle, this eerie ghost story follows a grieving mother haunted by supernatural forces. Though shot largely in London, its San Francisco sequences lend a posh melancholy to the film’s atmosphere.
This masterful remake relocates the alien menace to San Francisco, where Donald Sutherland and Brooke Adams watch humanity dissolve into pod people. A paranoid, foggy, and unforgettable classic.
John Carpenter’s ghostly revenge tale rolls in off the Northern California coast. Its shipwrecked spirits and creeping mist feel tailor-made for San Francisco’s maritime legends.
A nightmare tenant tale starring Melanie Griffith, Matthew Modine, and Michael Keaton. Filmed on Potrero Hill (not Pacific Heights), it’s evidence that our scariest monsters are usually human.
Brad Pitt’s weary immortal recounts centuries of blood and heartbreak to a San Francisco reporter. The city’s neon nightscape frames the story’s melancholy finale in lush gothic style.
Naomi Watts unravels the mystery of a cursed videotape in this sleek remake of the Japanese horror hit. Several Bay Area locations, including Marin County, make the terror feel alarmingly close to home.
David Fincher’s meticulous chronicle of the real-life Zodiac killer captures 1970s San Francisco in terrifying detail. It’s part true crime, part existential horror—a masterpiece of obsession and fear.
Tom Hardy’s antiheroic alien symbiote stalks the streets of San Francisco in this monster blockbuster. Not pure horror, but the city’s alleys, rooftops, and waterfronts give it a gritty charm that’s hard to resist.
No list of San Francisco thrillers would be complete without Alfred Hitchcock. His films captured the Bay Area’s moody grandeur and quiet menace like no one else.
Explore this trio of California-set Hitchcock classics: :
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