If you've ever been watching a horror movie and thought to yourself, "Hey, that house/street/neighborhood/town/city looks mighty familiar," chances are people have asked you to stop using so many slashes in your sentences.

However, snarky comments aside, you were probably right. Illinois has a pretty decent relationship with Hollywood, thus, lots of movies requiring a location shoot head for Illinois.

Our friends at Reboot Illinois have a piece up at their site entitled "The 13 Highest Grossing Horror Movies Filmed in Illinois." Some of the nuggets include:

 

Illinois’ film industry generated record-breaking revenue in 2013 of $358 million, an increase from $184 million from the previous year, according to the Illinois Film Office, which operates within the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.

The Illinois film industry is well represented during the Halloween horror movie season. As Halloween approaches, here’s a look at the highest-grossing horror movies filmed in Illinois, including how much they made at the U.S. box office, user ratings from the International Movie Database website, and filming locations within Illinois.

The majority of these movies are nothing to write home about — some are pretty awful — but there are a few classics.

 

Classics, you say? Well, I suppose that could be debated. Let's take a look at some:

 

A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)

A re-imagining of the horror icon Freddy Krueger, a serial-killer who wields a glove with four blades embedded in the fingers and kills people in their dreams, resulting in their real death in reality. 

  • IMDb score: 5.2/10
  • U.S. Box Office: $63.1 million
  • Illinois filming location(s): Barrington, Chicago, Arlington Heights (John Hersey High School), Elgin (Bluff City Cemetery), Cicero, Elk Grove Village (Elk Grove High School), Lake Forest, Orland Park

Okay, fair enough. Nightmare on Elm Street is pretty familiar territory, but this is not the original. This was the "re-imagining" story, shot released in 2010.

 

The Amityville Horror (2005)

A family is terrorized by demonic forces after moving into a home that was the site of a grisly mass-murder.

  • IMDb score: 6/10
  • U.S. Box Office: $64.3 million
  • Illinois filming location(s): Antioch (St. Peter’s Catholic Church and the Sequoit Creek Lodge), Buffalo Grove, Chicago, Fox Lake

Again, not the original, but a remake, released in 2005. Interesting choice, because Amityville is actually in New York.

 

Flatliners (1990)

Medical students bring themselves near death; their experiment begins to go awry.

  • IMDb score: 6.5/10
  • U.S. Box Office: $61.5 million
  • Illinois filming location(s): Bensenville, Rodgers Park (Loyola University Chicago), Chicago (Museum of Science and Industry and Penn Central Freight Yards)

I remember seeing that movie...kind of. The thing I remember more than the movie was Julia Roberts leaving Jack Bauer Kiefer Sutherland at the altar shortly thereafter.

For the entire list at Reboot Illinois, click here.

For an idea what it might be like if horror movies were real, check this out (some language NSFW):

 

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