I stood before the Greyshot Arch in New York's Central Park with one thought bouncing around my mind:
I should've waited until dark.
This was the first stop of On Location Tours' "Horror Movie Location Tour," which covers places where some top-notch horror flicks were shot.
Located a short distance from Columbus Circle, Greyshot Arch, which was built in 1860, was used as a shelter for two characters in the 2008 film Cloverfield, when a giant monster with a real attitude problem stomps into town.
“I’m sure when anyone thinks of horror movies, they most likely don’t think of largely-populated New York City as a backdrop for scary films - they probably think of secluded cabins in the middle of the woods and old antique haunted houses,” said Erin Miller, the company's PR, sales and marketing manager.
"That's why people are drawn to this tour because you wouldn't expect so many scary movies to be filmed in an urban setting," she said.
The roughly 90-minute self-guided tour costs $15.95, while a private version of the experience, which comes with a guide, goes for $36.
"We are starting to see the tour gain more popularity as word spreads, but we're noticing it's been very popular at this time of year," Miller said.
The last time I did business with these people I had a car, specifically a 1957 Chevrolet 210 for "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Sites Tour," which was inspired by Amazon's (AMZN) hit show.
Now I was on my own, hitting the locations with the aid of an app that guided me in and around Central Park.
It was a beautiful Saturday autumn afternoon filled with bright sunshine and mobs of tourists.
Spook Central
I was extremely psyched for the tour, but I thought to really conjure up the Halloween mood, I should be walking amongst these sites of cinematic mayhem in the dead of night...with a lantern...and a cross...and maybe some garlic.
No matter. Scary stuff can happen at any time, and I certainly didn't want to take the subway home at night, which can be pretty frightening in its own right.
After I checked out the arch, the voice beaming into my brain told me to keep on walking through the park.
Over 300 films have been shot in Central Park, the guide said, starting in 1908 with a production of "Romeo and Juliet."
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Along the way, I passed Tavern on the Green, the restaurant near the intersection of West 66th Street and Central Park West, where Rick Moranis' character ran--in vain--for help from the demonic critter Vinz Clortho in a scene from 1984's "Ghostbusters."
And speaking of "Ghostbusters," the tour includes a stop at 55 Central Park West, an 18-story apartment building, described as "Spook Central" in the film, where all hell literally breaks loose at the climax.
The Dakota Apartments at West 72nd Street is another stop on the tour. Built between 1880 and 1884, the Dakota was the setting for 1968's "Rosemary's Baby," where Mia Farrow's character runs afoul of her devilish neighbors.
The Dakota, which has a ghostly history, is also the site of the real-life tragedy of John Lennon's murder on Dec. 8, 1980.
Some residents have claimed to see the slain Beatles' spirit, according to the tour guide, including a witness who claimed to have seen Lennon playing the piano in their apartment.
'Gouging, Dismemberment and Stabbing'
The tour is brimming with all manner of factoids about the films, the locations and the city itself.
New York also provides a searing soundtrack for the tour in the form of relentless jackhammers, rumbling buses, blasting car stereos and the urban version of the banshee's wail, sirens, sirens and more sirens.
And all of this hullabaloo seemed to happen at the most interesting parts of the tour, causing me to proudly curse and fume like the native New Yorker I am. Luckily, I could play back the parts I missed.
Other stops include Lincoln Center, where scenes from 2010's "Black Swan" were shot; an apartment building where the murderous star of 2000's "American Psycho" hung his ax, and the New York Historical Society, the workplace for the hero of 1981's "The House by the Cemetery," an Italian film which the guide said contains scenes of "gouging, dismemberment and stabbing."
The apartment where "Three Men and a Baby" was shot might seem like an odd choice for this tour, but the 1987 comedy starring Tom Selleck has a supernatural backstory. Many people have claimed a ghostly figure of a child appears in the background of one scene.
Very interesting, but it's important to note that the scene was not shot in the apartment on Central Park West, but rather on a soundstage. Still, the story reportedly gave the film's video sales a big boost.
Okay, let's take a break here and ask the obvious question: why do we who live in this world of apps and iPhones obsess over scary films?
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'Big Issues and Themes'
"Horror movies serve at least two functions," said said Greg Garrett, an English professor at Baylor University. "Some of us like to be scared because it's entertaining, the same way some of us like to ride roller coasters. We can face death and mayhem without actually being in existential danger."
"But horror stories also often deal with big issues and themes in ways that let us grapple without even knowing we're doing that," said Garrett, author of "Living With the Dead: The Wisdom of the Zombie Apocalypse."
He explained that zombie films can be about terrorism, or pandemics, or immigration, "or a multitude of other real-life issues in a fantastic setting."
"Jordan Peele is exceptionally good right now at using horror films to talk about themes that matter to him: racism in "Get Out," classism in "Us," and celebrity culture in "Nope," he said.
The tour ended at The Belnord, a magnificent building on West 86th Street that spans an entire city block and provides the home turf for the Hulu comedy crime series "Only Murders in the Building," starring Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez.
The Belnord is nothing short of stunning with a beautiful courtyard that can make you forget you're living in the city.
But the scariest thing about the building might be the cost on the units, which run from about $3.6 million to more than $11 million.
The tour was now over and I started heading downtown to catch the Express Bus back to Brooklyn.
I had a great time, but I wanted to get home before sundown.
