Los Angeles

"Los Angeles. You see it at night and it shines; a beacon. People are drawn to it. People and other things. They come for all sorts of reasons. My reason? No surprise there. It started with a girl."

- Angel

Los Angeles is the largest city in the state of California and the second largest in the United States. Often abbreviated as L.A. and nicknamed The City of Angels, Los Angeles has an estimated population of 3.96 million and spans over 498.3 square miles (1,290.6 km2) in Southern California.

Los Angeles has been used for monster apocalypse themes in several different forms of media. One of the most provincial appearances of Los Angeles in the horror genre was featured in the 1954 novel I Am Legend by Richard Matheson. In the story, the civilian populace of Los Angeles were wiped out due to a virus that tranformed people into a vampire-like creatures that shunned the light of day. The virus was inadvertently created by a scientist named Robert Neville, who struggled to survive the coming apocalypse and became the last man on Earth.

Nearly all of the events of the 1970 horror film Count Yorga, Vampire takes place in the city of Los Angeles. Major points of interest include Count Yorga's castle mansion as well as the Port of Los Angeles. Bulgarian vampire, Count Yorga, came to the United States and used a mansion in L.A. in order to cultivate a growing coven of vampire brides. Through his machinations, he managed to vampirize the mother of a woman named Donna as well as a brunette girl named Erica Landers. Donna's friend, Michael Thompson and the physician, James Hayes, came to their rescue. Although they was unable to save either woman, they did succeed in destroying Yorga, his brutish valet, Brudah as well as Donna's mother. Hayes did not survive this encounter.

In the 2009 film Zombieland, the city of Los Angeles was practically a ghost town, occupied by no living human beings, but haunted by scores of the living dead. During the zombie plague, four survivors who referred to themselves as Tallahassee, Columbus, Wichita and Little Rock journeyed to Los Angeles in the hopes that the amusement park known as the Pacific Playland might be a zombie-free environment. They were wrong. Although the park was infested with zombies, they managed to kill every single one and move on.

In television
Los Angeles has served as the provincial setting for several notable television programs. The 1999-2004 WB Network series Angel featured a heroic vampire and his gang of pals who joined forces to stick their collective boot in the asses of evil. Another vampire-centric television series that also took place in L.A. was Moonlight, which centered more on the romanticism of vampire culture rather than the action-packed wallop of Angel.

The NBC/Syfy series She-Wolf of London originally took place in London, England, but the back-end of the series, retitled "Love and Curses" shifted the cast to L.A. beginning with "Curiosity Killed the Cravitz".

The short-lived supernatural drama series Night Stalker likewise took place in Los Angeles. This was a change in venue from it's predecessor, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, which took place in Chicago.

The first season of the FX Network series American Horror Story took place in Los Angeles, though very little of the city itself was shown in the series. Most of the action took place in the haunted "Murder House" acquired by Ben and Vivien Harmon. The show returned to scenic L.A. with season five, which was billed under the heading of "Hotel". This was where the Hotel Cortez was located, filled with its unbelievable staff members and those patrons who have the misfortune of staying the night there.

Points of Interest

 * Hotel Cortez: The Hotel Cortez is located in Los Angeles, California. It is known for its dark history, its bizarre clientele and its even more macabre staff. The cost to stay in an average room at the Cortez was once $30, but the price went up to $150 a night after it underwent extensive remodeling. In 1994, a heroin addict named Donovan came to the hotel with the emotionally unstable Hypodermic Sally. Donovan's mother, Iris, tracked them down, but when she had seen how Sally had gotten her son to take drugs, she pushed her out of the window. Sally survived however, and Iris eventually became a receptionist at the hotel. In 2010, a young boy named Holden Lowe was abducted from his father, homicide investigator John Lowe, at an amusement park. He was taken back to the Hotel Cortez, where he locked away in a room with other children. Donovan eventually became involved with the Countess, and the two would engaged in acts of supreme hedonism, including murder and blood orgies. Another strange member of the hotel's staff is a man who calls himself Liz Taylor (after the famous movie star). This gaunt, bald transvestite worked the front desk, but could also be seen administering to the hotel's other needs. Notable rooms at the Hotel Cortez include Room 51, which played host to an incident of an unknown nature, which required a chambermaid to clean blood stains out of the bed sheets. The most notorious room at the hotel however was Room 64, which was usually closed off. Iris used her own discretion when deciding which customers would have the misfortune of being allocated to Room 64, which was the lair of a grotesque and murderous creature. Two Swedish tourists, Aggie and Vendela were ushered to Room 64 after complaining about the smell in their own room. They were later caged and tortured, and fed a special nutrient shake to purge their bodies of all impurities. A blonde-haired effeminate man named Gabriel came to stay at the hotel, but after getting snippy with Iris, was sent to Room 64. The creature from the room had its way with Gabriel, anally raping him with a strap-on while Hypodermic Sally watched, begging the dying man to tell her that he loved her. In 2015, the hotel came under new ownership. A real estate agent named Marcy brokered the sale of the establishment to a wealthy entrepreneur named Will Drake.


 * Hollywood:
 * Hollywood is a district in Los Angeles, California, United States, situated west-northwest of Downtown Los Angeles. Due to its fame and cultural identity as the historical center of movie studios and movie stars, the word "Hollywood" is often used as a metonymy of American cinema. The nickname Tinseltown refers to the glittering, superficial nature of Hollywood and the movie industry.


 * Silver Lake: Silver Lake is a commercial and residential neighborhood in Los Angeles, located in the northeastern and central regions of the city. Its name is derived from an engineer who constructed the city reservoir, which some have taken to referring to as a lake. Silver Lake was referenced in the FX Network television series American Horror Story. It is part of the season five storyline, "Hotel", and was referenced in the season premiere, "Checking In". This was the home of Martin Gamboa, who was the victim of a brutal serial murderer.


 * Westfield High School: Westfield High School was a public high school located in Los Angeles, California. It became rather infamous following the 1994 fatal shooting of fifteen students at the hands of the mentally disturbed Tate Langdon, who was killed by police officers shortly thereafter. In 2010, Violet Harmon began attending school there, shortly after moving to L.A. from Boston, Massachusetts with her family. Violet had a lot of trouble making friends, and immediately became the target of an angry female student named Leah, who took exception to seeing Violet smoking on school grounds.


 * Woodland Hills: Woodland Hills is a district in the city of Los Angeles, California. Woodland Hills is located in the southwestern area of the San Fernando Valley, east of Calabasas and west of Tarzana, with Warner Center in its northern section. On the north Woodland Hills is bordered by West Hills, Canoga Park, and Winnetka, and on the south by Topanga and Malibu, California.

Films that take place in

 * 30 Days of Night: Dark Days
 * Annabelle (2014)
 * Blacula
 * Blood Scarab
 * Brotherhood of Blood
 * Buffy the Vampire Slayer
 * Candyman III: Day of the Dead
 * Chopping Mall
 * Constantine
 * Count Yorga, Vampire (1970)
 * Countess Dracula's Orgy of Blood
 * Craft, The
 * Critters 3
 * Crow: City of Angels, The
 * Dark, The
 * Dead Heat
 * Dracula vs. Frankenstein
 * Drag Me to Hell (2009)
 * First Power, The
 * Full Eclipse
 * House at the End of the Drive
 * Howling, The
 * It's Alive (1974)
 * Left in Darkness
 * Leprechaun 2
 * Killer Pad
 * Legion
 * New Nightmare, Wes Craven's


 * Nick Knight
 * Night of the Comet
 * Night of the Creeps
 * Once Bitten
 * People Under the Stairs, The
 * Predator 2
 * Prince of Darkness
 * Prophecy, The
 * Queen of the Damned
 * Rise: Blood Hunter
 * Scanner Cop 2
 * Scream Blacula Scream
 * Sharknado
 * Snakes on a Plane (partially)
 * Snakes on a Train (partially)
 * Sorority House Massacre
 * Sorority House Massacre II
 * Species
 * Species II
 * Spiders
 * They Live
 * Toolbox Murders
 * Wishmaster 2: Evil Never Dies
 * Zombieland

TV programs that take place in

 * American Horror Story
 * Angel
 * Fear the Walking Dead
 * Love and Curses
 * Moonlight
 * Night Stalker

Episodes that take place in

 * Tales from the Crypt
 * "Only Sin Deep"

Books that take place in

 * I Am Legend

Comic books that take place in

 * 30 Days of Night Vol 2
 * Angel: After the Fall
 * Dark Days
 * Werewolf by Night, Volume 1