California | |
Aliases: | State of California |
Nicknames: | The Golden State; Karloffornia |
Category: | U.S. State |
Continent: | North America |
Country: | United States of America |
Points of interest: | Anaheim; Beacon County; Beverly Hills, Brentwood, Cupertino, Hollywood, Jericho; Lakewood; Long Beach; Los Angeles, Malibu; Manzanita Springs; Modesto, Oakland; Orange County; Palmdale; Palm Springs, Palo Alto, Sacramento, San Bernadino; San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Santa Carla; Santa Cruz, Santa Monica, Stanford; Sunnydale; Woodsboro |
Appearances: | American Horror Story; Angel; Buffy the Vampire Slayer; Charmed; Daybreak; Dead Heat; The Fog; Kindred: The Embraced; The Lost Boys; Moonlight; Night Stalker; Poltergeist: The Legacy; Teen Wolf |
California is a U.S. state located along the west coast United States. It is the most populous state in the union. It is located on the West Coast of the United States, and is bordered by Oregon to the north, Nevada to the northeast, Arizona to the southeast, the Mexican state of Baja California to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Its four largest cities are Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, and San Francisco.
In film[]
In the 1970 film Count Yorga, Vampire, the Bulgarian vampire, Count Yorga, came to the United States and used a mansion in Los Angeles 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 1998, Laurie Strode's psychotic older brother, Michael Myers, tracked her down and went to her place of business, the boarding school known as Hillcrest Academy to murder her. He succeeded in killing several people including students named Charlie, Sarah and a teacher (and Laurie's lover), Will Brennan. Keri fought up against him and managed to save her son, John Tate, and his girlfriend, Molly. [1]
Woodsboro is a fictional town featured in the Scream film series. It is located in the U.S. state of California. [2] It is the main setting for the 1996 film Scream as well as the 2011 sequel, Scream 4. It is a suburban neighborhood of middle-class to upper middle-class families and is infamous for a series of brutal killings in the 1990s, which became known as "The Woodsboro Murders". Reporter Gale Weathers made her career documenting the events of this traumatic era, and was the author of the The Woodsboro Murders true crime novel.
In the 2022 film Monstrous, Laura Butler rents a large house in the middle of the desert adjacent to a nearby pond. She believes she is living in the year 1959 with her young son, Cody, but in truth, Cody died the previous year and the wonderful, picturesque home from her fantasy was little more than a dilapidated mess.
In television[]
California is a provincial setting in several notable television programs. Such shows include Buffy the Vampire Slayer, it's spin-off series Angel, Charmed, which shares several thematic elements with both shows, as well as Poltergeist: The Legacy and the short-lived Kindred: The Embraced. Buffy takes place in the fictional Southern California town of Sunnydale, while Angel is firmly entrenched in the nocturnal real-world environs of Los Angeles. Charmed, Poltergeist: The Legacy and Kindred: The Embraced all take place in San Francisco.
Another series that takes place in California is Night Stalker, which takes place in Los Angeles. The vampire series Moonlight also took place in L.A. 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 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[]
- Antonio Bay
- Antonio Bay is a seaside fishing hamlet located in Northern California. It was founded in the year 1880, the same year that the ship the Elizabeth Dane crashed upon the rocks of the bay. One-hundred years later, the ghosts of those who died on the Elizabeth Dane returned to haunt Antonio Bay. [3]
- Beacon Hills
- Beacon Hills is a town in Northern California and is located in Beacon County. Points of interest include Beacon Hills High School and the Beacon Hills Preserve. Teenager Scott McCall suffered great tragedy in Beacon Hills after being bitten by a werewolf in the Beacon Hills Preserve. Surviving the bit, Scott was soon afflicted with the curse of lycanthropy and became a veritable "teen wolf". [4]
- Beverly Hills
- Beverly Hills is an affluent city in the western part of Los Angeles County, California. Beverly Hills and the neighboring city of West Hollywood are together entirely surrounded by the city of Los Angeles. The area's "Platinum Triangle" of wealthy neighborhoods is formed by Beverly Hills and the Los Angeles neighborhoods of Bel Air and Holmby Hills.
- Burbank
- Burbank is a city in Los Angeles County, California. Burbank is located in two distinct areas, with its downtown, civic center and key neighborhoods nestled on the slopes and foothills that rise to the Verdugo Mountains, and other areas located in flatlands at the eastern end of the San Fernando Valley, 12 miles (19 km) north of Downtown Los Angeles.
- Camp Redwood
- Camp Redwood was a campground located in the U.S. state of California. In 1970, a mental unstable Vietnam veteran named Benjamin Richter worked there as a janitor. Also known as "Mr. Jingles", Richter went on a murder spree at the camp, killing multiple camp counselors. With each kill, he would severe an ear as a trophy. One of Richter's victims, Margaret Booth, actually survived the assault, though she did have her left ear cut off. By 1984, Margaret Booth, now a widow - used money from her late husband Walter to reopen the campground. She wanted to use it to promote positive Christian values to both its staff as well as guests. Margaret's staff included a chef named Bertie, and a nurse named Rita. The activities director at the campground was a man named Trevor Kirchner. Booth also hired five youths to work at the campground as counselors including Brooke Thompson, Montana Duke, Xavier Plympton, Ray Powell, and Chet Clancy.
- Cupertino
- Cupertino is a city located in Santa Clara County in California. It is located directly west of San Jose on the western edge of the Santa Clara Valley with portions extending into the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains. I, Frankenstein actor Aaron Eckhart was born in Cupertino on March 12th, 1968.
- Drago
- Drago is a small, secluded town in southern California. It is named after Draga, an isolated region in Romania. Like Draga, Drago was a communal haven for a secret society of werewolves. In 1988, Richard and Marie Adams owned a cabin in the woods called Wilderness Cottage. Marie and her friend Janice Hatch began investigating a string of strange occurrences, which centered around the nervous breakdown of a nun named Sister Ruth Brooks. Their search uncovered the Satanic werewolf coven and the two women made a final stand against the werewolves at the Bell Tower of Drago. [5]
- Hillcrest Academy
- Hillcrest Academy is a posh boarding school located in Northern California. Massacre survivor Laurie Strode worked there as the headmistress under the alias Keri Tate. Her son, John Tate, attended school there, as did several of John's friends, including Molly, Charlie, Sarah, and Norma. A security guard named Ronny worked at the front gate, though he usually spent more time working on his amateur romance novel. One of the instructors who worked there was Will Brennan, who was romantically involved with Keri Tate. In 1998, Keri's psychotic older brother, Michael Myers, tracked her down and went to Hillcrest to murder her. He succeeded in killing several people including Charlie, Sarah and Will Brennan. Keri fought up against him and managed to save her son and his girlfriend.
- Hollywood
- Main article: 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.
- Jericho
- Main article: Jericho, California
- Jericho is a small, unincorporated town in California. In 2005, the ghost of Constance Welch, a "Woman in White" haunted a five-mile stretch of road, claiming the lives of men who had been unfaithful. Sam and Dean Winchester investigated the matter and reunited Constance's spirit with those of her two dead children. [6]
- Los Angeles
- Main article: Los Angeles
- 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. During a 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.
- Manzanita Springs
- Manzanita Springs was an area of wine country located in Sonoma County, California. It was here that the Luna family made their fortune with their vineyards during the 1800s. In 1985, Manzanita Springs was the sight of a massacre perpetuated between two warring clans of vampires - the Ventrue and the Brujah. Ventrue leader Archon Raine sent his enforcer Julian Luna to burn out a nest of Brujah inhabiting the winery. Julian was bloodthirsty, but some Brujah survived. Ten years later, Julian returned to Manzanita Springs and the surviving Brujah sought revenge against him. Despite their ambush and overwhelming numbers, Julian managed to survive the attack. [7]
- Modesto
- Modesto is the county seat of Stanislaus County, California. With a population of approximately 211,156 as of April 2009, Modesto ranks as the 16th largest city in the state of California. Modesto is located in Northern California, 92 miles east of San Francisco, 68 miles south of the state capital of Sacramento and 66 miles west of Yosemite National Park.
- Noyo
- Noyo is a coastal fishing community located in Mendocino County in California. It was the principal setting of the 1980 sci-fi/horror film Humanoids from the Deep. In the film, a scientific research group performs experiments on the evolutionary cycles of tadpoles. These animals mutate into bipedal humanoid sea creatures that begin attacking ships and civilians, seeking to mate with human women. Needless to say, the annual Salmon Festival in Noyo was completely ruined.
- Oakland
- Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. Originally incorporated in 1852, Oakland is the county seat of Alameda County and is a central hub city for a region of the San Francisco Bay Area known as the East Bay.
- Palmdale
- Palmdale is a city located in the center of northern Los Angeles County, California, United States. Kolchak: The Night Stalker actor and stunt coordinator Paul Baxley passed away in Palmdale on March 4th, 2011 at the age of 87. Actor Mike Lane died in Palmadale on June 1st, 2015 at the age of 82.
- Palm Springs
- Palm Springs is a desert city suburb of Riverside and San Bernardino in Riverside County, California, approximately 37 miles east of San Bernardino, 111 miles (177 km) east of Los Angeles and 136 miles (225 km) northeast of San Diego.
- Palo Alto
- Palo Alto is a California charter city located in the northwest corner of Santa Clara County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, USA. The city shares its borders with East Palo Alto, Mountain View, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Stanford, Portola Valley, and Menlo Park.
- Pasadena
- Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Famous for hosting the annual Rose Bowl football game and the Tournament of Roses Parade, Pasadena is the home of many leading scientific and cultural institutions, including the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Pasadena City College (PCC), the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (the leading robotics and spacecraft design and manufacturing NASA center), Art Center College of Design, the Pasadena Playhouse, California School of Culinary Arts Pasadena, the Norton Simon Museum of Art and the Pacific Asia Museum.
- San Bernadino
- San Bernardino is a city located in the Riverside-San Bernardino metropolitan area (sometimes called the "Inland Empire"). It serves as the county seat of San Bernardino County, California, United States. RKO Radio Pictures film editor J.R. Whittredge passed away in San Bernadino on January 16th, 1995. The 2006 horror film Penny Dreadful was filmed at the San Bernadino National Forest.
- San Diego
- Main article: San Diego
- In 1978, the President of the United States sent a special task force led by Mason Dixon to San Diego to infiltrate a horde of "killer tomatoes" that had been reported terrorizing the San Diego area. [8] San Diego was also where a genetically cloned Tyrannosaurus Rex was seen rampaging through the city streets. [9]
- San Francisco
- Main article: San Francisco
- San Francisco is the fourth most populous city in California and the 12th most populous city in the United States. The only consolidated city-county in California, it encompasses a land area of 46.7 square miles on the northern end of the San Francisco Peninsula, making it the second-most densely populated large city San Francisco is also the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the larger San Francisco Bay Area. San Francisco is a popular international tourist destination, renowned for its chilly summer fog, steep rolling hills, eclectic mix of Victorian and modern architecture and its famous landmarks, including the Golden Gate Bridge, cable cars, and Chinatown.
- San Jose
- Main article: San Jose
- San José is the third-largest city in California and the tenth-largest in the United States. As the county seat of Santa Clara County, it is located in the southern end of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region commonly referred to as Silicon Valley. Once a small farming city, San Jose became a magnet for suburban newcomers in new housing developments between the 1950s to the present, and is now the most populous city in the United States north of Los Angeles and west of Chicago.
- Santa Barbara
- Main article: Santa Barbara
- Santa Barbara is a city in Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Situated on an east-west trending section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States, the city lies between the steeply-rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the sea.
- Santa Carla
- Santa Carla is a beachside surfing community located in Southern California. In addition to tourism and its resort communities, Santa Carla is also known for its primary import - vampires. Lots and lots of vampires. As such, it only makes sense that normal humans would decide to do something about all of this and take up arms against the forces of evil. Despite their efforts however, it didn't stop Santa Carla from earning itself the unflattering nickname of "Murder Capital of the World".
- Santa Cruz
- Main article: Santa Cruz
- Santa Cruz is the county seat and largest city of Santa Cruz County, California in the United States of America. It is located on the northern edge of the Monterey Bay, about 72 miles south of San Francisco.
- Santa Mira
- Located in Northern California, this was the location of the corporate headquarters of the Silver Shamrock Company.
- Santa Monica
- Main article: Santa Monica
- Santa Monica is a city in western Los Angeles County, California, USA. Situated on Santa Monica Bay, it is surrounded on three sides by the city of Los Angeles — Pacific Palisades on the northwest, Brentwood on the north, West Los Angeles on the northeast, Mar Vista on the east, and Venice on the southeast.
- Stanford
- Main article: Stanford
Stanford is a census-designated place (CDP) in Santa Clara County, California, United States and is the home of Stanford University. Its resident population consists of the inhabitants of on-campus housing, including graduate student villages and the "Faculty Ghetto" of single-family homes owned by their faculty inhabitants but located on leased Stanford land. A residential neighborhood adjacent to the Stanford campus, College Terrace, featuring streets named after universities and colleges, including Oxford, Harvard, Yale and Columbia, is not part of the Stanford CDP but of the city of Palo Alto.
- Twin Forks
- Twin Forks was a small town located near the village of Drago. Most of the townsfolk had migrated to Drago or were lured there by the town's werewolf community. Located in Twin Forks was a church, the Twin Forks Hotel and the Twin Forks City Hall. Janice Hatch and Tom Billings went to Twin Forks to investigate the history of Drago and a string of strange occurrences taking place in the town. [10]
- Venice
- In 1971, crippled scientist Doctor Durae teamed up with the vampire Dracula in an effort to revive the Frankenstein Monster. Durae maintained a laboratory in Venice located beneath a horror house attraction called Doctor Durae's Creature Emporium. [11]
Media[]
Film shorts
Television |
Comics |
Novels |
Characters from California[]
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People born in California
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People who passed away in California
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Notes & Trivia[]
References[]
- ↑ Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later (1998)
- ↑ Scream 2; A movie-goer makes reference to the "Woodsboro Murders" taking place in California.
- ↑ The Fog (1980)
- ↑ Teen Wolf: Wolf Moon
- ↑ Howling IV: The Original Nightmare
- ↑ Supernatural: Pilot
- ↑ Kindred: The Embraced: Cabin in the Woods
- ↑ Attack of the Killer Tomatoes
- ↑ The Lost World: Jurassic Park
- ↑ Howling IV: The Original Nightmare
- ↑ Dracula vs. Frankenstein
- ↑ Count Yorga originally hailed from Bulgaria.
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