Abandoned on Film: 15 Terrifying Desolate Movie Settings

Abandoned School – Children of Men

Abandoned Places in Movies Children of Men

A plague of unexplained infertility leads to a childless future in the dystopian film Children of Men, wherein Clive Owen stars as a former activists charged with transporting a miraculously pregnant women to a sanctuary at sea. One of the most telling scenes in the movie takes place in an abandoned primary school.

Abandoned Cabin in the Woods – The Blair Witch Project

Abandoned Places in Movies Blair Witch Project

As if abandoned houses aren’t creepy enough, this one has children’s handprints all over the walls. Appearing at the climax of the lost-in-the-woods faux-documentary The Blair Witch Project, a remote house given over to decay appears to contain a lost member of the protagonists’ group. But once the two remaining filmmakers enter the house with their vertigo-inducing hand-held cameras, it’s clear they’re not going to make it back out.

Abandoned City – Atlanta in The Walking Dead

Abandoned Places in Movies The Walking Dead

Can a city technically be called abandoned if it’s filled with thousands of zombies? Sure, considering that all human activity that once took place there has come to a screeching halt while the undead population staggers around in search of flesh. The AMC series The Walking Dead portrays Atlanta, the South’s largest city, as a desolate wasteland. Here’s a tip: don’t wander into a zombie-filled metropolis on a giant hunk of flesh that might as well be covered in neon signs reading ‘Dinner is served!’

Abandoned Prison – The Task

Abandoned Places in Movies The Task

Six young contestants are whisked off the streets to star in a reality show wherein the seemingly simple task of staying overnight in an abandoned prison will net them each $24,000. But in order to get the money, they’ll have to perform a series of challenges – and naturally, some complications arise in the form of unexpected company.

Abandoned Freeway Tunnel – The Road

Abandoned Places in Movies The Road

An unspecified event has destroyed most of the earth in The Road, a film based on Cormac MacCarthy’s post-apocalyptic thriller, leaving survivors wandering around scorched landscapes searching for food and safe places to sleep. But it’s not ghosts, demons, vampires or zombies that pose a threat; it’s humans that have resorted to eating each other in order to survive. A freeway tunnel serves as one of the many abandoned settings in the film; the real-life location where it was filmed is Ray’s Hill Tunnel in Pennsylvania. Ray’s Hill is among three tunnels that were abandoned during re-routing of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, one of which has been used as a secret testing facility for race car drivers.