Top 10 Spooky Graveyards in Movies

Ever notice how scary movies just aren’t complete unless there’s at least one scene that takes place in a cemetery? Welcome to WatchMojo.com, and today we’re counting down our picks for the top 10 spooky movie graveyards.

For this list, we’re choosing the most memorable and creepy graveyards or cemeteries depicted on the big screen.

It’s just never a good sign when a movie starts out in a graveyard. And if the person you’re with in the graveyard makes tasteless jokes, the consequences can be deadly; one of the “residents” might get angry and take offence. The fact that the cemetery scenes in this classic zombie flick were filmed in a real Pittsburgh-area graveyard enhances the scare factor even further.

Combining an unusual mixture of aliens, flying saucers, ray guns, as well as zombies rising from the earth in a dark, foggy graveyard, this campy classic is equal parts horror film and science fiction flick. There’s also some Cold War-era paranoia and government intrigue thrown in for extra fun. In addition to its ghoulish graveyard, the film boasts the talents of Bela Lugosi, one of the early masters of the horror genre.

Aside from tasteless jokes, another activity not recommended in a cemetery is sex, particularly when the object of one’s affections happens to be the widow of someone recently buried in that same cemetery. The film’s main character is a caretaker who lives on the grounds of the graveyard he maintains. But this isn’t just any graveyard; in fact, it’s especially high maintenance because its residents tend to rise from their resting places and are reanimated into violent creatures. This leaves the main character with the responsibility of killing them before they attack the townspeople.

Although the graveyard in this movie is actually just a model of a graveyard within a model town, it’s still plenty creepy, especially when the title character rises from his fake grave. The graveyard is funny and scary at the same time with its combination of lurid neon signs, foam rubber grass, and flashes of lightning. With all that happens there, it doesn’t even matter that the cemetery isn’t real or that it’s miniature; its impact is anything but small.

This creepy cemetery has it all: a forbidding-looking wrought iron fence, a spooky Gothic church nearby, plus storms and vicious animals that seem to materialize out of nowhere. Not only are its residents dead, others who enter also may meet their demise here, with unnerving regularity and in particularly gruesome fashion. Whether daytime or nighttime, rather than being a place of peaceful rest, “The Omen”’s cemetery ranges from being merely gloomy to downright terrifying.

In most movies, the characters that are still alive seek to spend as little time as possible in cemeteries. In fact, even the dead characters are often trying to get out of them. This is not the case with Gomez, Morticia, and the rest of the Addams clan. For them, the graveyard is a place to dance, play, or even indulge in a bit of romance. Though dark and gloomy, this graveyard is also special because it’s a happy place where the family can keep in touch with ancestors who’ve passed on.

In the land of wizardry and witchcraft, a graveyard is, not surprisingly, also filled with the supernatural. The graveyard in this fantasy flick is literally straight out of Harry’s nightmares: it’s dark and gloomy, like most great movie cemeteries, but there are other unique features that make this one extra creepy, including a statue of the Angel of Death that comes to life and keeps Harry from being able to move or defend himself from evil. The fact that this cemetery also happens to be the place where the Dark Lord stages his return makes it all the more terrifying.

What do you get when you combine a graveyard, zombies, and teenage punk rockers? You get a cutting edge soundtrack as well as an outlandish cemetery dance scene and impromptu striptease, all of which are featured in this movie. Aside from the graveyard dance, this big screen cemetery has the all of the requisite scary stuff, such as thunderstorms and a multitude of hungry corpses rising from their graves in search of the usual zombie delicacy, also known as brains.

Losing a pet is always a tragedy, so what could possibly go wrong when a doting dad is willing to go to any length to bring about a happy reunion between his kid and a furry friend? This movie answers that question and shows why reanimating a beloved, but deceased, pet can be a very bad idea. This cinematic graveyard also has the distinction of being scary enough to inspire a Ramones song of the same name, which is featured during the film’s credits.

Before we reveal our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions:
- “Young Frankenstein” (1974)
- “Hocus Pocus” (1993)
- “Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives” (1986)
- “Watership Down” (1978)

This movie graveyard is full of everything that defines spooky graveyards. In the scene where the main character Ash is seeking the Necronomicon, there are graves being watched over by demonic creatures carved in stone, flashes of lightning punctuating a general atmosphere of doom and gloom, trees with long, barren branches, and fog. But it’s the dozens of boney, reaching hands exploding from the tombs like landmines out of the depths of hell that put this cemetery at the top of our list.

Do you agree with our list? Which movie graveyards give you goose bumps? For more fascinating Top 10s every day, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com.