Movies filmed in Maine? Ayuh, there are more than you'd think. For about seventy years Hollywood has been sneaking up the coast to borrow our harbors, islands, mill towns and churchy little village greens. Sometimes the movie is even set in Maine. Sometimes Maine is playing New Hampshire, North Carolina or some fake town with a made-up name. Either way, if you've lived here long enough, somebody's aunt was an extra in something.
One ground rule before we roll the tape: every movie on this list actually put cameras on Maine soil. Being "set in Maine" doesn't count, and you'll see why in a minute. Grab the popcorn, here are 12 films shot in the Pine Tree State, oldest to newest.
1. Carousel (1956): Boothbay Harbor Goes Hollywood
Rodgers and Hammerstein's big musical is set on the Maine coast, and 20th Century Fox actually shipped the cast up to shoot it here. Location filming happened in Boothbay Harbor, with more scenes in Camden, Newcastle and Augusta. Some of it was also shot in Malibu and on the Fox lot, because of course it was. Fun bit of trivia: Frank Sinatra was originally cast as Billy Bigelow and even recorded his songs, but he walked away from the picture, reportedly because every scene had to be filmed twice for two different widescreen formats. Gordon MacRae got the part, and Boothbay got a story it still tells.
2. Peyton Place (1957): Camden Plays New Hampshire
The juiciest small-town scandal story of the 1950s is set in a fictional New Hampshire town, but the outdoor scenes were shot mostly in Camden, with more exteriors in Belfast, Rockland and Thomaston. So yes, Maine played New Hampshire, and honestly did a better job of it. The kicker? Star Lana Turner never set foot in Maine for it. All of her scenes were shot in California. Camden's steeples and harbor did the heavy lifting, and they've been showing up in movies ever since.
3. The Whales of August (1987): Hollywood Legends on Cliff Island
Bette Davis, Lillian Gish, Vincent Price and Ann Sothern on a tiny Casco Bay island? That happened. After scouting several islands by water taxi, the filmmakers picked Cliff Island, just a few miles from the Peaks Island family cottage that inspired the story. It turned out to be Lillian Gish's final film. She was 93 during the shoot, and her career went all the way back to the silent era. Ann Sothern picked up an Oscar nomination for it. Not bad for a place where getting groceries means checking the ferry schedule.
4. Pet Sematary (1989): Stephen King Made Them Shoot It Here
When King sold the movie rights, he made it a condition that Pet Sematary be filmed in Maine, where the story is set. He wrote the screenplay too, and he even pops up as the minister at the funeral. The graveyard scenes were shot at Mount Hope Cemetery in Bangor, the pet cemetery was in the woods near Ellsworth, and the creepy climb to the burial ground was filmed at an old granite quarry on Mount Desert Island in Acadia. If you want the full Bangor tour, we mapped it out in our Stephen King Maine locations guide.
5. Graveyard Shift (1990): Rats, Yarn and Harmony, Maine
Another King adaptation, and another one shot right here. Graveyard Shift was filmed in the village of Harmony at the Bartlettyarns mill, and the antique mill machinery and riverside cemetery you see on screen are the real Harmony deal. Other scenes were shot in Bangor at an abandoned waterworks and an old armory. It's a movie about giant rats in a mill basement, so it's not exactly a postcard for the state. But a working Maine wool mill on the big screen? We'll take it.
6. The Man Without a Face (1993): Mel Gibson's Midcoast Summer
Mel Gibson's first movie as a director was filmed entirely in Maine in the late summer and fall of 1992. Rockport stood in for the fictional town of "Cranesport," Bowdoin College in Brunswick played the prep school, and the reclusive teacher's house was out on Deer Isle. The crew also worked in Camden, Bath and Portland, with production offices in an empty warehouse in Rockland. It was also the first feature film for a young Nick Stahl. Remember that name for later on this list.
7. Thinner (1996): Camden Gets the Stephen King Treatment
King's cursed-lawyer story moved into the Midcoast in the summer of 1995. Camden's Village Green, the Whitehall Inn and Chestnut Street all made it on screen, along with the Knox County Courthouse in Rockland and Main Street in Belfast. The best part? The Belfast Public Landing got dressed up with carnival rides to play Old Orchard Beach. King shows up again too, this time as a pharmacist named Dr. Bangor. Subtle, Stephen. Real subtle. Local coverage called it the biggest production to hit Camden since Peyton Place.
8. The Preacher's Wife (1996): Whitney and Denzel Skate in Portland
Most of this Christmas movie was shot around New York and New Jersey, but director Penny Marshall brought Whitney Houston and Denzel Washington to Portland in February 1996 for the big ice skating scene at Deering Oaks Park. Thousands of locals reportedly turned out hoping to be extras. Then Maine did what Maine does: a warm spell turned the pond ice to slush, so the crew had to fake winter with trucked-in ice and fake snow. Only here would a movie crew have to bring in winter. In February.
9. Message in a Bottle (1999): The Outer Banks Were Actually Popham Beach
Kevin Costner, Robin Wright and Paul Newman in a Nicholas Sparks weepie set on North Carolina's Outer Banks. Except no filming happened on the Outer Banks. The beach scenes were shot at Popham Beach in Phippsburg, and the rest of the movie was filmed in Maine, Chicago and Wilmington, North Carolina. If those dunes and pines looked a little too nice for North Carolina, now you know why. We've covered more of these sneaky stand-ins in 11 movies you'd never think were filmed in New England.
10. In the Bedroom (2001): The Midcoast Gets an Oscar Run
Todd Field's first movie as a director was shot on location in Rockland and Camden, and some scenes were filmed at his own family cabin near Rockland. Sissy Spacek, Tom Wilkinson and Marisa Tomei star, and yes, that's Nick Stahl again, all grown up since The Man Without a Face. The film picked up five Oscar nominations, including Best Picture. The title even comes from a lobster trap, from the compartment lobstermen call "the bedroom." It doesn't get much more Maine than that.
11. Five Nights in Maine (2015): Quiet Grief in the Midcoast
David Oyelowo, Dianne Wiest and Rosie Perez star in this small, moody drama about a widower who visits his late wife's mother. Director Maris Curran grew up spending time in Pemaquid, and she shot the film in Brunswick, Phippsburg and South Portland, with some of it around Willard Square. Funded partly through Kickstarter, it premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2015. It's proof that Maine doesn't need a big studio budget to look like a movie.
12. Blow the Man Down (2019): A Fishing-Town Noir in Harpswell
This darkly funny thriller follows two sisters in a fishing town called Easter Cove, Maine, which doesn't exist. The real location is Harpswell, where filming started in March 2018. Margo Martindale plays a local lady you really don't want to cross, and the whole thing feels like a sea shanty crossed with a crime movie. It premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2019 and landed on Amazon in 2020. Fish shacks, fog, foul-weather gear and a little murder? That's a Maine movie.
Set in Maine, Shot Somewhere Else
Here's the twist every Mainer eventually learns: a lot of the most famous "Maine" movies never came near the state. A few big offenders:
- The Shawshank Redemption (1994): a Maine prison story shot at the old Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield, Ohio
- Dolores Claiborne (1995): set on a Maine island, filmed in Nova Scotia
- It (2017): Derry is basically Bangor, but the movie was shot in Port Hope, Ontario, and around Toronto
- Pet Sematary (2019): the remake left Maine behind and filmed in Hudson, Quebec
- Murder, She Wrote (TV): Cabot Cove, Maine, was played by Mendocino, California
That's why the 1989 Pet Sematary and the other movies above deserve a little extra love. They did it the real way.
Maine Is Still Ready for Its Close-Up
From Boothbay Harbor in 1956 to Harpswell in 2018, the state keeps proving it can play itself (and New Hampshire, and North Carolina) better than any back lot. And the cameras keep coming back. Bangor International Airport even hosted King's TV miniseries The Langoliers, and Skowhegan showed up in HBO's Empire Falls. Next time you're in Camden, Rockland or Portland, look around a little. You might be standing on a movie set.
Want to rep your favorite filming location? Our Portland Maine Skyline T-shirt is Deering Oaks-approved, and if a movie star ever asks you for directions, the only correct answer is in our Ayuh Maine T-Shirt.
Got a story about being an extra, or seeing a movie crew in your town? Tell us on our socials. We want the gossip.
Stay wicked cinematic, Maine,
Ryan & the Chowdaheadz Crew