Movies filmed in Massachusetts? The Bay State has been a working movie set for decades, from Martha's Vineyard beaches to Gloucester docks, Lowell gyms, Concord meadows and every crooked Boston corner that looks good in a medium shot. Same ground rule as our Maine, Connecticut and Vermont lists: every film here actually put cameras on Massachusetts soil. Being "set in Massachusetts" doesn't count, and you'll see why at the end.
We've already done a whole roundup of movies set in Boston. This one's different. We're talking statewide, oldest to newest, with real towns you can drive to, including the Cape, the Islands, the North Shore, MetroWest, the Merrimack Valley and a few spots that never get enough credit. Some of these films are set here. Some just needed our weather, our hospitals or our harbors. Either way, somebody in Gloucester has a story about it. Grab a Dunks. Here are 12 films shot in the Bay State.
1. Jaws (1975): Martha's Vineyard Becomes Amity Island
This is the big one, and it is 100 percent Massachusetts. Steven Spielberg's shark thriller turned Martha's Vineyard into the fictional Amity Island, and the island has never been the same. Edgartown's Water and Main streets stood in for downtown Amity. The famous "Jaws Bridge" is the American Legion Memorial Bridge over Sengekontacket Pond. Joseph A. Sylvia State Beach, Menemsha Harbor and the Chappaquiddick ferry landing all show up. The mechanical shark broke constantly, which forced Spielberg to shoot around it, which is why the movie still works. Next time you're stuck in the ferry line, remember: this is where modern summer blockbusters were born.
2. The Crucible (1996): Hog Island Stands In for 1692 Salem
Arthur Miller's Salem witch-trial drama was shot where it belongs: Massachusetts. The production built a full colonial village on Hog Island (Choate Island) in Ipswich, with additional work at the House of the Seven Gables in Salem, the Rebecca Nurse Homestead in Danvers, Plimoth Plantation in Plymouth and the old United Shoe factory in Beverly. Daniel Day-Lewis, Winona Ryder and Joan Allen freezing on a North Shore island in period costumes is about as Bay State as cinema gets. Tour buses still roll past those spots looking for 1692, and half the time they find a movie set instead.
3. Good Will Hunting (1997): Cambridge, Southie and the Public Garden
Gus Van Sant's Oscar winner is the Boston movie everybody quotes, and a lot of it was really here. MIT's McLaurin Building exteriors, Harvard Square, the Boston Public Garden bench and South Boston's L Street Tavern at 658 East Eighth Street all made the cut. Plenty of interiors were shot in Toronto, which locals love to complain about, but the parts that matter, the ones people still make pilgrimages to, are Massachusetts. "How do you like them apples" lands harder when you know the bar is still pouring.
4. The Perfect Storm (2000): Gloucester Plays Itself
Wolfgang Petersen's film about the Andrea Gail and the 1991 nor'easter was shot in the town where it actually happened. The Crow's Nest at 334 Main Street is the real bar from Sebastian Junger's book. For the dockside exteriors, the crew built a false Crow's Nest frontage down on Harbor Loop behind Maritime Gloucester, because the real bar isn't right on the water. Mark Wahlberg, George Clooney and a whole lot of Gloucester weather did the rest. Sea footage was finished off California, but the town you see is the real thing.
5. Session 9 (2001): Danvers State Hospital Goes Full Nightmare
Brad Anderson's asbestos-crew horror was filmed almost entirely inside the abandoned Danvers State Hospital, the Kirkbride-plan asylum that once loomed over Route 1. The crew only got access to a limited, permitted section of the unsafe building, which somehow makes the movie creepier. Parts of the complex have since been redeveloped, but the movie preserves the place at its most haunted. If you've ever driven past the old Danvers towers and felt your stomach drop, this is the film that explains why. For a less terrifying night in, our Palace Nightclub Vintage Sign T-Shirt is the official couch-and-credits uniform.
6. The Proposal (2009): Rockport Pretends to Be Sitka, Alaska
Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds never made it to Alaska. Disney dressed Rockport's Main Street, Bearskin Neck, Dock Square and Motif No. 1 as Sitka, complete with totem poles and a "Welcome to Sitka" banner that briefly confused people who were just trying to find parking. The Paxton family house and wedding scenes were filmed at a private mansion on Gales Point Road in Manchester-by-the-Sea, with more Cape Ann work in Gloucester. Massachusetts playing Alaska is peak New England hustle.
7. Shutter Island (2010): Medfield State Hospital and Peddocks Island
Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio turned Dennis Lehane's Boston Harbor thriller into a Massachusetts location tour. The Ashecliffe Hospital exteriors and wards are the abandoned Medfield State Hospital. The approach to the island was shot on Peddocks Island in Boston Harbor. The lighthouse was East Point in Nahant. The hurricane sequence was Wilson Mountain Reservation in Dedham. A stone cottage at Borderland State Park in Easton and the Whittenton Mills complex in Taunton rounded it out. One of the creepiest "filmed here" lists in the state.
8. The Fighter (2010): Lowell Steps Into the Ring
Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale brought the Micky Ward / Dicky Eklund story home to Lowell. Ramalho's West End Gym on Lawrence Street, Buck's Bar & Grill on Chelmsford Street, Cupples Square, East Merrimack Street and the Tsongas Center at UMass Lowell all appear. The movie looks like Lowell because it is Lowell. Bale won the Oscar. Lowell got a worldwide close-up. Fair trade.
9. Manchester by the Sea (2016): Cape Ann Does the Hard Stuff
Kenneth Lonergan's grief drama is set in Manchester-by-the-Sea and was shot all over Cape Ann: Manchester itself, Gloucester, Essex, Beverly, Rockport, plus Middleton, Lynn and Tewksbury. Manchester Essex Regional Middle School shows up. Casey Affleck won Best Actor. The winter light, the harbor, the quiet streets, none of that is faked. If you've ever driven Route 127 in January, you already know the movie.
10. Knives Out (2019): Natick and Easton Build a Murder Mansion
Rian Johnson's whodunit stitches together two Massachusetts estates into the Thrombey family pile. Exterior shots used a private 1890 Gothic Revival mansion in Natick. Most of the interiors were filmed at the Ames Mansion inside Borderland State Park in Easton, the same park that popped up in Shutter Island. Daniel Craig's Benoit Blanc never looked more at home than on a MetroWest lawn in sweater weather.
11. Little Women (2019): Concord and Harvard, for Real
Greta Gerwig filmed Louisa May Alcott's Concord classic entirely in Massachusetts. The March house exterior was a replica built on Lowell Road in Concord. Orchard House itself got limited use. Harvard, Massachusetts, supplied the General Store (Meg's fabric shop), Town Hall (the theater night), the Unitarian Universalist Church and Fruitlands Museum (Meg and John's married home). Aunt March's interiors used a Lancaster mansion. Jo's train-station chase was Stoughton. Alcott's home turf, Alcott's movie.
12. Spirited (2022): Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds Take Over Boston
Apple's Christmas musical was filmed entirely in Massachusetts, mostly within about 30 miles of Boston. Saunders Castle at Park Plaza became the ghosts' headquarters. The Fairmont Copley Plaza lobby played the Copperfield Hotel. Mechanics Hall in Worcester hosted a big song-and-dance number. Add South Shore Plaza in Braintree, Marian High School in Framingham and neighborhoods in Melrose and Everett, and you've got a full Bay State Christmas production. Reynolds keeps coming back. We are not complaining.
Set in Massachusetts, Shot Somewhere Else
Now for the twist. Some famous "Massachusetts" stories never rolled a camera here:
- The Scarlet Letter (1995): Demi Moore's Hester Prynne is set in Puritan Massachusetts, but the shoot went to Nova Scotia and British Columbia
- Ethan Frome (1993): Edith Wharton's Starkfield, Massachusetts story was filmed in Peacham and Morrisville, Vermont (we covered it in our Vermont movies list)
- Legally Blonde (2001): Harvard Law on screen is mostly the University of Southern California, with little more than aerials of Cambridge
- Glory (1989): the 54th Massachusetts story used Savannah, Georgia, dressed as Boston and Readville
That's why the twelve above get the credit. They did the work on real Massachusetts pavement, beaches, hospitals and gyms.
Roll Credits on the Bay State
From Spielberg's broken shark on Martha's Vineyard to a Christmas musical dancing through Copley Square, Massachusetts keeps proving it can play itself, Alaska, Amity Island and a Gothic murder mansion without breaking a sweat. Next time you're in Gloucester, Lowell, Rockport, Concord or Edgartown, look twice. You might be standing on a movie set. For more Hub-set classics, swing back to our movies set in Boston list, and if you want the statewide trivia deep cut, our fun facts about Massachusetts post is waiting.
Want to rep the state that keeps showing up in the credits? Our Boston Neighborhoods T-Shirt is made for townies who know which bar Will sat in and which bridge the shark swam under.
Were you an extra on one of these, or did you spot DiCaprio in Medfield? Tell us on our socials. We want the gossip.
Stay wicked cinematic, Massachusetts,
Ryan & the Chowdaheadz Crew