I vividly remember watching Witchboard when I was 17 and being so inspired by the camera movements and the director's ability to tell a good story with pretty minimal budget. Now I know it was technically a 1986 film, but it hit a wide distribution on March 13, 1987, so I thought the 30th anniversary would be the best time to finally publish my location visits.
We open on the main house, which has been used in a number of films including Willard, Elvira: Mistress of the Dark, and Waxwork. I have been to this home a number of times; it is located at 637 South Lucerne Boulevard in Los Angeles.
The cemetery is the Grand View Memorial Park and Crematory in Glendale, California. During my first visit, the cemetery was in poor shape, but volunteers have been working diligently to upkeep it. The "Chase" gravestone made this spot pretty easy to find...
Some more shots reveal that tombstones were brought in for set decoration, but I have a feeling some actual ones have been desecrated over the years.
Back to the house on Lucerne!
I finally made it out to Big Bear last year, mostly to do locations for this film. The phone booth was near the corner of Big Bear Boulevard and Knickerbocker Road in Big Bear, California.
Although we are supposed to be at a cemetery in Big Bear, we are actually back at the one used earlier in the film in Glendale...
Only recently did the Wishing Well Motel change names to the Robinhood Resort. I wish I had visited earlier while the marquee was still the same, but this is located at 540 Pine Knot Avenue in Big Bear. (The motel room interior was shot at a different location down the street.)
Wanda's Warehouse has undergone quite a bit of renovation since filming. It was located at 41067 Big Bear Boulevard.
Now the dock scenes were a little trickier to figure out, but there are a couple shots where you can see two letters: JU. I figured out this Juniper Point in Big Bear. While the dock is long gone, you can still seem remnants of its original location.
With the dock gone, you can still match up the mountains on the horizon...
The same tree is still there!
More shots from the dock....
Back to the house at Lucerne....
A quick visit back at Wanda's Warehouse...
The phone booth across from the liquor store is right in front of the motel in Big Bear.
And finally, back to the house.
I also took the opportunity to match up some behind the scenes pictures to the locations. First is Wanda's Warehouse...
And behind the scenes pictures at Juniper Point:
I have a few more locations to get to, but hope you enjoy. I have visited a number of locations for Witchboard 2, but they are still on my old blog if you'd like to visit.