'Creepy Bay Area': Explore mysterious and spooky spots around the region
The Bay Area has always attracted the weird and eccentric. Watch as we tour some of the creepiest and spookiest locations.
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- The San Francisco Bay Area sits at the edge of the world. Since its very beginning, people from all over the globe have come to find prosperity, or just refuge. Surrounded by natural but dangerous beauty, the region collected eccentric citizens who helped to make the region known for being strange, mysterious, and spooky.
VIDEO: 'Creepy Bay Area 2:' Explore the magic and mystery of the Bay Area's eeriest spots
We begin with the most well-known prisons in the world, and perhaps the most haunted.
Alcatraz Island, home to Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, quickly earned a reputation as a place where those cast out of society mingled with spirits left behind in time. The prison was only in operation for 29 years, but in that time it held some of the most famous gangsters of the early 20th century. It was already a grim place of punishment, but why do some still insist those miseries included the otherworldly? In the video player above, co-author of "Ghosts and Legends of Alcatraz, Brian Clune, and former Alcatraz resident Dick Fisher offer differing viewpoints on just how haunted the island actually is.
MORE: Feds still looking for Alcatraz fugitives, 3 men in their 90s 'if they're still alive'
Next, we take a tour of some of the most notable graves and cemeteries in the Bay.
Whether born here or adopting the Bay Area as their own, there are many notable names who have made this place their permanent home. San Francisco famously relocated most of its cemeteries down south to Colma, making it a necropolis, where the dead outnumber the living. All around the Bay Area, gorgeous cemeteries and mausoleums house the final resting places of the famous and infamous. Jessica Ferri, author of "Silent Cities: Colma," offers some insights into these resting places in the video player above.
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Finally, some of the earliest American film studios were located in the Bay Area before Hollywood even existed. But although Tinseltown is now the home of American cinema, the mystique of the Bay Area keeps filmmakers coming. From gorgeous panoramic views to the fog wafting in from over the water, the Bay Area is the perfect spooky setting for some monstrous movie masterpieces. ABC7 talked to SF Film Commission Executive Director Manijeh Fata and "Phantasm" director Don Coscarelli about the eerie appeal of setting a movie in the Bay.
Watch the video player above to watch the full "Spooky Bay Area" streaming special.
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