Escape from Vancouver: 5 Best Spooky Shows Filmed in the GVRD

It is no secret: Greater Vancouver acts at the stomping ground for many a fictional character, especially those that live inside our television sets (or computer screens, as it may be). While a lot of TV shows film in Vancouver, it seems like we have a special skill for attracting shows of the spooky variety, whether that’s sci-fi, mystery, or straight-up horror.

Below, we list our five fave shows that use the GVRD to create their creepy backdrops.

For your own spooky time in the Vancouver area (in Burnaby, on the border of Coquitlam, and right next to Lougheed SkyTrain, to be exact), book yourself in for a horror-ific time in one of Krakit’s escape rooms.

5. The 4400

This highly rated sci-fi series lasted only four seasons and ended in 2007, but it still has a strong fanbase that hopes it will one day return to production. One day near Mount Rainier, 4,400 people who had previously vanished without a trace are returned to Earth. Unsurprisingly, it’s not hard to disguise Vancouver as the Mount Rainier area, considering we’re but a stone’s throw away—which exactly what American Zoetrope did for this TV series.

4. Bates Motel

Still being filmed in Aldergrove, BC—where they built an exact replica of the Bates Motel film set that stands on the Universal Studios lot—Bates Motel turns the very famous horror film Psycho into a serialized tale of unsettled minds. Starring Freddy Highmore and Vera Farmiga, this critically acclaimed series is a prequel to Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 classic.

3. Fringe

Like Battlestar Galactica and Stargate Atlantis, the TV series Fringe (ended 2013) is a well-beloved sci-fi show that was very rooted in its Vancouver filming location. Created by J.J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman, and Roberto Orci, Fringe follows the odd couple of an FBI agent and institutionalized scientist who must explain a bunch of unexplained phenomena. Which brings us to number 2 …

2. X-Files

Who doesn’t love the X-Files? But really, who doesn’t. Sure, the comeback tenth season was a bit of a dud, but the other nine contain some of the most high-quality spooky sci-fi to ever be broadcast on television. It was all filmed here, with, apparently, Vancouver’s constantly drizzly weather responsible for David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson’s notoriously frosty relationship.

1. Supernatural

While X-Files may arguably be the bigger show, Supernatural is perhaps more near and dear to many Vancouverites’ heart—and delivers consistently strong and entertaining episodes, despite being in its twelfth season. Basically no other show has managed to do this after being on air for more than a decade. It all may have something to do with co-stars Jared Padalecki’s and Jensen Ackles’s completely loveable personas, both onscreen and off.



Create your own spooky Vancouver scene in one of our horror-themed escape rooms. Book here: http://bookeo.com/krakit.

Dynamic Duos: Escape Games and the Power of Two

The first Vancouver escape games opened in late 2013, which means Vancouverites have had more than two years to fashion themselves into escape room superstars. If you’re one of these escape game connoisseurs, have you ever thought about how to give yourself a greater challenge? What about scaling down your team? Think you could pull off the solve with just two people?

Generally speaking, the more people you have playing an escape room, the more brainpower you’ve got to help decipher all the clues. But sometimes, less is more. After all, there are plenty of mystery-solving duos who pull it off all the time.

Below we look at some of the greatest mystery-solving duos out there, and examine what it is that makes them such a great team. 

1. Sherlock and Watson

Where we would we start but with the greatest mystery-solving duo in history. While Sherlock is undeniably the brains of the operation, Watson is there to keep Sherlock on course, triggering new trains of thought and most importantly keeping Sherlock tied to the wider human world.

2. Mulder and Scully

A close second for most revered mystery duo out there is The X-Files’ Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, who rock a believer vs. skeptic dynamic. Scully sticks firmly to what science can tell her, while Mulder is more willing to go off into bizarro land. Between the two of them, they always find the answers.

3. Rust and Marty

With the two protagonists of the first season of True Detective, here again we find the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Rust’s edgy, left-of-center character is complemented by Marty’s easygoing, steadfast personality, creating a powerful mixture of abstract and concrete thinking.

4. Rosemary and Thyme

The dynamic between the “gardening detectives” of Rosemary & Thyme is completely different from those previous listed. These two are more like peas in a pod than yin and yang, knowing how to play off one other to foil others’ expectations of their capabilities and to misdirect attention. All the while, they’ll calmly piece together all the clues to solve the crime at hand.

5. Jamie and Adam

Here we have a real example of a dynamic mystery solving duo: MythBusters’ Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage. The two trained special effects artists use critical thinking to try, try, try again, until they find the answers to the (literally) burning questions at hand, in their effort to prove or dispel myths of science and the natural world.

Feeling confident? Book one of our Vancouver escape rooms for you and just one friend here: http://bookeo.com/krakit/.