Gaithersburg named the top horror movie tourism city in America

Gaithersburg is more horrifying than Haddonfield. Creepier than Camp Crystal Lake. Scarier than Sidewinder. Of course, those places don't exist in reality. But Gaithersburg just beat all of the real-life towns that served as their stand-ins on the big screen. The Travel, a vacation tourism website, just published a list of the Top 10 Horror Movie Tourism Cities in America - and Gaithersburg topped it at Number One!

What "possessed" The Travel to pick Gaithersburg? Seneca Creek State Park, where a large part of low-budget horror blockbuster The Blair Witch Project was filmed in the late 1990s. They recommend horror fans have a park ranger direct them to locations from the film, or just explore by themselves. But, "just make sure to keep an eye out for the Blair Witch," writer Melissa Binns warns.

The towns Gaithersburg finished atop are among the most iconic in horror movie locations. Los Angeles (Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street), Government Camp in Oregon (where Jack Nicholson's axe is on-display at the Overwatch Hotel, er, Timberline Lodge from The Shining), the Lone Star State's Bastrop ("Look what your brother did to that door!!!), Jason Voorhees' favorite lake haunt in New Jersey, and the Pennsylvania home of the Dawn of the Dead's Monroeville Mall.

Maybe the editors toured Lakeforest before compiling the list! We'll have to check in with Gaithersburg hotels in a few weeks to see if business is up, with this new Gaithersburg claim to fame. Perhaps Mayor Jud Ashman can now reel in Stephen King for the next Gaithersburg Book Festival - he and lots of other Americans are now sure to want to learn what's so scary about Gaithersburg.