Netflix’s smashing hit series Stranger Things has been breaking all types of records on the streaming platform, especially after the release of its highly anticipated fourth season earlier this summer. From crushing the record of the largest opening weekend for an English-language show, previously held by Bridgerton season two, to, per Forbes, garnering 5.14 billion minutes of viewership in its massive debut, the Netflix original series is already en route to creating unprecedented global buzz. Naturally, as fans await the fifth and concluding season, behind-the-scenes info and gossip have been tying audiences over. One such nugget of information is the real-worl filming locations of Stranger Things.
Until season 4, Stranger Things is predominantly set in Hawkins, Indiana, confining the shoot to Atlanta, Georgia. Indeed, it’s only in season 4 that we see a change in location. The recently released season splits the Stranger Things ensemble into several groups: Hopper, Joyce, Enzo, and Yuri are in Russia, the Byers sons and Mike are in California, Eleven is in a Nevada lab facility, and Dustin and the rest of the beloved characters are in Hawkins. To capture the global set-up, production went international. Here are the real-world filming locations of Stranger Things.
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5 Lukiškės Prison — Vilnius, Lithuania
Netflix
Season four of Stranger Things opens up by resolving the mystery and cliffhanger of the previous season: Hopper’s death. The audience learns that Hopper has survived the explosion in the lab and is held captive by the Soviets as a forced laborer in an isolated location, Kamchatka (Russia). Although Kamchatka is a real location in Russian Far East, it is not the place where the actual filming happened. What will strike as a shock to the audience is that no film set got erected for the scenes in Russia. Instead, to keep true to the plotline, the sequence was filmed, per Far Out Magazine, in the Lukiškės Prison of Vilnius, Lithuania. The prison was built in 1904, with the last inmate transferred in 2019. Since then, it has become a spot for cultural activities like music, dance, and guided tours.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
4 Haunted Creel House — Rome, Georgia
If you are through Stranger Things season 4, you know about the monster-plagued Creel House, a mansion own by Victor Creel and his family in 1959, and the prominence it occupies in the overall narrative. However, what you might not know is that this is a real mansion in the center of Rome, Georgia. This massive residence was built by local lawyer Colonel Hamilton Yancey in the late-19th Century and is counted among the historic homes of Rome. Also known as Claremount house, this castle-like two-story structure boasts seven bathrooms and six bedrooms. Interestingly, the massive mansion was undergoing a renovation when the Stranger Things production team located this site and decided to convert it into the horrifying Creel House.
3 Georgia Mental Health Institute — Atlanta, Georgia
The Hawkins lab facility is among the most recurring locations of Stranger Things. Passionate followers of the series know that the lab is the super-human production facility where most of the trouble originates, from Vecna regaining his power to the massacre of kids by Henry and the origin of the gate opening to The Upside Down. The lab has been the catalyst in all the difficulties befalling Hawkins. As spooky as the backstory of the lab, equally strange is the story of the building, Georgia Mental Health Institute, the actual shooting location for these scenes. The hospital ran actual psychiatric research projects from 1965 to 1997. While one building was the hospital, the other preserved the rich Georgian history. It was once the estate of Coca-Cola heir Asa Chandler Jr. Later, these buildings were purchased by Emory University. Today, this place has turned into a spooky filming location. You might recognize it from other television series like The Vampire Diaries and First Man.
2 Gwinnett Place Mall — Duluth, Georgia
The third season of the Stranger Things explores most of its narrative by positioning Star Court Mall at the center. It becomes the characters’ favorite hang-out location, Steve and Robin’s workplace, and a secret doorway to the Soviet experimentation lab. Additionally, this is the spot featuring the concluding face-off between Eleven and The Mind Flayer. Unlike the busy Star Court portrayed in the series, Gwinnett Place Mall in Duluth, Georgia is a deserted mall that was shut down a few months before filming began due to its failure to attract new tenants. Coincidentally, akin to Billy’s brutal death, per The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, a murder of a man took place five months before filming began on Stranger Things season 3. The body was discovered two months later in the vacant Subway of the food court.
1 Lenora Hills — Albuquerque, New Mexico
The final face-off with the monster in the third season of Stranger Things serves as the last nail in the coffin for Joyce to relocate her family (including Eleven) to Lenora Hills, California. Of course, Lenora Hills is a fictitious town, using Albuquerque, New Mexico as its location. For starters, the high school Will and Eleven attends is actually Eldorado High School, which was also a filming location in the first season of Breaking Bad. Further, Mike and Eleven’s Rink-O-Mania roller-skating scenes are shot in Roller King. Max’s memory roller-board sequences are shot in Albuquerque’s Snow Park. And lastly, the Nevada Hawkins facility that pops up in the middle of nowhere of the dessert was also a location on the outskirts of Albuquerque, in a desert near Zia Pueblo.
It is evident that the locations are real and open to visitors, but altered a bit in the series to align them with the visual requirements of the show. Also, since Stranger Things season 4 was shot amidst the pandemic, sets were constructed, pushing everything indoors.
