IT: Every Filming Location In The Movies & Miniseries

The television and movie adaptations of horror master Stephen King’s 1986 novel IT were shot in a variety of locations. The ITminiseries came out in 1990, and has gained a cult following over the decades. The more recent IT movie was released in 2017, and its sequel—IT: Chapter Two—came out in 2019. The story of both the show and the movies centers around the Losers’ Club—a group of misfit friends who are terrorized by a supernatural entity that often takes the form of Pennywise the Dancing Clown.

In both the TV and movie versions of the IT story, the characters in the Losers’ Club are Bill, Ben, Beverly, Richie, Eddie, Mike, and Stanley. In the book, the “losers” are introduced as adults, and readers are given insight into their preteen days via flashbacks. The 1990 miniseries took the same path as the book with this, switching back and forth between the present timeline and the past. The movies took a different approach; the first one tells the story of the characters as preteens, while the sequel focuses on them as adults.

The IT miniseries and the two movies—the first of which features a fun cameo by Stephen King—were each filmed in a variety of locations throughout production. This is because the sets had to be just right to properly convey the dreary, creepy, rainy ambiance of Stephen King’s fictional town of Derry, Maine. It turns out that Canada proved to be the perfect shooting location for both versions of the classic King story.

Where The IT Miniseries Was Filmed

The main filming locations of the 1990 IT miniseries, according to Then Now Movie Locations, include Burnaby, New Westminster, and Vancouver, British Columbia.  The school scenes, meanwhile, were filmed at Queen Mary Elementary School in Vancouver, and the scenes on the water were filmed along Beaver Lake in Vancouver.

Scenes taking place at the homes of both the preteen and adult versions of the “losers” were mostly filmed around New Westminster and Vancouver; the location for Bill’s house was in New Westminster, and the storm drain was located nearby at Third and Liverpool streets. The Chinese restaurant where the characters reunite—called Chop Suey Chinese Kitchen in this adaptation—was filmed at Wah Lun Chinese restaurant in Burnaby. Also filmed in Burnaby include the scenes set inside the Derry Inn.

Where IT: Chapter One Was Filmed

The 2017 IT movie was also shot largely in Canada, but mostly around Toronto, Ontario rather than Vancouver, British Columbia. As Atlas of Wonders reported, the haunted house at 29 Neibolt Street—one of King’s most infamous settings, haunted by Pennywise—was built on a street corner in central Oshawa. The cast spent three full days filming outside of the old mansion. The scenes that took place inside the mansion, though, were shot elsewhere—in a mansion called Cranfield House, located in Riverdale, Toronto. In fact, this house has welcomed many filming stints over the years, including for Orphan Black and Designated Survivor.

The town of Port Hope in Canada was used as Derry. The filmmakers found that the town’s period architecture and old-school feel were perfect for the fictional town. Some shops and businesses in the downtown area of Walton and Queen streets altered their signs and decor to better reflect the 1980s. Several scenes—including the one featuring the giant Paul Bunyan statue—were shot at the nearby  Memorial Park.

The Municipal Hall of Port Hope was also used for filming; it provided the exterior shots of the Derry Public Library. The scenes filmed inside the library, though, were done at Wycliffe College in the University of Toronto. The Derry High School scenes, meanwhile, were filmed in the Mount Mary Retreat Centre in Hamilton, and the synagogue scenes where Stanley studies for his bar mitzvah were shot in the building of the Congregation Knesseth Israel in Toronto.

The opening scene of IT—the now-iconic paper boat scene—was filmed in the Weston neighborhood of York in Toronto, with Bill’s house at 124 Queens Drive and the sewer gate itself around the corner at Springmount Ave. and William Street. Scenes at Beverly’s house were filmed in Port Hope, and scenes at Ben’s house were filmed in Oshawa. The scenes of Henry Bowers’ farmhouse were shot in the hamlet of Whitevale in Pickering, Ontario—this was the same house used for the location of Will Graham’s (Hugh Dancy) house in NBC’s Hannibal.

The scenes in “The Barrens” near the river were filmed in Rouge National Urban Park in the Scarborough neighborhood of Toronto, and some swimming scenes were shot at Elora Quarry in Wellington County. Plus, the West Montrose Covered Bridge appears in the background of multiple scenes, and is featured as the spot where Ben gets attacked by Henry Bowers and his gang.

Where IT: Chapter Two Was Filmed

A lot of the scenes in 2019’s IT: Chapter Two were shot in Toronto, including Eddie’s car crash scene—on the corner of Bay St. and Adelaide Street in the downtown area—and the venue at which Richie Tozier performs as a a stand-up comic (the Elgin Theatre). This movie, like the series, features the scene at the Chinese restaurant—this time called Jade of the Orient—where the Losers Club reunites; it was filmed at the Mandarin Restaurant in Mississauga.

The “fun fair” scene from the second IT movie was set in a parking lot located in Port Hope. Also shot in Port Hope were the exteriors of the Derry Town House—filmed in the Hotel Carlyle. The interior hotel scenes, meanwhile, were shot inside the Masonic Scottish Rite Club building in Hamilton, which has also been a setting for shows including The Handmaid’s Tale and Crimson Peak.

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