Does this gothic facade look familiar? It shouuuuld! This is John Marshall High School, located at 3939 Tracy Street in Los Angeles, and it’s been a go-to location for basically every movie ever made.
From “Pretty in Pink” to “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” to “Raiders of the Lost Ark” (where it got a temporary upgrade to become “Marshall College”), this institution has starred in more movies than most A-list actors. Below, we round up a few of its best on-screen moments.
“Nightmare on Elm Street”: The bad dream begins here.
In the Wes Craven original that started it all, John Marshall High School is Freddy Krueger’s primo hunting ground. The familiar facade is on display in this scene where the students arrive at school.
It’s where “Girls Just Want to Have Fun.”
In another 1980s classic, a group of knee-socked schoolgirls (including little teeny tiny Sarah Jessica Parker and Helen Hunt) can be seen exiting the school’s front entrance. Crosses were briefly mounted atop the building to pass it off as a Catholic school.
“Can’t Hardly Wait” has its beginnings at Marshall.
The ultimate late-1990s party movie takes place mostly at (duh) a party, but as you can see in this clip, Ethan Embry’s obsessive crush on Amanda Beckett started right here.
It’s where fathers and sons go to talk about feelings in “Austin Powers 2.”
Dr. Evil describes the “breathtaking” process of ritualistic scrotum shaving during a group therapy session, a scene filmed in one of Marshall’s classrooms.
The best “Grosse Pointe Blank” fight scene was filmed here.
Another of Marshall’s claims to fame: It’s the high school John Cusack returns to for a reunion in “Grosse Pointe Blank,” and in whose hallways he ultimately stabs an assassin to death with ballpoint pen.
“Buffy the Vampire Slayer” was born at Marshall.
Before her small-screen stint in Sunnydale, Buffy was the star of a feature-length film that took place at the fictional high school. The school that stood in for her alma mater? Yep: John Marshall High School.
“Grease!” was the word.
Olivia Newton-John was standing on the John Marshall football field when she emerged from her Sandra Dee chrysalis as a leather-clad, permed, cigarette-smoking sex panther.
And of course, it’s where Van Halen got “Hot for Teacher.”
Little Waldo drooled over his leggy blonde teacher in scenes filmed in Marshall’s library.
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