Watch A Horror Movie At An Abandoned Asylum? We Dare You

MEDFIELD, MA — This might be the scariest thing to happen in 2020. Well, at least this week.

Over Labor Day weekend, the Coolidge Corner Theatre will screen the 2010 Martin Scorsese horror-thriller "Shutter Island" at the old Medfield State Hospital. The abandoned asylum's campus was used as a filming location for many of the movie's creepiest scenes.

The screenings will also be a learning experience. John Thompson, chair of the Medfield State Hospital Buildings and Grounds Committee, will talk about the hospital's history, and how it's depicted on screen.

If you've never been, the hospital campus has been turned into a public park with acres of open fields, and connections to trails at the Charles River State Reservation. But you can also get up close to buildings that were used to warehouse thousands of people between 1895 and 2003.

When the campus opened, it was referred to as the "Medfield Insane Asylum," part of a network of similar institutions across the state. The hospital was the site of widespread abuse, overcrowding and experiments. Many patients died violent deaths, and the hospital was decimated by the 1918 influenza pandemic — an event that led to the creation of the Medfield State Hospital Cemetery off of Route 27 near the Charles River.

"Shutter Island" is about two U.S. Marshals — played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo — who venture to the fictitious Ashecliffe Hospital to investigate the disappearance of a patient. Inside, they discover creepy, unspeakable abuse being carried out by the hospital overseers.

The "Shutter Island" screenings will happen Saturday, Sunday and Monday at sundown. You can find tickets at the Coolidge Corner Theatre website.