Scorsese's Shutter Island - Boston Film Locations

One of the questions people come away from the cinema with after seeing Scorsese's film Shutter Island is "D'you think there really was a hospital like that for the criminally insane on that island?" Another question, especially for us non-Americans, is "D'you think there really is a Shutter Island in Boston Harbour?"

Well, yes there were hospitals for the criminally insane and yes they did soak their hapless prisoner patients in powerful 'calming' drugs and perform lobotomies on inmates. First performed on humans in the 1890s, the lobotomy was most widely used in the 1940s and 1950s. Around 40,000 patients were lobotomized in the United States and around 10,000 in Western Europe during those years.

But as for the Shutter Island hospital, it didn't really exist and neither does Shutter Island. The locations for the film, based on the novel by Dennis Lehane, were in Massachusetts, many in and around the harbour. Locations were also sought in Connecticut and Nova Scotia before filming began in early 2008. The result was a composite of dark, brooding shots which gave Shutter Island its menacing atmosphere all the way from Dr Cawley's plush drawing room to the dizzying rocky drop between Shutter Island's craggy cliffs and its sinister lighthouse.

The World War II flashback scenes in which DiCaprio's character was a soldier present at the liberation of Dachau were filmed in Taunton, Massachusetts. Scorsese used old industrial buildings at Taunton's Whittenton Mills to represent the Dachau concentration camp seen in flashback. Some scenes were also filmed at the abandoned Medfield State Hospital in Medfield, Massachusetts. The cabin scene was filmed in the Borderland State Park in North Easton, Massachusetts. Peddocks Island was used as a main setting for Shutter Island and the lighthouse scenes were filmed at East Point, in Nahant.

Other scenes were filmed in Acadia National Park, Bar Harbor, Maine; Boston Harbor; Hull, Massachusetts and Hyde Park, Boston.

Click here to see images of Shutter Island film locations.