As the air gets chillier and the days get shorter, D.C. residents’ thoughts turn to Halloween and tales of the weird and the macabre – like hearings on congressional page scandals and polls predicting midterm election outcomes. OK, so Washington, D.C., is not the first city to come to mind when you think of horror and suspense. It doesn’t even compare to New Orleans’ Gothic backdrops or London’s fog-filled streets and alleyways. But on the silver screen, D.C. has played host to a veritable who’s who of madmen and monsters, as well as some fine extraterrestrial mayhem.

Everybody knows that Georgetown was the setting of the 1973 horror masterpiece The Exorcist and its two sequels. You can still visit the site where Father Karras tossed himself down a flight of stairs after being possessed by the same pea-soup spitting, crucifix-loving demon previously taking up residence in a 12-year-old Linda Blair. It’s also well known that D.C. was the setting of the 1951 sci-fi classic The Day the Earth Stood Still . In that film, an alien lands his ship on the Ellipse and threatens the Earth with destruction unless humans stop being so testy with each other. To demonstrate his awesome power, the alien causes a worldwide power outage (hence the movie title) just so he can conveniently get stuck in an elevator with the lead actress. At least the movie inspired a great running gag in Sam Raimi’s cult favorite Army of Darkness.

Many people, however, might not know that D.C. has played a part in some other well-known (and not-so well-known) terrifying films — and we aren’t talking about National Treasure and Legally Blonde 2.