10 Abandoned Movie Sets You Can Visit In Real Life
7. Spectre, Alabama - Big Fish
The town of Spectre, Alabama that was purpose-built for Tim Burton's 2003 film Big Fish is very aptly named. That's because, following years of deterioration and an alleged fire, not many buildings remain, and there's certainly never been anyone living there. It is, quite literally, a ghost town.
The buildings that make up Spectre were only ever made for exterior shots, so weren't meant to last, but the owners of property on Jackson Lake Island in Alabama told Tim Burton and his team not to bulldoze the sets upon completion of Big Fish, but to leave them instead.
The buildings were artificially distressed for sequences in the film, and years of neglect have seen many buildings disappear due to being unsafe either by flooding or just naturally crumbling due to abandonment. The town's entire commercial district was also claimed by an unfortunate fire caused during clean up of another area of the set.
If you do happen to make the trip out to look around Spectre, you can camp and fish on the island, and the owners of the set do hope to one day renovate and refurbish the buildings as visits to the abandoned locale are still popular today.