John Carpenter 'Reel Sites, Real Scary' Driving Tour

I learned a great deal attending Western Kentucky University, and I have the sheepskin to prove it. But one of the most enjoyable things I learned didn't come from a classroom.

Until I got to Western in 1984, I did not know that John Carpenter was from Bowling Green, and I didn't know that names from Bowling Green and Warren County were sprinkled throughout his classic horror film, Halloween.

In the big auditorium inside the campus' Downing University Center, they showed Halloween frequently and it was always fun to pick out the names. We really should have turned it into a "Rocky Horror" type event.

With all that incredible history surrounding Carpenter and his time in Bowling Green and how his beloved childhood home figured into his legendary work, it only made sense that the Bowling Green Area Convention & Visitors Bureau would build a tourism element around him.

And so we have "Reel Sites, Real Scary: A John Carpenter Driving Tour," which takes visitors on a tour through Bowling Green (a city I love--on a personal note) and specifically locations that played a major role in Carpenter's childhood and young life; he and his family moved there from Carthage, New York in 1953, when he was five years old.

Here's a video from 2008 that features John describing some of his old "haunts":

"Reel Sites, Real Scary: A John Carpenter Driving Tour" has always been just that, a driving tour, which makes it perfect for the age of COVID and social distancing.

It's also perfect for some great new Halloween memories.

The holiday AND the movie.