If you’ve ever watched Stranger Things and thought, “There’s no way a place like Hawkins is real,” you might be surprised to learn that a lot of it was filmed right here in Georgia. Even though Hawkins is supposed to be in Indiana, the creepy forests, small town streets, and even some of the labs are actually scattered around different cities in Georgia. Visiting these places makes the show feel way more real—and honestly, kind of cooler.
One of the main filming spots is in Jackson. The downtown square in Jackson is basically the heart of Hawkins. If you rewatch the show, you’ll recognize the courthouse and surrounding streets from multiple scenes. It’s wild to see how production crews transformed a normal small town square into something that looks straight out of the 1980s. They changed storefront signs, parked vintage cars everywhere, and even adjusted details to match the time period.
Hawkins High School is actually filmed at Patrick Henry High School in Stockbridge. Even though it was a real school, it was used after being closed for filming. The hallways and gym scenes with characters like Eleven, Mike, Will, Lucas, and Dustin were shot there. Knowing it’s just a regular Georgia high school makes it feel less fictional and more grounded in real life.
Another major location is the old Georgia Mental Health Institute in Atlanta. The building’s exterior was used for the creepy Hawkins National Laboratory. The place already looks kind of mysterious, which made it perfect for the show’s secret-goverment-lab vibe. A lot of intense scenes connected to the Upside Down storyline were filmed around this area.
Speaking of the Upside Down, many of the forest scenes were shot around Atlanta and nearby wooded areas. Georgia’s thick forests help create that dark, isolated feeling the show is known for. The natural setting adds to the suspense without needing too many special effects.
In Season three, Starcourt Mall became a huge part of the story. Those scenes were filmed at Gwinnett Place Mall in Duluth. The mall was mostly closed at the time, which allowed the production team to redesign it completely in the bright 80s colors. It’s honestly one of the coolest transformations in the entire series.
Over the past few years, a lot of Hollywood productions have started moving away from Los Angeles and heading to Atlanta instead. One big reason is that Georgia offers major tax breaks, which makes filming here way cheaper for studios. Because of that, huge shows like Stranger Things have been filmed in Georgia. This shift has had a big impact on the state– it’s created thousands of jobs, brought in tons of money, and even boosted tourism since fans visit filming locations. Georgia is now often called the “Hollywood of the South,” and it’s cool to see how it’s become such an important place for movies and TV.
Overall, Georgia plays a massive role in bringing Stranger Things to life. Even though the show is set in a fictional town, it’s Georgia’s real locations that give Hawkins its personality. As someone who lives in the same state where all this happened, it makes the show feel closer to home—like the Upside Down could be hiding just around the corner (hopefully not, though).
