Shot On Site - Freddy Krueger's Baby Mama Visits Ghostbusters Psychiatric Hospital

In honor of the recently released A Nightmare on Elm Street 7-Film Collection 4K UHD (reviewed/detailed here), and with it being spooky season, it seems fitting to take a detailed look at a Ghostbusters II filming location that appears in A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child, both released in 1989. Read on to find out more...

The filming location is the Veteran's Administration West Los Angeles Medical/Healthcare Center. In Ghostbusters II, it was used for the interiors and (barely seen) exterior of Parkview Psychiatric Hospital. When Matt and I wrote and researched the 2014 Shot on Site article detailing the find, we were able to successfully identify the exterior location, as well as another spot on the property where Rick Moranis was interviewed (for the EPK), but we couldn't really do much to confirm the interiors because interior photography of the actual VA hospital didn't exist. However, thanks to the film crew of A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child, we can now confirm it to my satisfaction. It should be noted that it was also mentioned in the book "Ghostbusters: The Ultimate Visual History" by Daniel Wallace (on page 151): "One additional scene occurred at the Veteran's Administration Medical Center. This would serve as New York's fictional Parkview Psychiatric Hospital, where straitjacketed ghostbusters are incarcerated thanks to the meddling of the mayor's aide. 'The interiors were set at the VA Medical Center in Brentwood,' says [art director Tom] Duffield." (Most images below can be enlarged.)

That Rick interview, and the interiors, were filmed in/around one of the buildings around 7 Bonsall Avenue on the property. Likely, it's either Building 156, 157, or 258. While I don't know the exact building, I do know both movies were filmed in the same building AND the same hallway. Here's Ghostbusters II...


...and here's A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child.


I think it's pretty obvious that they're the same place, although with a few additions/changes. Notice that in both, there is the same "Admitting - Outpatient Registration" signage on the left door window. It's likely that the signage is part of the real location, and not added by either film crew, which confirms that it's a real hospital.


Aside from the paint on the lower half of the desk in the background, even the paint on the walls matches. The Dream Child crew did go a little overboard on curtains and other decorations :-)


As the camera in both films pulls back down the hallway, we can see the same glass window above the doors, too.


A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child has other scenes that take place inside the hospital, as evident by the two-tone green paint on the walls. Since these don't appear to be the same rooms or hallways used in Ghostbusters II, I won't detail them.


I will detail the exterior, since earlier in the film, Alice (Lisa Wilcox) and Yvonne (Kelly Jo Minter) do a walk and talk outside. This might get a bit confusing since we don't have the best street view images to work with, and the Dream Child movie never gave us a great all-encompassing exterior shot. The area in question is around 7 Bonsall Avenue, which features three numbered buildings - 156, 157, and 258 - with a covered walkway going between Buildings 258 and 157. Below is an annotated map with the red drop (roughly) placed where Rick Moranis was sitting for his interview. The covered walkway is where Alice and Yvonne were walking, from Building 258 towards 157, exiting out the east/west opening that's just above the word "covered" in the map below. They exit on the west side going towards where Rick was.


For better reference, here is an annotated street view photo outlining the camera view of Rick's interview that can kinda also be used to show what the Dream Child camera was seeing, too. It was pointed towards the covered walkway just above the red triangle, to the right of the singular palm tree in the middle.


The first part of the Dream Child exterior is a close-up on the metal grates in the arches on the sides of that covered walkway.


Those same grates can be seen on Google street view, though the view is from a bit far away. Notice the sign noting the building on the right as being "258".


Alice and Yvonne stand on the west side of the covered walkway's east/west opening. The film crew likely added that "ADMITTING RMS. 101-124" sign.


Matthew Jordan annotated some overhead images of the buildings and covered walkway showing what the Dream Child camera was filming. Alice and Yvonne are standing where the orange oval is, and the camera was showing what is covered by the red cone. This photo shows the eastern side of the covered walkway, with Building 258 on the left and 157 on the right.


This photo faces north, with Building 157 at the top and 258 at the bottom.


Now we're looking south, with Building 258 at the top and 157 at the bottom.


If all of that wasn't enough, Matt also found this map of the hospital grounds which he annotated with cones representing what the Ghostbusters II Rick Moranis interview camera filmed (yellow) and what the Dream Child camera filmed (green).


Finally, to show where the Ghostbusters II interiors & Rick interview / Dream Child location is in relation to the Ghostbusters II exterior, here is an annotated overhead photo. The Bonsall Avenue location for the former is the red star at the top, while the Pershing Avenue location of the latter is at the bottom.


Thanks to Matthew Jordan for the image comparisons and for additional research and help. More images for A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child can be found on Spook Central's Parkview/VA Hospital filming locations page.

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For more information about Ghostbusters filming locations, be sure to check out the rest of Spook Central's Shot On Site articles and Spook Central's Filming Locations page. Thanks Chris Stewart for letting me use the "Shot on Site" title. Title graphic drawn by Paul Kinsella.