Why a Booktrail?
1950s: Welcome to Shutter Island, home of Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane…
Shutter Island
What you need to know before your trail
US Marshal Teddy Daniels has come to Shutter Island, home of Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane, to find an escaped murderer named Rachel Solando.
As a killer hurricane bears down on the island, the investigation deepens and the questions mount. How has a barefoot woman escaped from a locked room? Who is leaving them clues in the form of cryptic codes? And what really goes on in Ward C?
The closer Teddy gets to the truth, the more elusive it becomes. And the more he begins to believe that he may never leave Shutter Island. Because someone is trying to drive him insane…
Travel Guide
Booktrail it to Shutter Island if you dare…
Lehane’s inspiration for the hospital and island setting was Long Island in Boston Harbor, which he had visited during a major blizzard in 1978 as a child with his uncle and family. You can imagine the type of impression it must have had given the nature of the book and film!
This is one of the scariest and most chilling island settings in fiction and in film. The approach to the island, knowing it houses an asylum…..and what you might find there. An investigation and mystery in the asylum will haunt you….and then there’s a storm and the island is shut off from the mainland….
Shutter Island was mainly filmed in Massachusetts:
-Taunton being the location for the World War II flashback scenes.
– Old industrial buildings in Taunton’s Whittenton Mills Complex replicated the Dachau concentration camp.
– The old Medfield State Hospital in Medfield, Massachusetts was Cawley’s office and scenes were filmed on the second floor of the chapel during the late evening.
– The old Worcester State Hospital was also considered a location but demolition of surrounding buildings made it impossible.
– Borderland State Park in Easton, Massachusetts was used for the cabin scene.
The island itself – Peddocks Island
The Lighthouse – East Point, in Nahant, Massachusetts was the location for the lighthouse scenes in the film. Scary and chilling!
Booktrail Boarding Pass: Shutter Island
Destination/Location: Boston, MA Author/Guide: Dennis Lehane Departure Time: 1950s
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