The Big Picture
While Will Ferrell has starred in some of Hollywood's funniest movies over the years, there’s only one hit that’s gone on to join the ranks of bona fide Christmas classics. Elf, the 2003 film directed by Jon Favreau and co-starring Zooey Deschanel, has achieved a beloved holiday status in the 21 years since its release. The eternally optimistic face of Ferrell’s Buddy regularly shows up in Christmas decorations nationwide, and the movie even spawned a Broadway musical adaptation that premiered in 2010. Nowadays, audiences can’t help but associate Elf with the warmth and silliness of the giving season, which is why it’s surprising to learn that the movie was filmed in a surprising and disturbing place.
Largely inspired by an even older classic, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,Elf follows the adventures of Buddy the Elf after he leaves the North Pole on a search for his real father. As a human who grew up among Santa’s little helpers, Buddy craves family more than anything, especially when he discovers his real dad is a hardened children’s book publisher, Walter Hobbs (James Caan). What follows is a series of misadventures as Buddy attempts to reconnect with his father, as well as a glimpse into the fun and familial love at the heart of Christmas. Yet, for all the tinsel joy and festive laughter the movie manages to provide, the film’s true achievement is that it manages to be so festive after having been filmed in an abandoned psychiatric hospital.
Elf
Raised as an oversized elf, Buddy travels from the North Pole to New York City to meet his biological father, Walter Hobbs, who doesn't know he exists and is in desperate need of some Christmas spirit.
- Release Date
- October 9, 2003
- Director
- Jon Favreau
- Cast
- Will Ferrell , James Caan , Bob Newhart , Edward Asner , Mary Steenburgen , Zooey Deschanel
- Runtime
- 97
Much of 'Elf' Was Filmed in a Canadian Mental Hospital
As a movie that includes a trip through the candy cane forest and sea of swirly-twirly gumdrops, the last thing anyone would expect from Elf is for the film to delve into anything too serious. The image of a man in yellow tights causing traffic accidents in downtown Manhattan is exactly the kind of timeless silliness popular in the early 2000s, making the film’s unnerving production all the more impressive. Large sections of Elf were shot on-site at Riverview Hospital in Coquitlam, British Columbia, a shuttered psychiatric facility that first opened in the early 1900s. But despite the uncomfortable idea of shooting upbeat scenes in such a haunting place, Riverview proved to be essential for the creation of Elf.
According to Netflix's The Movies That Made Us, Elf production designer Rusty Smith described Riverview as “one of the creepiest places I’ve ever been in my life,” but that didn’t stop the team behind the film from utilizing the grounds for some of the movie’s most memorable sets. Walter’s office, Greenway Press, as well as the police station, the Hobbs’ apartment, and the orphanage audiences see at the beginning of the film were all filmed at Riverview. Favreau even used the hospital to film the iconic fake Santa scene at Gimbels, which was supposed to be filmed at Macy’s traditional store in Manhattan. When the retail giant wanted the classic Elf scene to be cut, Riverview once again provided its own locale, demonstrating how invaluable the hospital became for Elf’s production.
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Having the backup option proved to be especially helpful for Favreau’s team, as production couldn’t afford to shoot all its scenes in Manhattan on a $32 million budget. Riverview’s affordability and expansive grounds therefore provided Ferrell and the team with ample space to realize their creative vision, with the facility even proving crucial for the film’s finale. In Rolling Stone, Favreau explained that “to double for Central Park, we used a grassy field that was on the grounds of a mental hospital.” He then went on to explain that other parts of Riverview’s grounds were being used as a separate film lot for the movie Freddy vs. Jason, illustrating that Elf still utilized the creepy hospital for its benefit, even if the movie isn’t the first production to have used it.
Hollywood Has a Long History With Riverview Hospital
While an abandoned psychiatric facility in the middle of rural Canada may not immediately sound inviting, the hospital has served as a filming location for a long history of Hollywood classics. Projects as popular as 2009’s Watchmen and The X-Files both used Riverview for specific locations in their stories, as did Jordan Peele’s recent revival of The Twilight Zone and Netflix’s Riverdale. Most notably, Deadpool 2 used Riverview to shoot scenes involving the Essex House, both repurposing the hospital grounds for its finale fight scene and putting star Ryan Reynolds just a few shots away from the legacy of Elf. This ongoing commitment to the Coquitlam facility demonstrates that Riverview has been invaluable to Hollywood time and time again.
Home to a variety of natural landscapes and architecturally unique buildings, the hospital grounds are optimal for filmmakers trying to take advantage of Riverview’s antique aesthetic. Out of those films previously mentioned, Riverview has been used as the backdrop for fictional boarding schools and college campuses, dry places with stiff feelings of rigid atmospheres, and Riverview even got to play a part similar to itself when it featured as a mental hospital in the classic Superman television series Smallville. Because of this relevance to the Hollywood film industry and its century-old legacy, Riverview Hospital was officially placed on the Canadian Register of Historic Places in 2009, cementing its place as a site of great importance for both storytelling and national culture alike.
As for its own use of the grounds, Elf distinguishes itself among other Hollywood films that used Riverview because of its unique approach to the filming site. Riverview’s more traditional buildings lend their more drab, colorless ambiance well to the less magical aspects of the holiday movie’s setting, such as the police station and orphanage. Yet, Favreau and his team also worked hard to transform Riverview into a cheerful place for all ages when they used it for the Gimbels set and staged the lawn for the sleigh ride at the end of the film. By taking a more whimsical approach to the dark legacy of Riverview’s history, Elf puts a merry spin on a familiar setting, proving not even filming locations are immune from the movie’s message of Christmas cheer.
Rather than using Riverview for the horror movies and supernatural thrillers that usually film at the abandoned facility, Elf is an outlier in Hollywood and among filmmakers. The film brought Santa to a scary place, overcame its financial limitations by embracing an unsettling location, and took advantage of the time it had to create a wonderland of holiday magic. Using Riverview’s extensive property to breathe life into its most beloved scenes, Elf joins the ranks of popular movies that have been filmed in a historic setting, and Favreau’s film stands out as the most whimsical venture into British Columbia’s most unlikely gem. The movie conjures heart from horror and family from fear, and its achievements deserve to continue to be sung loudly for all the world to hear.
Elf is available to rent on Prime Video in the U.S.
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