Where was Vicious (2025) filmed? Complete guide to all filming locations and other production details

The 2025 horror movie Vicious sees director Bryan Bertino, of The Strangers fame, return with another tense tale of fear, trauma, and survival. Starring Dakota Fanning in a riveting performance, Vicious was released on October 10, 2025, on Paramount+ and digital platforms.

The movie had its early premiere earlier at Fantastic Fest on September 19, 2025, where the film was appreciated for its chilling tone and emotional resonance.

The film was shot solely in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, between March 22 and May 10, 2024, under the Atlas Entertainment banner. With its eerie suburban settings and low-key, cramped interiors, Ottawa provided the ideal setting for the film's themes of isolation and paranoia.

Vicious initially remained scheduled for a theatrical release in early 2025, but Paramount Pictures later changed plans, instead pursuing a digital-first release following its festival premiere.

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Filming details of Vicious explored

Vicious (2025) (Image Via Paramount+)

Vicious was filmed entirely in Ottawa, Ontario, taking advantage of the city's mixture of urban and residential landscapes to bring about a feeling of weird normality. Production started on March 22, 2024, and concluded by May 10, 2024.

Ottawa's residential areas and grey spring weather contributed to the unease of the film, with interiors set to have that familiar, suffocating feeling, an integral part of Bertino's narrative style.

The production, under Atlas Entertainment, aimed to create a grounded horror experience, one that utilizes the setting along with the script to create tension.

The filming stayed within Canada from start to finish, with no extensive studio sets shot on location beyond controlled interiors constructed to replicate the cramped environment through which much of the movie progresses. Post-production continued into late 2024, with Bertino and his crew busy creating the film's tight pacing and sound design.

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What happens in Vicious and who stars in it?

The movie tracks Polly (Dakota Fanning), a young woman whose life starts to fall apart after a bizarre meeting with an old woman (played by Kathryn Hunter) who shows up at her doorstep one night.

The enigmatic visitor, who is missing a finger, gives Polly a wooden box that includes an hourglass and a monstrous directive: she has to put something she needs, something she hates, and something she loves in it, or she'll be dead by the end of the night.

What starts out as incredulity soon gives way to terror as Polly finds herself beset by ghastly visions and violent assaults. As the hourglass runs dry, her world disintegrates.

The house is transformed into a labyrinth of her nightmares, and the box starts to materialize her turmoil. The novel compels Polly to face up to her past traumas, guilt, and self-hatred, feelings which the box appears to nurture.

Polly by the end of the movie, decides not to engage in the game of the box by letting the timer expire.

She wakes up the following morning alive but greatly traumatized, having lost parts of herself both physically and emotionally. Her last scene depicts her neighbor finding the box with new guidelines, implying that the curse persists.

Headlining the cast is Dakota Fanning as Polly, whose performance is emotionally charged and anchors the film.

She is accompanied by Kathryn Hunter, Mary McCormack who plays Polly's mother, with Rachel Blanchard, Devyn Nekoda, Klea Scott, and Emily Mitchell.

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The movie was released in theatres on October 10, 2025.