On a snaking curve of the Alabama River sits an idyllic island blooming with nature. At its heart is the enigmatic town of Spectre, with buildings crumbling into ruin and goats reclaiming its silent streets. But nothing here is quite as it seems, as there's a dazzling Hollywood secret hiding beneath its forlorn façade.
Click or scroll on to take a tour of this fascinating ghost town...
Nestled in Elmore County, Alabama on Jackson Lake Island, entering Spectre is like walking into an enchanted place. You’re greeted by gnarled trees, rows of seemingly derelict buildings and the strange sight of shoes strung up between two posts. But why was this town left to languish? Well, Spectre is in fact an abandoned film set from director Tim Burton’s 2003 movie Big Fish.
Photographer Leland Kent of Abandoned Southeast captured the curious town in all its faded glory back in 2021.
In Big Fish, son William tries to reconcile with his dying father, Edward Bloom, known for telling tall tales about his past. In the process, we're plunged into Edward's colorful fantasies, including the whimsical world of Spectre. Its main street is pictured here with Ewan McGregor as the young Edward Bloom. The town is a mystical utopia, where desires are granted and the grass is so soft the townsfolk walk barefoot.
Burton found the perfect backdrop for the curious tale and the isolated Alabama isle became the home of Spectre and for a time, a whole host of A-list actors.
Pictured here at the premiere is director Tim Burton and his then-partner Helena Bonham Carter, who starred in the movie as Jenny, Edward Bloom's love interest. Other big names in the cast included Ewan McGregor, Albert Finney, Jessica Lange and Marion Cotillard – plus a 10-year-old Miley Cyrus in her first film role.
Filmed back in the early 2000s, remarkably the buildings are still standing as though filming never stopped rolling.
Acting as a curving portal into Spectre, these trees were Edward Bloom’s gateway into the town. In the film, the Enchanted Forest is a dark place full of strange creatures, such as leaping spiders and stinging wasps. The woods served as a physical barrier between the rest of the world and supernatural Spectre. Now, only these two trees remain standing.
Remarkably, the enchanted wood was created by set designers amid the island’s natural cypress trees. The fake trees were made from a wire mesh skeleton, then sculpted in polystyrene foam and painted. Some even had motorized arms that could move, reaching out to snare unwary travelers. You can see the exposed foam on the base of the two trees in this picture.
The crumbling chimney on this home gives a small glimpse beneath the façade – the 'bricks' are actually a vinyl veneer over chipboard and polystyrene foam.
The screenplay for Big Fish screenplay was adapted from a novel of the same name written by Alabama resident Daniel Wallace. Apparently, Wallace drew inspiration from the Ancient Greek epic poem 'The Odyssey,' a tale of a father’s fantastical voyage home to his family via many a supernatural encounter.
Elsewhere in the town, the majestic arches of this colonial-style front porch are remarkable both in craft and longevity – film sets are notoriously flimsy, temporary structures but Spectre is over 20 years old. However, signs of wear are clear if you take a closer look: the thin wooden veranda floor has broken down, the front door is missing and paint is peeling away.
The dilapidation of Spectre’s houses certainly gives off an air of the supernatural. It's not hard to imagine a cast of giants, mermaids, werewolves and witches creeping out from behind this ramshackle building. As it happens, all of these monsters are featured in the film!
The town's grandest surviving building is the church, which stands at the end of the main street. But this mock ecclesiastical building is slowly being reclaimed by Mother Nature as the natural world encroaches on the structure. Some of the surrounding trees are even draped in billowing Spanish moss, adding to the otherworldly feel of the place.
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Despite being an impressive surviving structure, you can see signs of decay across the abandoned church. However, much of this was done during filming. Later in the movie, Spectre is depicted as a shadow of its former self – a depressed town far from the utopia it once was. To create the illusion, set designers distressed the wooden buildings by rubbing off paint with chemicals and loosening wooden boards.
The structure of this house is remarkably preserved with its pitched porch and sash window frames.
It reportedly took six months for the film crew to construct Spectre, with Jackson Lake Island chosen by Burton from a list of sites suggested by the Alabama Film Commission. After filming finished, the production company was set to dismantle the town as originally agreed. Luckily, the enterprising island owners had fallen under Spectre’s spell and wanted it to remain.
This shot offers a closer look at just how detailed the woodwork is on the faux old houses. Notice the beautifully turned porch balustrades, the decorative door archway and the glass panes still hanging in the wonderful French windows – it looks exactly like a grand old home that's seen better days. But you can certainly see why the landowners wanted to preserve the fictitious town.
But stepping inside the house is a reminder that most of the buildings are just ornate shells with no habitable interiors. It’s strange to see how flimsy the plywood boards look from the inside when the exterior appears so impressive. Clearly it's the magic of movies at work! Nevertheless, the intricate mesh of beams holding up the roof is an impressive sight.
But once the film crew moved out, the town began to deteriorate. When the island's owners tried to clear away debris, sparks from a fire set the town alight. The blaze destroyed the entire commercial district of Spectre, according to Abandoned Southeast. Today just six of the homes remain, along with the church. Here you can see one of the surviving houses. The sorry state of repair only adds to the Gothic feel.
Floodwater rolled over Spectre in 2016 with devastating effect. This is the former site of Jenny’s house from the movie, which was submerged in water. Deemed unsafe, the damaged structure was removed from the site. All that remains are the supports it was built on sticking out of the water, along with a few of the residence's once-grand columns.
As if fire and flooding weren't bad enough, Jackson Lake Island was hit by a tornado in May 2021. Almost 200 massive trees were knocked down causing extensive damage to structures and trailers on the island. But in a miraculous twist of fate, the town itself remained unscathed by the devastating winds and thankfully no one was hurt.
Sadly, the island felt the wrath of nature once more in July 2023, when a house in the town was struck by lightning. The structure caught fire and unfortunately burned to the ground. Luckily, the flames didn't spread to the surrounding buildings.
A big attraction on Jackson Lake Island is its free-roaming herd of goats that trot around the lush 60 acres (24ha). At night, the 55 goats usually bed down under the shelter of Spectre’s church.
But in another tragic turn of events, Bambi, a newborn goat, is believed to have been kidnapped in December 2020. The following month little Bluebell went missing. Bambi was recovered but sadly died as a result of being separated from her mother. The fate of Bluebell remains unknown. Let's hope Spectre's spate of bad luck has come to an end now!
Beyond the town of Spectre, this shot gives you an idea of the wider landscape of Jackson Lake Island – a teardrop-shaped oddity on a lake attached to the Alabama River. It didn’t even exist until the 1970s, when a dam was built downstream raising the river’s water level and creating the isle. It's privately owned and maintained by Lynn Bright, a retired Alabama judge, and her husband Bobby Bright, a former Montgomery mayor.
Film fans will be pleased to hear the island is open to visitors. You can explore this hidden gem, including the town of Spectre, for $5 per day, with camping facilities and fishing licenses available for an extra cost. It’s a nature reserve so you might be lucky enough to spot eagles or herons swooping over the lake. Plus with huge catfish and massive bass swimming under the surface, you might just end up catching that Big Fish!
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