A 1912 amusement park and a 1927 picture palace face the beach, where Hercules Returns and Dead Silence both used the same theatre.
What St Kilda looks like
The Lower Esplanade curves along the beach past 's gate and the 's domed towers, with the and high rise apartment blocks along Jacka Boulevard behind them. Trams run along Fitzroy and s into the shopping strips behind the foreshore.
Luna Park's entrance is a giant sculpted face with a gaping mouth for a doorway, its spires striped yellow and orange above the rides behind. The Palais Theatre next door has a wide yellow rendered facade under twin domed towers, with PALAIS THEATRE spelled out across the top in tall lettering.
The stands at the Fitzroy Street corner, a two storey Italianate building in cream render with iron balconies over the footpath. Acland Street runs inland from the beach, its cake shop windows fronted by striped awnings and outdoor tables under a line of palms.
extends into the bay past a breakwater, with a kiosk near its landward end and a small lighthouse at the tip. , at the foot of Fitzroy Street, is planted with rows of palms and lawns running down toward the sand.
Behind the beachfront strip, Victorian terraces and interwar mansion flats line the side streets, their iron lace verandahs and rendered parapets mostly unaltered. Taller apartment towers from the 1960s and 1970s rise between them closer to the water.
Shot in St Kilda
The Palais Theatre has stood in front of two very different productions. It appears as itself in the Australian comedy Hercules Returns and, with its towers digitally altered, as a haunted cinema in the horror film Dead Silence. Down at the Esplanade Hotel, the Gershwin Room has taped the SBS quiz show RocKwiz since 2005.
Hercules Returns, 1993
The Palais Theatre
The 1993 Australian comedy Hercules Returns used the Palais as the fictional Picture Palace cinema at the centre of its plot, which the film sets in St Kilda. The theatre's own art deco facade and towers carry the scene, not a rebuilt set. Street View
Dead Silence, 2007
Played the Theatre at Lost Lake, present day
A digital effects pass altered the same towers to stand in for the abandoned Theatre at Lost Lake in the horror film Dead Silence. Only the top of the building appears, composited into a wider shot rather than filmed as a full set. Street View
The Secret Life of Us, 2001
The Network Ten series The Secret Life of Us used the apartment block at 14A Acland Street as its characters' building, with rooftop scenes shot at the Belvedere Flats nearby on the Esplanade. The building sits toward the beach end of the street, a short walk from the cake shops further along. Street View
Kenny, 2006
The foreshore
The mockumentary comedy Kenny follows a portable toilet contractor working the St Kilda Festival on the foreshore. The film shows the crowds and stalls along the beach reserve rather than one building. Street View
What St Kilda can double for
Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York
Coney Island's own boardwalk amusement park shares the same beachfront layout as St Kilda's foreshore, with rides opening straight onto the sand behind a run of entertainment buildings. Both amusement parks took the Luna Park name from the same early twentieth century format. Coney Island's boardwalk is wooden and runs parallel to the beach rather than St Kilda's promenade road, so a shot that includes the ground surface gives it away. Try searching boardwalk amusement park now.
Golden Mile in Blackpool, Lancashire
The Golden Mile's seafront theatres and amusement piers sit directly behind the promenade the same way St Kilda's Palais and Luna Park front onto the Esplanade. Blackpool's own picture palaces from the same interwar boom give the strip a similar scale of theatre architecture. Blackpool's tramway runs along the seafront itself rather than one block back, so a wide shot needs care to keep contemporary trams and the tower out of frame. Try searching seafront picture palaces now.
Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk in Santa Cruz, California
Santa Cruz's Beach Boardwalk keeps a wooden amusement park and the historic Cocoanut Grove ballroom right at the sand, the same arrangement as St Kilda's Luna Park beside the Palais. Both sets of buildings date from the early 1900s to the 1930s. The Boardwalk's rides are mostly wood framed rather than St Kilda's steel and fibreglass, so close shots of ride structure need to stay wide enough to avoid the difference. Try searching wooden boardwalk amusement park now.
