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'The Handmaid's Tale' Is Filmed In These Actual, Real Life Creepy Places

by Aoife Hanna
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The Handmaid's Tale/Hulu

Blessed be the fruit babes. Yes, you heard me. I added a babes on there to make it a little bit more light because let's be real, The Handmaid's Tale is about as effed up as television gets. How many times did you swear the first time you saw it? And how many times have you sworn since? They would totally not be down for that in the Gilead because yikes, those guys are intense. Despite all the negative parts of the show, the locations are verdant AF. So where is The Handmaid's Tale filmed? Because minus the whole Handmaid's Tale situation, it looks lush — if a little rainy.

Well guys, according to iNews it is all shot in Canada. Mainly in and around Toronto. The show is set in a dystopian future where North America has been taken over by a totalitarian Christian regime. And seemingly, the production team were tasked with making the show look as though it is shot in Massachusetts. So they used some central Toronto locations for the large institutions. For example the Red Centre, which is where the handmaids are trained for their horrific calling. This was filmed in the church of St Aidan.

The beautiful houses of the commanders are all filmed in Hamilton, which is a small town outside of Toronto. As for the radioactive waste colonies that rebellious women are sent to, well according to iNews, the location used was a quarry in Uxbridge. The harrowing scenes are shot only 50 miles from Toronto. Meaning this show is definitely good for business in Toronto — I guess as long as you can separate the ideals in the show from the city itself.

The Gilead are complete d-bags who have (to put it mildly) ruined the world with their rules and oppression of women. The image of women in red with white bonnets has become a symbol of the current state of affairs in the U.S. When appearing on Reliable Sources on CNN, producer for the show Warren Littlefield spoke about how this season the symbol seems more relevant than ever.

"We're on a very, very slippery slope toward Gilead. We're a heck of a lot closer than we were in season one, which is terrible".

Appearing alongside him on the show was Anne Dowd, who plays the menacing Aunt Lydia, who is in charge of training and punishing the handmaids. She spoke on Reliable Sources about how the show began shooting during a very divisive time in U.S. history and that things appear to have gotten worse and worse.

"It was scary in season one, and it got more and more serious as we were shooting the pilot that 'this is happening'. When I saw what was going on in Georgia, I thought, 'This can't be real'. It stunned me".
The Handmaid's Tale/Hulu

The third season has been coming a long time, with fans desperate to see what has happened to June/Offred, Elizabeth Moss' character, and hoping that the evil Gilead will be defeated.

Watch The Handmaid's Tale On Wednesdays on Channel 4 and All4

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