Keansburg Amusement Park

Keansburg Amusement Park is a historic seaside amusement park at 275 Beachway Avenue in Keansburg, New Jersey, overlooking Raritan Bay. Its origins date to 1904, when William Gehlhaus and five investors purchased waterfront marshland to develop a summer resort. The development gradually expanded to include a boardwalk, hotels, restaurants and amusement rides, while a steamboat service established in 1910 brought visitors across the bay from New York City. The original wooden boardwalk was replaced following a hurricane in 1944, and the park subsequently underwent several changes of ownership before returning to the Gehlhaus family in 1995. The neighbouring Runaway Rapids Waterpark opened in 1996. Keansburg retains several vintage children’s rides dating from the 1920s and 1930s, alongside roller coasters, carnival games and other attractions. The amusement park suffered extensive damage during Hurricane Sandy in October 2012, but reopened in 2013 following a substantial rebuilding programme.

Keansburg Amusement Park has appeared in The Kill-Off (1989), Down the Shore (2011), Girl Most Likely (2012), Emergence (2019–2020), Wu-Tang: An American Saga (2019–2023), Which Brings Me to You (2024), I Saw the TV Glow (2024), Song Sung Blue (2025) and Crystal Lake (2026–). The park has been used both as a recognisable Jersey Shore location and as a substitute for other amusement parks and fairgrounds, with productions taking advantage of its surviving vintage rides, concession stands and waterfront setting.

In The Kill-Off (1989), directed by Maggie Greenwald and adapted from Jim Thompson’s novel, Keansburg Amusement Park appears in the background of exterior scenes depicting a declining New Jersey seaside town during the winter. The film follows a group of troubled residents whose lives become entangled in rumours, betrayals and violence. The former Casino Theatre, which had been converted into the Midway Arcade, can be seen early in the film, while the surrounding amusement district provides the setting for several exterior sequences. The story also involves an arcade where Ralph Devore (Steve Monroe) works during the off-season. Filming took place in January 1989, when the closed attractions and largely deserted waterfront helped establish the town’s bleak winter appearance. Although the film features a fictional establishment called the Pavilion Bar, those interiors were created elsewhere rather than inside the amusement park’s actual Pavilion Bar.

In Down the Shore (2011), starring James Gandolfini and Famke Janssen, Keansburg Amusement Park represents the struggling seaside attraction operated by Bailey Euler (Gandolfini). Bailey maintains the park during the winter months, when its rides are closed and the surrounding resort is largely deserted. His life changes when Jacques Sardi (Edoardo Costa), a Frenchman claiming to have married Bailey’s recently deceased sister, arrives in town. Jacques subsequently becomes involved in running the amusement park, while longstanding tensions involving Bailey, his childhood friend Wiley (Joe Pope) and Wiley’s wife Mary (Janssen) come to the surface. The film makes extensive use of the park’s real grounds, ageing children’s rides and empty pathways, incorporating the off-season appearance of Keansburg into its fictional story. Originally filmed under the working title Kiddie Ride in 2008, the production captures the amusement park several years before Hurricane Sandy caused extensive damage to the property.

In Girl Most Likely (2012), starring Kristen Wiig, Keansburg Amusement Park appears in scenes depicting life along the Jersey Shore. Wiig plays Imogene Duncan, an unsuccessful New York playwright who returns to her mother’s home in New Jersey following a personal crisis. The film uses the park’s pedestrian walkways, carnival attractions and concession stands for its seaside setting, including a sequence around the middle of the film in which the Stadium Bar signage is visible in the background. Other recognisable features include the Crabville food stand and neighbouring children’s rides. The production filmed at several locations throughout the amusement property during the summer of 2011, including its food stands and a building adjacent to the waterpark.

In Emergence (2019–2020), Keansburg Amusement Park appears in the seventh episode of the first season, “Fatal Exception”, originally broadcast on 19 November 2019. The opening sequence takes place inside the artificial dream world experienced by Piper (Alexa Swinton), a young girl whose origins are central to the series. Emily (Maria Dizzia) attempts to manipulate Piper into accepting her as her real mother, transforming their surroundings into an amusement park and producing cotton candy for the child. The scene shows the two walking through the park, with its roller coaster and other attractions visible behind them. Piper refuses Emily’s attempts to win her affection and insists that she will remember their encounter when she wakes up. The apparent visit to the amusement park is subsequently revealed to be part of Emily’s technological manipulation of Piper’s memories rather than an event occurring in the physical world.

In Wu-Tang: An American Saga (2019–2023), the amusement park appears in the eighth episode of the third season, “Liquid Swords”, released on 22 March 2023. The episode departs from the series’ conventional biographical storytelling to present a fantasy inspired by GZA’s 1995 solo album of the same name. GZA becomes a character known as the Genius, travelling through an alternative version of New York City divided into competing territories where music and culture have been suppressed. Keansburg’s amusement park is incorporated into this fictional landscape, with costumed characters moving along its paved walkways past closed attractions and the structures of its rides. The location appears as part of a stylised urban environment rather than an operating seaside resort.

In Which Brings Me to You (2024), directed by Peter Hutchings, Keansburg Amusement Park appears during the developing relationship between photographer Will (Nat Wolff) and journalist Jane (Lucy Hale). After meeting at a wedding, the two begin sharing stories about their previous romantic experiences while spending time together. The film includes scenes of the couple walking beside the amusement park, with its fenced attractions and large Egyptian-themed swinging ride visible behind them. The production also used the nearby Keansburg fishing pier for a waterfront sequence. Although the film’s characters travel through locations presented as part of their romantic journey, these scenes were photographed along the New Jersey coast in October 2022.

In I Saw the TV Glow (2024), written and directed by Jane Schoenbrun, Keansburg Amusement Park appears during a childhood sequence involving Owen (Ian Foreman) and his mother Brenda (Danielle Deadwyler). The two walk through the largely deserted amusement park, passing carnival games and closed attractions as Brenda attempts to connect with her withdrawn son. The film shows the park’s midway at dusk, including its illuminated game stalls, with Owen carrying blue cotton candy. One close-up shows him spitting into the candy and watching it dissolve, a small but unsettling moment within the film’s increasingly distorted presentation of reality. The park represents an ordinary childhood location within Owen’s suburban world, contrasting with the supernatural television series, The Pink Opaque, that increasingly dominates his thoughts. The film also used The Funplex in East Hanover, New Jersey, for the family entertainment centre where the adult Owen works, rather than Keansburg Amusement Park.

In Song Sung Blue (2025), directed by Craig Brewer and starring Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson, Keansburg Amusement Park stands in for the Wisconsin State Fair during the late 1980s. The film tells the story of Milwaukee musicians Mike Sardina (Jackman) and Claire Stengl (Hudson), who eventually establish the Neil Diamond tribute act Lightning & Thunder. Early in the film, Mike arrives at the fairgrounds for a performance as a Don Ho impersonator but refuses to take the stage under that identity. Claire, who performs songs associated with Patsy Cline, is also working at the fair. Keansburg’s amusement rides, walkways and carnival structures are visible during these sequences, with the production transforming the New Jersey waterfront attraction into a Midwestern fairground. The scenes form part of the film’s introduction to the musicians’ professional lives before they begin performing together.

In Crystal Lake (2026–), the Friday the 13th prequel series starring Linda Cardellini as Pamela Voorhees, Keansburg Amusement Park appears in the sixth episode, “Kill Them, Mommy”. Brianna Brooks (Devin Kessler), a journalist investigating the mysterious Bellflower Chemical Corporation and its experimental Project Argonaut, arrives at an amusement park expecting to meet a confidential source. Instead, she encounters a mysterious man (Hamish Linklater) who claims to have been involved in the project. As they walk through the fairground, with amusement rides and signs visible around them, he describes the secret experiments and begins making increasingly threatening remarks. He also reveals that he is searching for Pamela Voorhees, whose involvement in the experiments is central to the series’ mystery. The location represents an amusement park in the fictional world of Crystal Lake, while the real Keansburg attractions and pathways are recognisable throughout the encounter. The man’s identity is explored further in the following episode, when he is revealed to be Elias Wittering, Jason Voorhees’ biological father.

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