JC-area’s deeper screen cuts: No Reagan, Miss Marvel or Futurama’s “There’s no bus to Jersey City!”

This image by G.C. shows 8 clowns. That’s not quiet the number in an underknown film title that features at least one reference to Chilltown, aka Jersey City.

Yes, one of the key instigators of “trickle down” economics played a soldier from Jersey City in the 1942 World War II film “Desperate Journey,” but many people in Jersey City and around the country could be better off without that system thick in the air now, so what else do we have that takes place in or references the city?

“Miss Marvel” takes place in a version/area of Jersey City post-gentrification, around a fictionalized version of a local high school where students leave with the most options among (magnet) public schools in the city; the “Futurama” bus reference always feels on point to locals, but it makes three JC references newer locals probably hear about most often.

From chilltownblues.com, here are some that you don’t and why they’re worth checking out.

(There’s a few other references to cities around JC in Hudson County, N.J. here – mostly Hoboken, which wasn’t always the city of so many college sweatshirts and fancy drink specials.)

EVIL (2019-2024)

A show held in high enough regard by its fanbase to last four under-seen seasons, “Evil” follows three assessors, played by Mike Colter, Katja Herbers and Aasif Mandvi, as they investigate the validity of so called “paranormal activity” for the Catholic church in New York City. As the title suggests, it explores the nature of evil, and morality, as seen through religious, spiritual or more science-minded lenses.

Episode five of the first season, “October 31,” takes a detour to “one of the most haunted strip clubs” in Jersey City.

In a multifaceted show with many highs – dramatic, scary and funny – this sideplot pokes fun at “ghost seeker”-like shows, with Mandvi’s science-driven character, Ben, speaking to the obvious and, per the show’s universe, the not so obvious.

If the show lasted five seasons, who knows what other fictional haunted places in JC it might have gotten to? Haunted luxury apartments housed in a former hospital?