13 Iconic Horror Movie Homes
As any horror fan knows, the house matters. More than just a backdrop, it becomes a character in its own right. Here are some of the real-life houses that shaped the landscape, literally and figuratively, of our favorite flicks of the Halloween season.
Halloween
1000 MISSION STREET · SOUTH PASADENA, CA
Michael Myers’s simple two-story house was abandoned when producers found it. Years later, when the house was in danger of being bulldozed, a local doctor had it picked up and moved across the street. It has found new life as a fully renovated chiropractic office—and it looks exactly the same on the outside. It’s even preserved as a California Historical Landmark!
Nightmare on Elm Street
1428 NORTH GENESEE AVENUE · LOS ANGELES, CA
The movie was set in the imaginary town of Springwood, Ohio, but the beautiful 3-bedroom Dutch Colonial that anchored the movie sits just off Sunset Boulevard a few blocks east of the legendary Chateau Marmont. Fittingly, it went up for sale a week before Halloween in 2021 (and sold 90 days later for $2,980,000).
Rose Red
8601 NORTH THORNE LANE SOUTHWEST · LAKEWOOD, WA
The people-eating mansion from Stephen King’s thriller was brought to life on the big screen in the form of this Thornewood, a Gothic Tudor castle. Unlike Rose Red, the story of the real home has a happy ending. Originally built in England at the beginning of the 16th century, the home was bought by Chester Thorne for his wife Anna. It was then deconstructed, shipped in pieces by boat around Cape Horn, and rebuilt in Lakewood, Washington.
Beetlejuice
EAST CORINTH, VT
Sadly, the quaint, quirky, turn-of-the-century Maitland/Deetz home was just a façade built for the film. That great old house on a hill was never real, and the whole fake structure thing was later torn down. Boooo. All the interior scenes were shot on set in California. The modern touches added to the home by the Deetzes are pretty darn cool though, especially the avant-garde porch and black-and-white striped brick skirting.
Hocus Pocus
318 ESSEX STREET · SALEM, MA
Max and Dani trick-r-treat at this stark white Colonial, built in 1727 by Samuel Bernard and later lived in by wealthy but unpopular judge Nathanial Ropes, who died of smallpox in the home at age 47. Ropes Mansion is said to be haunted by Ropes’s daughter Abigail, who, in 1839, caught fire in the house and died. The house caught fire again in 1891, and again in 2009—both fires are attributed to Abigail.
Rosemary's Baby
1 WEST 72ND STREET · NEW YORK, NY
Known as The Bramford in the film, the iconic Dakota on New York's Upper West Side was Guy and Rosemary’s new apartment. When it was completed in 1884, the Dakota was one of the only buildings on the block and boasted 65 luxury apartments, with no two alike. Through the years, the building has played host and home to many celebrities including Leonard Bernstein, Lauren Bacall and John Lennon, who was shot and killed at the front entrance.
House of the Seven Gables
115 DERBY STREET · SALEM, MA
Built in 1668, this Jacobean/Post-Medieval home is one of the oldest wooden houses in North America. It’s seen a lot. Also known as the Turner-Ingersoll Mansion, it served as the inspiration for Nathanial Hawthorne’s 1851 novel and the 1940 Vincent Price thriller by the same name. It’s said to haunted by the ghosts of a playful young boy and Hawthorne’s cousin, Susan Ingersoll. The home is open tours so go introduce yourself!
Misery
SOMEWHERE ON CLEAR CREEK · NEAR CARSON CITY, NV
This is the home of Annie Wilkes, the mentally ill character in the only Stephen King movie ever to win an Oscar. Kathy Bates was all but unknown before the movie, and 10 leading men turned down the role before James Caan made it his own. King later revealed that Sheldon was him, Wilkes was a metaphor for drugs, and the movie was about the hold drugs had on him in the 70s. His family eventually staged an intervention and King has now been sober for over 30 years.
The Shining
333 EAST WONDERVIEW AVENUE · ESTES PARK, CO
The Shining’s Overlook Hotel is actually a 140-room Colonial Revival hotel in Estes Park. Built in 1909, the venerable Stanley Hotel is just four miles from the entrance to Rocky Mountains National Park. It was built by Freelan Oscar Stanley as a resort for upper-class Easterners and retreat for those afflicted by tuberculosis. Room 217 is where author Stephen King spent a wintry night with his wife in 1974 and had a horrible nightmare that his son was being chased down the hall by a possessed fire hose. The rest is history.
The Amityville Horror
112 OCEAN AVENUE · LONG ISLAND, NY
In 1974, Ronald DeFeo, Jr. killed his parents and four siblings in this 5-bedroom Dutch Colonial. Thirteen months later, George and Kathy Lutz bought the 3-story waterfront home at the bargain price of $80,000. Twenty-eight days later, the Lutzes and their three children fled the house, leaving all their possessions behind. They never gave a full account of the events that took place on their last night, saying it was too scary to relive. There have been several owners since, but none of them ever ran screaming from the house…
Zombieland
490 WEST PACES FERRY ROAD NORTHWEST · ATLANTA, GA
Many people wondered if this sprawling Buckhead mansion were Bill Murray’s real home. It wasn’t. At the time of filming, it belonged to real estate developer Lee Najjar, ex-boyfriend of Real Housewife Kim Zolciak. Built in 2007, the 33,000 sq ft Buckhead mansion has Moroccan hardwoods, limestone flooring, a banquet-sized dining room and 18 bathrooms. It’s bounced on and off the market since 2010, at prices ranging from $22.5M to the current asking price of $10M.
Poltergeist
4267 ROXBURY STREET · SIMI VALLEY, CA
This Tudor Revival was exactly what Steven Spielberg had in mind when scouting houses for his thriller. Who would ever suspect that this unassuming suburban home was harboring a secret beneath its foundation? The fictional Cuesta Verde development company built this neighborhood over an old cemetery but relocated only the headstones, not the bodies. Since this movie, everybody who has ever had something weird happen at their house has joked about it being built atop an old burial ground.
Rocky Horror Picture Show
WINDSOR ROAD SL4 5UR · WATER OAKLEY, UK
Oakley Court castle, which you may recognize from midnight screenings of Rocky Horror, is now a luxe hotel less than an hour from Heathrow Airport. This glorious Victorian mansion, built in 1859, is set on a sprawling 35 acres of English countryside on the banks of the River Thames. Fans of the movie will recognize the gargoyles by the front entrance, which are actually plaster props left behind from the 1975 movie. Let’s do the time warp again!
