Lotion not included.
However, “Silence of the Lambs” fans will soon be able to stay at the dimly lit, wallpapered house where Buffalo Bill skinned his victims in the 1991 hit movie starring Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins and Ted Levine.
New York theatrical art director Chris Rowan purchased the home for $290,000 on January 28 and plans to convert it into a quaint bed and breakfast, TMZ reported. The investment comes as the movie turns 30 and a “Silence” spinoff, CBS’s series “Clarice,” is embraced by some fans and chewed out by others.
Rowan won’t have to do much to restore the four-bedroom, one-bathroom house to its horror glory — the home outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, already has many of its original features, including its old-fashioned wallpaper, hardwood floors, pocket doors and dark wood trim. And the exterior of the three-story house is the same yellowish-red brick with a wraparound porch as seen in the movie.
Rowan will probably need to update the kitchen, which doesn’t appear to be industrial enough to support guests as-is, and he might need to add a few more bathrooms, since the house only has one, according to the listing.
What about the torture well in the basement?
But the most important renovation will be the infamous well in the basement where Hollywood’s original psychopathic B&B, played by Levine, traps his victims.
Filmmakers shot the basement well scenes off-site — the house doesn’t actually have a creepy hole in the ground — but the new owner reportedly plans to add one to give guests the full Buffalo Bill experience.
However, the original basement, specifically the cold cellar, was featured in the movie, according to a video by the listing brokers, Eileen Allan and Shannon Assad of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices.
“It actually is kind of creepy in here,” said the brokers in the video. The narrow cold cellar is made of brick and wood paneling and has a window and exposed pipes. The rest of the real-life basement is unfinished, with a naked staircase, concrete floors and visible wires.
The house is only yards from the train tracks in the opening shot of the Buffalo Bill scene. And while the 1.76-acre yard doesn’t have the same RV shown in the movie, it has a vintage Chessie train caboose, which Rowan could easily convert into a recreational vehicle.
The 2,334-square-foot Queen Anne Victorian-style house has some other features that aren’t featured in the film, such as a stained-glass window in the bathroom and three fireplaces dating back to 1910, when the house was built. And the previous owners added a gazebo, a rose garden, a fountain and a ceramic-tile deck to the house.
How did it end up in the movie?
The house was listed for $298,500 in September after the previous owner purchased it for $195,000 in 2016 from its longtime owners, the Lloyds, who agreed to let “The Silence of the Lambs” producers shoot in the house. The scenes were shot over the course of three days.
“They [movie location scouts] were looking for a home in which you entered the front door and had a straight line through . . . They wanted it to look like a spider web, with Buffalo Bill drawing Jodie Foster into the foyer, into the kitchen, then into the basement,” Barbara Lloyd told the Daily Mail in 2015, the last time the home was on the market.
The listing brokers, Allan and Assad of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.
