The ‘Silence of the Lambs House’ Is For Sale, But No One Wants It

The house featured in the 1991 movie Silence of the Lambs is for sale, and the beautiful, century-old house with a pool and sun-drenched yard is languishing on the real estate market, with the sellers slashing the price to the bone in order to get rid of it, the New York Times is reporting.

In Silence of the Lambs, the sprawling, three-story home is the lair of murderer “Buffalo Bill,” at an unidentified location in Illinois, who does horrifying things to his victims that won’t be discussed in this post. The home is dark, cluttered, and the scene of more than one grisly crime. In real life, however, 8 Circle Street in Perry Township, Pennsylvania, is an historic 1910 house that has been beautifully restored with all the modern conveniences.

“Turn back to 1910, this grand home was built with walls 3 brick thick, with the popular wrap around porch, massive sized windows, high ceilings, pocket doors, built ins, and dual stair cases. An extraordinary home, in fine condition, with modern updates like central air, modern kitchen, and gas logs in the ‘winter parlor.'”

You can check out the listing on Realtor.com to see beautiful photos of the house, including an old railroad caboose that serves as a pool house.

The home was mostly used for exterior shots in the 1991 movie, although a few scenes in Silence of the Lambs were filmed inside the actual house, including the foyer where Jodie Foster’s character Clarice Starling first figured out that the occupant, Jame Gumb, was the infamous killer Buffalo Bill. The rest of the “interior” scenes were filmed on sound stages.

“[P]ure movie magic,” as real estate agent Dianne Wilk describes it in her listing.

One such memorable scene that takes place inside the house involves killer Buffalo Bill keeping a hostage inside a well in the basement in the house. Alas, no such well exists in the house’s actual basement, although according to CNET, there’s a well in the house’s yard, covered with a concrete slab, that may have served as the inspiration for the movie’s well (that scene was filmed on a sound stage as well).

Scott and Barbara Lloyd, the house’s owners, originally listed it in August 2015 for $300,000. It’s generated plenty of interest; it’s the second-most searched home on real estate website Realtor.com. But it hasn’t generated any serious buyers, and they’ve reduced the asking price to $249,900.

So why are the couple having such a hard time getting rid of the Silence of the Lambs House? That depends on whom you ask. It may be that the house’s association with a gruesome horror movie may have doomed it. Or it could be that the owners are simply asking too much money – the house is located squarely in the middle of nowhere, in a small town about an hour outside of Pittsburgh. There’s also the fact that the real estate market in Pennsylvania isn’t exactly thriving these days; the median home price for a house in Pennsylvania is $149,000. The Silence of the Lambs house was originally listed at twice that.

In fact, living in, or attempting to sell, a house that’s closely associated with a movie can be a mixed bag. The famed Amityville Horror house in Long Island, for example, has seen a steady stream of vandals, would-be photographers, and curiosity-seekers ever since the movie came out in the 1970s. Other homeowners have found that having their house featured in a popular movie can be a blessing. The Minneapolis house featured in Prince’s Purple Rain sold just over a month after being listed for more than its original asking price.

Would you be turned off from living in the Silence of the Lambs house? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

[Photo by Keith Srakocic/AP]