Spend Halloween at Matthew Lillard’s ‘Scream’ House for a Hair-Raisingly Low $5

Said to be located at 261 Turner Ln. in the fictional town of Woodsboro, Stu’s house can actually be found about 60 miles north of San Francisco at 3871 Tomales Petaluma Rd. in the sleepy coastal hamlet of Tomales. (Please remember this is a private home. Do not trespass or bother the residents or the property in any way.)

Situated at the end of an extremely long, winding driveway, the dwelling was originally built in 1990 by general contractor Earl J. Coates for Jack and Carolyn MacPhail. Sadly, the couple didn’t live on the premises long. Per their obituaries, the MacPhails both passed away in the home at the age of 59 in 1991 – John from a “brief illness” on March 6th and Carolyn “after being in ill health for several years” on November 12. The “Scream” shoot took place just a few years later and the deaths were made known to the cast and crew. In an on-set interview, Lillard stated, “Actually, two people have died in this house.  Literally – two people have died in the house. So coming up the hill and you’re doing a Wes Craven film and somebody tells you, ‘Oh, by the way, two people have died in the house,’ it brings on an entirely new thing.” 

Easily one of the most famous  and best-loved scary movie locations of all time, “Scream’s” entire final sequence – 42 minutes of pure, unadulterated, blood-soaked adrenaline – takes place at the Victorian. Known as Scene #118, the epically gory segment took a whopping 21 nights to shoot and made use of pretty much every square inch of the sprawling three-story property.

Of choosing the residence for the shoot, Craven told writer Lawrence French in a 1996 interview for Cinefantastique magazine, “We wanted Stu’s home to have elements of a dark and haunted Gothic house and it needed to be very isolated. We looked a long time for someplace that had all of those elements. The house we found was actually brand new. It had not quite been completed when both of the owners died, and the family of younger kids didn’t quite know what to do with it. When we found it and offered to use it, they were very happy to let us.”

A deserted Victorian situated atop a dark, lonely road? The place was practically tailor-made for a horror movie shoot!

The pad’s massive size was also a requirement. Production designer Bruce Miller explained to French, “It just doesn’t make sense that in a normal American home, murders could be happening in the upstairs bedrooms, and people watching television downstairs wouldn’t know about it. So the house had to be big enough, and the rooms had to be separated by enough distance, to convince the audience that these things could really be happening, without the other people knowing about it. This particular house was perfect for that because it was very convoluted, and kind of Victorian on the inside. It was actually a little scary to some extent, and then we added big paintings and a chandelier. Because the house was so Victorian on the inside, we didn’t want to fight that, but we didn’t want to over-stress it either. We even put a volleyball net in the front yard, because it had to be believable that a normal teenager lives there with his parents, who just happened to be away for the weekend.”

Along with adding artwork and a chandelier, Miller altered several other elements of the interior. Craven told Cinefantastique, “The art department went in there and did an enormous number on the house. We put in all sorts of beams, and stained-glass windows, darkened all the colors, and brought in all the set dressings. It was done in a sort of farmhouse style, and we changed it into a Gothic farmhouse.” Though the pad no longer boasts the more shadowy paint colors seen in “Scream,” it is still extremely recognizable from the movie.

As Airbnb notes, “The home is largely preserved from the original film’s production 25 years ago, down to the knife marks on the bedroom door, the 90s microwave in the kitchen, and more.” The pictures included in the listing (most of which cheekily feature Ghostface) certainly attest to that fact! The kitchen, especially, looks untouched from its 1996 cameo, right down to the tile counters, pendant lighting and lace curtains.

Lucky guests who secure a reservation will have access to the entire four-bedroom, four-bath, 5,500-square-foot property. Along with the kitchen, living spaces include rear and front foyers, a finished attic, a living room, a grand staircase, a formal dining room and a library. Though the latter (pictured above) did not make it onto the screen in “Scream,” it sure looks to be straight out of a scary movie! I can almost see Professor Plum and Mrs. Peacock gathering there for a brandy!

The home also boasts three fireplaces, fir wood detailing throughout, two wood stoves and three clawfoot bathtubs (a perfect spot for crime scene cleanup, perhaps?).

Supremely remote, the dwelling is surrounded by a whopping 298 acres of land. The grounds include two barns, two guest cottages, a span of eucalyptus groves, creek frontage and, of course, a three-car garage, the cat door of which should be avoided at all costs!

A couple of non-spooky productions have been shot on the premises, as well. In the 2016 drama “The Dog Lover,” the Victorian appears briefly in interior shots of the home where Sara Gold (Allison Paige) lives with her parents.

And it portrays the Double Diamond horse ranch at the center of the 2017 movie “Running Wild.”

Along with hosting filmings, the residence, which last sold in 2014 for $2,820,000, also operates as a wedding and special events venue known as Spring Hill Estate. Despite being remote, isolated, situated atop a lonely bluff and the site of one of filmdom’s most famous horror movie sequences, the property makes for a stunning locale for nuptials, as evidenced by images on the official website. 

Those who miss out on booking the “Scream” house this Halloween but are hoping for a similarly scary vacay can check out Airbnb’s array of other “spirited” listings.