Healdsburg Town Plaza from “Scream”

Healdsburg Town Plaza from Scream (1 of 1)

I was saddened to wake up to the news of yet another fire tearing through Sonoma County last Thursday morning, this one threatening Healdsburg, one of my favorite places in the entire world.  Not only is the city idyllic, pastoral and ridiculously charming, but it is a filming location to boot, the main square having stood in for downtown Woodsboro in Scream.  Healdsburg Town Plaza was, in fact, the site of one of my very first stalking adventures back in late 1997.  I have visited it often in the years since, most notably during my epic October 2016 Scream stalking trek in which I hit up every.single.location. featured in the 1996 flick, down to the warehouse where the production’s few sets were built to the hotel where the cast and crew stayed during the 55-day shoot (the latter was, sadly, lost to the Tubbs Fire in October 2017).  Though Healdsburg remains safe from the Kincade Fire for the time being, the city was evacuated and per a Los Angeles Times article is currently a “ghost town,” a situation eerily reminiscent of Scream’s curfew scene which rendered downtown Woodsboro deserted.  I pray that the blaze is controlled soon and my thoughts go out to everyone affected, including my aunt and uncle who were recently evacuated from their home in the area.  For now, I thought a post on Healdsburg Town Plaza was in order.

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The city of Healdsburg was originally envisioned by businessman Harmon Heald.  After failing to strike it rich mining gold, the native Ohioan built a small home in 1851 on what was then a portion of the Rancho Sotoyome land grant.  Figuring the site was perfectly situated between San Francisco and the mining areas north of it and would, therefore, be passed through often, he constructed a general store with a post office soon after.  A community surrounding the shop quickly developed and in 1857 Harmon commissioned a surveyor to layout a design for a town square and surrounding streets and, thus, Healdsburg and its central plaza were born.  The city was incorporated ten years later.

Healdsburg Town Plaza from Scream (2 of 20)

Healdsburg Town Plaza from Scream (1 of 20)

Today, the bucolic one-acre Town Plaza boasts a gazebo, a central fountain, pathways, Canary Island date palms, and redwood trees, all surrounded by a sprinkling of charming shops, cafés, and restaurants.  It is small town U.S.A. at its finest!

Healdsburg Town Plaza from Scream (4 of 20)

Healdsburg Town Plaza from Scream (12 of 20)

The fountain at its center, known as Sandborn Memorial Fountain, was donated by Elmer Sandborn in remembrance of his family in 1961.  In the square’s early days, though, a bandstand stood as its focal point.  The structure not only drew musical acts, but audiences with alcohol in hand, to the consternation of many locals.  The Ladies’ Improvement Club got to work on curtailing the drinking and eventually won permission to raze the bandstand in the early 1900s, with a 13-foot marble fountain installed in its place.  The revelers couldn’t be curtailed, though – according to The Healdsburg Tribune, a new bandstand was simply built next to the fountain the following day!  Healdsburg Town Plaza also saw raucous times in the 1970s, when the Hells Angels made it their regular hangout.  Today, the park is, thankfully, much more low-key.

Healdsburg Town Plaza from Scream (13 of 20)

Healdsburg Town Plaza from Scream (15 of 20)

On any given afternoon, you’ll find families picnicking, couples strolling, and visitors relaxing on the many benches that dot the site.

Healdsburg Town Plaza from Scream (14 of 20)

Healdsburg Town Plaza from Scream (3 of 20)

The space is so idyllic that Travel and Leisure deemed it one of “America’s Most Beautiful Town Squares” in 2013.

Healdsburg Town Plaza from Scream (2 of 12)

The surrounding town isn’t too shabby, either!

Healdsburg Town Plaza from Scream (4 of 12)

Healdsburg Town Plaza from Scream (7 of 12)

The last time I visited, in early December 2018, the city was really flaunting its fall colors.

Healdsburg Town Plaza from Scream (6 of 12)

We just don’t get this kind of Autumn vibrancy in Palm Springs.

Healdsburg Town Plaza from Scream (8 of 12)

Show off!

Healdsburg Town Plaza from Scream (5 of 12)

Healdsburg Town Plaza pops up a couple of times in Scream, most notably as the spot where Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) and her friends eat lunch in an early scene.  In the segment, during which Stuart Macher (Matthew Lillard) utters his famous “Liver alone!” line, the group is sitting on Sandborn Memorial Fountain’s north side with their backs to Matheson Street.

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Healdsburg Town Plaza from Scream (10 of 20)

Sadly, the fountain has been renovated a bit in the years since filming took place, with its rock siding removed and built-in planters added to its corners.

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Healdsburg Town Plaza from Scream (7 of 20)

Even sadder, the park’s quaint white wooden gazebo, visible in the scene, has since been completely replaced.  According to a Press Democrat article, the original structure was a “casualty of dry rot and changing taste.”  This photo of its demolition, which took place on March 14th, 2007, absolutely breaks my heart.

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Healdsburg Town Plaza from Scream (6 of 20)

The gazebo is also where Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox), wearing her infamous neon green suit, reports on the murders plaguing Woodsboro in a news clip that Sidney catches on TV in a later scene.

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Fortunately, the original gazebo and fountain were both still in place during my early stalks of the square.

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Healdsburg Town Plaza is also seen in an establishing segment in which the sun rises on Woodsboro the morning after Sidney is attacked.  That bit was filmed on the corner of Center and Plaza Streets.

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Healdsburg Town Plaza from Scream (16 of 20)

Per the sheriff I spoke with during my first Healdsburg stalk, the shot was actually lensed early evening as the sun was setting.  Apparently, Wes Craven intended to capture it the morning of the last day of the Healdsburg portion of the shoot, but ran out of time, so he instead grabbed it later that day at dusk, knowing that audiences would be none the wiser.

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Healdsburg Town Plaza from Scream (17 of 20)

Finally, the plaza serves as a backdrop for the scene in which Woodsboro townspeople lock up and head home before the newly-imposed curfew.  Several shops lining the square are featured in the segment including 104 Matheson Street;

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312 Center Street, which was the site of Healdsburg Coffee Company at the time of the filming, but today houses The Nectary juice bar;

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and the grassy section of the park directly across from 105 Plaza Street . . .

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. . . and 111 Plaza Street.

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Thanks to the Dear Old Hollywood blog, I learned that Healdsburg Town Plaza also appears a few times as Hartfield, Iowa in the 1943 drama Happy Land.

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For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Healdsburg Town Plaza from Scream (3 of 12)

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Healdsburg Town Plaza, aka downtown Woodsboro from Scream, is located at the intersection of Healdsburg Avenue & Matheson Street in Healdsburg.

Stu’s House from "Scream"

Stu's House from Scream (1 of 1)

At the risk of my October postings turning into a full-fledged Scream-fest (and there ain’t nothing wrong with that, honestly!), I’m coming at ya again with another locale from the 1996 horror flick – the Tomales-area farmhouse where Stuart Macher (Matthew Lillard) lived.  Situated up a long, winding driveway and barely visible from the road, the pad is typically off-limits to passersby.  But I had the amazing good fortune of seeing it up-close-and-personal during my 2016 visit to Sonoma County.  As fate would have it, I happened to drop by on a Saturday morning, at which time a wedding was being set up on the premises.  While I was posing for the above photo, one of the party planners pulled up, took pity on me and asked if I wanted to come onto the property for a better look.  I just about died right on the spot, stuttered out a “YES!” and promptly hopped in my car and followed her up the driveway, practically hyperventilating the entire way!  It was definitely a day for the record books!

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In real life, Stu’s house boasts 5,500 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 4 baths (3 with clawfoot tubs and marble counters procured from a hotel in San Francisco), a formal dining room, a library, 4 fireplaces (though one is covered over), 2 wood stoves, fir wood detailing throughout, a gourmet kitchen with a walk-in pantry, a grand staircase, rear and front foyers, a 3-car garage with a bonus room upstairs, 298 acres of land, creek frontage, 2 barns, 2 guest cottages, and a span of eucalyptus groves.

Stu's House from Scream (9 of 34)

I was a little uncertain about the home’s provenance when I originally published this post.  Thankfully, a fellow stalker named Mandy went on a deep dive into the nitty-gritty of the property’s history as well as that of its original owners and has filled in all the blanks!  Honestly can’t thank you enough, Mandy!  A real estate listing I came across early on in my research stated that the dwelling was built in 1991 by a Mr. and Mrs. McPhail, who were in their 70s, and was designed to match to the Victorian where Mr. McPhail’s grew up – a factoid that just about made me, ahem, scream!  A replica of Stu’s house existing somewhere in Marin County?  I couldn’t think of anything cooler!  As Mandy discovered, though, virtually none of the listing’s reporting was correct.  The property was actually commissioned by John (aka “Jack”) and Carolyn MacPhail, not McPhail, who were in their late 50s, not 70s.  A photo of a plaque displayed on the front of Stu’s house that was posted to Instagram by a guy named Ben who attended the Scream Comes Home event in 2018 further confirms Mandy’s information.  It also shows that the pad was completed in 1990, not 1991.

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But the erroneous reporting doesn’t end there.  Mandy further uncovered that John’s childhood home is located at 7 Marin Street in San Rafael.  That’s it below.  As you can see – and as I was sorely disappointed to discover – it looks absolutely nothing like Stu’s.  It’s not even a Victorian!

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Now, the house next door at 11 Marin Street, where John’s father was born and raised and where a cousin of the family lived during his childhood, does bear some resemblance to the Macher residence.  Some.  While it is Victorian and has bay windows and a porch overhang similar to the Scream home, that’s certainly not enough to claim it is a replica of it – or even that it was inspired by it.  So yeah, the whole story about the Tomales property being built to match John’s childhood home appears to be just that, a story – probably intended to make the history of the place more interesting and therefore more attractive to buyers.

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Per their obituaries, the MacPhails both passed away in their Tomales home in 1991 at the age of 59 – John from a “brief illness” on March 6th and Carolyn “after being in ill health for several years” on November 12.  Matthew Lillard discusses the deaths in an on-set interview that is included in the Behind the ‘Scream’ documentary featured in The Ultimate Scream Collection DVD box set.  He says, “It’s kind of, like, an eerie house.  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.”  Though both John and Carolyn passed away from natural causes, Matthew is right – it’s certainly eerie!

Stu's House from Scream (17 of 34)

Stu's House from Scream (4 of 34)

The MacPhails left the sprawling property to their children and it sat vacant in the years following, which I’m sure is a big part of how it came to be used in Scream.  A huge, deserted and unoccupied Victorian situated up a lonely dark road?  There’s no better spot to shoot the final sequence of a horror movie!  Of the find, Wes Craven said in a 1996 interview that my friend Ashley of The Drewseum was kind enough to email me a scan of, “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 some place 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.  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.”

Stu's House from Scream (20 of 34)

Production designer Bruce Miller furthers in the same article, “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.”

Stu's House from Scream (14 of 34)

The production team must have really, ahem (again), screamed with excitement when they saw that the home’s garage is situated on the rear side of the property, not at all visible from the front, making Tatum Riley’s (Rose McGowan) death scene (which was a part of the original script) – as well as the fact that her body is never seen by any of the partygoers – all the more feasible.

Stu's House from Scream (5 of 34)

Stu’s house was put up for sale in November 2011 for $2,795,000, but there were no takers.  It was eventually removed from the market, then returned and finally sold in June 2014 for $2,820,000.  Today, it is known as “Spring Hill Estate” and, as I mentioned, serves as a wedding venue.  Despite being remote, isolated, situated on a lonely hill and the site of one of filmdom’s most famous horror movie sequences, it is nothing short of peaceful and pastoral, not to mention stunningly beautiful.  I can think of no better place to host a wedding in Northern California.  The nuptials we saw being set up, situated in one of the property’s barns, looked like something out of a magazine!  Rustic, inviting and lit with hundreds upon hundreds of twinkle lights, it was all I could do not to try to secure myself an invite!

Stu's House from Scream (8 of 34)

Scream’s epically bloody finale, which counts for a whopping 42 minutes of screen time, was comprised of one scene, Scene #118.  Broken up into more than 20 different parts, the sequence, titled “People live, people die,” makes up the entire third act of the film.  And all of it takes place at Stu’s house!  Pretty much every single area of the residence is featured, including the front exterior.

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Stu's House from Scream (1 of 1)

The pad looks exactly the same in person as it did onscreen, minus the large stained glass window situated over the front door which was a prop added for filming, I am guessing to give it even more of that Gothic Victorian farmhouse feel.

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Stu's House from Scream (15 of 34)

For the shoot, the home’s real life dining room was transformed into the Macher family’s TV room, where audiences were gifted with Randy Meeks’ (Jamie Kennedy) legendary break-down of “the rules” of horror movies.  As you can see in the MLS image below from the property’s 2014 sale, even without Stu’s red floral curtains and rust-colored couch, the room is very recognizable from its cameo.

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diningroom

And the kitchen is even more so!  Looking at MLS images of it makes my heart beat a little faster!  The room is absolutely frozen in time from its big screen appearance!

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kitchen

The only thing missing is a set of ceiling-mounted cabinets that ran along the edge of the space in Scream.  I am not sure if said cabinets were a real element of the house since removed or just set dressing, but I am guessing the former.

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kitchen2

The 2014 listing mentions that the home boasts “a kitchen desk and planning center” which cracked me up as that is the spot where Stu sits while speaking on the phone with Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell).  It is there that he utters his famous line, “My mom and dad are gonna be so mad at me!”

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kitchendeskandplanningcenter

The residence’s breakfast nook also makes an appearance in Scream;

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breakfast nook

as does the foyer;

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foyer

one of the bedrooms;

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bedroom

the attic (of which, Wes Craven says, “The attic wasn’t very creepy, so we darkened it down, and filled it up with all sorts of strange stuff.”);

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attic room

and, of course, the garage!

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Had to do it!

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Stu's House from Scream (33 of 34)

As I mentioned earlier, the garage is situated on the back side of the house . . .

Stu's House from Scream (6 of 34)

. . . completely hidden from view from the front.

Stu's House from Scream (7 of 34)

It is in the middle garage door that Tatum meets her untimely end and from the dormer above it and to the left that Sidney jumps out of the attic and first sees her body.

Stu's House from Scream (25 of 34)

The finale sequence, which took a whopping 21 nights to shoot, was so grueling that cast and crew started referring to it as “the scene from hell” and “the longest night in horror history.”  It was not long before “I survived Scene 118” became a running joke and t-shirts bearing the phrase were made for everyone involved, as seen in the still from ’Scream’: The Inside Story below.

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All I could think while making screen captures for this post was how in the heck did they ever get the house clean again following filming?

Stu's House from Scream (31 of 34)

Stu's House from Scream (32 of 34)

Fun fact – Dewey Riley (David Arquette) was originally set to die at the end of Scream, but Wes Craven had a last-minute change of heart and shot the bit with the deputy being taken out of Stu’s house on a stretcher and loaded into an ambulance on the final night of filming, as he had a feeling audiences were going to fall in love with him.  And he was right!  I can’t imagine the sequels without Dewey!

Stu's House from Scream (13 of 34)

Per the Spring Hill Estate website, Stu’s house is quite a hotbed for filming, with more than 15 productions lensed on the premises.  I was only able to identify 2, though.

Stu's House from Scream (19 of 34)

The interior is utilized briefly as the home where Sara Gold (Allison Paige) lives with her parents in the 2016 drama The Dog Lover.

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And Stu’s house also serves as the residence of Stella Davis (Dorian Brown Pham) in 2017’s Running Wild.

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Coincidentally, shortly after I began penning this article, the Grim Cheaper texted me a link about a Halloween party taking place at Stu’s house on October 31st, hosted by the same guys who put on Scream Comes Home.  Apparently, the homeowners have recently decided to move onto the premises and though the place will still be available periodically as a special event venue, this will be the last time it is opened up to Scream fans.  You can get your tickets here!  And if you are interested in checking out more interior shots of Stu’s house, the Real to Reel website has some fabulous ones from the Scream Comes Home event.

Stu's House from Scream (16 of 34)

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Mandy for unearthing so much of this home’s history and to my friend Ashley, of The Drewseum, for sharing several articles about the property with me!  Smile

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Stu's House from Scream (30 of 34)-2

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Spring Hill Estate, aka Stu’s house from Scream, is located at 3871 Tomales Petaluma Road in Tomales.  The home currently serves as a special event venue.  You can visit its official website here.  The residence is situated up a long private drive and only the back of it (which did not appear in the movie) is visible from the street.  (Pictured below is the view of it from the road.)  You can catch an up-close glimpse of it, though, by attending the Halloween party being held there on October 31st.  More information can be found here.

Stu's House from Scream (1 of 34)

The “Scream” Grocery Store

The Scream Grocery Store (29 of 34)

I love a good grocery store locale (as evidenced here, here, here and here)!  My dad worked in markets throughout my childhood and I spent a lot of time with him at “the office,” which is where my affinity stems from.  So even though I had already blogged about Pacific Market, the Santa Rosa bodega that cameoed in horror favorite Scream (which my aunt and uncle, who live in the area, stalked on my behalf back in 2008), I still had to hit the place up when I traveled to Sonoma County in October 2016.  Going through my photos from that trip in preparation for this post made me a bit misty-eyed.  While in town, I dragged my mom, aunt, two uncles, longtime BFF, and her boyfriend to every.single.locale. featured in the 1996 flick.  Oh, how I wish I could do it all over again – especially the visit to Pacific Market, where my stalking resulted in a free bottle of champagne!  But more on that in a bit.

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Per newspaper ads, the property that currently houses Pacific Market has been a grocery store since at least as far back as 1950, at which time it was known as Pohley’s Market.

 The Scream Grocery Store (33 of 34)

It has gone through several different grocer iterations in the years since – as well as a few renovations, I’m sure.  When the Scream cast and crew descended upon the area in the spring of 1996, the shop was known as Town and Country Market.

The Scream Grocery Store (1 of 34)

The upscale store was known for its fine wines, gourmet foods, and other specialty items.  A former ad for the place I found on Newspapers.com touted Town and Country as a spot “Where old-fashioned courtesy and relaxed shopping are yours at supermarket prices.”

The Scream Grocery Store (10 of 34)

Town and Country became the third store in the Pacific Market chain when it was acquired by the Mohar family in 1997, a year after Scream was filmed on the premises.  Initially established in 1948 by Stan and Mary Mohar, the grocery company was light years ahead of its time as far as healthful eating was concerned, dedicating an entire section of each outpost to organic produce from the start!  Unfortunately, with the purchase came some renovations, which I’ll cover further down.

The Scream Grocery Store (16 of 34)

The Santa Rosa outpost was subsequently sold on two more occasions (first in 2012 and then again in 2016), each time retaining the Pacific Market name.  The latter sale occurred just prior to my visit, during which I had the good fortune of meeting the new owner, who could not have been nicer!  Turns out, he had no idea of his store’s cinematic history and was thrilled to learn about it!  As I filled him in on Pacific Market’s role in Scream and where filming had taken place, I couldn’t help but relish in his enthusiasm over the cameo and had to throw out a few suggestions to honor it, such as stationing a Ghostface mask in the freezer aisle so that its reflection could forever be visible in the glass doors.  I am unsure if he implemented the idea, but it’s genius, right?  As our chat wound down, he asked me what I like to drink.  I told him champagne (of course) and he promptly grabbed a very nice bottle off the shelf and gifted it to me – which was the first time any of my stalkings ever resulted in free bubbly!

The Scream Grocery Store (22 of 34)

In Scream, Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) and Tatum Riley (Rose McGowan) head to what was then Town and Country Market to buy party supplies for the soiree Stuart Macher (Matthew Lillard) is hosting to celebrate classes being canceled due to the murder of two fellow Woodsboro High students.  Sadly, the part of the store the girls walk by at the top of the scene was extensively remolded after filming took place, with the side window and wooden patio railing removed, as you can see below.

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The Scream Grocery Store (1 of 4)

This was done to allow for a new entrance (pictured below) to be built at the corner of the market, one that would be more accessible to the surrounding wraparound parking lot.

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As such, the southeast tip of the building was essentially blown out and diagonally-situated doors installed in its place.  (The support beam visible below marks exactly where the demolished corner used to come out to.)

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The store’s original main entrance, which was situated on the south side of the market and which Sidney and Tatum walked through in Scream, is just a set of windows today.

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The Scream Grocery Store (1 of 1)

Completely framed in, the windows are situated behind seasonal displays and grocery cart storage and semi-obscured from view.

The Scream Grocery Store (1 of 3)

The Scream Grocery Store (3 of 3)

The bulk of the Scream scene takes place inside Pacific Market, in aisle 5 to be precise – the freezer aisle (dun dun dun!) – which Tatum and Sidney walk the length of.

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The Scream Grocery Store (4 of 4)

It, too, has been remodeled, unfortunately.  The freezer aisle used to be zigzag in shape.  It was in the shorter section, where the aisle zagged off toward the front of the store, that Sidney grabbed popsicles and ice cream and announced she was “sexually anorexic.”

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Today, the freezer section is one straight line with an open refrigerated display case situated in the spot where Sidney and Tatum perused frozen desserts.  Though I don’t have a photo taken from the same angle shown in Scream, the area where the girls were positioned is pretty much right where the woman in blue is standing below.  Because the freezer aisle pretty much ends where the new front doors stand, I believe the alteration was made to accommodate for their construction.

The Scream Grocery Store (1 of 1)

It is as the girls leave the aisle that Ghostface’s reflection becomes visible in a freezer case door – as I said, dun dun dun!  (I accidentally took the photo below from the wrong angle, but as you can see the freezer doors have also since been swapped out for new ones.)

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The Scream Grocery Store (3 of 3)

It is not at all hard to see why Wes Craven and the rest of the production team landed on the store as a location for Scream.  Pacific Market is the perfect little neighborhood grocer.  And while the segment shot there is short, it is significant as it not only encapsulates the idyllic small town nature of Woodsboro, but the naivete of the teens at the center of the story who are out buying ice cream and Tostitos for a party celebrating school being cancelled due to the murder spree ravaging their town!  Talk about a juxtaposition!  (The song that plays at the top of the scene is also perfection, btw.)

The Scream Grocery Store (9 of 34)

I really could not have timed my visit to Pacific Market better as the fall decorations adorning the store only added to its homey feel.  I mean, if that’s not the perfect slice of Americana pictured below, I don’t know what is!

The Scream Grocery Store (3 of 34)

And yeah, had to do it!

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Even my aunt got in on the fun!

The Scream Grocery Store (13 of 34)

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Big THANK YOU to my aunt and uncle for originally stalking this location for me back in 2008, taking me to stalk it myself in 2016, and then re-stalking it for me again this past weekend.  When I sat down to edit my photos for this post, I realized I hadn’t taken any that matched what was shown in Scream, so I asked if they might head out there to snap better comparison shots.  They happily obliged and sent me all that appear in this post.  (For those counting, that’s their third stalk of the place – and no, they’re not fans of the movie in the slightest.)  I honestly can’t thank them enough!  Smile

The Scream Grocery Store (15 of 34)

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Pacific Market, aka the former Town and Country Market from Scream, is located at 1465 Town and Country Drive in Santa Rosa.  You can visit the store’s official website here.

Neve Campbell’s Former Haunted House

Neve Campbell's Former Haunted House (10 of 10)

I love a good haunted house, especially at this time of year.  One owned by a celebrity is even better.  One owned by the star of my favorite horror film of all time?  Well, I can’t think of anything more thrilling – or more perfectly suited to my annual October postings.  So when I came across a mention of a ghost-inhabited pad formerly belonging to the Scream Queen herself, Miss Neve Campbell, in the book Hollywood Death and Scandal Sites (written by my buddy E.J. Fleming, from the Movieland Directory website), I just about came unglued and promptly added the place to my To-Stalk List.  Identifying the residence in person wound up taking quite a bit of legwork once I finally got out there, though, thanks to a mysterious and misleading address placard.  But more on that in a bit.

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Per Berg Properties, Neve purchased the 3-bedroom, 4-bath, 2,347-square-foot home at 8875 Wonderland Avenue in 1996 for $745,000.  Upon moving into the dwelling with then husband Jeff Colt that summer, shortly after wrapping production on the first Scream installment, Campbell, a classically-trained ballerina, installed a dance studio on the premises.  Other amenities included a pool, a spa, a 0.17-acre lot, and plenty of privacy thanks to a large amount of foliage surrounding the perimeter.  Of the purchase, the excited actress told Detour magazine, “I just moved into my first house with Jeff Colt and we’re very, very excited.  It’s in the Hollywood Hills . . . all of a sudden I’m obsessed about houses and furniture.  I walk around the Party of Five set thinking, ‘That’s a nice table.’”

Neve Campbell's Former Haunted House (8 of 10)

Neve Campbell's Former Haunted House (7 of 10)

Things weren’t all sunshine and roses, though.  As author Elina Furman explains in her 2000 book Neve Campbell: An Unauthorized Biography, the star awakened one night “after sensing what she believed to be the presence of a young woman’s ghost.  Concluding that her new house was haunted, Neve dubbed her resident specter Madame X.  The story got even more interesting when she discovered that a twenty-two-year-old maid had been brutally murdered in the house in 1991.  The domestic was working for a mystery writer when a delivery man entered the home and committed the crime.  Years later, the furnace in Campbell’s house would turn off and on by itself and the lights would dim of their own accord.  Unwilling to be frightened out of her new home, Neve made friends with the spirit, much as her character in The Canterville Ghost had befriended Simon de Canterville.  She now considers the specter one of the family.  ‘She’s cool.  I’m cool.  We don’t bug each other, so it’s all right,’ she confirmed to Detour in March 1998.”

Neve Campbell's Former Haunted House (3 of 10)

Neve Campbell's Former Haunted House (4 of 10)

The actress also talked about the haunting during her 2011 press tour for Scream 4 (though she mentions living in the home with friends and not her ex-husband).  As she told Daily Mail, “I know that ghosts exist because I’ve seen one.  A few years ago I moved into a haunted house in Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles, with some friends.  It turned out that it was inhabited by the ghost of a woman who had been murdered there in 1991.  Doors would repeatedly slam, windows would open and ashtrays would fly off dressers.  Then there were times when the ghost would actually walk into the room.  After a while it felt normal.  I’d pass her in the hallway and casually wish her good morning.”

Neve Campbell's Former Haunted House (1 of 10)

Though I have no doubt as to Neve’s claims about the residence being haunted, I do question if a murder actually happened on the premises.  I cannot find a reference to such a killing anywhere – though searching for a homicide that occurred on Wonderland Avenue, or in the Laurel Canyon area in general, is admittedly difficult considering that almost every result kicked back has to do with the infamous Wonderland murders, which took place just down the street in 1981.  My hunch, though, is that the story is pure conjecture, a tale told to Campbell by a mischievous neighbor or perhaps a real estate agent with a penchant for the macabre.

Neve Campbell's Former Haunted House (2 of 10)

Though I can’t say for certain whether or not a murder occurred there, one definite odd element concerning the property is its address placard, which reads “8909.”  When I first showed up to the corner of Wonderland Avenue and Holly Place, where Neve’s former pad was supposed to be located per both Google and my GPS, I was thoroughly confused to see the 8909 number.  Figuring both map programs were off by a few hundred feet or so, I proceeded to walk up and down the block looking for 8875 Wonderland.  I came up empty.  I was further surprised upon returning to 8909 to discover that its address did not coincide numerically with its neighbors.  I surmised that the number had to have been changed at some point, snapped some photos of the place, and headed home to investigate the matter further.

Neve Campbell's Former Haunted House (1 of 1)

Searching Google and newspapers.com for “8909 Wonderland Avenue” and “8909 Holly Place” yielded pretty much nada.  So I headed over to the City of Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety website to look through old records.  An inquiry into that database for “8909 Holly” also yielded nothing.  But “8875 Wonderland” kicked back a treasure trove of info, all of which assured me that the house I took photos of was not only Neve’s former residence, but that it bears the address 8875.  As you can see in the permit below, filed in 1990, 8875 is noted as being on the corner of Holly and Wonderland, right where my GPS said it would be.

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Another permit I dug up from that same year featured a diagram of 8875 that perfectly matches the layout and placement visible in aerial views of the structure with the 8909 placard.

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And a parcel map available on the Los Angeles County Office of the Assessor website also shows 8875 Wonderland in the exact spot where the 8909 placard is currently hung.  Why a different address number is displayed at the property is a complete mystery, but what I do know is that Neve Campbell’s former haunted house is most definitely located on the northeast corner of Holly Place and Wonderland Avenue.

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The actress sold the pad in February 2000 for $850,000 and it has not changed hands since.  I guess the current owner doesn’t mind having a phantom roommate, either.

Neve Campbell's Former Haunted House (6 of 10)

Neve Campbell's Former Haunted House (5 of 10)

Big THANK YOU to E.J., of the Movieland Directory website, for finding this location!  Smile

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Neve Campbell's Former Haunted House (1 of 1)

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Neve Campbell’s former haunted house is located at 8875 Wonderland Avenue in Hollywood Hills West.

Hilton Sonoma Wine Country – Where the Cast of “Scream” Stayed During Filming

Hilton Sonoma Wine Country from Scream-1190370-2

I typically begin compiling notes on a location and roughly outlining a post weeks before I hit publish.  Today’s article, about the Hilton Sonoma Wine Country, where the cast and crew of Scream stayed during the 1996 film’s 55-day shoot, is no different.  Sadly though, devastation struck shortly after I penned that preliminary edit.  I am extremely sorry to report that the Santa Rosa-area hotel was destroyed by the Tubbs Fire in the early morning hours of October 9th.  When I learned the news last Friday morning, just as I was sitting down to write this post, I felt like I had been punched in the gut.  I could not – and still cannot – believe the Scream hotel is gone.  I am heartbroken.  And yes, I do realize it is a bit silly to be heartbroken over the loss considering the fact that the property didn’t even appear in the movie, but, at the same time, it was such an important part of the production and has been talked about by the cast in so many interviews that it honestly feels as if a piece of history has been lost.  I am so thankful that I was able to stalk the Hilton last October during a trip up north and, even though it is no longer, figured I should still continue on with the post and share the many images I took of it for posterity.

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I learned about the Hilton and its role in the production of Scream from my friend Ashley, of The Drewseum website, who (as I’ve mentioned previously) was kind enough to share with me some call sheets from the flick that she has managed to get her hands on over the years.  Besides detailing scene, wardrobe, and prop information for a particular date, each sheet also notes both the pickup time and location of the various actors scheduled to work that day.  As indicated in the sheets, Neve Campbell, Drew Barrymore, Matthew Lillard, and the rest of the cast were picked up in the lobby of the DoubleTree Hotel located at 3555 Round Barn Boulevard in Santa Rosa prior to each shoot.

Hilton Sonoma Wine Country from Scream-1190388

Hilton Sonoma Wine Country from Scream-1190389

At some point after Scream was filmed in 1996, the property was transitioned to a Hilton, though, according to my aunt who lives in the area, not much of it was altered during the changeover and, up until the fire, it still looked much the same as it did in the ‘90s.

Hilton Sonoma Wine Country from Scream-1190377

Hilton Sonoma Wine Country from Scream-1190375

Typically, a hotel where a cast and crew stayed during the filming of a movie wouldn’t have that much meaning to me, but, in this case, because of Santa Rosa’s small-town vibe, the Scream team spent much of their free time together on the property.  Unlike New York or L.A. or any other metropolis, where actors can step outside of their lodging and find a wide array of nightlife and activities at their fingertips, Sonoma County is a rather sleepy area.  So the group hung out together, entertaining themselves on the hotel grounds, which created a tight-knit family atmosphere that I doubt would have occurred (at least not to the same degree) had Scream been shot elsewhere.

Hilton Sonoma Wine Country from Scream-1190361

Hilton Sonoma Wine Country from Scream-1190373

The Hilton was actually the location I was most excited about seeing during my NorCal trip, mainly because of an interview with Matthew Lillard that I watched years prior.  Unfortunately, I can’t find a clip of the interview anywhere online, but, in it, the actor talked about holing up with the rest of the cast in Neve Campbell’s hotel room after filming wrapped each day or night and watching horror flicks.  I love any and all behind-the-scenes tidbits like that and the thought of the cast huddled up watching scary movies together, while in the midst of shooting what turned out to be one of the most influential scary movies of all time, is pretty incredible.

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Hilton Sonoma Wine Country from Scream-1190348

Matthew is hardly the only Scream cast member to have mentioned the hotel in interviews over the years.  In fact, I’ve found that, more than any other location associated with the movie, the Hilton is the one talked about the most.  In the 2011 documentary Still Screaming: The Ultimate Scary Movie Retrospective, Neve Campbell reminisces, “We were all staying in the hotel – in like a little motel – the whole crew and cast.  And we were just having a great time.  I think we kind of couldn’t believe we were getting paid to have fun like that.”  (Though the Hilton was actually quite large, because of the way it was laid out, with outcroppings of two- and three-story buildings dotted around the premises, it did have the feel of a small motel.)

 Hilton Sonoma Wine Country from Scream-1190378

Hilton Sonoma Wine Country from Scream-1190379

 That same year, in an Entertainment Weekly article, Jamie Kennedy also reminisced about the property, saying “We’d go home at night to the DoubleTree Hotel, and it was the first hotel I ever went to that gave you a cookie at night.”

Hilton Sonoma Wine Country from Scream-1190360

Neve spoke of the Hilton again in a 2016 Entertainment Tonight exclusive, stating, “The cast would hang out in the mornings because we would shoot all night.  We would get in cars and go back to our hotel and we would be covered in blood and there would be people going to work at 6 or 7 a.m. and they’d see me covered in corn syrup.  The look on those peoples’ faces was always humorous.  We would close all the curtains and hang out and have a drink.  We were sitting in one of our bedrooms and we were like, ‘Could you imagine if this was good enough that there might be a Halloween costume?’  And we were like, ‘No, that couldn’t possibly happen!’  And now it’s 20 years later and I still see the Halloween costume every year in all the shops.  It’s pretty amazing.”

Hilton Sonoma Wine Country from Scream-1190359

Hilton Sonoma Wine Country from Scream-1190355

Just this past July, Skeet Ulrich, who played killer Billy Loomis, gave an interview to The AV Club in which he mentioned the Hilton.  He said, “I was fortunate in that the hotel suite they gave me had two rooms, so I used one just to sleep, and the other one . . . I was 26, I think, when I made it, and I was playing a 17- or 18-year-old, so I went straight to the mall and bought every hard-rock poster and black lights and everything, and I turned the other room into Billy’s room.  And I’d sit in there and just read about John Wayne Gacy and play the most satanic music I could find and just try and find him rather quickly in that environment.”

Hilton Sonoma Wine Country from Scream-1190380

Hilton Sonoma Wine Country from Scream-1190386

All the anecdotes and tidbits I had heard about the hotel over the years enveloped me as I walked around the property.  I couldn’t help but wonder which room each cast member stayed in;

Hilton Sonoma Wine Country from Scream-1190381

if they were all grouped in the same area or spread apart;

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if they checked in themselves;

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did they walk down this hall;

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or that one;

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if they swam in the pool during their off-time;

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if they sat by the fire;

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hung out in the lobby;

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ate at the on-site restaurant – etc., etc., etc.

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Needless to say, my mind was buzzing.  And yes, I am fully aware that I have an unnatural obsession with anything and everything related to Scream.

Hilton Sonoma Wine Country from Scream-1190351

You can see some photographs of what the property looks like post-fire here, here, and here.  And you can read an interview with a man who was staying at the Hilton when the inferno struck here.  The hotel was actually one of the first places hit by the Tubbs blaze and, because it broke out so quickly, guests had virtually no warning.  Most were awakened by a knock on the door from security guards at around 3 a.m. on October 9th and told to evacuate immediately.  The man in the interview did not even have time to put on shoes.  I can’t imagine how scary that must have been.

Hilton Sonoma Wine Country from Scream-1190387

Hilton Sonoma Wine Country from Scream-1190382

In watching this drone footage of the Hilton site, it seems that the three buildings surrounding the pool, on the western edge of the property, remain intact.  So at least a part of the location still stands.  A word of warning – watching the video clip is extremely disheartening.  The devastation that citizens of Sonoma County are facing is unfathomable.  My thoughts and prayers are with them.

Hilton Sonoma Wine Country from Scream-1190383

Big THANK YOU to my friends Ashley, from the Drewseum, for telling me about this location and Katie, from Matthew Lillard Online, for trying to help me pinpoint the interview in which Matthew talked about the hotel !  Smile

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Hilton Sonoma Wine Country from Scream-1190376

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Hilton Sonoma Wine Country, where the cast of Scream stayed during filming, was formerly located at 3555 Round Barn Boulevard in Santa Rosa.  Sadly, the property was destroyed by the Tubbs Fire and no longer stands.

The “Scream” Warehouse

The Warehouse from Scream-1190142

There has been so much tragedy in the world as of late.  I’ve always avoided watching the news, but recently I feel like not even turning on my TV at all.  Between the heartbreaking massacre in Las Vegas, the multitude of hurricanes plummeting the Eastern seaboard, and the fires ravaging both Orange and Sonoma Counties, devastation seems to be everywhere.  My mom and I were actually in Santa Rosa visiting my aunt and uncle last year at this exact time.  Hearing reports of the blaze desolating the area has been particularly saddening as I can’t help but think of the incredibly happy time we spent there, traversing pretty much all of Wine Country to stalk film locations, mainly from my favorite scary movie Scream, which was shot in its entirety in the region.  (Thankfully, my aunt and uncle are both safe, as is their house.)  I have yet to blog about the vast majority of the locales we visited during that fabulous trip and thought covering one today would be especially poignant.

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Scream is a bit of an anomaly in the motion picture world being that it was lensed almost exclusively at actual locations.  Very few sets were utilized in the shoot, which took place over the course of eight weeks beginning in April 1996.  During my visit to Northern California, I dragged my mom, aunt and uncle (as well as another uncle, my longtime BFF, Nat, and her boyfriend, Tony – there was literally an entire squad of us!) to every single site featured in the flick – every. single. one.  I was so fixated on being thorough that we even stalked the warehouse that served as a soundstage during the production.  Though the building is completely non-descript with absolutely no recognizable elements tying it to the film – not to mention it was either largely remodeled or demolished with a new structure now standing in its place (I’ll extrapolate on that a bit later in the post) – I was thrilled to be seeing it in person.

The Warehouse from Scream-1190140

The Warehouse from Scream-1190143

As I detailed in last year’s post about the Sonoma Community Center, a portion of Scream was originally set to be shot at Santa Rosa High School.   The school board wound up vetoing the plan at the very last minute, though, leaving director Wes Craven and the rest of the production team scrambling to find a suitable replacement to mask as Woodsboro High.  Enter the Sonoma Community Center, whose then manager offered up the site for use.  Though the center did serve as a school up until 1948, it lacked several spaces detailed in the Scream script.  So a couple of sets were built at a Santa Rosa warehouse to accommodate for the missing spots.

The Warehouse from Scream-1190146

The Warehouse from Scream-1190145

I learned of the warehouse’s existence and location thanks to my friend/Drew Barrymore aficionado Ashley, who runs The Drewseum website.  As I mentioned in my October 2016 post about the Shadow of a Doubt house (which also appeared in Scream), over the years Ashley has managed to get her hands on a few Scream call sheets and she was kind enough to share them with me.  Let me tell you, reading through them is like a dream!  I mean, the location information alone is enough to make my head spin!  One of the coveted pages details Day 9 of production (April 25th, 1996), during which several scenes taking place in Woodsboro High’s school office were lensed.  The sheet lists the location of the shoot as a “warehouse stage” at 2875 Santa Rosa Avenue.  Ashley also shared with me the image below (a screen capture from Scream: The Inside Story), which shows the office set as it existed inside of the warehouse.

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The Woodsboro High office set – which consisted of Principal Arthur Himbry’s (Henry Winkler) office, a small hallway and an anteroom – as it appeared in Scream can be seen below.

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I am fairly certain that the Woodsboro High School girls’ restroom, where Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) encountered the Ghostface killer for the second time, was also a set built at the warehouse.  Though I originally assumed the segment was shot at the Sonoma Community Center, when I stalked the building, I could not find a bathroom even remotely similar to the Scream bathroom anywhere.  I showed the employee who took us on a tour of the place the screen captures below and he informed me that he was fairly certain a restroom of that size and shape had never existed on the premises.  Upon arriving home, I contacted a Scream crew member who got back to me immediately saying that the bathroom was indeed a set.  Since crew member recollections are not always reliable, though, I wanted more confirmation.  So I reached out to Leonora Scelfo and Nancy Anne Ridder, the two actresses who appeared alongside Neve in the scene.  They both could not have been nicer, but had different memories of where filming took place.  Leonora recalled shooting the bathroom scene on location at “the school” (I’m assuming she means the community center), while Nancy informed me that the bit was lensed on a set.  As I said, cast and crew recollections can’t always be trusted.  I am fairly certain, though, that Nancy was correct and that the Woodsboro High girls’ restroom was a set that existed inside of the Santa Rosa warehouse.

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Ashley also has a hunch that a very tiny portion of the infamous opening scene was lensed at the warehouse, as well, though she is not certain of that fact.  Scream’s opening, which took place at the residence of Casey Becker (Drew Barrymore), was actually the first part of the movie to be shot.  At the time, Craven had not yet secured the rights from Fun World for the use of their “Peanut-Eyed Ghost” mask, which executive producer Marianne Maddalena had spotted while scouting the home that was ultimately used as Tatum Riley’s (Rose McGowan) in the flick and which Wes wanted to utilize to shroud Ghostface.  Time running out, Craven had KNB EFX Group re-create the mask with just enough subtle changes so as not to infringe upon Fun World’s copyrighted design.  KNB’s re-creation was used in the first two segments of Scream that were shot – the opening and the scenes in the Woodsboro High School office.  After those bits were lensed, the rights to the Fun World mask were secured and for the rest of the shoot, the Peanut-Eyed Ghost was used.  Both masks are pictured below.  As you’ll notice, the differences between them are rather inconspicuous.  The KNB version has a much sharper triangular nose than its Fun World counterpart.  The KNB mouth boasts an upside-down tear-drop shape, while the Fun World mouth is more of an oval.  And the eyes of the KNB ghost are thinner and more symmetrical than that of Fun World.  Other than those small differences, though, it is pretty hard to tell them apart.

KNB vs Fun World Scream Mask

At some point after the rights were secured, Wes decided to reshoot the brief portion of the opening in which Ghostface is seen through Casey’s back window using the Fun World mask.  Ashley has an inkling that the reshoot (stills of which are pictured below) was done at the warehouse and I think she’s right.  That is just a hunch, though.  While it makes sense that filming of the short, tightly-shot segment would have taken place at the warehouse, it is also entirely possibly producers constructed a tiny window set to shoot the bit at one of the other locales utilized in the production.

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  If you watch the Scream opening carefully, the two different masks are apparent.  The sharp nose of the KNB version (which is pictured in the caps below) is the most noticeable giveaway.

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I also have a hunch that the window portion of Sidney’s bedroom may have been a set.  Though Craven states in Scream’s DVD commentary that filming of the bedroom scenes took place at the actual Santa Rosa residence utilized as Sidney’s in the shoot, as you can see in the image of the warehouse below, some sort of set boasting three single-hung windows is visible to the right of the high school office set.

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Those windows are a darn close match to Sidney’s.  Even her white lace curtains seem to be visible.  In Scream, Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich) climbs through Sidney’s window, located on the Prescott home’s second floor, on two different occasions.  To quote Bruce Willis, it seems doubtful, due to liability issues, that Wes would have Skeet clambering onto a roof and through a second-story window not once, but twice during production.  It is much more likely that a small portion of the bedroom with more accessible windows was re-created at the warehouse for the scenes.  Who knows, though?

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When I arrived at 2875 Santa Rosa Avenue last October, I was shocked to find a strip mall that looked to be of rather new construction standing on the premises.  Walking around the center, which is home to a flooring store, a La-Z-Boy outpost and a sports shop, among others, I started to have doubts that the Scream warehouse was still standing.

The Warehouse from Scream-1190139

The Warehouse from Scream-1190144

Upon arriving home, I looked into the matter further and was dismayed at what I found.  In comparing the 1993 overhead view of the site to the 2009 view via Historic Aerials, it is clear that the warehouse was either razed and completely rebuilt at some point during the interim or remodeled and expanded extensively before being transformed into the strip mall it is now.  My guess is the former, which would mean that the Scream warehouse is no longer.  Try as I might, though, I could not find any confirmation of my hunch or any information on the warehouse or the strip mall whatsoever.  Even searching Santa Rosa building permits provided no clarification.  Regardless, to me the site will always be hallowed ground and I was thrilled that I got to stalk it.

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For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Big THANK YOU to Ashley, from The Drewseum, for telling me about this location and for providing so much of the information included in this post!  Smile

The Warehouse from Scream-1190148

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: The Scream warehouse is/was located at 2875 Santa Rosa Avenue in Santa Rosa.

The Filming Locations of “Scream 3”

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As promised on Friday, today’s post is dedicated to the filming locations of Scream 3.  Though the third installment is not my favorite of the franchise, I love anything and everything having to do with Scream and figured what better way to celebrate Haunted Hollywood month than by putting together a massive two-part article detailing all of the locations featured in both the first and second sequels.  (In case you missed my post on Scream 2 locations, you can read it here.)

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1. 101 Freeway (West Shoreline Drive, north of West Ocean Boulevard, Long Beach) – In Scream 3’s opening segment, Cotton Weary (Liev Schreiber) receives his first Ghostface phone call while sitting in traffic, thereby setting off the events of the movie.  Though he is said to be stuck on the 101 Freeway in Hollywood, filming actually took place on Shoreline Drive in Long Beach, a popular section of road that is often utilized to mask as a thoroughfare onscreen.  A nearby stretch of Shoreline was the site of the memorable freeway scene in the 1995 comedy Clueless.  After pushing his way through the stopped cars, Cotton is next shown on the actual 101 Freeway– racing down the southbound Vine Street exit, to be exact, before making a right onto Vine, sailing past the Capital Records Building, and darting down Hollywood Boulevard.

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101 Freeway Scream 3-1160309

2. Harper House (1336 North Harper Avenue, West Hollywood) – Ghostface terrorizes and eventually kills both Cotton and his girlfriend, Christine (Kelly Rutherford), at Cotton’s Spanish Baroque-style West Hollywood apartment complex, Harper House.  The 1929 property, designed by Leland Bryant, originally provided housing for show business and studio professionals and has long been a location manager favorite.  Besides Scream 3, the building also popped up in Cop, The Big Picture, The Last Boy Scout, and The Big Fix.  The four-story, 21-unit, L-shaped structure, as well as the entire block that it is located on, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  Though the interior of an actual Harper House unit was initially utilized in the filming of Scream 3, Cotton’s death scene was later rewritten and reshot.  Producers were not able to return to the complex for the reshoot, so an exact replica of the original apartment used was built on a soundstage for the segment.  (You can read a more thorough post on this location here.)

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Harper House Scream 3-1040190

3. Sidney’s House (21914 Goldstone Road, Topanga) – Sidney Prescott’s (Neve Campbell) remote cabin in Scream 3 is just that – remote.  The rustic pad sits on a forty-acre parcel of land located at the end of a long private road in Topanga.  Known as Windwalk Ranch, the sprawling property is comprised of a horse corral, a barn, a ranch house, three dwellings, and a water tank.  Unfortunately, none of it is visible to the public.  (I wrote a more thorough post on this location here.)

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4. Gale’s “Faces of Journalism” Lecture (Moore Hall, Moore 100, UCLA, 457 Portola Plaza, Westwood) – Cast and crew returned to UCLA to film a sequence for Scream 3.  It is in Moore 100, a large wood-paneled lecture hall, that Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) addresses a group of young reporters about the cut-throat nature of the business as part of the F.W. Bestor “Faces of Journalism” Lecture Series.  As you can see in my photo, the space is currently undergoing renovations.

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Moore Hall Scream 3-1160167

Immediately following her speech, Gale learns of Cotton’s shocking murder from Detective Mark Kincaid (Patrick Dempsey) while in the hallway just outside of Moore 100.

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Moore Hall Scream 3-1160175

5. CBS Studio Center (4024 Radford Avenue, Studio City) – CBS Studio Center pulled double duty in Scream 3.  Not only did the production film on the premises, utilizing numerous soundstages and exteriors, but the property also portrayed the fictional Sunrise Studios, where the movie-within-the-movie, Stab 3, was being shot.  Originally established as Mack Sennett Studios in 1928, the 38-acre site was renamed CBS Studio Center in 1963 when the CBS Television Network became the lot’s largest tenant.  The network purchased the property four years later and, though there have been several name and partnership changes since, it is still owned by CBS today.  Countless hits have been lensed on the premises including Gilligan’s Island, Big Brother, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Gunsmoke, The Bob Newhart Show, My Three Sons, Roseanne, Falcon Crest, and Seinfeld.  Though the lot does not offer tours, CBS’s main gate on Radford Avenue, which was utilized in a scene in Scream 3 and was also where Jimmy Hughes (Mike O’Malley) worked as a studio security guard on the television series Yes, Dear, is visible from the road.

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CBS Studio Center Scream 3-1160095

6. Le Pain Quotidien (8607 Melrose Avenue, West Hollywood) – Gale and Deputy Dewey (David Arquette) meet for an off-the-record chat about the recent murders – as well as their failed romance – on the large wraparound porch of former West Hollywood eatery Replay Café.  The family-run Italian-style restaurant, situated next door to the Replay vintage clothing store, became an outpost of Le Pain Quotidien in 2002. Despite the change, the café and its porch still look very much the same today as they did onscreen in Scream 3.

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Le Pain Quotidien Scream-1160150

7. Runyon Ranch (3050 Runyon Canyon Road, Hollywood Hills West) – After Roman Bridger (Scott Foley) is taken to the police station to be questioned about the murder of Stab 3 actress Sarah Darling (Jenny McCarthy), the remaining cast members, along with Dewey and Gale, gather at the hilltop home of Jennifer Jolie (Parker Posey).  Her rustic, barn-like residence is known as Runyon Ranch in real life.  Located on a private road inside of Runyon Canyon Park, the site cannot be reached via car, but is accessible to pedestrians via a short five-minute walk.  Both the interior and the exterior of Runyon Ranch were utilized in Scream 3.  Though the dwelling was eventually blown up and destroyed in the film, a ¼-scale model was built for the filming of that scene.  In real life, the property remains intact and is extremely recognizable from its onscreen appearance.  Even Dewey’s airstream trailer is still on the premises!  Runyon Ranch has been featured in countless productions over the years, most notably as the spot where David Silver (Brian Austin Green) lived during Season 7 of Beverly Hills, 90210.  The locale has also been featured in It’s My Party, Crazy in Alabama, and Hollywood Homicide.  (You can read my 2011 post on Runyon Ranch here.)

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8. North Hollywood Police Station (11480 Tiara Street, North Hollywood) – Though Scream 2 utilized a police station set at the now defunct Lindsay Studios (love the name!) in Valencia, Scream 3 made use of an actual LAPD office.  Detective Kincaid investigates the murders – and delves deep into Sidney’s past – while at the former North Hollywood Police Station, which was originally established in 1957.  The North Hollywood Division moved to a new, much larger and modernized facility located less than a mile away at 11640 Burbank Boulevard in May 1997.  After that time, the Tiara Street site sat vacant, which made it the perfect spot to shoot the police station scenes for Scream 3.  Though there were once plans to turn the property into a senior citizen center, they never came to fruition and the former station was razed in the mid-2000s.  The land where it once stood now comprises Tiara Street Park.  The original North Hollywood Police Station also appeared in the pilot episode of Adam-12.

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9. American Cement Building (2404 Wilshire Boulevard, Westlake) – One of Scream 3’s more memorable locations, the American Cement Building in Westlake served as the office of horror movie producer John Milton (Lance Henriksen).  When Wes Craven scouted the site and noticed that it offered stunning views of MacArthur Park’s lake, he mentioned that installing a diving board just outside of Milton’s window would add a whimsical touch.  The production team made it happen and the result is an understated, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it bit of humor.  The architecturally stunning building was originally constructed as the headquarters for the American Cement Company in 1964.  Designed by the Daniel, Mann, Johnson & Mendenhall architecture firm, the dramatic 13-story structure was manufactured out of reinforced concrete and boasts striking latticework on its north and south sides.  The location underwent a multi-million-dollar renovation in 2002, during which the office spaces were transformed into 71 live/work lofts.  Scream 3 is hardly the first production to make use of the site.  The American Cement Building has also appeared in Kill Bill: Vol. 1, the 2015 Entourage movie, Pharrell Williams’ “Come Get It Bae” music video, and Get Him to the Greek.  (You can check out my post on the American Cement Building here.)

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10. Canfield-Moreno Estate (1923 Micheltorena Street, Silver Lake) – A 22,000-square-foot Italianate-style villa that has long been the subject of Hollywood lore masqueraded as John Milton’s sprawling manse, where Scream 3’s gory climax took place.  Known as the Canfield-Moreno Estate, as well as The Paramour Mansion and The Crestmont, the massive property was designed by Robert D. Farquhar in 1923 for silent film star Antonio Moreno and his wife, oil heiress Daisy Canfield Danziger.  When the couple decided to separate in 1928, they deeded the 22-room property to the Chloe P. Canfield Memorial Home, a finishing school for girls that was established by Daisy and her sisters.  Just a few years later, the heiress tragically lost control of her car while driving on Mulholland Drive, plunged off a 300-foot cliff, and died instantly.  Her ghost is said to haunt her former residence to this day.  The Canfield Memorial Home was dissolved in the 1950s and the estate later became a boarding house for troubled girls.  After being damaged in the 1987 Whittier Narrows earthquake, the site was left abandoned for more than a decade.  It was finally purchased in 1998 by a developer who set about returning the once-grand home to its original glory.  It has since become an onscreen regular, appearing in such productions as Halloween H20: 20 Years Later, Alias, Monk, Britney Spears’ “My Prerogative” music video, and Brothers & Sisters.  It is inside the colorful, Moroccan-style residence that Sidney finally puts an end to the killings that have plagued her since high school.  That is until Scream 4, which was shot in Michigan, came along in 2011 and re-opened the mystery, proving Randy’s rule from the second movie correct – “Never, ever, under any circumstances, assume the killer is dead.”  (You can read a more in-depth post on the property here.)  Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for the photograph below.

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Well, that’s it!  The complete list of locations featured in Scream 3. If you missed Friday’s post on the L.A. locales from Scream 2, be sure to check it out here.  I hope you all enjoyed reading these two articles as much I enjoyed putting them together!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

The L.A. Filming Locations of “Scream 2”

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“Hello, Sidney.”  Two simple words, spoken by a gravelly-voiced serial killer shrouded by a Father Death mask in one of Scream’s early scenes, and the face of the horror movie genre was changed forever. An empty house and a ringing telephone suddenly had a much more sinister meaning.  Scream, which will be celebrating its twentieth anniversary on December 20th, went on to spawn three sequels, a 2015 television series, and countless imitations.  Though the original film was shot in its entirety in Northern California and Scream 4 was filmed in Michigan, large portions of 1997’s Scream 2 and all of 2000’s Scream 3 were lensed in Los Angeles.  I recently went on a trek to track down all of the franchise’s SoCal locales.  Today, I will be covering Scream 2 and on Monday, Scream 3.  Enjoy!

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1. Rialto Theatre (1023 Fair Oaks Avenue, South Pasadena) – Scream 2 opens upon a chaotic scene at a sneak preview of Stab – the franchise’s movie-within-a-movie – which is taking place at the supposed Ohio-area Rialto Theatre.  The historic 1925 venue is actually located in South Pasadena and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  Though the exterior was dressed with an animatronic knife-wielding arm for the shoot, the Rialto is still very recognizable in person.  Don’t go hoping to catch a horror movie screening on the premises, though.  The 1,200-seat theatre, one of the last single-screen venues in L.A., was closed to the public in 2010.  Plans are currently in the works to re-open it, though.  In 2015, the Lewis A. Smith-designed property was purchased by a developer who intends to restore the site to its original glory.  In the meantime, fans can enjoy the venue via its many onscreen appearances in such productions as A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, Modern Family (Season 6’s “Crying Out Loud”), The Kentucky Fried Movie, and The Player.  (You can read a more in-depth post I wrote about the location back in 2008 here.)

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2. Vista Theatre (4473 Sunset Drive, Los Feliz) – Though the lobby of the Rialto was utilized in the Stab sneak preview scene, the auditorium where the actual screening took place is located a good twelve miles west.  The spot where Maureen (Jada Pinkett Smith) met her rather public untimely end is the Vista Theatre in Los Feliz.  Another Lewis A. Smith creation, the single-screen venue features both Spanish and Egyptian detailing.  Originally opened to the public as the Lou Bard Playhouse on October 16th, 1923, the Vista still screens films today.  An onscreen regular, the theatre has also appeared on 90210 (Season 3’s Women on the Verge”), in the movies True Romance and Get Shorty, and in Pharrell William’s “Happy” music video.  [The unusual Egyptian-themed bathroom where Phil (Omar Epps) was stabbed to death is a spot I am still trying to track down.  It does not appear to have been a bathroom at either the Vista or the Rialto and, though several crew members have said otherwise, I am leaning towards it having been a set.]

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Vista Theatre from Scream 2-4516

3. Stab Casey’s House (5730 Busch Drive, Malibu) – “You know, I don’t even know you and I dislike you already.”  So says Casey (Heather Graham) to the Ghostface killer in Stab’s opening scene, which was shot at a sleek wood and glass house in Malibu Park.  The 4-bedroom, 3-bath residence was designed by Doug Rucker in 1961 and then once again renovated by the prolific Malibu architect in 1989.  It is in the home’s sprawling manicured backyard, underneath a massive tree, that Stab Casey meets her grizzly end in a sequence that mimics Casey Becker’s (Drew Barrymore) death from the original Scream.  Segments of the scene shot at the house also popped up in 2011’s Scream 4.  (I covered this location in greater detail and told the story of the hunt to track it down here.)

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Casey's House from Scream 2-1160301

4. Omega Beta Zeta Sorority House (2186 East Crary Street, Altadena) – While serving as a sober sister for the night (“Drink with your brain!  That’s our motto!”), Cici (Sarah Michelle Gellar) finds herself alone in the Omega Beta Zeta sorority house, where she becomes the third victim of the Ghostface killer, who stabs her and throws her off of a third-floor balcony.  Both the interior and the exterior of a large Victorian-style estate in Altadena known as the Crank House were used to represent the Omega Beta Zeta pad in the film.  Originally constructed in 1882 by a New Yorker named James Crank, the massive 7-bedroom, 4-bath, 6,450-square-foot property, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is not very visible from the road.  The stately manse can be viewed in countless productions, though.  The Crank House posed as the supposed New Orleans residence belonging to Roger Strong (Martin Sheen) and his family in Catch Me If You Can.  The location also served as Martin Sheen’s home in another production – on the television series The West Wing the interior was used as the interior of the Bartlett Family Farm in New Hampshire.  The Crank House is also where Donald “Ducky” Mallard (David McCallum) lives on NCIS and it belonged to Trunchbull (Pam Ferris) in the 1996 movie Matilda.  (You can read my previous post on this location here.)

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Omega Beta Zeta House Scream 2-1030105

5. Delta Lambda Zeta Sorority House (350 South Grand Avenue, Pasadena) – At the beginning of Scream 2, Hallie (Elise Neal) drags Sidney (Neve Campbell) to a “martini mixer” at Windsor College’s Delta Lambda Zeta sorority house.  While there, Sorority Sister Lois (Rebecca Gayheart) and Sorority Sister Murphy (Portia de Rossi) try to woo Sidney into joining their ranks by uttering such classic lines as, “Hi. No I really mean that. Hi.”  The Delta Lambda Zeta residence clears out once party-goers learn of Cici’s death and Sidney once again finds herself alone in a house, on the receiving end of a “Hello, Sidney” phone call, and eventually face-to-face with a masked killer.  Filming of the scene did not take place at a sorority house at all, but at an enormous 8-bedroom, 4-bath, 7,913-square-foot private residence located in Pasadena’s South Arroyo neighborhood.

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6. Kerckhoff Coffeehouse (Kerckhoff Hall, Level 2, UCLA, 308 Westwood Plaza, Westwood) – While at a Windsor College coffee shop over a couple of Baskin-Robbins sundaes, Randy schools Dewey Riley (David Arquette) on “the rules” of making a successful movie sequel.  “Number 1 – The body count is always bigger.  Number 2 – The death scenes are always much more elaborate.  More blood.  More gore.  Carnage candy.  Your core audience just expects it.  And Number 3 – If you want your sequel to become a franchise, never, ever, under any circumstances, assume the killer is dead.”  (The third rule is only heard in its entirety in the Scream 2 trailer.)  The rules segment was shot at UCLA’s first coffee shop, Kerckhoff Coffeehouse, originally established in 1976.  The charming café, which is open to the public, offers espresso drinks, pastries, soups, and sandwiches.  And while it did serve Baskin-Robbins ice cream at the time of the filming, sadly that is no longer the case.

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Kerckhoff Coffeehouse Scream 2-5004

7. Lecture Hall/Hallway (Humanities Building, A51, UCLA, 415 Portola Plaza, Westwood) – It is at a large auditorium inside one of the University of California, Los Angeles’ oldest structures, the Humanities Building, that Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) and Dewey look through some of Gale’s crowd footage in the hopes of identifying Ghostface.  Though the two are first shown walking through a hallway at Agnes Scott College in Georgia (which was largely used to portray Windsor College in Scream 2) while looking for a room with a VCR to play the footage, the scenery then flips to Humanities A51, a vast UCLA lecture hall, where Gale and Dewey wind up rekindling an old flame.  It is not long before Ghostface shows up and destroys their rendezvous, though.  Gale is subsequently chased by the killer through a Humanities Building hallway and then into a large sound booth that was actually a set built at a recording studio in Burbank.

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Originally known as Kinsey Hall, the Humanities Building was shuttered for renovations in 2005 and renamed.  The exterior of the site was also utilized in Scream 2, in a later scene in which Gale rushes outside to make a frantic phone call to the police to announce that Cotton Weary (Liev Schreiber) is the killer, while Debbie Salt (Laurie Metcalf) looks on.

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8. Officer Andrews and Officer Richards Death Scene (Green Street in between South Los Robles Avenue and Madison Avenue, Pasadena) – The harrowing scene in which Officer Andrews (Philip Pavel) and Officer Richards (Christopher Doyle) are murdered, leaving Sidney and Hallie trapped inside of their locked, crashed police car with Ghostface, was lensed on a quiet tree-lined stretch of Green Street in Pasadena’s Playhouse District.  After Sidney and Hallie escape from the destroyed cruiser by discreetly crawling over the unconscious masked killer, the two run east on Green towards South Oakland Avenue, whereupon Sidney decides to head back to the car to remove Ghostface’s mask and learn the killer’s true identity.  Ghostface has long since made his getaway, though, and as Sidney walks to the accident scene, Hallie is murdered while standing in front of the First Church of Christ Scientist.

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9. Exterior of Windsor College Theatre (Kerckhoff Hall, UCLA, 308 Westwood Plaza, Westwood) – It’s back to UCLA for the start of the film’s climactic finale.  Kerckhoff Hall, erected in 1931, stands in for the exterior of the Windsor College Theatre, where Agamemnon, the play Sidney is starring in, is set to be staged.  In the segment, Sidney rushes through UCLA’s Election Walk . . .

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Election Walk Scream 2-1160217

. . . and up the steps of the Collegiate Gothic-style building, though as soon as she steps inside, she is standing about 15 miles away at a theatre in downtown L.A.

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Kerkhoff Hall Exterior UCLA-1160227

The movie’s final scene, in which Gale forgoes her moment in the spotlight in order to accompany Dewey to the hospital, was also shot in front of Kerckhoff Hall.  The building is named in honor of William G. Kerckhoff, a businessman/philanthropist who was not only an original founder of Beverly Hills, but was also responsible for helping to develop hydroelectric power and founded the Southern California Gas Corporation in 1910.

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Kerkhoff Hall Exterior UCLA-1160218

10. Variety Arts Theatre (940 South Figueroa Street, downtown L.A.) – The interior of the Windsor College Theatre, where Scream 2’s bloody climax takes place, was portrayed by the Variety Arts Theatre in downtown Los Angeles.  It is there, onstage amongst the crumbling Agamemnon scenery, that the Ghostface identities are finally revealed and Sidney and Cotton form an unlikely alliance.  The Variety Arts Theatre was originally constructed as part of the headquarters of the Friday Morning Club, an organization for women, in 1924.  Designed by Allison and Allison, Architects, the five-story Neo-Italian Renaissance-style property, now known as the Variety Arts Center, is comprised of offices, meeting space, and two theatres.  It is the larger, lower-level venue, originally named The Playhouse, that was featured in Scream 2.  After remaining largely closed since the late ‘80s, the Variety Arts was leased by the Los Angeles branch of the Hillsong Church in 2015.  Renovations are currently underway and the Pentecostal organization is expected to begin holding services on the premises in 2017.  Because of the renovation, I was not able to get inside to take photos, but you can see some interior images of it here.  The Variety Arts Theatre also made an appearance in Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.

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The one location I have as yet been unable to track down (aside from the theatre bathroom featured in the opening scene) is the film theory classroom where loveable film geek Randy Meeks (Jamie Kennedy) discussed the inferiority of sequels with fellow film theory students Cici, Mickey (Timothy Olyphant) and Film Class Guy #1 (Joshua Jackson).  (How would Randy make sequels better? He’d “let the geek get the girl!”)  Originally lensed at Agnes Scott College’s Winter Theatre in the Dana Fine Arts Building, the segment was later re-shot in Los Angeles in order to give Sarah Michelle Gellar more screen time.  While I do know via several cast and crew members that the reshoot took place at UCLA, I have not been able to pinpoint exactly where.  One UCLA employee I spoke with thought that filming might have taken place in Moore 1003 in Moore Hall, but I was able to see that room in person a couple of weeks ago and it does not seem to be the correct spot.

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As you can see below and above, the two rooms do not appear to be one and the same.  Granted, the space could have been remodeled in the 19 years since Scream 2 was filmed, but there is just not enough that matches up structurally for me to believe it is the right spot.  I’d welcome any help any of my fellow stalkers can give me with this one.

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Stay tuned for Monday’s post on the L.A. locations featured in Scream 3!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Woodsboro High School from “Scream”

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Earlier this month, my mom and I flew to Northern California and embarked upon an epic stalking tour of Scream filming locations.  And when I say epic, I mean epic!  We hit up everything from the grocery store where Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) and Tatum Riley (Rose McGowan) shopped (the owner of the market gifted me with a bottle of champagne!) to the warehouse where the sets were built to the hotel where the cast and crew stayed during the shoot.  I don’t think there’s any spot we missed – and we had a blast!  It truly was a family affair, too, with my mom, my aunt, two uncles, my longtime bestie Nat, and her boyfriend, Tony (that’s him standing with me above), all along for the ride.  Now none of them care at all about stalking, mind you, but it was so much fun being all together and getting to watch them experience firsthand this unique hobby that I love so much.  I wish I could go back and do it all over again!  The first spot we hit up during our Scream adventure was the Sonoma Community Center, which masked as Woodsboro High School in the 1996 flick.

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Prior to heading up north, I contacted the Sonoma Community Center to ask if it would be alright to come inside the building and snap some photos.  The staff there could not have been nicer!  I received an email back almost immediately from an employee who offered to accompany me around the property and show me the specific areas that appeared in the movie, which I took him up on.  Scream’s use of the center was fairly extensive.  Exterior filming included shots of the front of the structure . . .

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. . . as well as its west entrance.

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Most interior filming took place on the community center’s second floor.  The spot I was most interested in seeing was the room that portrayed Sidney’s English class.  I had read several differing reports online regarding which room appeared in the scene and I hoped our tour guide could put the mystery to rest.  I showed him some screen captures from the movie I had saved on my phone and he pointed us to Room 208.  Though he said he couldn’t be 100% sure it was the space where filming had occurred, as you can see below, I am pretty certain he was right on the money.

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Today, Room 208 serves as the center’s Print Room.

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The hallway located just outside of Room 208 also made an appearance in Scream.

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Despite the fact that the walls have since been painted and the lockers that were brought in for the shoot are no longer in place, the hallway is still very recognizable from the movie.

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The stairwell where Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich) and Sidney had an argument (“Stupid!”) is located at the western end of that same hallway.

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I could not have been more excited to see this particular spot.

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Amazingly, it looks exactly the same today as it did onscreen in Scream.

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What might be my favorite scene from the entire movie took place on the community center’s first level, on the staircase just inside the main entrance.  It is there that Deputy Dewey (David Arquette) tells Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox), “I’m 25.  I was 24 for a whole year!”  Their entire exchange during that scene is adorable, especially considering that Courteney and David later fell in love in real life and got married.  It hurts my heart a little now each time I watch it thinking about the fact that they are no longer together.

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Woodsboro High School from Scream-1180946

The Sonoma Community Center’s use in Scream came about rather circuitously.  In the Spring of 1996, Wes Craven and his production team began looking for places to shoot the then titled Scary Movie.  They fairly quickly decided on Wine Country in Northern California, mainly due to the fact that they liked the look of Santa Rosa High School (pictured below – photo via Wikipedia).  Not only did it have the aesthetic the group wanted, but the school was film friendly, having appeared in 1986’s Peggy Sue Got Married.  The principal and other administrators okayed the plan to shoot on the premises and Wes and his team went into pre-production mode for the next few weeks.  Shortly before filming was to take place, though, the school board requested to see the script and apparently didn’t like what they read.  According to the 2011 documentary Scream: The Inside Story, board members felt the story glorified violence against children, which they were wary about, especially in light of the fact that the trial of Richard Allen Davis for the kidnapping and murder of 12-year-old Polly Klaas was taking place in the area at the time.  A town hall meeting was held in which local citizens gave their various opinions on the filming and the school board ultimately decided that Scream could not shoot at Santa Rosa High.

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In Scream: The Inside Story, Wes Craven explained that he understood board members’ trepidation given the violent crime that had rocked the city a few years prior.  It was their implementation that angered him, as well as all those involved.  At the last minute, scenes had to be rewritten, shooting schedules altered, and sets built to make up for the location loss, all of which cost precious time and money.  You can read some articles on the debacle here and here.  When the movie wrapped, Wes still wasn’t over the whole thing apparently and decided to put a special note in the “Thanks” section of Scream’s closing credits.  It read, “No thanks whatsoever to the Santa Rosa City School District Governing Board.”  The situation wasn’t a total loss, though.  In fact, I think things worked out for the better.

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During the SRHS brouhaha, the Sonoma Community Center’s then director heard about the situation and reached out to the production team to offer up the site as an alternative locale.

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The center, which was originally built in 1915, served as Sonoma Grammar School until 1948 and definitely bears the look of a small town learning institution, which is exactly what Wes was going for.

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The production team immediately jumped on board with the idea and, as a result, the Sonoma Community Center is now one of the most famous horror movie locations of all time.  To me, the Santa Rosa High School debacle was a blessing in disguise as the community center is a much more charming and quaint location that fit in with Scream’s aesthetic better than SRHS ever could.  It’s funny how things always seem to have a way of working out.

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The change did require a few sets to be built, though, one of which was Principal Arthur Himbry’s (Henry Winkler) office and anteroom.

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You can see an image of the set, which was featured in Scream: The Inside Story, below.

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I am 99.9% certain that the Woodsboro High School bathroom was also a set as it definitely cannot be found at the Sonoma Community Center.  I took a peek at both of the site’s restrooms during our visit and neither even remotely resembles the Scream bathroom.  The upstairs restroom is a single stall space and, while the downstairs bathroom does have multiple stalls, it is nowhere near as large as the space that appeared onscreen.  I also showed screen captures of the bathroom to our tour guide and he said that he does not believe there was ever a restroom like that on the community center premises.  After I returned home, I contacted a crew member who confirmed that the bathroom was a set, as well.  I still say I’m only 99.9% certain, though, as crew members have been known to misremember things like this.

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Though the movie’s 2011 sequel Scream 4 took place once again in Woodsboro, filming did not return to Northern California.  The flick was instead lensed in Michigan, with Woodworth Middle School at 4951 Ternes Street in Dearborn, standing in for Woodsboro High.  While much larger in scale, the building does bear a striking resemblance to the Sonoma Community Center.

Woodsboro High School Scream

You can watch Scream: The Inside Story by clicking below.  And you can read a great article about the documentary here.  As it turns out, the special was produced by screenwriter Daniel Farrands, who not only went to Santa Rosa High School, but also penned Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers the year before Scream was filmed.  Apparently, an area paper ran a local-boy-makes-good story on Farrands at the time celebrating his horror movie career.  Why locals weren’t as accommodating to Wes just a short time later remains to be seen.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: The Sonoma Community Center, aka Woodsboro High School from Scream, is located at 276 East Napa Street in Sonoma.  You can visit the property’s official website here.

The Occult Store from “The Craft”

The Craft Occult Store (11 of 16)

I often receive emails from fellow stalkers who are planning trips to Los Angeles and want some help in tracking down a favorite film or television location.  The emails always give me a pang of recognition.  I was that stalker once upon a time.  During one of my first trips to L.A., I was absolutely desperate to see the Walsh house from Beverly Hills, 90210.  I had forgotten my trusty tour book at home, though.  This was long before the days of filming location blogs and websites, so without the book I was pretty much out of luck.  I knew the house was somewhere in Altadena, so my mom and I headed that way and I asked literally everyone I encountered if they could point me in the right direction.  No one could, but I did finally make it to Casa Walsh that day and finally seeing it in person was worth all the work it took to get me there.  Assisting fellow stalkers in similar quests is one of the reasons I started this site.  So when I received an email back in May from a reader named Nathan who was desperate to track down the occult store from the 1996 horror/fantasy flick The Craft before an upcoming trip to L.A., I promised him I would help.  I was having a little trouble finding the place, though, so I called upon expert stalker Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and he wound up tracking it down within minutes.  Thank you, Mike!  Nathan was floored over Mike’s find and ventured over there while in town this past July.  I loved hearing about his visit and how meaningful it was for him to be there.  Figuring the place would be perfect for my Haunted Hollywood posts, I, too, ran out to stalk it recently.

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The occult shop from The Craft is located in Hollywood’s El Adobe Studio Building.  The small Spanish-style strip mall was originally built in 1928 and, according to the You Are Here website, was designed by architects Arthur Kelly and Joe Estep.

The Craft Occult Store (1 of 16)

The Craft Occult Store (3 of 16)

In the book The Story of Hollywood, author Gregory Paul Williams contends that the site was the “world’s first mini-mall,” constructed on farmland owned by D.P. Baldwin.  Of the evolution of the property, Williams says, “The original farmer’s stalls later became a grocery store.  Baldwin created the L-shaped building around it as rental spaces for artists who worked in the movies.”  That grocery store, El Adobe Market, still operates on the premises today.  You can check out a 1935 image of the El Adobe Studio Building here and one from 1970 here.  As you can see, not much of the complex has changed over the years.

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The Craft Occult Store (6 of 16)

Along with the El Adobe Market, today the center houses a pharmacy, a furniture store, and several live-work studio office spaces.  You can check out some interior photos of an El Adobe office that is currently for rent here.  What an incredibly cool place to work!

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The occult store makes a few appearances in The Craft.  It first pops up in the beginning of the movie, in the scene in which Nancy Downs (Fairuza Balk), Bonnie (Neve Campbell), and Rochelle (Rachel True) take Sarah Bailey (Robin Tunney), the new girl in school, shopping.  The women return to the store several times throughout the flick.

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The Craft Occult Store (7 of 16)

Though the whole El Adobe Studio Building is featured in the movie, the actual storefront that served as the occult shop is located in the northwest corner of the complex.

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I originally thought that the storefront was a part of the Adobe Pharmacy, which stands at the southwest corner of the El Adobe Studio Building, but Nathan ventured inside the drugstore while he was there and that does not appear to be the case.  The Craft occult store seems to be a separate space.  (Big THANK YOU to Nathan for the photos below!)

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I am unsure if the interior of that space was used in the filming of The Craft or if the inside of the occult shop was just a set.

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From the way things were shot, though, I would guess interiors were lensed in the actual space.

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Unfortunately, that particular unit sits behind a locked fence which bars the interior from view, so I was unable to catch a glimpse of it.  I am also unsure of what the space currently houses, but I believe it is some sort of office.

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The Craft Occult Store (15 of 16)

I am fairly certain, though, that if the actual interior was used that it was dressed considerably for the filming and looks quite a bit different in person.  I would also guess that the stained glass window shown at the top of the stairs in the movie was a fake.

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I am also fairly certain that the occult store from The Craft was based upon Panpipes Magical Marketplace located at 1641 North Cahuenga Boulevard in Hollywood.  The site, which was originally founded in 1961, has the distinction of being the oldest occult shop in the U.S.  And it is also a filming location!  Panpipes has appeared in such productions as Unsolved Mysteries, Witchboard 2, Dream On, The Rockford Files, Hardball and North Mission Road.  The owners also regularly serve as consultants for television shows and movies that deal with metaphysical themes.  Interestingly, Fairuza Balk spent quite a bit of time at Panpipes while researching her role for The Craft and wound up buying the place in 1995.  The actress owned it through 2001, before selling it to its current owners.

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The mural that Sarah and the girls walk by on their way to the occult shop in The Craft is real, though it has been changed since the movie was shot in 1996.

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The Craft Occult Store (13 of 16)

The mural actually appears to change regularly.  As you can see below, it looked completely different when Nathan stalked the El Adobe Studio Building in July . . .

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. . . than it did when I was there earlier this month.

The Craft Occult Store (12 of 16)

The cast of The Craft also posed for a promotional still in front of the mural during the filming, which I was pretty floored to come across while researching this post.

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For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Nathan for challenging me to find this location and to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for tracking it down!  Smile

The Craft Occult Store (4 of 16)

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: El Adobe Studio Building, aka the occult shop from The Craft, is located at 5201-5209 Hollywood Boulevard in Los Feliz.