The casting call is coming from inside the house, and these real-life horror movie houses achieved infamy as on-location sets for some memorable film shoots.

Amityville Horror House

The so-called Amityville Horror House can be found at 108 (formerly 112) Ocean Avenue in Amityville, NY. Producers of the 1979 film sought permission to shoot on location at the actual house where Ronald DeFeo Jr shot and killed 6 members of his family in 1974, but were denied. Instead, a house in Toms River, NJ was altered to resemble the three-story Dutch Colonial home, right down to the distinctive “pumpkin eyes” attic windows. Ironically, the house on Ocean Avenue itself has been altered and no longer sports the quarter-round windows. (images via austinpomer and Encouraging Quotes)

Poltergeist House

This house at 4267 Roxbury St. in Simi Valley, CA is where the 1982 horror film Poltergeist was filmed. Unlike the movie home, this house did NOT implode into some sort of supernatural black hole. The photo above was taken 35 years after filming completed and not a whole lot has changed other than the extensive brickwork in the front yard. One would hope the masonry wasn’t sourced from any abandoned cemeteries. (image via Jack Stephens)

Silence of the Lambs House

Also known as Buffalo Bill’s house, this rambling three-story Victorian home in the Village of Layton, Fayette County, PA featured prominently in the 1991 shock horror thriller The Silence of the Lambs. The home was put on the market by its owners in 2016 but, to quote Trib Live, the sale was going “torturously slowly”. Not for the obvious reason, mind you, but likely due to the 4-bedroom house only having one bathroom. Now THAT’s what we call horrible! (image via Paul McCarthy)

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Surreal Estate 7 Real Life Horror Movie Houses

Lumps of modeling clay in shades that match human flesh are globbed into the hollows of what should be faces in this series of portraits mixing photography with sculpture. Artist José Cardoso gets under the viewer’s skin with visuals that disturb and fascinate, perhaps prompting some to reach up and ensure that their own faces are still intact after checking out the entire collection.

Warped and distorted, with ragged edges, holes from poking fingers and glimpses of bone-like foreign objects embedded within, the Play-Doh takes the place of ordinary features, completely obscuring them or making it seem as if some careless child’s hand has ripped them away. There’s no hint of an attempt at modeling an actual representation of a face – just lumps. (The ones with bits of hair and dirt in the dough are especially cringe-worthy.)

The series is deliberately reminiscent of the special effects in old school horror movies, especially those of David Cronenberg, and it’s easy to see that influence here. As scary as they may have been at the time, when we look back at films like Naked Lunch, The Fly, Videodrome and Shivers we can see that they clearly made use of a whole lo to rubber and clay to achieve those gory effects. In comparison, Cardoso’s work is quite restrained, but its subtlety is startlingly effective.

Set against the New York City skyline, the house from Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho has never looked more out of place, elevated high above the treetops on the roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. British artist Cornelia Parker faithfully recreated the home from the 1960 horror classic as a summer addition to the Met’s rooftop garden, using wood and steel roofing reclaimed from a rural barn to give it that authentic dilapidated feel. The ‘PsychoBarn’ exhibit opened this week and will be in place through October 31st.

The artist took inspiration not just from the film, but also from the paintings of famed American artist Edward Hopper, whose ‘House By the Railroad’ is thought to have inspired Hitchcock’s vision for the Psycho house. Contrasting the charm of rural landscapes and vernacular architecture with one of the most modernized cities in America, Parker chose to keep the house a mere facade rather than fleshing it out in additional detail.

“I was very excited to find the original set from Psycho was only two flats, all propped up from behind, like a stage set would be, and it was filmed from a particular angle so you only saw the house, side on,” she says. “I’ve built the house in the same angle. I’ve tipped it into the corner, and then if you go around the back, you can see it’s all propped up and you realize it’s a facade. But I wanted it to be believable from this angle. So the roof garden becomes the garden of this house. So I like the idea of the private hedge around the Met roof. And then hunkering in the corner in this sinister house.”

The original Bates mansion still stands on the Universal Studios Hollywood backlot, but it has been expanded, renovated and rebuilt several times over since its original construction. There’s also a replica in Florida, and another in Nevada.  The A&E television series ’Bates Motel’ that’s currently in its fourth season films in British Columbia, where there’s yet another version of the original set – also just a facade.

Monster movies have a long and horrible past, full of rubber monster suits and endless damsels in distress. Despite the poor quality of the props, and the limited technology, movies like King Kong managed to make an indelible imprint on the modern consciousness… with a little claymation and a lot of screaming. Movie poster art is not as limited by technology, and these are some of the coolest classic monster movie posters.

Godzilla Attacks!

(Images via roberthood, magiccarpetburn, professorplastik, movieposter)

Godzilla has been the king of monster movies since Japan first strapped a guy into a giant rubber suit. Godzilla has battled giant, nefarious creatures from giant moths to a bionic clone. Sometimes destroying Japanese cities, but more often defending them (with a lot of collateral damage), Godzilla holds a permanent spot in any monster movie fan’s heart.

Aliens from Outer Space!

(Images via bakati, heworthmediastudies, comicmonsters)

Monsters from outer space have been a threat to small towns in America since cinema first took its first steps. The creatures are often wild looking, with oddly aggressive personalities, and the desire to kill anything and everything in their path.

Monster Marriages!

(Images via moviemorlocks, moviegoods, classicmoviemonsters)

In the past, people were terrified of accidentally marrying a ferocious beast. This fear carries with it some very interesting reflections on the society at the time.

Giants Wandering the Streets!

(Images via impawards, atthemovies, filmforno, bakati)

Monsters used to be gigantic. We still see vestiges of the giant monster craze, but in general, the previous generation was obsessed with giants rampaging through cities with reckless abandon. One of the favorite themes; the normal person who through some strange radioactivity, begins to grow… and grow… and grow… The modern equivalent is most likely the zombie hordes that slowly expand their numbers… mindlessly spreading into larger and larger hordes.

Animals Gone Wrong!

(Images via fridaynightboys300, webexpedition18, johneaves, fridaynightboys300)

Classic movie monsters often came from beneath the earth, or the darkest corners of the planet, that lay unexplored. These monsters were typically outrageously large hybrids between dinosaurs and modern creatures, or were simply mundane animals struck with just enough radiation to make them… change.

Terrifying Creatures!

(Images via darkroastedblend, drnorth, fridaynightboys300, robotvsbadger)

We’ve got to hand it to the early filmmakers – their creatures were creative. Giant roaming eyes, all consuming blobs, and odd looking creatures that crawled out of some dark hole populated the screen in some of the craziest incarnations you could think of.

The World’s Most Diabolical Creatures!

(Images via xiongdudu, ioffer, itthing, moviesoothsayer)

The true classic monsters: The Werewolf, Dracula, and Frankenstein’s Monster continue to be recycled and renewed to this day. These classic monsters stick with us because they capitalize on the huge variety of themes that can be drawn from them: man vs animal, death and immortality, technology and power.