A House to Die For: “What Lies Beneath”

by HOOKEDONHOUSES on OCTOBER 18, 2009

Welcome to Movie Monday, when I feature the houses from our favorite films. Scary movies just aren’t my thing (I mean, I’m so jumpy, I’ve been known to scream when someone comes up behind me too fast!), but I made it all the way through What Lies Beneath, simply because I couldn’t take my eyes off the house.

Filming began in 1999 in Addison, Vermont, on the banks of Lake Champlain. Screenwriter Clark Gregg says he had always envisioned Claire and Norman Spencer living in Burlington, Vermont, which is an academic community like the one Norman is a part of.

The location was perfect except for one thing: they needed a house. So production designers Rick Carter and Jim Teegarden worked with director Bob Zemeckis to design the 3,500-square-foot Nantucket-style shingled house, which was constructed from the ground up (and, sadly, torn down after filming).

Zemeckis says the house had to work on two levels: it had to look like a kind of dream house in the sunlight, but when the shadows or light hit it a certain way, it would turn ominous.

According to the production notes on the DVD special features, they then duplicated both the exterior and interior on soundstages in L.A.

Michelle Pfeiffer and Harrison Ford play Claire and Norman Spencer, a beautiful, happily married couple who have just moved into this old house in Vermont and renovated it. It was Norman’s late father’s house, who died and left the house to them. So at first when strange things start happening, they think it might be his ghost. Norman jokes that maybe he doesn’t like the changes they made to the house.

Oh, if only it had been his father’s ghost rattling around!

Normally when I see a haunted-house type of movie, I wonder why they don’t get out of there. I mean, I’d have my bags packed so fast you wouldn’t believe it. But in this case, I might consider cohabiting with the ghost. It would be hard to leave this place.

A little garden on the side of the house, where Michelle Pfeiffer goes to ponder things when she gets a little freaked out:

The front door keeps opening on its own. That’s never a good sign.

Looking down the front hall from the door:

Later in the movie, when things get worse (I’ll try not to spoil anything here), we get a view of the hall from the floor. Love that bench and the umbrella stand:

Looking down into Norman’s study:

Claire steps into Norman’s study. She keeps trying to tell him there’s something strange going on in the house, but he’s a scientist who doesn’t believe in things like ghosts. He sends her to a psychiatrist to get help.

The living room has a view of the water:

I wish we could have seen more of the kitchen. We only got a couple of brief glimpses into it:

Norman carries Claire upstairs:

The sets don’t look dated ten years later. The upstairs hallway:

Claire’s daughter Caitlin’s bedroom. After they drop her off at college, Claire spends most days alone in the house (if you don’t count the ghost):

Claire and Norman’s bedroom:

I tried to get a shot of the round windowseat in the bedroom, but this is the best I could do:

The bathroom, where at least 75% of the truly scream-worthy things happen. I may never take a bath again:

They did so much filming in this bathroom that they created five different versions of it for the movie. Michelle Pfeiffer says that it was hard not to laugh sometimes because she could hear the crew in the bathroom noisily filling the bathtub and setting things up for her to walk in and be scared by, but she had to pretend not to notice.

Claire and her friend pull out the Ouija board to see if it will tell them anything:

A view of the house at dusk from the dock:

At the end of the movie, it’s a dark and stormy night…and you know that never bodes well:

Halloween month is coming to an end next week with a post about the Victorian home inPractical Magic–one of my all-time favorites. Earlier this month we looked at Samantha’s house from the “Bewitched” TV series and Nicole Kidman’s cottage in the movie version.

Go to TV/Movie Houses for links to all of the ones I’ve featured so far, from Brothers & Sisters to Sex and the City.

You might also like:

Harrison Ford’s Waterfront Home in “Firewall”

“Funny Farm:” Chevy Chase’s Cape Cod in the Country

The Bowen Island Dream House from “The Uninvited”

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The Long Island Estate in “Sabrina”

by HOOKEDONHOUSES on JANUARY 25, 2009

Welcome to Movie Monday, when I feature the sets from films that we love for the fabulous houses in them. Today I’m showing you photos from the 1995 romantic comedy “Sabrina,” with Harrison Ford and Julia Ormond. Sabrina lives over the garage on the Larrabee estate with her father, who is the family chauffeur. (Their stone cottage is charming, too, as you’ll see.) She’s got a crush on David Larrabee, the younger son, but he doesn’t seem to know she exists.

After Sabrina returns from an internship at Paris Vogue–now grown up, gorgeous, and glam–she finally turns his head. But David’s older brother Linus (Harrison Ford) is determined to keep them apart so that David will go ahead with his engagement to a billionaire’s daughter. As Linus spends more time with Sabrina, however, he finds himself falling in love with her and has to reconsider the belief that money is the only thing in life worth fighting for.

An aerial view of the Larrabee estate (above). It really does look like something out of a fairy tale in this photo (below):

There’s an outdoor pool:

And an indoor pool:

Indoor tennis courts, and outdoor tennis courts (I took these photos while watching the movie, which is why there are some names from the credits on some of them):

A solarium:

Sabrina inside the solarium at night, waiting for David to meet her (but he never arrives):

The main hall of the house:

Sabrina–before her Parisian makeover and looking an awful lot like Ugly Betty with a bad wig and giant glasses–sneaks into the house, intent on finding David and saying goodbye before leaving for her internship in France:

Love the porthole window as in the stairway:

The upstairs landing:

David’s room, where Sabrina goes to confess her love to him, only to realize it is Linus with his back to her in the closet:

David Larrabee (Greg Kinnear in his first major acting role–he was known as the host of “Talk Soup” on the E! Channel before this) in the pool room:

Linus schemes to keep David away from Sabrina, fearing that a broken engagement will mean a broken merger between the two families:

Linus greets Sabrina at the back door. You can see a view of the water in the distance:

Linus argues with David in the library, insisting that he stay away from Sabrina:

Another view of the library, when David introduces his fiancee Elizabeth (Lauren Holly) to his mother Maude (Nancy Marchand–also known as Tony Soprano’s mom) and Linus:

Another view of the round window, from above:

The upstairs landing where David’s nurse is posted while he recovers from an unfortunate incident with a couple of champagne glasses:

The servants in the kitchen (note Paul Giamatti on the right–now known as John Adams–in a part so small that if you blink, you miss him!):

I just love the way they designed this kitchen to look like it’s been around for decades:

Sabrina has lived with her father in the stone cottage above the garage her entire life:

Tom took the job as a chauffeur because it gave him plenty of time to read. His home is filled with books:

Sabrina’s father, Tom (John Wood), crosses the reflecting pond in front of the stone cottage they live in:

Sabrina’s room:

Note the Dutch door on the left:

Another shot of Sabrina’s room as she unpacks from Paris:

To get Sabrina away from David, Linus flies her to their vacation home on Martha’s Vineyard on the pretext of hiring her to take photos of it before he puts it on the market:

The table is set for a romantic lunch that Linus hopes will help Sabrina forget all about his younger brother:

This movie is full of eye candy, from the Larrabee estate to the stone cottage over the garage and this charming vacation home on Martha’s Vineyard. If you could live in any one of them, which would you choose?

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that the original movie version of “Sabrina,” which premiered in 1954 and featured Audrey Hepburn in the title role, is also a fun one to watch.

Visit my TV/Movie Houses page for links to all the others I’ve featured.

You might also like:

Jennifer Lopez Has a New Job and a New House

Meadowbrook Farm: A New Kitchen With Vintage Appeal

This Bainbridge Island Home Comes With Indoor Treehouse

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