WQED Digital Docs | Buffalo Bill's House | Season 2022

(suspenseful music) - "Silence of the Lambs" is an extremely important seminal film of the last 30 years, and regarded of all time. The film is shot almost exclusively, but not in its entirety, in the Pittsburgh region.

(suspenseful music) - "Silence of the Lambs" is an extremely important seminal film of the last 30 years, and regarded of all time.

The film is shot almost exclusively, but not in its entirety, in the Pittsburgh region.

Real horror fans know that Pittsburgh is generally regarded as the horror capital of America.

(suspenseful music) My name's Chris Rowan, and I'm the owner of Buffalo Bill's House, the real home where the "Silence of the Lambs" was filmed.

(suspenseful music) Buffalo Bill's House was built in 1910.

It was featured in climactic finale of the 1991 Academy Award-winning film, "The Silence of the Lambs", and they shot the last 20 minutes or so of the movie all throughout the exteriors and interiors of this home.

"Silence of the Lambs" is a tale of Jody Foster's character, Clarice Starling, playing an FBI trainee.

They are on the trail of a killer named Buffalo Bill, played by Ted Levine.

She does meet Hannibal Lecter, played by Anthony Hopkins, who is a known cannibal and murderer, and she's trying to get him to release information about Buffalo Bill as she tracks him down.

Buffalo Bill is definitely my favorite character in the film.

The portrayal of just such a chilling, dark representation of what a serial killer may very well be like in real life.

(upbeat music) The first primary focus of Buffalo Bill's House is for overnight accommodations.

So we can sleep up to eight guests at once inside the home.

The home has four bedrooms inside it.

All four bedrooms are themed after each of the major characters.

So we have the Buffalo Bill Suite, the Hannibal Bedroom, the Clarice Bedroom, and the Precious Bedroom.

Of course, Precious, the puppy is a Buffalo Bill's dog.

We also have a beautiful grand foyer, dining room, kitchen, as well as a parlor room and a living room.

Upstairs on the third floor, we have a vintage game room we affectionately call Buffalo Bill's Playhouse.

And then we rolled out our guided tour format, as well.

I take them around and show them where the filming locations were, give them a history of the home.

- A census taker once tried to test me.

I ate his liver with some farmer beans and a nice Chianti.

(mechanical noise) - They also get to recreate the iconic scenes like the dining room.

- Freeze!

(laughing) (upbeat music) - [Chris] And the Workshop of Horrors.

(upbeat music) - Absolutely love it.

- Love it.

- The props that they use, the scenarios that they set up.

I actually felt that we were actually in the movie, "Silence of the Lambs".

- It's from the bedrooms being themed of each character to the basement to the well.

Yeah, very cool.

(upbeat music) - We actually recreated the well from the movie, which is really awesome.

(upbeat music) I'm very appreciative that in the first year of operation that we have been given really, really over-the-top great reviews.

(upbeat music) - I was to get four or five friends together.

I would probably say we'll probably book at least a couple nights to stay here and just experience the whole house.

(upbeat music) - If you have any love of suspenseful horror movies, come here.

This is just awesome.

(upbeat music) - And I think that "Silence of the Lambs" has maintained its interest in pop culture.

I think it'll always be a favorite amongst real cinema buffs.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues)

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