The Beckett House from “Delusion: The Blood Rite”

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Way back in February, fellow stalker David, of The Location Scout blog, wrote a comment on my post about the Milbank Mansion, the interior of which was used as the inside of the Finch home in Running with Scissors, informing me that the exterior shots of the Finch residence were filmed at the Beckett house in the West Adams District.  David also let me know that the Beckett house had appeared in quite a few B-movies from the ‘80s, most of them of the horror genre.  And while I did add the place to my To-Stalk list, for whatever reason, I never ventured out there.  Then, a couple of weeks ago, I spotted the mansion in a Season 2 episode of Lie to Me (the Grim Cheaper and I just finished watching the entire series on DVD and absolutely fell in love with it – I am seriously bummed that it was cancelled!) and decided that I had to stalk the place as soon as possible.  So I dragged the GC right on over there, just in time for my Haunted Hollywood postings.

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The Beckett house was originally built in 1905 for Dr. Wesley W. Beckett and his wife, Iowa Archer.  Dr. Beckett was a member of the board of trustees at USC and the namesake of the school’s Beckett Hall.  According to commenter “KWB” on the Big Orange Landmarks blog (where you can read a fabulously detailed history of the residence), the doctor lived on the premises until his death in 1936.  You can see a photograph of the home around the time that it was originally constructed here.  It is amazing to me that, despite its severely dilapidated state, it still looks almost exactly the same today as it did over one hundred years ago.  In 1981, the property apparently suffered a destructive fire on its top floors and while the then owners, thankfully, restored it, the mansion has since been left to deteriorate.  Today, the home, which very much looks like a real life haunted house, is vacant and is used primarily for filming.

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The Beckett house, which was designated a Los Angeles Historic–Cultural Monument in 1973, boasts 6 bedrooms, 4 baths, a whopping 5,415 square feet, and a 0.54-acre plot of land.  You can check out some fabulous interior photographs of the mansion here.  While some of the inside is in serious need of TLC, the majority of it is in far better shape than what the exterior would lead one to believe.  Despite the decay, it is easy to see that the place must have been magnificent in its heyday!

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As luck would have it, when we showed up to stalk the place, we happened to spot a man who was building some sort of elaborate scenery piece in the side yard.  We got to talking with him and he informed us that he was setting up for an interactive Halloween-themed theatre production known as “Delusion: The Blood Rite“ that was going to be held at the mansion for the second year in a row.  How incredibly cool is that?  The 2011 play, which was simply titled “Delusion”, was named “Best Haunted Attraction” by FOX LA and “Hottest Ticket in L.A.” by NPR’s All Things Considered.  Actor Neil Patrick Harris saw the show twice last October and loved it so much that he is actually co-producing it this year.  Um, love it!

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The Beckett House (8 of 9)

The play (which looks to be scaaaaaaaaaaary!) is currently running through November 10th.  You can purchase tickets here and you can watch a video about it by clicking below.

Delusion play

Due to its marred appearance, the home has long been a favorite of location scouts seeking decrepit or spooky locales.  As I mentioned above, the exterior of the property was used as the exterior of the mansion where the crazy Dr. Finch (Brian Cox) lived with his even crazier family in 2006’s Running with Scissors.  As you can see below, the facade was painted Pepto-Bismol pink for the movie.

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Thanks to The Official Halloween Message Board, I learned that the upstairs portion of the Beckett house was used as the upstairs of the home where the young Michael Meyers (Daeg Faerch) lived in Rob Zombie’s 2007 Halloween re-boot.  Several areas of the abode appeared in the movie, including a bedroom (which you can see a real life photograph of here) that stood in for the bedroom of Judith Meyers (Hannah Hall, who also played “Young Jenny” in Forest Gump);

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another bedroom (which you can see a real life photograph of here) that was used as Michael’s room;

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a bathroom (which you can see a real life photograph of here);

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a hallway (which you can see a real life photograph of here);

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another bedroom (which you can see a real life photograph of here) that was used as the bedroom of Baby Boo (who was played by Sydnie Pitzer, Myla Pitzer and Stella Altman);

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a back stairway (which you can see a real life photograph of here);

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and the basement (which you can see a real life photograph of here).  It was rather difficult to get a decent screen capture of the basement as the scene shot there was far too dark, but in the image below you can see that the small rounded windows that appeared in the movie match the home’s actual basement windows.

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The living room of the Beckett house also masqueraded as the Strode family’s living room in the flick.  You can see a real life photograph of that room here.

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Thanks to Geoff, of the 90210Locations website, I learned that the Season 3 episode of Brothers and Sisters titled “Going Once . . . Going Twice”, which aired in 2008, featured the Beckett house as the bank-owned residence that Kevin Walker (Matthew Rhys) purchased as a surprise for his boyfriend, Scotty Wandell (Luke MacFarlane).

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The interior of the property was also used in the episode.

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The Beckett house was also shown in a real estate listing in the episode . . .

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. . . and in an auction image, which stated that the property was located in Pasadena.

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Both the exterior . . .

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. . . and the interior of the house were also used extensively in the 2008 music video for Robert Plant and Allison Krause’s song “Please Read the Letter”.

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You can watch that video by clicking below.

The Beckett House from the “Please Read the Letter” Music Video

In the Season 2 episode of Lie to Me titled “Darkness and Light”, which aired in 2010, Dr. Cal Lightman (Tom Roth) tracks a missing and troubled young woman named Molly (Natalie Dreyfuss) to the dilapidated old mansion where she has been living with several other downtrodden girls.

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The interior of the home also appeared in the episode.

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Mike, from MovieShotsLA, informed me that the mansion was also used as the frat house where Emma Kurtzman (Natalie Portman) and Adam Franklin (Ashton Kutcher) met for the second time in the 2011 romantic comedy No Strings Attached.

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As you can see below, though, a different location was used for the interior of the frat house.

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The Beckett house was also featured in 1988’s Twice Dead, 1989’s The Immortalizer, 1992’s Evil Toons, 2000’s The Convent, 2001’s The Attic Expeditions, and 2005’s Lethal Eviction, all of which you can read about and see screen captures from on The Location Scout blog here.

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You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER.  And be sure to check out my latest post, about one of the best salads I’ve ever had in my life, on my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

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Big THANK YOU to David, from The Location Scout blog, for telling me about this location!  Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: The Beckett house, from “Delusion: The Blood Rite”, is located at 2218 South Harvard Boulevard in the West Adams District of Los Angeles.  The play will be running through November 10th and tickets are $45 per person.  You can visit the official “Delusion: The Blood Rite” website here.

14 Replies to “The Beckett House from “Delusion: The Blood Rite””

  1. It’s weird nobody has mentioned that it is directly across the street from th Thomas W. Phillips house, which is known from the Wes Craven movie The People Under the Stairs. I formerly lived in Los Angeles so I took my girlfriend on a trip to LA and took her to the house as we’re both huge fans of the movie. West Adams is relatively sketchy. We were followed by a resident of the block somewhat while taking a picture in front of the house. I’d only advise checking it out in daylight. Nonetheless, it was an awesome experience. Definitely something to see while checking out the Beckett house considering you literally just have to turn around to see it.

  2. This house is the main location for the recent 20th Century Women with Annette Benning. Only the side of the house is shown in exteriors. In one scene, you can briefly spot the house from People Under The Stairs across the street.

  3. I live down the block from this house they’re always filming there they filmed neighbors there they used it as the frat house and it recently came out on an episode of Stichers on abc family …

  4. Its my birthday on the 5th of august ill be 51 and its a site that ill never forget .every house on the block has a history of its to talk about. What a cool birthday present thank you los angeles.i love living here.

  5. Since you mentioned having the DVD to Lie To Me, Did you ever discover the fire station location in the 5th episode of Lie To Me, ‘Unchained’ ? It was not on the FOX lot and not an actual fire station but a warehouse dressed as one. I know who provided the fire apparatus but he does not remember.

  6. I was cast in a film called “Little Goat” that was shot inside the James Fitzgerald house in May of 2013. I played an Edwardian Los Angeles businessman-buying teenage “street urchin” girls off a stage in the front parlor. The film is listed on my IMDB page, and as of this writing (February 7th, A.D. 2014) has been recently submitted to several film festivals-will be featured soon at one in Austin, Texas…The entire film revolves around the Fitzgerald house…Here’s my IMDB: Jim Mitchell XXXII

  7. Wow… I really like that house. This location was intriguing enough that I decided to poke around the area via Street View and I ended up finding a really amazing house nearby. Check out this address on Street View and tell me how awesome that house would look in a movie! 3118 West Adams Blvd. Los Angeles, CA
    (link: http://goo.gl/maps/ulVRH)

    1. OMG that’s the Fitzgerald house! I’ve stalked it, but have yet to do a blog on it. Isn’t it spooky?? Love that house. 🙂 You should also check out the Rindge Mansion at 2263 S. Harvard. My husband and I spotted it while driving to the Beckett house and had to stop to take some pics. I haven’t had time to do any research on it yet, but it HAS to have been in movies.

      1. Thanks for the shout-out!

        It would be neat to attend that Haunted Attraction they hold in the house. There is a promotional video online with Neal Patrick Harris on the front porch. Also, loved the “Plan-It Locations” interior pictures! I had never seen those before. The creepy headless statues in the backyard are a nice touch, LOL!

        As for the Fitzgerald house, it was actually the primary setting for the cheesy low-budget horror film “The Hazing”. I have a few screencaps from the film on my blog (taken from the trailer on YouTube). Not sure if the house has made any other on-screen appearances, but I would be interested in finding out. Plus, it is located right next to the Auguste Marquis Residence (aka Fishers & Sons Funeral Home from “Six Feet Under”).

        Also, the Rindge Mansion is stunning! I’d be curious to know if it has made any on-screen appearances.

        1. Wow… that trailer for “The Hazing” does scream cheesy all right. But the house looks great! Thanks for the tip. There are so many interesting houses in the area…. Here’s another one just down the street: 2301 W. 24th St. (The South Seas House) which is owned by the City of LA. and was almost demolished around 1995. Good story about how it was saved in the LA Times from that time.
          (link: http://articles.latimes.com/1995-04-22/local/me-57529_1_south-seas-house)

          1. Also directly across the street from the Beckett house sits another gem. The former home of the first black academy award winner, Hattie McDaniel from Gone With The Wind. Her house sits on the corner at 2203 S. Harvard Blvd. She sued for the rights of african americans to become homeowners and won of course.

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