Topanga filming locations – IAMNOTASTALKER

Right next door to Pat’s Topanga Grill, which I blogged about on Tuesday, is an oft-filmed-at residence known as Kelly Gulch. Fellow stalker Mike, from MovieShotsLA, had mentioned the property to me back in early December while the two of us were in the midst of our hunt for the Topanga Canyon house where Paula (Sissy Spacek) lived in Four Christmases (which I blogged about here). Because Kelly Gulch has been featured in countless productions over the years (far more than I could ever chronicle in a single blog post), including fave show Parks and Recreation, he thought it might be a good location for me to stalk. So I did just that, late last December, right after the Grim Cheaper and I grabbed breakfast at Pat’s.

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Kelly Gulch was constructed by Michelene (who goes by Mike) and Frank Kelly in 1978. The couple had moved from Los Angeles to Topanga Canyon with their two young children in 1970. Quickly realizing that their 750-square-foot bungalow was not large enough for a family of four, they wound up purchasing an 8.5-acre plot of oak-shaded, creek-side land, that Frank had found in the classified ads, for $20,000 in 1976. Two years later, Frank started building a picturesque three-bedroom log cabin, from a “Real Log Homes” kit, on the site. The residence, which they dubbed “Kelly Gulch”, took a year to complete. A detached one-room writer’s studio and a large, two-story, 1,152-square-foot, standalone barn that doubled as a workshop/studio apartment soon followed.

Fate took a hand in 1984 when a location scout stopped by a Topanga Canyon real estate office looking for a log cabin in which to shoot Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter. The real estate agent pointed him in the direction of Kelly Gulch and the rest is history. According to a Topanga Messenger article, a whopping two hundred productions have since been lensed at the remote residence! Its most famous appearance, though, remains in Friday the 13th. In fact, due to that appearance, in which it stood in for the Jarvis family home, the property has become a landmark of sorts to horror film buffs.

Both the interior and the exterior of the cabin were used extensively in Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter and, according to the same Topanga Messenger article, filming on the premises took a full three months to complete!

The large Victorian house located next to the Jarvis home in the movie was just a prop building that was constructed for the shoot.

In mid-2012, the Kellys decided that they needed to move to a place with less upkeep and put their beloved Topanga cabin on the market for $1.675 million. They subsequently moved to the seaside city of Camarillo. According to Redfin (on which you can check out some fabulous interior photographs of the home), Kelly Gulch was sold on December 31st, 2012 for $1,515,000. When asked by the Messenger if she would miss being a part of regular filmings, Mike said, “Not really. There were 14- to 16-hour days and Frank and I could never leave the property during a shoot. As we’ve gotten older, we couldn’t do it anymore.” And even though hundreds of celebrities have set foot inside her home over the years, she stated, “The only thing that ever impressed me was the check.” LOL

The property seems so incredibly rural and remote, it is hard to believe it is located on a bustling canyon road right next door to a restaurant.

Sadly though, as you can see below, not much of it is visible from the street.

The gate, which looks like something from a movie set (and who knows – it might be! Winking smile ), was pretty darn cool to see, though.

In 1986, the cabin popped up in Murphy’s Law as the home of Ben Wilcove (Bill Henderson), where Jack Murphy (Charles Bronson) and Arabella McGee (Kathleen Wilhoite) sought refuge.

The interior was also utilized in the filming.

The Friday the 13th franchise returned to Kelly Gulch to film a few brief scenes for the 1998 sequel titled Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood. Although the majority of the flick was lensed in Alabama, the scene in which Robin (Elizabeth Kaitan) is killed was filmed at the Topanga residence. You can check out a photograph of the room that segment was shot in here.

According to the Camp Blood website, Kelly Gulch was also used in the scene in which Jason is shown looking up at the house. You can see a photograph of that particular angle of the house here.

Kelly Gulch was where the group of teenaged campers hid out after accidentally killing Billy Harley (Matthew Hurley) in 1989’s Pumpkinhead.

The interior of the cabin was used in the filming, as well.

In 1994’s My Girl 2, the residence is where Vada Sultenfuss (Anna Chlumsky) tracked down her mom’s first husband, Jeffrey Pommeroy (JD Souther).

A different interior was used in the filming, though.

In the 1996 movie Eraser, the cabin was where a federal witness named Allison hid out and was later murdered.

The interior of the residence was used in the filming of that movie, as well.

In the 2000 thriller Ed Gein (a true story that inspired the movie Psycho), the cabin was where the Anderson family lived.

The interior was also used in the movie.

Kelly Gulch was where the body of Jessica Garner (Elena Fabri) was found in the Season 2 episode of Medium titled “Judge, Jury and Executioner”, which aired in 2005.

In 2008, the cabin was where Vincent Chase (Adrian Grenier), Eric Murphy (Kevin Connolly), Johnny ‘Drama’ Chase (Kevin Dillon), and Turtle (cutie Jerry Ferrara – sigh!) were put up during the filming of Vince’s new movie Smokejumpers in the Season 5 episode of Entourage titled “Pie”.

The interior also appeared in the episode.

In the Season 2 episode of Parks and Recreation titled “Hunting Trip”, which aired in 2009, Kelly Gulch stood in for the Slippery Elm Park ranger station where Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman) hosted his annual hunting trip – and got shot in the head.

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

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for telling me about this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Kelly Gulch, from the “Hunting Trip” episode of Parks and Recreation, is located at 1801 North Topanga Canyon Boulevard in Topanga Canyon.

One location that I was absolutely desperate to find in time for this year’s Haunted Hollywood posts was the isolated house where Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) lived in Scream 3. I knew from the flick’s Wikipedia page that the residence was located somewhere in the Topanga area, but other than that, I had very little to go on. Then, last week, on a whim, I decided to peruse through Malibu Locations, my favorite filming location database, to see if the property was featured on it and, as luck would have it, it was! From there I enlisted the help of Mike, from MovieShotsLA, who is much better at tracking down locales than I am, and, thanks to some good, old-fashioned elbow grease, he was able to find the abode in just a few short hours! Yay! So I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk the place just a few days later.

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Sadly though, when we arrived, we discovered that Sidney’s house is located on a private road and, aside from a few signs warning that trespassers will be prosecuted and a set of five mailboxes (apparently not even mail carriers are allowed on that street!), is not at all visible to the public. I was so hoping to at least be able to see and pose in front of the large wooden gate that was shown in the movie, but, alas, that was not to be. Boo! So even though this stalk was a bit of a let-down, because the location is one that many people seem to be looking for, I figured it was definitely still worthy of a blog post.

According to the Reel Scout website, in real life, Sidney’s abode, which sits on three parcels of land and boasts three separate dwellings, is known as Windwalk Ranch and it consists of forty private acres, a water tank, a corral, a barn, and a ranch house (which I believe is the building that appeared in Scream 3). And I just about fell over when I discovered, thanks to the Berg Properties website, that the residence has belonged to none other than actor Rick Schroder – my girl Pinky Lovejoy’s first Hollywood crush – since 2005.

Because Windwalk Ranch contains so many different structures on such a vast piece of land, I was unable to discern from aerial views exactly which dwelling was used in Scream 3. I am fairly certain, though, that it is the barely-visible building denoted with an orange arrow below, although the roof line appears to be a bit different than the roof line that is shown in the Malibu Locations images.

Sidney’s house shows up quite a few times in Scream 3, most prominently towards the beginning of the flick. And while I was not able to take a photograph of the residence for comparison purposes, you can check one out here. As you can see, the structure still looks pretty much exactly the same in real life as it did onscreen over a decade ago.

The jury is still out on whether the actual interior of the property was used in the filming, though. While some of the interior of the real life house matches up to what appeared onscreen, some definitely does not. Areas of the house that do match up include the barn-like interior doors (which you can see real life pictures of here and here;

the positioning of the kitchen window (which you can see a real life photograph of here);

the positioning, shape and size of the living room window (which you can see a real life photograph of here);

and the brick wall behind the fireplace (which, as you can see in this picture, is painted white in real life).

The areas that do not match up include the hallway behind the kitchen. As you can see in the screen captures below and this real life photograph of the house, Sidney’s house had a stairway and small window behind the kitchen, while the actual house features a glass-paneled door.

Sidney’s front door is in a different place, as well, as you can see in this real life photograph of the house as compared to the screen capture below. In the movie, the front door is flush with the wall that runs perpendicular to the kitchen, but in real life the front door is situated on the wall that faces the kitchen.

What really does not make sense, though, is that in the scene in which Dewey Riley (David Arquette) proposed to Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox), the exterior of the front door is shown and it also does not match up to the positioning of the home’s real life front door, which you can see photographs of here and here. Color me so confused! Either a set very closely resembling the actual home was used for all interior (and, quite possibly, front porch) filming or the residence has been quite drastically remodeled since Scream 3 was filmed in 1999. I would lean toward the set option, except for the fact that only a few scenes took place inside of Sidney’s home and I cannot imagine producers building a set for so few scenes. Not to mention that the real life interior of both Runyon Ranch (which I blogged about here) and the Canfield-Moreno Estate (which I blogged about here) were used in the flick. So I really am torn. What are your thoughts, my fellow stalkers?

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for finding this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Sidney’s house from Scream 3 is located at 21914 Goldstone Road in Topanga. The residence is located on a private street and is not at all visible or accessible to the public.

Tag: Topanga filming locations

Kelly Gulch from “Parks and Recreation”

Sidney’s House from “Scream 3”