Savini makeup school grad wins contest to spend 1st night in 'Buffalo Bill's House'
When Jeannette Milo was a student at Tom Savini’s makeup effects program in Monessen, she watched movies such as “Silence of the Lambs” with the goal of one day working on such a film.
Little did she know, a decade later, she’d be the first person to spend the night at the “Buffalo Bill House,” the Perryopolis home — now a sort of macabre bed-and-breakfast — where the film’s serial killer did his dirty work.
“I’m a huge horror fan,” said Milo, of Rock Tavern, N.Y. She graduated from the special-effects program in 2011 and said she couldn’t be more excited to have been chosen from 5,000 contest entrants to spend the night at the converted residence.
The 1910 Queen Anne Victorian-style home includes a wraparound porch, ornate dark wood-carved appointments, vintage patterned wallpaper, a parlor, multiple fireplaces and pocket doors.
“The whole house is gorgeous,” Milo said. “Even though I won the contest, I already have other friends I want to bring and, at some point, we’re going to bring more people and pay our way.”
Fans of the film will instantly recognize the Circle Street house’s front facade. And of course, just beyond the cozy kitchen featured in the film, there is a slightly less-ornate staircase leading down to the basement where Buffalo Bill had a young woman trapped at the bottom of a well.
But despite an ominous-looking ring on the basement floor, the scenes depicting Bill’s subterranean lair were filmed elsewhere.
That isn’t dampening Milo’s enthusiasm one bit.
“I really enjoy going to movie sets and locations, even if it’s a staircase where something was filmed. I visited the ‘Pet Sematary’ filming locations a few years back, and I have a picture in front of the ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ house.”
New York City native Chris Rowan, the new owner of Buffalo Bill’s House, has plans that include recreating the set with a replica of the well for fans to take pictures in, as well as installing Buffalo Bill’s “workshop of horrors” — complete with a sewing station and dressing mannequins, among other identifiable props from the 1991 Academy Award-winning thriller starring Jodie Foster as FBI Agent Clarice Starling and Sir Anthony Hopkins as Dr. Hannibal Lecter. Ted Levine played Buffalo Bill.
Milo said visiting former film sets “brings this level of excitement and nostalgia.”
“All of these movies helped shape who I am today,” she said. “It’s neat to be in the spots where they were filmed. Not only that, but this one is so close to my old school.”
For more, see BuffaloBillsHouse.com.
Patrick Varine is a TribLive reporter covering Delmont, Export and Murrysville. He is a Western Pennsylvania native and joined the Trib in 2010 after working as a reporter and editor with the former Dover Post Co. in Delaware. He can be reached at pvarine@triblive.com.
Remove the ads from your TribLIVE reading experience but still support the journalists who create the content with TribLIVE Ad-Free.