For Friday the 13th, "The Silence of the Lambs" house is open for tours

PERRYOPOLIS, Pa. (KDKA) — It's been 33 years since the Academy Award-winning film "The Silence of the Lambs" came out, but this weekend, you can get a thrill and maybe even a chill by touring one of its legendary filming locations.

While western Pennsylvania has had many great movies filmed in and around its region, no film has won more awards or has had more acclaim than 1991's "The Silence of the Lambs," the story of a young FBI cadet who enlists the help of a calculating cannibal killer to catch a serial killer named Buffalo Bill.

Chris Rowan, a professional art director for film and TV, has owned and operated the Buffalo Bill house in Perryopolis as a themed Airbnb and as a "The Silence of the Lambs" museum since 2020. On rare occasions, like this weekend, he opens his movie home to the public.

"The thing that people seem to love most about Buffalo Bills' house is the attention to detail and that they are actually walking in the steps of where one of the most iconic films of all time was made," said Rowan.

Rowan acts as a docent for each tour, walking people through the history of the house and its parts in the film. There are plenty of ways for guests to get pictures and videos and even reenact a favorite scene or two, like Agent Clarice Starling drawing a gun on Bill in the dining room or being trapped in a recreated well in the house's basement.

These tours, which cost about $69 a person, attract people from all walks of life and from locations both near and far. Mark Smith and his wife drove all the way to Buffalo Bill's house from Toronto, Canada.

Smith says that "The Silence of the Lambs" was the first movie he and his wife saw when they first started dating and in an odd way, he says this house is kind of sentimental to them.

"I really enjoyed the fact that we could see the house and you could drive by it and you knew exactly what it was and where you were," said Smith. "I really liked seeing the train tracks over here and you could actually get a sense of the scene in the movie where it all came out. So, it is just a really an enjoyable experience."

Tours run about two hours in length and will be available this Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 14-15 from 10 a.m.-12 p.m., 1 p.m.- 3 p.m. and 4 p.m.-6 p.m. on Saturday.

Rowan will also be offering tours on Halloween weekend, Friday, Oct. 25-27 as well. For tours and ticket information, click here.