MovieChat Forums > Helter Skelter (2004) Discussion > FILMING LOCATIONS

FILMING LOCATIONS

posted 17 years ago by james-1786
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Anybody out there know or have any idea of where the house is located? The house in question being the tate house used in this film, I think the house looked perfect for the film. There are a couple of small details that aren't realistic, like there is no swimming pool at the house, and the driveway looked totally different at the real location(and also the gate.) Overall though a well picked location for the Tate house.

The Labianca house in the film does resemble the real house, or am I being naive and it is the real one? I have seen plenty of pictures of the real house and it has a long, curved and sloping driveway. I have not yet watched Helter Skelter with the director's commentary on, which might actually provide me with the information I am after. Any help appreciated.

[–] dbitz7958 8 years ago

I don't have information on the homes used for the Tate or Labianca homes for this movie, but I do know the location used for the Spahn Movie Ranch. They used the Western town set at the Rancho Maria/Sable Ranch location, which I believe was destroyed by the big wildfire in that area in summer of 2016. http://www.movielocationsplus.com/RANMARIA.HTM

The old Hertz-built Western town at Paramount Ranch, not yet part of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area in 1976, was used as the defunct Spahn Movie Ranch in the original Helter Skelter tv movie. HBO had made over the Paramount Ranch Western set into a Depression-era town for its series, Carnivale, and the set had not yet been returned to a Western town look at the time that this 2004 version of Helter Skelter was filmed, which is probably why Paramount Ranch wasn't used.

Since then, Paramount Ranch has stood in for the Spahn Ranch again. Much of the 2016 Lifetime Channel tv movie, Manson's Lost Girls, was shot in the Western town in 2015. The four final season 2 episodes of the NBC series, Aquarius, again featured Paramount Ranch's Western town as Spahn Ranch. They shot in spring of 2016, just before HBO returned to the ranch to film segments for their sci-fi series, Westworld, and made changes to the town.

Don Bitz, Paramount Ranch Historian