If you’ve ever seen Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Day of the Locust, or Blade Runner, then you’ve also seen the Ennis House. In the films, the property is used to depict a vampire mansion, a private residence, and an apartment building respectively. Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1923 and constructed in 1924, the home has made more than 80 onscreen appearances throughout its near century-long existence, according to the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. However, it was the home’s feature in House on Haunted Hill in 1959 that brought it into ghoulish acclaim.
“In just a minute, I’ll show you the only really haunted house in the world,” Watson Pritchard, played by Elisha Cook Jr., says in the movie. “Since it was built a century ago, seven people—including my brother—have been murdered in it.” The film’s plot follows five people who are promised $10,000 each if they can spend the whole night in the eerie property, which is “played” by the Ennis House.
“It’s a really modern house, yet it uses ancient forms,” said Michael Wyetzner, architect at Michielli + Wyetzner Architects, in the newest episode of Blueprints, a YouTube series for AD. In the video, Wyetzner breaks down the Ennis House’s role in House on Haunted Hill, as well as the role of five other properties featured in horror films. “It doesn’t have a very domestic scale, it almost looks like it could be a museum or other type of religious building,” he said.
Of course, though large, it was designed as a residential property. Located in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles, Wright designed the home in the early ’20s for Charles and Mabel Ennis, owners of a local men’s clothing store. The home is one of four that makes use of Wright’s textile block system, which is constructed from precast, interlocked concrete blocks. Designed in a trabeated style, the home lacks curves, arches, vaults, and domes and is heavily inspired by Mayan architecture. As such, many have classified the home as a Mayan Revival.
Drawing from the Mayan-design vernacular, the home looks older than it is—in the 1959 film Pritchard says the home was built “a century ago,” despite only being 35 years old at the time. Aside from its deceptive age, the house has two other important qualities that make it the perfect horror home: It sits on a hill (which is not just a nod to the film’s title) and features a deep, high roof. These two qualities have become commonplace in homes used in horror films and were made famous in what Wyetzner calls “the iconic house of horrors”: the Bates’s home in Psycho.
Inspired by Edward Hopper’s 1925 painting House by the Railroad, the Bates’s home “sets the stage for houses of horror in film,” Wyetzner explains. Also sitting on a hill and featuring a tall mansard roof, this specific architectural detail implies that “there’s a big deep attic within, and who knows what goes on there,” Wyetzner said. Over time, these two elements became commonplace in horror homes, and, as such, can been seen in many other classic films, such as the house in Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice and The Overlook Hotel in The Shining.
Of course, the Ennis House also makes appearances in non-haunted roles—an animated version was even created for an episode of South Park. The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation credits the property’s exoticism to its lasting Hollywood appeal. Additionally, its proximity to Tinseltown, the unique ability to look both ancient and modern, and its grand scale make it a special piece of LA real estate. To watch Wyetzner break down the history and architecture of other iconic horror homes, check out the newest episode of Blueprints.
