The staircase Sarah Michelle Gellar runs up to escape Ghostface in Scream 2 is the same one Vinessa Shaw walks down as Alison in Hocus Pocus. Both productions filmed at the Crank House in Altadena, California, which supplied the interiors of Alison’s home and played the Omega Beta Zeta sorority house.
In Hocus Pocus (1993), Alison’s wealthy family hosts a Halloween party with a French aristocrat theme. By Scream 2 (1997), the setting has become the house where Gellar’s Cici Cooper stays behind as the “sober sister,” watching The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) while her housemates are out.
She initially mistakes Ghostface’s calls for her boyfriend Ted’s. The encounter ends with Cici being stabbed and thrown from an attic balcony.
Also known as Fair Oaks Ranch, the Victorian house was built in 1882 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Its screen appearances extend beyond those 2 Halloween favorites: it also played Miss Trunchbull’s home in Matilda (1996), the Strong family’s home in Catch Me if You Can (2002), and the Bartlett family farm in The West Wing.
