House of horrors from Silence of the Lambs returns to the market

The house from The Silence of the Lambs has hit the property market ahead of Halloween, less than five years after it last changed hands.

The property in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – which was home to serial killer Buffalo Bill in the Academy Award-winning film – has been listed for $US298,500 ($413,000).

The three-story Princess Anne Victorian sits on a huge block spanning more than 7120 square metres, alongside a railway line and the Youghiogheny River. The home has five bedrooms, one bathroom and a three-car garage – which used to be a general store – as well as a pool.

The home was built in 1910 and has hardwood floors and woodwork throughout, as well as the original fireplaces and wallpaper in pristine condition.

What it does not come with, thankfully, is the horrifying basement pit where Bill left his victims before he killed them. Those terrifying scenes were filmed on a sound stage, but the building’s exterior, foyer and dining room all featured in the 1991 psychological horror film.

The property previously sold for $US195,000 in 2016 after almost a year on the market and multiple price drops. The property originally hit the market for $US300,000 in 2015.

Prior to that, the three-storey Victorian house had been home to Barbara and Scott Lloyd for almost four decades.

A film producer knocked on the couple’s door in 1989 to see if their home could be used in the horror film.

“They were looking for a home in which you entered the front door and had a straight line through,” Mrs Lloyd previously told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

“They wanted it to look like a spider web, with Buffalo Bill drawing Jodie Foster into the foyer, into the kitchen, then into the basement.”

The property was transformed over six weeks, but it took just three days to film the scenes there.

More recent, and permanent changes to the home, include recent improvements such as new flooring on the wraparound porch, a rose garden and fountain added to the front of the property (possibly to try make it look a tad more welcoming), refinished hardwood floors in the attic and a new ceramic tile pool deck.

Bill’s house of horrors is listed with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, who feel the home’s ties to the classic horror film could make for an amazing Airbnb.

Given how hard it might be to get a sound’s night sleep in the home of old murderous Bill (even if he was a fictional character), this may be the kind of property you only want to spent one night in.