The Corner Penthouse

It's been many years since I've done a proper Shot on Site article on The Corner Penthouse. This one is going to be really short, as I'm only going to focus on one single location from the 1990 movie Fear starring Ally Sheedy. Not to be confused with the 1996 movie Fear starring Reese Witherspoon and Mark Wahlberg.

Fear (1990), which was written and directed by Rockne S. O'Bannon, is about psychic Cayce Bridges (Ally Sheedy), who uses "second sight" to help the police track serial killers. Soon, the horrifying visions that come with her work are becoming too much to bear when Cayce faces a killer like no other. When she gazes into the Shadow Man's (Pruitt Taylor Vince) mind - and finds him smiling back - she discovers that he not only shares her "sixth sense", but wields a power more awesome than her own.

Without turning this into a review, I will say that I enjoyed the movie, but it is not without many faults. The plot holes are wide enough to drive a Mack truck through. Too many times I found myself thinking, "Cayce, tell them the killer is in the parking lot right now killing such and such, or at this specific laundromat, or tell them about the distinct tattoo he has on his hands." Instead, our lead unnecessarily plays by the killer's rules for the flimiest of reasons. It plays out like a slightly above average Lifetime movie.

The movie was filmed in various parts of Los Angeles Country, California. I didn't bother trying to identify most of the locations as they didn't really interest me very much. The one I was able to find surprised me because the reverse angle, which I did find, is in a completely different location than what's supposed to be in the opposite direction in the movie.

Almost an hour into the movie, Detectives Webber (Stan Shaw) and Wu (Keone Young) are driving Cayce around town in their car, hoping that she can pick up a psychic signal as to where Shadow Man is. She describes the house that he's entered, and SURPRISE - it's Webber's house! His children will be home soon from school, so they race to the scene.


When I originally watched this scene, I was trying to use the readable street sign (says "Aquaduct Avenue"), and the house number imprinted on the curb ("15600"), to find Webber's house. I ended up finding the reverse angle shots of Shadow Man standing across the street, and looking around the spot on Google Maps, it's clear that it's NOT across from Webber's house.

For the REVERSE ANGLE SHOTS ONLY, the police car is parked in front of 15600 Huston Street in Encino, California.


I know this because here's what it looks like at that spot, when looking towards the house at 15546 Aquaduct Avenue, where Shadow Man was standing in front of.


There is no doubt in my mind that this is the filming location of all of the reverse angle shots (the ones OPPOSITE "Webber's House"). The "Aquaduct Avenue" street sign, WITH "Neighborhood Watch" sign, is an exact match. The "15600" number imprinted on the curb is an exact match. The house behind Shadow Man is an exact match. Even the sidewalk that curves and opens to a wide area right behind the street sign is an exact match. The only differences are that fencing was added to the house on the right, that house's owners also removed the overhang over their driveway, and all of the trees grew in quite well over the past 30 years.

If it's not obvious that that's the house Shadow Man was standing in front of, scope out this comparison.


The house on the right, 15600 Houston Street, can be seen a little better in the background of shots of Cayce looking at the "Webber house".


As you can see in the February 2019 photo below, the owner's reversed the color scheme. All areas that were painted blue are now white, and all white areas are now blue. The garage of the house next door has gone from white to tan. Otherwise, everything is still there.


As I said, Webber's house, which is supposed to be opposite of that, isn't in the same place. Here's what Webber's house looks like in the movie, and what you'll see if you looked opposite the above in real life.


Those are two, very clearly, different houses. You might ask, "Maybe the original house was demolished and replaced with the new one?" I gave that a little bit of thought, too, until I looked down Huston Street (in the direction the car would have come from) and noticed that it's clearly not the same street used in the movie for all of the shots that show Webber's house.


I don't know why they didn't film both parts of this scene - Webber's house and the Shadow Man stalking - in the same place. Perhaps the location across from the real Webber's house wasn't deemed suitable for the stalking part. Perhaps the stalking part was filmed later; or earlier. I really have no idea. I had never even heard of Fear until I got it on the Double Feature DVD with Parents (both films are presented in anamorphic widescreen, despite the back cover saying "full screen"). Maybe one day Lionsgate will release Fear as part of their Vestron Video Collector's Blu-ray Series, as they did with Parents.


For more information about non-Ghostbusters filming locations, be sure to check out the rest of The Corner Penthouse's Shot On Site articles. For Ghostbusters filming locations, check out Spook Central's Filming Locations page (Shot on Site articles are linked off the individual pages).