I have a friend I’ve never met. She’s on online friend, a text friend, an abandoned friend. We have the same interests and we connected through a mutual friend that was my friend when I was in kindergarten through grade 4. Then I moved schools and we didn’t see each other much after that.
Anyways, LM lives in Winnipeg but often travels out this way to find and photograph abandoned stuff. When we see something on each others Instagram we ask each other where or who. We share our finds and contacts. Last winter LM found this house that she was totally in love with. She went and went back again. Well I had forgotten about it but spotted it a couple weeks ago off the highway and of course she got me in touch with the owner.
Turns out there was a movie filmed at this house, its on Netflix and its called Devil’s Gate. Within the first 4 to 5 minutes of the movie you will see the house and likely want to turn the movie off cause you’ll see about as much as you’d like. Its gory and not my type of movie.
So last week I tried and tried and tried to reach the land owner and couldn’t. So I drove down the road on my way home anyways because if you can get a good road shot, well, you don’t need permission. So I drove down the road and came upon a truck stopped at the house. I stop behind him, get out my camera and take a couple shots. I have no idea if the person in the truck knows I’m there or not. There is nothing around this house, some bush and field. That’s all. Well I look ahead to take a photo and there’s a barrel of a gun hanging out the driver’s side window. So I tell Colton and I put the car in reverse and the truck drives away.
I take a couple shots and drive away. The next morning the land owner returns my call and proceeds to tell me that he cannot allow people to photograph the house cause he can’t be there to charge them a fee and that the house is not safe and either is the property because the movie people didn’t remove the props and the traps are still set all over the yard. I call BULLSHIT. So does LM cause she was on the property, with his permission and everything is gone. No traps. No chance of being impaled.
At this point I’m rather annoyed because one, you cannot charge people money to take photos of an old house from the road, because if I’m on a numbered road, I’m not trespassing and secondly, you’d think he had Buckingham Palace on his farm land. Goodness Mr., its a rotten old house that got a little attention from a low-budget film. I’m sure you are not going to be able to retire from the money you received for the crew to film there.
So I told Mr. that I had driven down the road the night before and I had taken a couple photos of the house from the inside of my car. I also advised him that he couldn’t stop people from doing that nor could you charge them a fee. I also told Mr. that it was highly illegal to shoot a firearm from a vehicle. He advised me it was his neighbor shooting coyotes that were getting into his chickens. There isn’t a farm within a mile, in any direction, of this abandoned property. Maybe more.
Earlier this week I went back. I did not get out of my car and unfortunately could not get a good shot of the front of the house where the young man in the movie, with the car trouble, goes and knocks on the door.
Regardless, its a pretty neat old house and that barn is very unique. The house does have a creepy vibe, even from the road. I likely shouldn’t have watched the beginning of the movie and its a good thing I didn’t finish watching it.
CRUMBLING MEMORIES 