Fear horror flick property for sale in B.C. for scary price tag

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What would you pay for a glass house on a private peninsula that juts out over the Salish Sea?

A place to park your Tesla or Porsche, or both. A place to sit and watch seals frolic in the waves. A place where you could stare at the horizon and think nothing is wrong. Nothing at all.

A cool $20 million or so might get you such a place, if glass and steel and infinite ocean views are the kind of thing that calm you down while forests burn and climate change stalks from a distance. A home with so much clout its listing recently popped up on the celebrity gossip site TMZ.

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Fifteen Brunswick Beach Road in Lions Bay might be that place.

The property is the original location of the dark, wood-panelled house featured in the 1996 psychological thriller Fear, starring Mark Wahlberg as a relentless stalker and Reese Witherspoon as his prey.

When Wahlberg yelled through the peephole, “Let me in the f—— house!,” was he yelling on behalf of all of us, who will never own a house like this, or perhaps any house, in Vancouver?

The current owner, Robin Rickards, a retired orthopedic surgeon, said he knew nothing about the home’s history as a horror location when he bought the place in 2015 for $4.9 million. He discovered it after a friend of his daughter walked inside and said the place looked familiar.

Rickards and his wife were enamoured with the property, which includes 125 metres of waterfront, with beach access, and west, north and south views. It’s a place where, night after night, they could see “the western sunsets burning” over the ocean.

They were captivated by the wildlife: stellar sea lions chasing shoals of smelts, bald eagles, pods of dolphins and “humpback whales and orcas so close I can spit on them off the back deck,” said Rickards.

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The couple began a renovation, but eventually decided to design and build a completely new house. They tore down the old structure that terrified ’90s audiences in Fear, retained the original kidney-shaped swimming pool and built a five-bedroom, five bathroom home with panoramic ocean views.

In the winter, the sunshine gently heats the home. In the summer, ocean breezes blow through the open windows and sliding doors, and it features solar panels, said Rickards.

The commute to Vancouver is doable, and Whistler is just an hour away.

Not a hint of the flocked wall paper, wood panelling or shadowy corners of the film Fear remains.

The couple, who raised two kids on the property, are downsizing, and first listed the home for $30 million in May 2023. When there were no bites, they quickly dropped the price.

According to realtor Clara Hartree, a hesitation point for some luxury buyers might be the size: 5,500 square feet is on the smaller side for the price in West Vancouver.

But from the deck on the private peninsula, where the sky is the ceiling, whoever buys the property will have the kind of view that makes them feel like they own the whole world.

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dryan@postmedia.com

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