Historic Independence mansion to make appearance in movie

INDEPENDENCE, Mo. — The historic Vaile Mansion in Independence will soon make its appearance in a movie.

Crews worked overnight from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. to get all the footage while the museum remained open on Saturday.

“We have had people over the last few years that have rented our place and they’ve done like little videos that they put on YouTube, it’s pretty lowkey,” Sandee Dougherty, President of the Vaile Victorian Society, said. “The scope of this production just kind of blew us out of the water. We were not expecting that!”

Dougherty said that more than 60 people were a part of the team that were filming; they brought in cherry pickers and other large equipment to get the effect that they want.

“Our front tower is 90 feet tall,” Dougherty said. “That cherry picker was up high enough and had this huge bright light shining down on the mansion to make it look real eerie.”

The movie release date hasn’t been announced but Dougherty told FOX4 that it will be called “The Live In” and it will lean towards the thriller or horror genre.

The mansion will be used as a set for a mental hospital. She said the mansion is the perfect setting because “it really is gothic, has a lot of gothic features.”

She says the movie will help bring in visitors to the house. First built in 1881, the house hosts tours and Dougherty says there’s people who come in all the time that didn’t know about the mansion.

“The movie gets that information out there to people and they’re interested. They just didn’t know we were there.”

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