LMGI COMPASS
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Spring 2022
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could stay in the neighborhood," he says. "It was actually a pretty
good deal for everyone in the end."
West Coast Arts & Cra…s
The next anchor was another pivotal location: the Lafferty family
home. From its rst appearance in episode one, it needed to
immediately set the tone for the characters, their faith and way
of life. "The house itself is a central character in our story," says
Renée. "It needed to be adjacent to other homes but somehow
eerily isolated. It needed to feel rich with history and to also have
an inherent potential for darkness, so it was not an easy nd."
Initially, there were different ideas and different directions the
team was pursuing. "It took us about a month to try to get clarity
on what we needed to look for in terms of the houses," recalls Mike.
Matt decided to go to the District of Springbank, just west of
Calgary. "There's a ranch there that's been used many times for
different things so I talked to the landowner and he said, 'maybe
take a look at the house we built by the river a couple of years ago
for another show,' so I went to see it."
The structure had been designed as a two-story West Coast-
style craftsman that wasn't really right for Banner, and the team
debated for a bit because they didn't love the idea of going into
something that had been built for another show, but in the end,
Renée saw an opportunity.
"She really fell in love with it because it had this symmetrical
feel to it that is very Mormon," says Matt, "and the fact that it
had been built for shooting meant it was oversized and we could
change things that would bring it to where we needed it to be."
Renée and her team completely re-did the facade of the house
converting it into a Prairie Craftsman style. Then they changed
virtually everything inside. "We removed walls, changed rooines
and added doors, windows and closets exactly where the script
needed them to be," she says. Once the house itself was complete,
they set about re-landscaping the entire area around the house.
Brenda and Allen's House
The nal piece of the puzzle was the house where the horric
murders took place.
"We needed to nd a brick duplex as close to the real location
research photos as we could," says Matt, "and of course, the street
and houses surrounding it had to t the period as there is critical
action that takes place in front of the duplex."
After an exhaustive search, they eventually landed on a location
in central Calgary that everyone really liked—but with one key
story element missing: a patio door in the kitchen which led to a
small deck and backyard.
After a discussion with the owner in which the team presented
designs for the patio door and deck, they got their approval. The
