Verity's creepy Crawford house is real — inside Beckoning Path in New York
The Crawford house at the centre of Verity is real, and director Michael Showalter wanted it to feel like falling down a rabbit hole.
The Amazon MGM Studios film is an adaptation of Colleen Hoover's 2018 bestselling mystery novel Verity, directed by Showalter, according to The Hollywood Reporter. It stars Dakota Johnson as writer Lowen Ashleigh, Anne Hathaway as the injured author Verity Crawford, Josh Hartnett as Verity's husband Jeremy, and Brady Wagner as Crew.
It is called Beckoning Path. The house sits in Armonk, New York, and the fictional Crawford home was filmed there.
Beckoning Path is a mid-century modern building designed by Jens Quistgaard for Martha and Ted Nierenberg, the founders of the Danish homeware company Dansk. The property now operates as a tai chi retreat, with its timber walls, low lines and wooded setting largely intact.
Showalter said he wanted the house to feel like a fever dream, a closed world that slowly unsettles Lowen after she moves in to finish Verity's books. The team looked at more traditional homes and big log cabins before settling on Beckoning Path, which offered a stranger, more enclosed atmosphere.
Location manager Elizabeth Krekel found the property, while production designer Amy Williams and set decorator Kendall Anderson shaped its on-screen look. Director of photography Jim Frohna shot the house to favour shadows and tight corners, keeping much of the story inside its walls.
Showalter said Alfred Hitchcock was an inspiration for his direction, according to AP. Hoover served as a producer on the film, and Showalter said he leaned on her for advice throughout the production, according to Reuters Connect.
Johnson said the thriller puts truth and trust to the test, much like real life, according to Reuters.
What makes this choice stand out is how much work the house is asked to do. Lowen is a guest in someone else's marriage, career and home, and Beckoning Path gives that idea a physical centre. It is beautiful at first glance, then harder to read, which is exactly where the story lives.
