The California church that didn’t become a church until Hollywood was done with it
There’s nothing like having a good piece of Hollywood trivia to whip out and impress your friends with the next time you gather for a movie night.
If you’re ever watching Quentin Tarantino’s 2000s classic Kill Bill, then there’s only one piece of trivia that really matters, and that’s the story behind the church in which the wedding massacre takes place at the start of the film, leaving The Bride the sole survivor.
Attacked by the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, Uma Thurman’s character, also known as Beatrix Kiddo, is left for dead, but of course, she survives, seeking revenge for the rest of the movie. What’s interesting, though, is that the church used in the film was never actually one to begin with. Instead, it was just an empty building, which had been developed by Hollywood to look like the real deal back in the 1980s.
Specifically, the building, which is located in Lancaster, California, was turned into a church for True Confessions, which starred Robert DeNiro and James Duvall. It then appeared in several music videos, like Talking Heads’ ‘Road to Nowhere’, and while it looked the part, it was all a façade. This wasn’t a real church at all.
That’s until religious groups began renting out the church to hold their own services, in turn allowing the building to evolve into a genuine place of worship. It was used on and off over the years, but in 2002, it fell back into the hands of Hollywood.
Tarantino needed a desert-located church for the opening of his violent film, and he needed it to look exactly how he’d envisioned it, so his scouts went out looking. California would have to stand in for Texas, but doesn’t every dusty American desert road basically look the same, anyway? Soon enough, this church was discovered, although the crew just assumed it was an old, run-down church. They had no idea that it had graced a DeNiro picture several years before (and funnily enough, the actor had appeared in Tarantino’s previous film, Jackie Brown, too).
To get the location ready for Kill Bill, thousands of dollars were spent on renovating it, and then it looked even more like a church than before. A few months after filming took place, with the building sitting there unoccupied, pastor Oscar Castañeda stumbled upon it after taking a wrong turn.
He’d been wanting to open up his own church, even seeing his ideal one in his dreams. Suddenly, it was in front of him, so he bought it. Transforming it into the Sanctuary Adventist Church, it soon doubled as an unlikely tourist attraction the following year when Kill Bill hit cinemas.
Castañeda wasn’t that happy with his church becoming a photo opportunity, but he eventually saw the brighter side of things. He has allowed the church to be used as a filming location since, even cameoing in Cardi B’s music video for ‘Be Careful’ that was filmed there, but it’ll always be best remembered as the site of that iconic Kill Bill scene.
Never Miss A Take
The Far Out Quentin Tarantino Newsletter
All the latest Quentin Tarantino content from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.