10. The Exorcism of Emily Rose
A film based on a true story in which the actors knew there might be some spiritual presence on set. In fact, the actress who played Emily Rose said that while filming the movie, strange things would just happen on their own. The stereo would start playing on its own and turning on and off while people were standing nowhere near it. Star Jennifer Carpenter claimed her radio kept turning on in the middle of the night, playing one part of the Pearl Jam song “Alive” - specifically, the part that goes, "I'm still alive" over and over again.
9. The Exorcist
What kind of childhood did you have if this film didn’t traumatize you way before you were ready to be watching horror movies quite this gorey? It’s no wonder why it’s said that the set of the movie was cursed. It wasn’t just one or two things moving around on their own, either. There was a series of deaths, including that of actor Jack MacGowran, who died of a flu before the film even came out. The first day they started shooting, Max von Sydow also lost his brother. Ellen Burstyn, the young girl’s mother in the film, suffered a permanent spinal injury while filming the very demonic scene used in the movie where she’s thrown across the room. To top it off, the entire set mysteriously burned down while filming the movie. Well, all but the demonic bedroom. Eerie coincidences? Series of unfortunate events? Or a dark presence?
8. Rosemary’s Baby
With this film, same as the ones we’ve talked about thus far, there was a series of incidents that believers attribute to cursed movies and sets, while others say it’s simply Hollywood, or just the way life goes. Hear me out and see what you think. After the film was released, the producer, William Castle, started receiving hate mail cursing him to “slowly rot during a long and painful illness which you have brought upon yourself.” Coincidentally (or maybe not so much) he started having intense pain in his groin and collapsed four months later. Turns out he had a blockage in his urinary tract. The director’s wife, Sharon Tate, was murdered a year later by Charles Manson’s “Family” in a crime that some say is related to the film. Finally, the Dakota Apartments in NYC, whichwere used for exterior scenes in the movie, was also the backdrop for the very real murder of John Lennon in 1980. Lennon and the lead actress Mia Farrow had actually met in India the year Rosemary’s Baby came out.
7. The Conjuring
To start, it’s well known that this popular horror film is based on a true story. Perhaps it was a placebo, but people on set often felt jittery and strange, as if they were being watched. One staff member’s dog also started growling at what seemed like nothing. Mysterious gusts of wind would come through the closed set, making one actress so ill she had to go to the hospital. Vera Farmiga, the lead actress, was so uncomfortable with the movie that she refused to take the script home, saying she even found claw marks on her laptop after coming home from shooting. To add, just like on The Exorcist’s set, a random fire broke out without the cause ever being found.
6. The Conjuring 2
It’s hard to imagine why, but the staff signed up to do a sequel despite the frights that they endured during the shooting of the first movie. Perhaps a contractual agreement? Intense bravery? Who knows, but just when they thought it was over, the sequel came along and the staff had enough. They weren’t just going to stand by as something clearly didn’t agree with what was being depicted in these movies. They had a priest come in to bless the set. The curtains in the Burbank Warner Brother’s Studio moved randomly and sounds of drilling and hammering blared randomly underneath the stage despite no actual construction being done nearby.
5. Poltergeist
It’s often said that the Poltergeist set and films themselves were cursed specifically because the crew used real skeletons from corpses to film. Suddenly, death started making an appearance just a little too often and way too close to home. Was it just all of these characters’ time? You be the judge. The oldest daughter in the film was strangled to death by her boyfriend at age 22. Julian Beck, who played “Beck” in the movie, died of stomach cancer; Will Sampson, who played “Taylor” died from kidney failure; and Heather O’Rourke died at age 12 of septic shock and cardiac arrest! Later in 1992, Richard Lawson barely survived a plane crash and in 2009, Lou Perryman who played a small role in the original film was brutally murdered in his home.
4. The Innkeepers
Filmed at the Yankee Pedlar Inn in Torrington, Connecticut, which was supposedly haunted, this film might have been doomed from the start. The director, Ti West, was allegedly skeptical, but the scary stories from the set are all but scarce. West himself said that though he raised an eyebrow at the level of haunting everyone said was happening, he had in fact seen doors close on their own, TVs turn off and on, lights burn out randomly, and knew everyone had very vivid dreams every night while filming the movie. If that’s the story as told by a skeptic, I can’t imagine the horrors that believers have to tell.
3. The Omen
This movie title alone to me is enough to get me just a little freaked out. Producer Harvey Bernhard had been warned before the movie started that the making of it could potentially be dangerous. Of course, this is an easy offhand comment to brush off and preparations for the movie commenced. However, right before production started, the son of Gregory Peck, star of the film, killed himself with a firearm. An animal trainer brought to set to help with baboons used in a scene was killed by a tiger the very next day after that scene was filmed. John Richardson, special effects specialist who worked on the film with a decapitation scene was in a car accident where, though he survived, his passenger died by, you guessed it, decapitation. And the accident occurred near a sign that marked the distance to a nearby town called Ommen. Finally, a stuntman named Alf Joint felt like he was pushed from a rooftop in a project following The Omen, which put him in the hospital. Are they all being followed by an Omen? What do you think?
2. The Crow
This 1994 film was actually the project Brandon Lee, Bruce Lee’s son, was working on when he died. The particular scene he was doing when tragedy struck involved him being “shot” with a blank while carrying a grocery bag with a “squib” that would resemble a real gunshot. Somehow, to this day, nobody really knows how the gun was loaded with a real bullet and Brandon died that night after being shot. The weirdest part? Bruce Lee’s film, The Game of Death, had a scene where his character was accidentally shot when he was supposed to be pretending to die from a gunshot wound.
1. The Passion of The Christ
The ultimate movie charged with spiritual energy, am I right? On top of being a heavy film to watch, the actors on set said filming it was no easy task. Nothing says “don’t pretend to be God” like being struck by lightning. While he was filming the scene of the Sermon on the Mount, Jim Caviezel, star of the film, was struck by a bolt. He wasn’t the only one either, the assistant director was struck twice during production. Caviezel also dislocated his shoulder while shooting the crucifixion, got hypothermia, suffered a lung infection, pneumonia, and skin infections used to depict Jesus’ injuries. It’s a miracle he even survived!
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