12 Cursed Behind-The-Scenes Movie Set Secrets & Facts
I used to think that all the scary things in horror movies were scripted for the big screen. Turns out, all the supernatural occurrences the audience wanted to see were behind the scenes! But here's where it gets controversial... When I found out that there were some really terrifying and cursed events happening behind the scenes AS WELL, I completely flipped out. And now I refuse to be in any room alone and by myself. So to enlighten you too, here are 12 cursed stories from movie sets, which, honestly, scare me more than the actual movie:
Disclaimer: There are mentions of death, accidents, and sensitive topics in the following content. Reader discretion is advised.
- The Exorcist (1973) was believed to be a cursed film due to the number of freak accidents on set and the deaths that followed the release of the film.
A fire had broken out on the set that was used for the home of the possessed character, Regan MacNeil. The fire started when a bird flew into a circuit box, and the entire set was almost completely destroyed—except for Regan's bedroom—the room where the exorcism was performed in the film.
Apart from the fire, several cast members injured themselves while shooting the film. Actress Ellen Burstyn, who played Regan's mother, injured her lower back while performing a stunt. The wire that pulled her across the floor was pulled too hard, causing her to land on her back. This incident had left her with a long-term injury.
The main star of the film, Linda Blair, who played Regan MacNeil, sustained a spinal injury during a scene while thrashing around as she was levitated. This incident left her with scoliosis and chronic pain.
The most bizarre incident, however, was the series of strange deaths, as Ellen Burstyn says. She revealed that nine deaths occurred during the course of the film. Linda Blair's grandfather passed away; the assistant cameraman's wife had a baby that passed; the man who refrigerated the set passed, and the janitor who took care of the set was shot and killed. Actor Jack MacGowran, who played Burke Dennings in the film, passed away in New York a week after he filmed his final scenes.
- The Poltergeist set was victim to technical mishaps and tragic deaths following the film's release.
When JoBeth Williams' character, Diane Freeling, falls into a half-empty pool of skeletons in the movie's climactic moment, it turns out that the skeletons weren't made of plastic—they were real human skeletons. The actress revealed in 2022 that she wasn't aware of this fact until she met some of the special effects team members a few years after the film, and found out the truth.
Additionally, technical mishaps on the film almost led to actor Oliver Robins being choked by the mechanical doll. The extended arm of the doll was around the actor's neck and almost choked him, until someone saw and pulled the actor away from the doll.
But the most tragic part of the film is the deaths that followed. Dominique Dunne, the 22-year-old actress who played Dana Freeling, was murdered by her abusive ex-boyfriend in 1982. She was removed from life support five days after the attack.
And the most unexpected death was that of Heather O'Rourke, who played Carol Anne Freeling, the youngest child in Poltergeist. She died due to an intestinal obstruction from an undiagnosed intestinal stenosis in 1988. She was 12 years old.
- The Omen's creepy on-set story includes lightning strikes and deaths mimicking the ones from the film.
The Omen had some of the scariest and most bizarre incidents that had the cast and crew on guard at all times.
Starting with the lightning phenomenon: Gregory Peck, the lead actor, and David Seltzer, the film's writer, both took flights around productions on two completely different days—and both flights were struck by lightning.
The freakiest incident, however, was the death of the SFX supervisor of the film. In the film, characters Robert and David are investigating more into Damien's character, and in a freak accident, David gets beheaded by a truck. Eerily, the SFX supervisor who created the beheaded figure of David later met with a car accident in which another person was, unfortunately, killed and beheaded just like the figure in the film.
Moreover, during a scene at the zoo, where the animals sense the presence of evil in the car and attack it, the animals seemingly lost control. After a non-featured scene was done filming with lions and the cast moved on to the next scene with the baboons, two lions killed a guard in his booth as the doors were left wide open.
- Rosemary's Baby is deemed to be the most cursed horror movie, with a series of unfortunate events following the film's release.
Soon after the film was released in June 1968, there were talks about a curse that lingered around the film, leading to tragedy for those who made it. In April 1969, the producer of the film, William Castle, fell sick with worry and stress after receiving a lot of hate mail. He had severe kidney stones due to this and was hospitalized. While he was in a delirious state in the hospital, he allegedly hallucinated scenes from the film and was said to have yelled, 'Rosemary, for god's sake, drop the knife!'
He recovered but never made another successful hit film again.
The most tragic, however, was the death of composer Krzysztof Komeda. In autumn of 1968, the 37-year-old was at a party when he fell off a rocky escarpment and was in a four-month coma. This was the same accident that the witches in the film use to kill Rosemary's suspicious friend in the book. The composer never regained consciousness and passed away in Poland the following year.
Then the most infamous murder case of 1969 was that of Roman Polanski's (the director of Rosemary's Baby) wife, Sharon Tate. Sharon Tate was brutally murdered by the Manson Family on August 8th, 1969. And this all took place while the film was still playing in theaters.
- The cast of The Exorcism of Emily Rose experienced strange things while shooting the film, with one incident involving the song 'Alive' by Pearl Jam.
The film, which is based on a true story of a German woman, Anneliese Michel, a mentally ill woman who died of malnourishment during a series of alleged exorcisms, had a series of eerie coincidences that the cast witnessed.
The lead actress, Jennifer Carpenter, had a radio that would turn on in the middle of the night while they were filming. According to the director of the film, the radio would turn itself on and also play one section of the song 'Alive' by Pearl Jam repeatedly. The phrase 'I'm still alive' would play over and over again.
And it's not just Jennifer Carpenter; Laura Linney's radio also allegedly turned on at night a few times, as did her TV.
- Vera Farmiga and the cast of The Conjuring found unexplained marks on their bodies and experienced other bizarre incidents while shooting the horror trilogy.
Vera Farmiga revealed in 2013 that one night before filming began, she was watching videos of Lorraine on her laptop; she had briefly closed the laptop to speak on the phone. When she opened it again, she saw 'digital claw marks' on her screen. Additionally, three months after production had wrapped, she came home to find three scratches on her thigh, which she could not explain.
She further revealed that she had experienced multiple weird occurrences while shooting the film, like a teacup flying off of the shelf or getting little cuts in threes.
While filming The Conjuring, Vera Farmiga found herself waking up at 3:07 in the morning, which is coincidentally the same time the clocks stopped working in the Perrons' haunted house.
Patrick Wilson revealed that although the set of The Conjuring 2 was blessed by a priest, something strange did occur. While leaving the set one night, he saw a video of 'giant curtains blowing pretty violently by themselves'. He revealed that there was no door open, no fan, and no air conditioning for the curtains to be moving like that.
- The director of Annabelle (2013) confirmed two supernatural occurrences that happened on the set of the film.
While speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, director John R. Leonetti revealed that the first incident took place when they were shooting in the apartment and in the transient window above the living room window. He said that it was a full moon, and there were three fingers drawn through the dust on the window. The demon in the film had three fingers and three talons, and it was backlit by the moon.
The second incident was 'much worse', according to the director. They were shooting in an old apartment building. On the first day that the demon was shooting in makeup, they brought him up in the elevator, and he walked to the green room where the rest of the actors were. Just as he walked under a giant glass light fixture (which is being followed by the actor playing the handyman of the building), the entire fixture fell down on the handyman's head. In the film, the demon kills the handyman in that same hallway.
- The cast of The Amityville Horror would wake up at the same time the real-life mass murderer Ronald DeFeo Jr. killed his family.
The film follows the experiences of the Lutz family after they move into a house at 112 Ocean Avenue in Long Island. It belonged to real-life mass murderer Ronald DeFeo Jr. He had killed six members of his family in the house.
While on set, the cast and crew, including Ryan Reynolds, found themselves waking up at 3:15 am in the morning, the same time the killings took place in the house.
- The highly controversial film, The Conqueror (1956), led to the deaths of 46 members from the crew and cast due to cancer.
This film is one of the worst movies made for numerous reasons and remains John Wayne's worst film. The historical film was produced by Howard Hughes and followed John Wayne as the Mongol chieftain Temujin, who rises to become the emperor Genghis Khan. Apart from the racist role, there was a more worrying aspect to this film.
The film was shot near an active nuclear test site in St. George, Utah. 11 tests were conducted there the year before production began. Due to this, the radiation exposure led to 91 crew members developing cancer in their lifetime, and 46 dying from the illness.
Howard Hughes, the producer of the film, bought all the copies of the film so that no one could watch it, following the rise in cancer amongst the cast and crew.
- According to Hollywood urban legend, the set of Ghost was haunted by the ghost of the Poltergeist child actor, Heather O'Rourke.
While the film Ghost was not a horror film as such, there were instances of eerie happenings on set. The cast and crew members claimed to have heard footsteps of an unseen figure on the set. They also could sometimes hear a child laughing.
The film was shot on the same sound stage where Heather O'Rourke had filmed scenes as a child actor.
- A prop malfunction on the set of The Crow led to the unfortunate and tragic death of the lead actor.
Brandon Lee, the son of Bruce Lee, was starring as the sinister Eric Draven in this film. He was set to launch his career with this film. He had just turned 28 when filming had started.
During the filming of a scene, which is not included in the final cut, his character was supposed to get shot by a ruffian. When the cameras were rolling, the actor was shot in the abdomen with a piece of dummy bullet, which was left in the gun's barrel from a previous scene.
The gun was loaded with blanks, which were made by a crew member who removed gunpowder from live bullets. The blank bullet was fired with the force of a real bullet, striking the actor. Brandon Lee suffered extensive internal damage and significant blood loss. After hours of surgery, he passed away.
- While filming The Passion of the Christ, the actor who was playing Jesus was struck by lightning.
The controversial film by Mel Gibson did not have any paranormal happenings on set, but there was certainly the strange incident of lightning strikes.
The actor who played Jesus in the film, Jim Caviezel, and assistant director, Jan Michelini, were together under an umbrella when they were struck by lightning.
Producer Steve McEveety stated that he had 'glanced over and seen lightning coming out of Caviezel's ears'.
