7 Creepy Cursed or Haunted Movie Sets

Fall is the best time to catch up on old and new horror films. For a night, we can watch creepy sightings and put ourselves in the main characters’ shoes as they investigate inexplicable occurrences. Once we’ve been properly horrified, we can shut off the TV and resume our usual, ghost-free lives. It’s like nothing ever happened. It was all fictional anyway…

But what if I were to tell you some of your favorite movies had sets that were even creepier than the script? That the paranormal happenings not caught on camera were far creepier than the written poltergeists? Of course, these stories are all alleged. There’s no real way to prove or disprove them. I’ll leave it up to you to believe them or not.

Here are seven strange stories about allegedly haunted or cursed movie sets.

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The Conjuring (Haunted)

The Conjuring movies are full of perfectly executed jump scares but what really makes the series scary is that the films are based on the real investigations of Ed and Lorraine Warren. The couple investigated hauntings and possessions, which makes these behind-the-scenes stories even creepier.

One of the more bizarre things to happen on set occurred when the Perron family (the real-life family The Conjuring film is based on) finally visited. Originally, they were too afraid to visit, but finally they did. Crew members say a sudden strong wind started whirling behind the family. Yet somehow, trees across from the family didn’t move an inch.

Director James Wan and stars Vera Farmiga and Joey King all experienced strange things, too. A few days after the Perron family and wind incident, Wan stayed up late in his office working. Suddenly, his dog began barking at an invisible entity. Farmiga claims to have seen “three digital claw marks” on her computer screen moments after accepting the role. King, just a child at the time, had the worse of it. Like her on-screen mother, she began waking up with mysterious bruises on her body.

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The Omen (Cursed)

The Omen is one of the scariest movies, even to this day, and like the film, the bizarre events that happened when the cameras weren’t rolling are some of the most chilling behind-the-stage moments.

Getting struck by lightning is already rare. S what were the chances that two people working on The Omen would both travel by planes that were struck by lightning? Sadly, Gregory Peck, the star of the original film and one whose plane was struck, would also experience tragedy: Before filming began, Peck’s eldest son committed suicide.

The list of cursed moments goes on. One stuntman’s scene with Rottweilers went wrong, and the dogs bit through his protective gear. An on-set zookeeper was mauled to death the day after finishing their work on The Omen. One of the worst things happened after filming when special effects director and assistant John Richardson and assistant Liz Moore got into a car accident in the Netherlands. Richardson survived but Moore was beheaded. Media outlets were quick to point out how close the accident happened to a town called Ommen — 66.6 kilometers away.

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The Amityville Horror (Haunted)

The most sinister thing about The Amityville Horror films is that they are based on real mass murders that happened in 1974. Ronald DeFeo Jr. shot and killed his entire family in Long Island. The terrible true crime has fascinated Americans since and, as a result, has inspired many film iterations.

Strangely, two of these films have encountered paranormal events. James Brolin, the star of the original 1979 movie, had reservations about accepting the role. Still, he agreed to star in it and soon enough while reading a particularly scary part of the script, witnessed pants falling from a clothes hanger for no apparent reason.

Falling pants, however, is nothing compared to the weird occurrences of the 2005 remake. Star Ryan Reynolds and other cast and crew members all claim to have woken up at 3:15 a.m, the time the true killings happened. Also, a body was washed up by the set right before the shooting began.

Could the “otherworldly presence” so many crew members and actors felt on set be responsible for the terrifying incidents?

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The Ring Two (Haunted)

After the initial success of The Ring, Dreamworks greenlit its sequel and brought back Naomi Watts to star in it, too. Although, maybe they should have left well enough alone because, unlike the first film that had zero paranormal activity, the sequel did have eerie moments that left many unnerved.

For one, the set flooded. On any other occasion, this wouldn’t be too odd or spooky for a set, but many were quick to point out the eerie similarities between the flooding and the way the main antagonist in the film died — drowning at the bottom of a well! Naomi Watts even claimed to feel inexplicable vibrations while filming.

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Maximum Overdrive (Cursed)

Misfortune always seemed to be lurking around the corner of this 1986 flick. Laura Harrington explained, “You always felt like someone was going to die on this set.” It turned out her intuition was picking up on life-threatening events that were to come.

Due to the nature of the film’s plot, the filming environment was already cause for concern. Multiple crewmembers were put in dangerous situations, with one cinematographer, Armando Nannuzzi, losing an eye in a lawnmower accident. As if that weren’t frightening enough, the set was hit by a hurricane in the middle of production. Luckily no one was seriously injured by the storm, just utterly unsettled.

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What do you think about these strange occurrences? Could these movies really be haunted or cursed? Let us know in the comments below and don’t forget to Let Your Geek Sideshow!

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There’s a chill in the air. The leaves tremble in a skeleton dance and shadows seem just a little darker. Channel the spirits and revel in Sideshow’s Spooktacular 2021 — a celebration of all things sinister, scary, and downright spooky.

Join us from October 25-31 by visiting side.show/spooktacular and don’t forget — Sleep is for the weak!