Watching a horror movie is one thing.
You may have spent many an evening, home alone - watching reruns of Alfred Hitchcock’s
The Birds on VHS - it’s raining outside, nearly midnight - and you get that strange,
lingering feeling in your gut that something's not quite right.
Of course, it’s just the residue of horror cinema doing its job - your mind still affected
by the simulation of fear.
But, while watching a horror movie is one thing - filming one is an entirely different
story.
Whether it’s hours of arduous takes, strained emotions and rising tensions between actor
and director - or something slightly more unexplainable - perhaps even paranormal, the
history of horror cinema is rife with strange, bizarre happenings that cast and crew were
less than willing to address.
Of course - it’s just a faulty camera, right?
Or an old lighting rig?
Well - maybe there’s something a little bit more to it.
Hello horror fans - and welcome back to the scariest channel on YouTube - Top 5 Scary
Videos.
As always, I’ll be your horror host Jack Finch - as today, we whir up the dusty old
camera - and curiously take a look at the Top 5 Haunted Horror Movie Sets.
Roll the clip.
For those of you that don’t know, that clip was from 1982’s Poltergeist - and yes, those
were real skeletons bobbing around with JoBeth Williams - and she wasn’t happy about it,
to say the least.
The lengths that Tobe Hooper would go to to get a genuinely terrifying reaction are staggering
- and Poltergeist could take up an entire five point list of it’s own.
Regardless, let’s jump on in.
Kicking off at Number 5 - The Omen, 1976
Perhaps one of the most notoriously nefarious film shoots in horror cinema, The Omen, the
1976 horror masterpiece by Richard Donner - which is a widely accepted fact that the
set was cursed by an evil being that followed the cast and crew between October 1975 and
January 1976 - and even after filming was wrapped.
The bizarre experience began with the way that animals were reacting on set.
On multiple occasions, highly trained dogs used in the film went wild and attacked their
trainers.
After the infamous baboon scene with Lee Remick, which was filmed on location at a safari park
- an animal handler was eaten alive the day after the crew finished filming.
On several separate occasions, a faulty camera used to film shots revealed that - allegedly,
the Devil was nearby - by flashing a message that read ‘Error 666’.
That should be explainable, right?
It’s just coincidence.
Well … technicians soon found that Error 666 didn’t exist as a message number, it
wasn’t even programmed into the device.
However - the most infamously creepy incident occurred after filming had wrapped, on Friday
the 13th, of all days.
John Richardson, the set designer responsible for the infamous decapitation scene - was
involved in a tragic head-on car crash with his assistant while working on a Bridge Too
Far on location in Holland.
Gruesomely, the assistant was sliced in half - just as Richardson had created the films
scene.
Even weirder?
According to Richardson, a road sign just a way ahead of the collision read that the
town of Ommen, was 66.6 kilometers away.
Coming in next at Number 4 - The Innkeepers, 2011.
The House of the Devil, the awesome 2009 pastiche horror flick by Ti West - gave rise to the
idea behind his next film, 2011’s The Innkeepers.
During filming for The House of the Devil, the crew stayed in a hotel named the Yankee
Pedlar Inn - allegedly, one of the most haunted locations in Connecticut - and witnessed a
campaign of paranormal activity - doors closing by themselves, TVs turning on and off - and
lights burning out constantly.
Ti West claimed that everyone on the crew had extremely vivid dreams every night - as
if in some strange way, the hotel itself was whispering to them.
Well - his experience was so terrifying that it created 2011’s The Innkeepers - and of
course, to film it - they headed back to the haunted Yankee Pedlar Inn, where the vast
majority of the film was shot on location.
As Ti West himself claimed, as soon as they spent their first evening back at the hotel
- the vivid dreams began again.
Cast and crew reported hearing whispers in their bedroom at night - and an onslaught
of paranormal phenomena had the crew concerned.
On one particular night, the lead actor Sara Paxton woke up in her hotel room in the middle
of the night screaming, claiming that someone - or something had sat on her bed while she
slept.
Swinging in at Number 3 - The Possession, 2012
2012’s The Possession, directed by Ole Bornedal, isn’t the greatest of horror flicks by any
means - but it does have one of the most bizarre series of events in cinematic history that
occured during filming.
In theory, the film was based on true events - and the plot focused on a young girl who
was possessed by an evil spirit living inside a Dybbuk Box - an ancient, Judaic container
for evil spirits.
Well - the real object that was used as a prop - was a wine cabinet, several hundred
years old - that had been surrounded by decades of strange phenomena.
During scenes that involved the box, actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan, recalled a number of
eerie phenomena - lights would explode all of a sudden, and there would be bizarre gusts
of cold air from otherwise controlled scenes.
Days after shooting had wrapped of The Possession - a mysterious fire started in the warehouse
where all of the films props were being stored in case of reshoots.
The mysterious fire destroyed everything - including the strange, eerie wine cabinet that had been
used as a replica Dybbuk box.
No trace of arson - or an electrical fire was ever discovered - so, what do you think?
Demon?
Demon.
Next up at Number 2 - The Exorcist, 1973.
While it may be one of the most terrifying films ever made in horror cinema - it’s
a pretty well known fact that the set of 1973’s The Exorcist was haunted by an actual demon,
not just Regan MacNeil.
The first paranormal hiccup occurred when shooting for the whole film was delayed because
the entire set used for the MacNeil home mysteriously caught on fired and burned to the ground.
However - of course - the one room that remained completely untouched by the fire was Regans
demonic bedroom.
The explanation?
The fire was said to be caused by a deranged pigeon that somehow got through to a secure
circuit box and blew the whole thing up.
Director William Friedkin called it a winged demon with talons.
Again - during filming, Ellen Burstyn who played Chris MacNeil, Regan’s mother - had
her harness randomly break when the possessed Linda Blair threw her to the ground.
The take was actually used in the film, and her scream in the movie is actually genuine
- but production staff could find no explanation for the accident.
In total - nine cast and crew deaths are associated with the film - and the strange incidents
continued to occur after the films release.
During its premiere in Rome - a bizarre lightning strike struck a 400-year old cross on top
of a neighbouring church.
It seemed that something was still angry.
And finally - at our Number 1 spot - Rosemary’s Baby, 1968
As William Castle, the producer attached to the film once said - The story of Rosemary’s
Baby was happening in real life.
Witches, all of them - were casting their spell, and I was becoming one of the principal
players.
- The horror classic, directed by Roman Polanski, is one of the most controversial horror movies
ever made, and is notorious for its series of unfortunate events - both on and off set.
For those of you that haven’t seen it, Rosemary’s Baby tells the story of Rosemary Woodhouse,
a woman who is convinced that an evil cult wants to take her baby for a ritual - because,
turns out, the baby is the Son of Satan.
Well - it did turn out what happened off-screen was eerily similar.
In one of the most tragic and brutal cases in Hollywood, a year after the movie was released
- Roman Polanski’s wife - Sharon Tate - was murdered by members of the Manson Family - the
ritualistic murder cult led by Charles Manson.
Tate was eight months pregnant, and was stabbed sixteen times.
Soon afterwards, William Castle began receiving death threats - claiming that he had unleashed
evil by making his movie.
Days later, he was taken to hospital due to kidney failure - as he was being admitted,
he yelled out - Rosemary, for God’s sake, drop the knife!
Later, William Castle died of a heart attack.
Rosemary’s Baby is one of the most notorious horror movie shoots of all time - and the
events that unfolded are shrouded in bizarre, paranormal mystery.
Well - there we have it horror fans, our list for the Top 5 Haunted Horror Movie Sets - let
us know your picks in the comment box down below.
Before we depart, let’s take a look at some of your more creative comments from over the
past few days.
Darksidex20 says -- Can we get a top 5 scariest haunted places where you actually visit them?
Please?
--- Ahhhh, oh my word Darksidex20 - I would like nothing more than exactly that.
Make sure you spam our channel and see if we can get some location shoots going.
I could even do a tour of haunted buildings across North America - that’s the dream.
Arkady20 says -- Dear Jack, what's your least favourite monster from the Lovecraft mythos?
Love to the top 5 team:)
-- Well, much love to you too Arkady20 - but do you mean least favourite as in the lamest,
or least favourite as in - the scariest?
All of the creations in the Lovecraft’s mythos are awesome - but the lamest as in,
the worst death - would be Bugg-Shash.
Just a mass of slime and eyes that controls people like puppets.
Nasty stuff.
Scariest would be Nyarlathotep.
Enough said.
Well - unfortunately folks, that’s all we’ve got time for in today’s video - cheers for
sticking around all the way until the end.
If you were a fan of this video, make sure to hit that thumbs up button, ding that subscribe
bell - and we’ll be seeing you in the next one.
As always, I’ve been your host Jack Finch - you’ve been watching Top 5 Scary Videos
- and until next time, you take it easy.