When something frightening or mysterious happens in a film, it is taken for granted. After all, the movie should entertain and amaze the audience.
But now, when inexplicable phenomena begin behind the scenes (or right in the frame), it is time to involve experts in the supernatural in the investigation.
In this collection, we have collected world-famous films with an unusual and interesting story.
10. "Three men and a baby" and the ghost of a boy
One of the most popular comedies of the late 80s gained fame partly due to the strange boy who got on film in one of the scenes. When actor Ted Danson (Jack) and Celeste Holm (his mother) walk around their apartment, a strange figure stands near the window and peers through the curtain.
After the release of the film, rumors spread that this figure was a ghost of a boy who committed suicide, either throwing himself from a window or shooting himself. The grieving family left the apartment shortly after this tragedy, and it was rented by a film company to shoot the film Three Men and a Baby.
Disney Studios even considered it necessary to release a statement about this scene, due to the increased interest in it for lovers of paranormal phenomena. It stated that the “boy” was actually a cardboard image of Jack, which was used in the film. They just forgot to remove it from the frame.
Some people, however, objected that the cardboard dummy and the “boy” looked different. The legend of a ghost by the window, at least for some, continues to live.
9. "Omen", lightning and decapitation
The star of this mystical thriller, Gregory Peck, as well as screenwriter David Zeltser flew to the UK on different planes when lightning struck both aircraft. Sounds like one chance in a million, right? But no. During the filming of the picture in Rome, producer Harvey Bernhard almost died from a lightning strike.
But the most tragic of all the events was the incident that happened with special effects master John Richardson and his assistant Liz Moore. They had a car accident, as a result of which Moore was beheaded. It was very much like a scene from a movie with a decapitation of a photographer.
8. Franchise "Superman" and misfortunes with the main characters
The film story about "Superman" showed the world an almost invulnerable creature. In real life, actors playing Superman are made of flesh and blood. And many of them could not resist the curse pursuing this franchise.
The star of the original Superman Adventure television series, George Reeves, shot himself in the head in 1959.
Christopher Reeve, who played Superman in films from the late 70s and 1980s, became a star in almost one night. However, in 1995, he fell from a horse and was paralyzed below his neck.
Margot Kidder, who played Lois Lane in a pair with Reeve, had a serious car accident in 1990, and was temporarily paralyzed.
Lee Quigley, who played the young Superman in the 1978 film, became an addict, and died at the age of fourteen in 1991.
The only one who passed the “Superman curse” was Henry Cavill. It is hoped that for many years he will delight the audience with his superhero look. Or finally retrained in The Witcher.
7. The Amityville Horror and Real Events
One of the scariest horror films is based on real events. Although what actually happened, and what part of the story was embellished, still remains a topic of discussion.
The killing of the Defoe family in the house on Ocean Avenue 112 really had a place to be. In 1974, Defoe's eldest son, Ronald, killed his brothers, sisters and parents.
The following year, George and Katie Lutz bought a house on Ocean Avenue. They knew about the killings, and even asked the priest to come and bless the house.
According to the Lutz couple, they almost immediately began to observe paranormal activity in the house. 28 days after they settled in this damned place, they left it and never returned. This story formed the basis of the book “The Amityville Horror” by Jay Anson.
6. "Dark Water" predicted the murder committed 8 years later
A horror film released in 2005 tells about the tragic fate of a young girl who drowned in a water tank, which was on the roof of a residential building. Her body remained undetected for a long time and slowly decomposed.
Almost eight years later, in February 2013, the body of Eliza Lam was discovered in the water tower of the Cecile Hotel in Los Angeles. As in the movie Dark Water, hotel guests complained of foul-smelling water and its strange color.
5. "Raven" and the "curse" of the Lee family
Brandon Lee, the son of Bruce Lee, chose an acting path after his father. And the film "Raven" was the best in his career. Unfortunately, Brandon did not live up to its premiere. He was killed during the filming.
In the story, one of the gang members was supposed to shoot a hero. And the gun, as expected from safety precautions, was loaded with blank cartridges. But a stub was stuck in the trunk that was not noticed by the crew. She flew out, pierced Lee's stomach, and stuck in the spine. The actor died 12 hours later.
Sad fact: Michael Massey, the actor who shot, didn’t really need to point his gun at Brandon, since both were not in the frame at the time. Massey subsequently stated that he still has nightmares about Lee's death.
While Brandon’s death was certainly a tragic accident, many conspiracy theories are linked to Bruce Lee’s death. According to the official version, he suddenly died of an individual reaction to a pill for a headache.
4. "The Fall of Berlin" and the tragedy at Breitscheidplatz.
On the evening of December 19, 2016, near the Breitscheidplatz square, the first screening of the film “The Fall of Berlin”, intended for the film crew, took place. According to the plot, the villain hijacked a car and forced its driver to take himself to Berlin. There he was about to commit a terrorist attack in the midst of Christmas.
It is easy to imagine the horror of filmmakers who, after the show, went outside and found that a terrible tragedy had just happened in Berlin. A truck terrorist crashed into a crowd of people at a Christmas market.
3. "Rebel without a cause" and death in the crew
The most stylish film in the history of cinema (according to the UCI Cinemas poll) is also one of the most “damned”.
Four actors who starred in Rebel in the lead roles died under suspicious or tragic circumstances.
- James Dean - died in a car accident a month before the film.
- Nick Adams - was found in his bedroom dead and fully clothed, with no signs of struggle or forced entry into his house.
- Sal Mineo - was found murdered in his house in 1976.
- Natalie Wood - drowned after drinking in the company of her husband Robert Wagner and colleague Christopher Walken for several hours in a row while riding a yacht.
2. "Fourth View" and fake news
This film was positioned as "based on real events." During the advertising campaign, “real” archival records related to the “Fourth Look” were even shown, as well as supposedly genuine news articles from local newspapers. They talked about numerous cases of missing people in the small town of Nome, Alaska, where the events of the film take place.
In real life, the inhabitants of Nome, as well as the local press, were very unhappy with how Universal Studios described their lives. Most of all were the families of people who were really unaccounted for. Studios had to remove all of their advertising "real" materials about Nome from the Web.
1. "Atuk" - the most unlucky film that could not finish
One of the most interesting and mysterious prehistories for the films is connected with the Hollywood project, which secured the bad reputation of the “killer of actors”.
The script for Atuk based on Mordecai Richler’s book Peerless Atuk was allegedly proposed by American comedian John Belushi in 1982. After reading a book that talked about an Eskimo from Alaska trying to adapt to life in New York, he decided that he was ideally suited for the lead role.
A month later, 33-year-old Belushi died of an overdose of drugs. Ten years later, in 1992, they remembered the Atuk project and offered the main role to stand-up comedian Sam Kinison. And the production of the film this time was begun. However, Kinison demanded that the script be amended, and the studio United Artists, in turn, considered that the actor "caught a star." And although after high-profile scandals, filmmakers and Kinison managed to agree, the shooting was not destined to resume. The comedian crashed in a car accident.
Two years later, in 1994, the Atuk script was offered to the next comedian John Candy, who expressed interest in participating in the project. Have you already guessed what happened next? That's right, Candy died of a heart attack at the age of 43.
A few months later, writer Michael O’Donoghue, who had previously rewritten the script at the request of Candy, died of a brain hemorrhage.
In 1997, actor Chris Farley agreed to shoot in Atuk. And in the same year he died from an overdose of drugs at the age of thirty-three. Ironically, he read the script with his colleague Phil Hartman. A few months after his death, Farley Hartman was shot dead by his wife before she aimed her weapon at herself. In general, everyone died, and United Artists forever refused the adaptation of Atuk.
