Spooky Set Stories

Hey guys and welcome back to the Another World Media Blog.

Since October has fastly come upon us, I wanted to get in the spirit of all things spooky! Halloween is one of my favourite times of year personally and within the filmmaking community. I love seeing all the creatives dive deep into genres like horror, thriller and mystery that really pushes your creativity as a filmmaker to make something different breaking the stereotypes and assumptions about these genres. Over the few years, I myself have wrote horrors and similar spooky dark stories and have always noticed a trend. The feeling of unease and almost fear that attaches itself in writing, editing and being on set filming. So with that, lets look into some of the spookiest experiences on film sets.

1. The first time the cast of Annabelle Comes Home were all on set together, the lights went out, and they didn't come back on until the actors asked, "Annabelle, are you there?" One of the actresses reportedly had an unexplained nosebleed when the lights went on.

1. While filming The Conjuring, actor Vera Farmiga began seeing a mysterious trio of claw marks everywhere, from her computer screen to her own thigh.

2. Filming for The Exorcist was shut down for six weeks after the entire set for the MacNeil family home burned down — except for Regan's demon-possessed bedroom.

1. Whilst shooting a scene for The Nun in a Romanian castle, director Corin Hardy stepped into a room to get out of the camera's way, and he saw two mysterious figures and assumed they were crew talking to them. He then realised no one was there when he received no response.

1. After filming The Exorcist, Irish actor Jack Macgowran died shortly after completing his part on the film, as did a crew member and a security guard. If these events were not enough, the movie set also burned down without any explanation. The strange occurrences led the director William Friedkin to request a priest perform a blessing on the set.

I have my own spooky story on set but it’s nowhere near as frightening as the examples above. When I filmed Paper Planes, we filmed at a location in Leicester called Beaumanor Hall, A Victorian country house built in 1842 that was used in World War II when the estate was requisitioned by the War Office.

Throughout the war the Hall was used as a secret listening station to intercept encrypted enemy signals. We were able to film in a room that was used as a WW2 bunker and I just remember how cold it felt and would feel uneasy being in there by myself.

You can watch it here- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdVSc55KN5o

So that’s it for spooky set stories!

If you are looking for someone to film some spooky stuff in the East Midlands- Another World Media is the business to call. Or email. We understand phone calls aren’t for everyone.

Until next time,

-J