When something scary or mysterious happens in a film, it is taken for granted. After all, cinema should entertain and amaze the audience.
But when unexplained phenomena begin behind the scenes (or right in the frame), then it's 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 1980s, it gained notoriety thanks in part to a strange boy who was caught on film in one scene. As actor Ted Danson (Jack) and Celeste Holm (his mother) walk through their apartment, a strange figure stands by the window and peers through the curtains.
After the release of the film, rumors spread that this figure was the ghost of a boy who committed suicide, either by throwing himself out of the window, or by shooting himself. The grieving family left the apartment shortly after the tragedy and was rented by a film company for the film Three Men and a Baby.
Disney Studios even considered it necessary to release a statement about the scene due to the increased interest in it among fans of the paranormal. It claimed that the "boy" was actually the cardboard image of Jack used in the film. They just forgot to remove him from the frame.
Some people, however, objected that the cardboard dummy and the "boy" looked different. The legend of the ghost by the window, at least for some, lives on.
9. "Omen", lightning and decapitation
The star of this mystical thriller, Gregory Peck, and screenwriter David Seltzer 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 film in Rome, producer Harvey Bernhard almost died from a lightning strike.
But the most tragic of all events was the incident involving special effects master John Richardson and his assistant Liz Moore. They were involved in a car accident in which Moore was beheaded. It was very similar to a scene from a movie with the beheading of a photographer.
8. The Superman franchise and misfortunes with the protagonists
The film story about "Superman" showed the world an almost invulnerable creature. In real life, the actors playing Superman are made of flesh and blood. And many of them have been unable to resist the curse that plagues this franchise.
The star of the original Adventures of Superman 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 almost overnight. However, in 1995 he fell from his horse and was paralyzed below the neck.
Margo Kidder, who played Lois Lane opposite Reeve, had a serious car accident in 1990 and was temporarily paralyzed.
Lee Quigley, who played the young Superman in the 1978 film, became a drug addict and died at the age of fourteen in 1991.
The only one who passed the "Curse of Superman" - Henry Cavill. It remains to be hoped that he will delight the audience with his superhero look for many years to come. Or finally retrain into The Witcher.
7. "Amityville Horror" and real events
One of scariest horror movies based on real events. Although what really happened, and how much of the story was embellished, is still a topic of discussion.
The murder of the Dafoe family at 112 Ocean Avenue did take place. In 1974, Defoe's eldest son, Ronald, killed his brothers, sisters and parents.
The following year, George and Katie Lutz bought a home 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 cursed place, they left it and never returned. This story formed the basis of Jay Anson's The Amityville Horror.
6. "Dark Water" predicted the murder committed 8 years later
Released in 2005, a horror film tells the story of the tragic fate of a young girl who drowned in a water tank on the roof of an apartment building. Her body remained undiscovered for a long time and slowly decomposed.
Nearly eight years later, in February 2013, Eliza Lam's body was found in the water tower of the Cecile Hotel in Los Angeles. As in the movie Dark Water, hotel guests complained about the foul-smelling water and its strange color.
5. "The Raven" and the "Curse" of the Lee Family
Brandon Lee, Bruce Lee's son, chose the acting path after his father. And the film "The Raven" was the best in his career. Unfortunately Brandon didn't live to see its premiere. He was killed while filming.
According to the plot, one of the gang members was supposed to shoot at the hero. And the pistol, as it should be for safety reasons, was loaded with blank cartridges. But a plug was stuck in the barrel, which the crew members did not notice. It flew out, pierced Lee's stomach, and got stuck in the spine. The actor died 12 hours later.
Sad Fact: Michael Massy - the actor who shot - didn't really need to point a gun at Brandon since both were out of frame at the time. Massy later stated that he still had nightmares about Lee's death.
While Brandon's death was certainly a tragic accident, many conspiracy theories have been linked to the death of Bruce Lee. According to the official version, he died suddenly from an individual reaction to the headache pill.
4. "The fall of Berlin" and the tragedy at Breitscheidplatz.
On the evening of December 19, 2016, near Breitscheidplatz, the first screening of the film "The Fall of Berlin" took place, intended for the film crew. In the story, the villain hijacked the car and forced its driver to take him to Berlin. There he was going to commit a terrorist attack in the midst of Christmas.
It is easy to imagine the horror of the filmmakers who, after the screening, took to the streets and discovered that a terrible tragedy had just happened in Berlin. A terrorist in a truck crashed into a crowd of people at a Christmas market.
3. "Rebel without a cause" and death in the film crew
The most stylish film in the history of cinema (according to the UCI Cinemas poll) is also one of the most "damned".
The four actors who starred in Rebel have died under suspicious or tragic circumstances.
- James Dean - Died in a car accident a month before the movie was released.
- Nick Adams - was found dead and fully clothed in his bedroom, with no signs of a struggle or forcible entry into his home.
- Sal Mineo - was found murdered in his home in 1976.
- Natalie Wood - Drowned after drinking for several hours in the company of her husband Robert Wagner and colleague Christopher Walken while sailing on a yacht.
2. "The fourth kind" and fake news
This film was positioned as "based on true events." The ad campaign even showed “real” archival footage of the Fourth View, as well as allegedly 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 residents of Nome, as well as the local press, were very unhappy with the way Universal described their life. The families of people who were really missing were outraged most of all. The studio had to remove all of its "real" advertising material about Nome from the Web.
1. "Atuk" is the most unhappy film that could not be filmed
One of the most interesting and mysterious backstories to the films is associated with a Hollywood project, which has an infamous "actor killer".
The screenplay for Atuk, based on Mordechai Richler's book The Incomparable Atuk, was supposedly proposed by American comedian John Belushi in 1982. After reading a book about an Alaskan Eskimo trying to adjust to life in New York, he decided he was perfect for the lead role.
A month later, 33-year-old Belushi died of a drug overdose. Ten years later, in 1992, they remembered about the Atuk project and offered the main role to comedian stand-up Sam Kinison. And the production of the film was started this time. However, Kinison demanded that the script be changed, and United Artists, in turn, considered that the actor "caught the star." And although after high-profile scandals the filmmakers and Kinison managed to agree, filming was not destined to resume. The comedian crashed in a car accident.
Two years later, in 1994, the script for "Atuka" was offered to another 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 Candy's request, died of a cerebral hemorrhage.
In 1997, actor Chris Farley agreed to shoot at Atuk. And in the same year he died of a drug overdose at the age of thirty-three. Ironically, he read the script with colleague Phil Hartman. A few months after Farley's death, Hartman was shot by his wife before she aimed the gun at herself. In general, everyone died, and United Artists permanently abandoned the film adaptation of "Atuk".