Top 10 Creepiest True Stories Behind Movie Scenes

At this point, it is almost expected to have some supernatural story come out of the making of a scary movie. Even more so for “The Conjuring”, due to its basis on the true paranormal investigations of demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren. The entire production process was marred with strange occurrences early on, with weird noises being heard when the screenwriters were communicating over the phone with Lorraine Warren, and Vera Farmiga finding claw marks on her laptop. The strangeness continued onto the set of “The Conjuring 2,” when curtains were caught moving on camera without a draft in the room.

Alfred Hitchcock has become infamous for his behind-the-scenes antics, and for how he has treated some actresses over the years. Actress Tippi Hedren, who made her big-picture debut in “The Birds,” has often gone on record to describe her time with Hitchcock as abusive. This is evident by the shocking climactic attack of Hedren’s character by a swarm of birds. While she was promised that they would use mechanical ones, instead, tons of live birds were thrown at her, in what she called a “brutal and ugly and relentless” experience.

#8: A Haunted House, and Then Some “The Amityville Horror” (2005)

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Top 20 Creepiest True Stories Behind Movie Scenes

Another famous horror film based on a well-documented real-life haunting, you can bet that some bizarre stuff happened on the set of “The Amityville Horror” remake. Not only did a dead body turn up in the lake at the outdoor set, but the real Kathy Lutz passed away during production. Melissa George, who played Kathy in the remake, has claimed that many supernatural things happened during filming. For example, just like the real George Lutz, Ryan Reynolds kept waking up at 3:15 am, the estimated time the DeFeo murders occurred in the Amityville house.

#7: Celebrity Stalker “Noah” (2014)

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Fame is often a double-edged sword, and Emma Watson was reminded of this while working on Darren Aronofsky’s epic retelling of the story of Noah’s Ark. While walking in the woods in Long Island one day, Watson was approached by a strange man who had managed to dodge security and sneak on set. Watson had previously seen the man skulking around her home, and screamed. This managed to scare the stalker off, and he was later apprehended and removed from the set by security. Still, thinking about how easy it was for the stalker to get close to Watson is enough to send chills down anyone’s spine.

#6: Dealing with the Devil “The Omen” (1976)

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“The Omen” may deal with demons and the antichrist, but the production team is considered one of the most cursed film crews of all time. Head-on collisions, Rottweilers attacking trainers, multiple planes being struck by lightning, and even director Richard Donner’s hotel being bombed by the IRA were all challenges the crew had to deal with. If all that wasn’t enough, their special effects artist, John Richardson, was seriously injured in a car accident less than a year later, while his assistant, who was sitting next to him, was brutally cut in half, similar to a scene in “The Omen.”

A brutal film about rape and revenge, “The Last House on the Left” famously used the tagline, “To avoid fainting, keep repeating 'It's only a movie.'” However, the on-set reality was quite brutal itself. Actress Sandra Peabody was allegedly so genuinely scared she even walked off set. Actors David Hess and Marc Sheffler were reportedly very abusive towards their female co-stars, threatening to hurt or even kill them off-camera in order to get a strong reaction. Hess also experienced some real terror, since he was chased by a real chainsaw in the film’s climax.

#4: Mystery Baby “Eraserhead” (1977)

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Indie productions, as opposed to Hollywood pictures, normally have much less coverage and reports from behind the scenes, and if David Lynch is the director, then even more of the film’s details will be shrouded in mystery. “Eraserhead” may be a big question mark to any moviegoers who discover it, but the biggest mystery will always be how Lynch created that mutant baby effect. Many claim that he used and wired up a real preserved lamb fetus. Decades later, Lynch refuses to reveal his secret, instead making comments that raise more questions than answers.

#3: Welcome to the Jungle “Cannibal Holocaust” (1980)

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One of the most famous post-production scandals in all of film history, “Cannibal Holocaust” took the documentary-style found-footage angle a little too far. So much so that director Ruggero Deodato was brought in front of a court on murder accusations, and had to get his actors to come out of hiding to prove he did not kill them. But the creepiness doesn’t end there, as many still refuse to watch the film because of the very real animal deaths caught on camera, including a detailed butchering of a river turtle.

As one of the trippiest and most surreal anime series ever made, the cinematic conclusion to “Neon Genesis Evangelion” clearly does not shy away from nudity, violence, or general controversy. In fact, during one of the many hallucinations in the film, it's been rumored that the children’s drawings shown are in fact real drawings made by victims of abuse. Whether this is true or not, the sequence also includes real death threats the director received for the ending of the original series, as well as pictures of his vandalized animation studio. It's a chilling bit of trivia that adds to an already traumatic viewing experience.

#1: No Special Effects, No Problem “Men Behind the Sun” (1988)

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A movie about the real life torture and human experimentation that occurred in a Japanese WWII camp was always bound to cause some controversy. However, its disturbing nature not only stemmed from its subject matter, but from how far the production went for the sake of realism. Some of its highlights are when they set real rats on fire, and more famously used a real child’s dead body for the autopsy scene. Real animals and dead bodies were utilized from many of the effects, since there was no mainstream special effects industry in China at the time.