5 horror movie sets that were definitely cursed

2013's The Conjuring was a smash-hit that quickly cemented itself as one of the genre's greats – but behind the scenes, the film's stars were dealing with weird and inexplicable occurrences.

Vera Farmiga, who portrayed Lorraine Warren in the franchise, refused to bring her script home after mysterious claw marks appeared on her laptop, and later on her thigh. 

On top of that, Joey King, who played Christine, fell ill with a rare blood disorder during filming, putting her at an incredibly high risk of internal bleeding.

"I had to, every day before work and after work, go to the hospital, get my blood taken. Then, all of a sudden I got home, and I've never had a problem with my blood since," she recalled on The Drew Barrymore Show.

The Poltergeist trilogy has seen several cast members die tragic and gruesome deaths, with many claiming that the use of real skeletons in the pool scene rather than fake ones sparked a real-life curse.

After the first film was released in 1982, actress Dominique Dunne, who portrayed Dana, was killed by her ex-boyfriend at her home. 

Will Sampson, who played Taylor in the film, died of kidney failure five years later, and Julian Beck, who was Preacher Kane in Poltergeist 2: The Other Side, died from stomach cancer before production wrapped on the second film.

Heather O'Rourke, who starred as Carol Anne in the trilogy, died at just 12 years old from a bowel obstruction in 1988, the same year that the final film was released. 

Finally, Lou Perryman, who portrayed Pugsley in the first film, was murdered by an ex-convict at his home in 2009, after the killer decided to steal his car.

One of the most cursed horror film sets was that of 1973's The Exorcist, starring Linda Blair, Ellen Burstyn, Jason Miller and Max von Sydow. The film follows Regan McNeil, a young girl who is possessed by a demon and undergoes an exorcism performed by two priests.

Before filming even began, a mysterious fire destroyed most of the set of the McNeil house, except for Regan's bedroom, causing weeks-long production delays. Additionally, Linda and Ellen suffered lifelong back injuries that were sustained on set, and a reported nine deaths occurred during filming.

"There were many deaths on the film. Linda's grandfather died, the assistant cameraman's wife had a baby that died, the man who refrigerated the set died, the janitor who took care of the building was shot and killed," Ellen recalled in the documentary The Fear of God: 25 Years After The Exorcist. 

"I think overall there were nine deaths during the course of the film, which is an incredible amount… it was scary." Even the extras were cursed – one actor named Paul Bateson was later discovered to be a serial killer, nicknamed The Bag Murderer. 

As if that wasn't enough, the screenings of the film wreaked havoc; during one viewing in Rome, a lightning strike reportedly hit the church across the street, prompting a cross to fall to the ground. 

The film also sparked widespread hysteria, fainting, and vomiting amongst moviegoers, with many leaving the cinema disturbed and shaken.

The 1968 horror film about a pregnant woman who suspects her husband and neighbours of being in a Satanic cult is connected to several real-life deaths, most notably that of director Roman Polanski's wife, Sharon Tate.

The film's producer, William Castle, was harassed with so much hate mail after Rosemary’s Baby was released that he developed severe kidney stones, and reportedly began hallucinating in the hospital before yelling: "Rosemary, for God's sake, drop the knife!" 

The film’s composer, Krzysztof Komeda, was accidentally pushed down a steep embankment by a friend in 1968, causing him to fall into a coma and die, which mirrored the fate of a character in the film.

Finally, Roman's heavily pregnant movie star wife Sharon was brutally murdered alongside four others at their rental home in Los Angeles in 1969. 

While Roman was on a trip to Europe, cult leader Charles Manson ordered his followers to kill everyone at the house in an act of revenge against the former tenant, Terry Melcher, who had refused him a recording contract in the past. 

In addition to these deaths, Roman was later arrested for sexually assaulting a minor, and fled to Europe in 1978 to escape the charges.

Perhaps the most cursed film set of all is that of The Omen, the 1976 film starring Gregory Peck, Lee Remick and David Warner. 

During production, the separate planes that Gregory, a scriptwriter, and an executive producer were travelling in were each struck by lightning, while another producer came close to being struck while filming in Rome. 

These occurrences eerily mirrored the film, in which a priest is killed after a lightning strike snaps off a steel rod from a church and impales him. Following those incidents, the crew narrowly avoided several bombing attacks, as producer Mace Neufeld shared in The Omen: Curse or Coincidence. 

"We were in the midst of the IRA bombing all over London. We had reservations at a restaurant an hour before it was blown up. The subway station was blown up as we were walking towards it," he recalled.

The next incident occurred after filming had wrapped, when two lions that were cut from the movie killed their handler, and the Rottweiler dogs that appeared in the film reportedly attacked their trainers.

Perhaps the most horrifying result of the "curse" occurred a year after the film was released, when special effects consultant John Richardson was involved in a tragic car accident that decapitated his girlfriend, Liz Moore.