5 Most Cursed Movie Productions of All Time, Ranked

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Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as Ed and Lorraine Warren fight the forces of evil in 'The Conjuring'

Horror movies deal with themes of cults, demons, the paranormal, black magic, and possession, which is sort of expected for the genre. Most times, the production of these films goes off without a hitch, as it does with most movies of any other genre. Now and again, though, films like these are struck by some crazy bad luck, to the point where the cast and crew start questioning whether their rotten luck is really to blame here.

Indeed, many of the people who worked on these films are convinced that some sort of dark forces beyond human understanding placed some supernatural curse on the film, dooming everyone involved to suffer horrible tragedy, misfortune, or paranormal activity. If you're a skeptic, it's easy to dismiss these occurrences as a coincidence, but as for the people who lived them, they believe it's much more than that. From injury, illness, unexplained phenomena, and even death, these movies stand as being some of the most notoriously cursed in cinema history.

5 'The Conjuring' (2013)

Lili Taylor with a lit match in The Conjuring

The Conjuring is one of those horror movies that is apparently based on a true story, telling the tale of Ed and Lorraine Warren, two paranormal investigators who became famous for their numerous terrifying cases and surprising skepticism. They were able to explain away many of their cases by common occurrences attributed to the paranormal, which made the ones they felt were real hold that much more weight. One of these cases saw them travel to Rhode Island to investigate allegations of a vengeful spirit haunting the Perron family and their daughters, which is a case the movie covers.

The set was plagued by a strange series of coincidences. For one, most of the crew found themselves waking up at 3 am, a time commonly called "the witching hour," when spirits are supposedly the most active. Crew reported objects moving around of their own accord, even launching themselves off shelves. Worse still, one of the actresses, Vera Farmiga, received a set of painful and visible scratches on her back from no apparent source. Some of these occurrences even carried over into The Conjuring 2, albeit at a lower level. Though no one died as a result of this production, one cannot deny the creepy goings-on behind the scenes. It apparently got so bad that the filmmakers opted to call an actual priest to the set in the hopes that some divine intervention would rid them of their misfortunes.

4 'Rosemary's Baby' (1968)

Mia Farrow drowning a scream with her hand in Rosemary's Baby

Rosemary's Baby conjured up a lot of negative reception at the time due to its satanic content and themes of cults, demons, and possession. Anyone who knows anything about cursed Hollywood movies knows that this is generally the kind of movie that attracts the wrong kind of crowd — specifically, demons or evil spirits. The film was produced by William Castle, a veteran of the horror genre, whose health rapidly began to decline following the production of Rosemary's Baby. His health gradually got worse and worse until he died just nine years after the film's release, at the age of 63. Krzysztof Komeda, who composed the soundtrack for the film, also died an untimely death, this time just a few months after the film was released. This was a result of him falling down a flight of stairs, sustaining major head injuries.

Some even attribute the 1969 murder of Sharon Tate by the Manson family cult to the film, as the movie was directed by Tate's lover, Roman Polanski. What makes this death even creepier is that Tate was pregnant, mirroring the plot of the movie. Three people dying is quite a lot, which has raised many concerns about a potential curse on the film. Like any similar instance, it can easily be dismissed as a string of terrible misfortune and crazy coincidence, but many who worked on the film are convinced that something darker was going on.

3 'Poltergeist' (1982)

JoBeth Williams in Poltergeist during the infamous pool scene

The Poltergeist trilogy was plagued with allegations of a curse, and to those who believe, there may have been a good reason for this. In the first film, there is a pretty famous scene involving a filthy swimming pool and some skeletons. It's rumored that the skeletons used weren't props — they were actual human bones, which were used because they were, for some reason, cheaper to acquire than fake skeletons, and the filmmakers needed a lot of them for the scene. Pretty much anyone who believes in paranormal activity knows that this is a surefire way to piss off the people whom the skeletons belonged to, which definitely would have laid the groundwork for a curse.

One of the most notable tragedies that befell the franchise was the death of Heather O'Rourke, who starred in all three original films. She passed away at just 12 years old due to complications from Crohn's Disease. However, her death was listed by physicians as being pretty unusual, considering she lacked any major alarming symptoms prior to her death. They didn't develop and progressively get worse; they just suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Three other cast members also died under sudden and unexpected circumstances, and there were rumors of strange and bizarre happenings. There were unconfirmed reports of an exorcism being performed on set, but there isn't much proof for this. Whether or not this movie trilogy was well and truly cursed is still up for debate.

2 'The Omen' (1976)

Damien stands in a graveyard in The Omen.

The Omen is another film that deals with themes of the occult and demonic possession, which is probably why it was purported to be a haunted, cursed production behind the scenes. During production, lead actor Gregory Peck was flying to London when his plane was struck by lightning. It could be a crazy coincidence, but it turns out that lightning does, in fact, strike the same place twice, because the same thing happened to executive producer Mace Neufeld. Then it happened to writer David Seltzer. Then, while filming in Rome, lighting nearly struck producer Harvey Bernhard. Most people probably don't know even one person who has been in a lightning strike, much less four people involved in the same production.

Mace Neufeld also narrowly missed a devastating bombing at a restaurant, with director Richard Donner also experiencing a bombing at his hotel the day after the movie wrapped filming. This might actually be good luck, considering nobody has gotten killed so far, but things get even worse than that. Some of the rottweilers used in the film abruptly attacked their trainers, and the scene with the baboons attacking the safari is genuine. One of the zookeepers was even eaten by one of the large cats the day after. Perhaps most famously, SFX designer Liz Moore died shortly following production, her life abruptly cut short in a horrific car accident. Remakes and subsequent sequels of the original film have all had similar tragedies befall them. The Omen remains one of the most infamous curses to plague a horror movie to this day.

1 'The Exorcist' (1973)

Natasha Lyonne as Megan Voorhees in 'Scary Movie 2', with wild hair and a cut face, parodying The Exorcist.

The Exorcist stands as one of the most notoriously cursed horror movies in the history of cinema, due to the sheer amount of strange circumstances surrounding it. In this case, it wasn't even limited strictly to the cast and crew. Like many other movies on this list, this is a movie about demons, which seem to attract the worst kinds of misfortune. The problems started small and relatively inconsequential, with the movie going way over budget and needing much longer than expected to film. This is a common problem in the film industry, admittedly, but not everything else about it can be so easily explained. One of the props they needed was shipped to the entirely wrong country, on top of the air conditioner breaking. While filming in Iraq, much of the crew suffered dysentery or heatstroke, while others fell victim to a series of freak accidents resulting in serious injuries, including the amputation of fingers and toes. Some of the extreme stunts even resulted in back injuries, two of which even made the final cut of the film.

Several people — like, double digits — involved in or connected to the film died in bizarre, unexpected, or horrific circumstances. One of the crew members even murdered somebody, while others died in terrifying accidents or due to an abrupt onset of illness. This curse actually carried over throughout the franchise, even affecting The Exorcist III. To make matters worse, some people who saw the original film in theaters even reported headaches, nausea, and a general sense of being unwell. Sure, this could be due to the horrifying content of the movie, but others aren't so sure. This movie had a literal exorcism performed on set. This isn't a rumour — this is a fact. Priests were reportedly always on set to calm the nerves of the cast and crew. Furthermore, the house used for the film even burned down one night. Mysteriously, only one room was untouched — the one where the exorcism was performed. There's so much to dive into when exploring the history of this film, which is why many consider it to be the single most cursed movie ever made.