9 Real-Life Ghost Encounters People Have Had After Watching Scary Movies

I’ve always been a huge fan of scary movies, but I won’t lie. Some of them have given me horrible nightmares.

Although I’m okay with the occasional bad dream because I love the genre so much, I don’t think I could continue watching horror flicks if they brought real paranormal activity into my life.

The people below know exactly what I mean, because they’ve shared seriously terrifying stories about what happened to them after watching (and even starring in) horror films.

1. Vera Farmiga, who starred in “The Conjuring” and “The Conjuring 2,” said that when she went home from filming one night, she found three slashes across her laptop’s screen. Director James Wan also saw his dog growling one night at what appeared to be nothing at all.

The Perrons, the real family that the film was based on, came to the set one day. When they went home, Carolyn Perron felt a strange presence push her to the ground.

2. Nancy P. told Week In Weird about the chilling nightly visitor she had to entertain after watching “The Conjuring 2.”

I wanted to send an email to let you know that strange things have started happening in my house after my [husband] and I watched “The Conjuring 2.” Everything was fine until the end of the movie when Lorraine said the name “Valak.” As soon as she said the name, our back door swung open and it sounded like someone came running into the house. When my husband went into the kitchen to check, there was no one there. For the last three days, we have heard knocking on our walls at night and the sound of someone walking up our stairs. I know it is because of that movie and we’re already talking about calling a priest over for a blessing on the house. There is something wrong with that movie.

3. Maria B. and her family were plagued by a destructive phantom after they watched part of “The Conjuring 2” as well.

Just wanted to throw this out there. Last night we watched part of “The Conjuring 2.” Not all of it, since my son was scared already. My husband went to go put my son off to bed and slept with him. At almost 3 a.m., my husband came back to our room. [He] lies down in bed and in our closet we hear a sound of dishes breaking. My husband gets up turns on the light. And the picture of us married, the beautiful picture frame it stood in was broken in two. I should not have agreed to watch that movie. All my stuff in my closet is put away so neatly. I am still trying to understand how it could have flown and broken like that. Sorry to have bugged you, just thought you should know. People should not watch that movie.

4. Gina Frost from the U.K. suffered through 40 years of terrifying hallucinations after watching “The Exorcist” as a teenager.

Just one week later, I was in my bedroom and I began seeing rats running up and down the walls. I ended up locking myself in my bedroom for weeks because I was so petrified. I thought I was going mad. It took me about nine weeks before I felt like I could go back into the world.

Ever since then, I have been experiencing awful hallucinations that make me feel sick. I hallucinate about my own death. It’s like I am watching a film in my head where I am being ripped apart and tortured. It is enough to turn anybody’s stomach and it makes me feel ill.

The hallucinations have taken over my life when it comes to social situations. Ever since I was 18, I have tried to avoid being in social situations just in case I have a hallucination. Between the ages of 18 and 39, the hallucinations were erratic, but over the past 10 years they have gotten worse.

At one point, I was having up to three hallucinations a week and each one lasted three minutes. I often felt exhausted afterwards.

I haven’t been able to watch a horror film since.

Although things got better for Frost after she started taking medication, her hallucinations still haven’t fully gone away.

5. After people went inside a theater in Rome to watch “The Exorcist,” lighting struck a nearby church and left the shape of a cross on the ground below. This film also caused many people to pass out and vomit while watching it that night.

Many creepy things also happened during the making of the movie. Several actors and their family members (including relatives of the crew) died shortly after filming was finished, and multiple fires broke out on set.

6. Jennifer Carpenter, star of “The Exorcism of Emily Rose,” believes that she was followed home by some kind of entity during the making of the movie.

When we were shooting, my stereo kept turning itself on in the middle of the night. It freaked me out because it started playing Pearl Jam’s “Alive” — just the “I’m still alive” part. It stayed with me for a while.

7. In the middle of watching “The Conjuring 2,” Joanne P. and her family heard terrifying screams that weren’t part of the movie.

We were just watching “The Conjuring 2” and my family paused it while I went to my bedroom to change into my pajamas. As soon as I walked into my bedroom, I could hear loud screaming. I thought they turned the TV up really loud in the living room, but then realized it was coming through my bedroom TV speaker. There was nothing on my TV. My two sons, grandson, and son’s girlfriend all witnessed it. Needless to say, we stopped watching the movie.

8. Actress JoBeth Williams said that during the filming of “Poltergeist,” she found the pictures on her walls hanging crookedly every night, even though she fixed them every time.

Heather O’ Rourke, the star of the movie, even passed away at only 12 years old, but she wasn’t the only actress to die. Dominique Dunne was murdered by her ex-boyfriend the same year the movie was released.

It was believed that real human skeletons were used in the film and that this cursed everyone associated with it.

9. William Castle, the producer of “Rosemary’s Baby,” received many letters from people who had watched the movie. They told him that he had unleashed evil by making it. Not long after, he suffered a urinary blockage and had to have surgery. During his operation, he reportedly shouted, “Rosemary, for God’s sake, drop the knife!”

Director Roman Polanski’s pregnant wife, Sharon Tate, was tragically murdered by Charles Manson a year after the film’s release, and John Lennon was shot outside of the hotel that’s in the movie.

Composer Krzysztof Komeda also passed away one year after the release due to a brain aneurism, just like one of the characters did in the movie.

(via Week in Weird / Mirror / Dread Central)

As much as it pains me to say this, I might have to take a break from watching horror films for a while. Those stories are just way too freaky.