Was ‘The Omen’ the most haunted movie set of all time?
Cursed movie sets are nothing new. There’s The Wizard of Oz Wicked Witch being injured, Jim Caviezel getting struck by lighting during The Passion of the Christ, and four of Poltergeist’s main actors dying in three years of the film’s release. Scary movies all have their own curses associated with filming because of their subject material.
But one film takes the cake for being truly cursed. In 1975, lives were changed forever when The Omen started production in London. Trying to replicate the success just seen by The Exorcist, producer Harvey Bernhard thought this would be easy money. If only he knew what the future had in store for him and his entire cast and crew.
The Omen is regarded as the most cursed film set in history, and it’s no surprise why. With the crazy circumstances surrounding the accidents on set, maybe Bernhard should’ve listened to The Omen’s creator Robert Munger when he said the film would be cursed. Let’s dive into exactly what happened on this crazy set.
Deadly animals left and right
Obviously we remember the iconic cemetery scene where Greg Peck is running away from vicious dogs. To make it look convincing, a stuntman was used, covered up in plenty of protective clothing to save him. But as they were filming the scene, the rottweilers not only bit through the stuntman’s protective gear, but also wouldn’t stop when told to do so by their trainer.
On the more hairier side of things, the trainer responsible for the baboons that attack Damien and his mother died the day after filming that scene. While his death was involving a tiger and nothing to do with The Omen, people say the curse is what truly killed him.
Lighting from the gods
Just like the lighting strike on The Passion of the Christ, God was to blame for it. Except this time, there were three times the crew was praying to God over lighting. On three completely separate occasions, lighting struck planes carrying cast and crew members. Thankfully, no accidents resulted from these strikes, but it was definitely a close call for all three.
The IRA bombings
Anyone with a knowledge of London history knows about the building bombings blamed on the Irish Republican Army. While this technically isn’t part of The Omen curse, the fact that the cast and crew survived not one, but two of these bombings isn’t a coincidence.
Decapitated in a car accident
Arguably the most creepy accident out of all The Omen curses is the decapitation scene that not only happens in the film, but happened to special effects designer John Richardson. While working on another film, he was with his wife Liz Moore, where the two got into a head-on collision.
While Richardson was knocked unconscious but survived, Moore was decapitated when a tire went flying through the window. When he came to, Richardson realized how eerily related the accident was to the one in The Omen. To top it all off, Richardson also claims he saw a sign on the side of the road saying the town of Ommen was 66.6 kilometers away.
