The Omen True Haunting Stories(Photo Credit –YouTube)
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The Omen did not need much help to be terrifying on screen, but what happened off-screen told a different story, and it is one far more chilling. Before a single frame rolled, the shadow was already there, lurking around the production like it had something to prove. The film, which tells the story of a boy adopted by a diplomat who turns out to be the Antichrist, was drenched in death and disaster both in front of and behind the camera.
Lightning Strikes Multiple Planes Connected To The Omen
The string of bad luck and misfortune kicked off in 1975 with none other than the legendary late actor Gregory Peck. He boarded a plane to London, and during mid-flight, it was struck by lightning. One may consider it to be nothing more than a fluke, but then it struck the writer’s plane too.
This is not the end though as four different people linked to the same movie all got hit by lightning across separate flights. Maybe the sky was trying to send a message or maybe it was bored but either way, the bolts did not stop there.
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THE OMEN 1976
Gregory Peck David Warner Lee Remick Patrick Troughton and director Richard Donner on location.
Filmed England, Italy and Israel Oct 1975-Jan 1976 pic.twitter.com/ZFlu1EC9U8
The Plane Crash That Could Have Killed Gregory Peck
According to Collider, a private jet was supposed to be used to fly Peck in for a scene. The crew canceled that plan when the shoot got delayed, and guess what, that very jet crashed the next day after hitting birds during takeoff, killing everyone on board. Unfortunately, it did not stop with the passengers. The wreckage struck a car on a nearby road, killing the driver and their family, who, cruelly enough, happened to be the pilot’s wife and kids.
Near-Death Experiences In Bomb-Stricken London And Animal Attacks On Set
The plane crash incident was followed by bombs. London at the time had IRA attacks to worry about, but two close calls stood out. The executive producer narrowly avoided a bombing at a restaurant where he planned to eat, and the day after filming wrapped, the director’s hotel was bombed.
The animals were not speared either. The supposedly trained Rottweilers used as the devil’s hounds started attacking their handlers, one even mauling a stuntman. A scene with baboons went off-script when they surrounded the car and tried to attack it. Lee Remick’s terror in the scene was not acting, and it was completely real. The next day, a zookeeper at the same park died after a lion (or a tiger, depending on who you ask) mauled him.
Real-Life Decapitation Mirrors A Chilling Movie Death
However, the most disturbing of all was what happened to John Richardson’s assistant, Liz Moore. They were in the Netherlands when their car was hit in a crash. Richardson survived, but Moore did not, as a tire decapitated her. That alone is horrific, but here is where it turns strange. Richardson was the one who designed the decapitation scene in the film, where a character is gruesomely killed by a falling sheet of glass.
But when did the real accident happen? Well, chillingly, it happened on Friday the 13th, and the road sign nearby read: 66.6 kilometers to Ommen.
Technical Failures And Strange Deaths Continue The Curse
The curse still had not packed up after so many years. In 2005, while shooting a documentary on the film’s dark legend, camera crews across two locations reported identical technical failures, but nothing was recorded. In 2006, while making the remake, actor Pete Postlethwaite’s brother suddenly died, reportedly after drawing three sixes in a card game. Then, thousands of feet of film from a key scene were mysteriously destroyed during processing, without a clear reason.
And now, with The First Omen, released in 2024, the curse may be stirring again sooner than later. The director reportedly felt uneasy on set one day after a crew member casually mentioned that the location’s perimeter was exactly 666 feet. Another strange moment came during a conversation between two cast members when an actor’s crucifix necklace snapped clean off mid-conversation after filming a possession scene.
You can chalk it all up to coincidence, but when planes crash, bombs miss, dogs turn, wild animals get wild, and prophecies from scripts bleed into real life, all centered around one film, it gets harder to shrug it off.
