10 More Movies With Creepy On-Set Stories
3. An Indoctrination Into Voodoo - The Serpent & The Rainbow
Wes Craven is undoubtedly a master of the horror genre, and in 1988 brought to life The Serpent and the Rainbow, a story based in and around the world of voodoo. A master though he may be, even Craven couldn't create anything as creepy as what happened to writer Richard Maxwell while on set.
According to the director himself, Maxwell had been interviewing the man who had taught The Serpent and the Rainbow author Wade Davies about voodoo, and said that he'd love to get indoctrinated into it himself. The man promised that he would be, and from there the writer apparently lost his mind within the space of a week.
Maxwell locked himself in his room, he stopped wearing clothes, he couldn't concentrate on writing, and on the morning they were to begin shooting he woke Craven up at 5am saying that those practicing voodoo and the producers were conspiring to kill him. Naturally, he was swiftly put on a plane home.
Four days later he woke up in L.A. and said that the last thing he remembered was hearing the man he was interviewing saying "you will be". There's taking an interest in the subject of your work, and then there's going too far.