There’s a reason many horror filmmakers tread lightly when drawing inspiration from real legends. Some stories don’t stay on the stage or screen. Some seem to follow you home.
In 2012, the film The Possession terrified audiences with its tale of a young girl consumed by a sinister force tied to a mysterious wooden box. Marketed as “based on a true story,” the film borrowed heavily from the legend of the Dybbuk box. A real world object said to house a malicious spirit from Jewish folklore. But what has started as a movie project quickly spiraled into something far stranger. Cast and crew members began to whisper about unexplained events on set, a mysterious fire destroyed props and eerie feelings plagued the production.
Some say it was a coincidence. Others say something ancient and very real was watching.
The Dybbuk Box: A Real Legend
Before the cameras even rolled, The Possession was already courting darkness. The Dybbuk box, now infamous in paranormal circles, first appeared in the public consciousness through an eBay listing in 2000. Its owner, Kevin Mannis, claimed the antique wine cabinet caused horrific nightmares, shadowy apparitions and strange illnesses. He believed the box housed a Dybbuk. A restless, malicious spirit in Jewish mythology known for clinging to and tormenting the living.
Subsequent owners confirmed the haunting. Electronics failed. Pets died. Some even suffered strokes or mysterious health episodes after handling the box.
By the time the story reached Hollywood the Dybbuk box already gained a reputation too terrifying to ignore…or perhaps too tempting.
Hollywood Opens The Box
When production began on The Possession, it was intended to be a straightforward supernatural horror film, anchored by the talents of Sam Rami as producer and Ole Bornedal as director. With the script inspired by real accounts tied to a Dybbuk box legend, the filmmakers tried to create a chilling experience that felt grounded in something disturbingly real. But almost immediately, the atmosphere on set turned unnaturally tense.
Actors and crew alike began reporting an inexplicable heaviness on set, as if the air itself had thickened. Some said they felt watched standing alone, even when surrounded by others. A few described brief moments of dizziness and nausea when entering the soundstage where key scenes were filmed. Others grew visibly anxious while working near the replica of the Dybbuk box prop, despite knowing it was only a carved piece of wood made by the art department.
Director Ole Bornedal attempted to keep the mood professional and focused but he even felt the shift in morale. According to later interviews, he recalled a “dark energy” that seemed to settle over the crew, particularly with scenes depicting the young girl’s possession. Take after take would fall apart, not due to poor acting or technical issues but due to a strange sense of dread that couldn’t be explained.
The most chilling event occurred after production wrapped. The film’s props, including the replica box, were placed in a controlled storage facility in Vancouver. Days later, a fire erupted in the unit. It engulfed the entire storage area, reducing it all to ash. The cause of the fire was never determined. No electrical faults were discovered, and no sign of arson was found. Investigators were baffled. It was as if the fire simply started from nothing and consumed exactly what it wanted to destroy. Was it divine intervention?
Though the original Dybbuk box never made it to set, its influence seemed to seep through regardless. Producers wisely decided against bringing the real artifact anywhere near the film. What was meant to be a fictional tale suddenly felt like a ritual in its own right, as if invoking the legend woke something ancient.
By the time editing began, many involved with the film were eager to move on. The oddities, the tension, the fire…it was easier to call them coincidences and forget them. But behind closed doors, some admitted they weren’t quite sure anymore. When you create a film about summoning a spirit, even though fiction, sometimes something answers.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan Becomes A Believer
Jeffrey Dean Morgan has always been the kind of actor who balances grit with charm. Grounded, professional and not easily shaken. When he signed on to play Clyde, the concerned father in the film, Morgan approached the movie like any other job. He had no reason to believe that anything was out of the ordinary. In fact, he initially laughed off the rumors surrounding the Dybbuk box, brushing them aside as Hollywood hype for the release. But by the time the shooting wrapped, his tone had changed.
In interviews, Morgan recounted a growing unease that crept into his daily experience on set. At first it was subtle, a strange chill that lingered in certain parts of the soundstage, or a persistent sense that somebody was standing directly behind him, watching. During emotionally charged scenes, lights would flicker and camera equipment would inexplicably shut down. Crew members began to murmur about how often they were doing retakes, not because of human error, but because something always seemed to go wrong.
What disturbed Morgan the most, however, were the dreams. Night after night, he began to suffer vivid, unnerving dreams. They were disjointed images of fire, shadows and whispering voices he couldn’t understand. He wasn’t alone. Some cast and crew admitted, of the record, that they were experiencing similar dreams. They would wake drenched in sweat with a heavy sense of dread that lingered and they couldn’t quite shake. Morgan confessed that filming The Possession was the first time he felt something intangible but deeply unsettling had taken root during production.
By the end of the shoot, his skepticism had cracked, “I don’t want to believe any of it,” Morgan admitted in one interview. “But there was just…something. A presence, maybe. I’ve never felt that before. And I don’t want to feel it again.”
Though he never claimed to fully believe in curses or demons, Morgan was clear about one thing: he wouldn’t go near a real Dybbuk box, not for any amount of money. When he learned that Sam Raimi had considered bringing the real box to set as a promotional gimmick, Morgan was one of the voices who urged against it.
Whatever had followed the story into the realm of fiction, he felt it had crossed the line into something dangerously real. For a man that has spent his life playing haunted characters, it was a sobering moment to realize that this time, the haunting may have followed him. He never made a public scene but in private interviews he admitted that something came back with him. “I know it wasn’t just in Vancouver, it followed me. I could feel it, like the film wasn’t done with me yet.”
When Fiction Meets Folklore
The horror of The Possession lies just not its story, but in what happened behind the scenes. Unlike other “cursed” productions steeped in Hollywood legend, this one is tethered to a real, ongoing mystery. The Dybbuk box still exists. It changed hands several times, and every new owner has reported something. Illness. Nightmares. Fear and even deaths.
Unlike most items used for Hollywood inspiration, this one does not sit quietly in a museum. It is still out there.
Final Thoughts: Some Things Should Stay Sealed
In a genre filled with fake blood and scripted scares, The Possession reminds us that sometimes, the horror isn’t acting. It’s waiting. Watching. And maybe, just maybe…punishing the ones who dare to exploit it.
So the next time a film claims to be “based on a true story,” ask yourself: how true? What was the real cost?
Because in Hollywood the show must go on.
Even when something otherworldly is pulling the strings.