“Horror films don’t create fear. They release it.” Wes Craven
Hollywood has long since been obsessed with voodoo. From writhing rituals to shadowy possessions, filmmakers have mined the ancient spiritual practices of the Caribbean and the American South to awaken dread. But sometimes, the line between performance and reality blurs and sometimes follows the crew home. Two films in particular The Skeleton Key(2005) and The Serpent and The Rainbow (1988), didn’t just tell stories steeped in voodoo and hoodoo, they became haunted by them.
The Skeleton Key: Hoodoo In The Bayou
Set deep within the moss covered bayou of Louisiana, The Skeleton Key tells the story of a hospice nurse who uncovers a terrifying secret in a decaying plantation house. Hoodoo, a system of folk magic and spiritual belief brought over by enslaved Africans, plays a central role in the film. According to some involved in the production, the spirits may not have liked being disturbed.
Filmed on an actual plantation just outside of New Orleans, the cast and crew were warned early on, “don’t disrespect the land.” Several local practitioners of Hoodoo warned against shooting certain scenes inside specific rooms of the estate. Locals whispered that the plantation wasn’t just haunted, it was “marked.” It was a place where hoodoo spells had soaked into the soil and the spirits kept watch for trespassers.
Strange things began happening almost immediately. Cameras malfunctioned during key scenes involving rituals. Electrical failures plagued the set, lights blowing out, sound equipment glitching and fully charged batteries draining in minutes. Several crew members reported intense feelings of being watched and some were even overwhelmed by a “heavy presence.”
One of the most unnerving stories involves a prop – a handmade hoodoo charm created for the scene. A crew member reportedly took it home as a souvenir. Days later, they began experiencing vivid nightmares, sleep paralysis and an overwhelming sense of dread. They quietly returned the charm to the set and refused to speak about it for a few years.
Kate Hudson, the film’s star, later described the atmosphere as “intense” and “off.” She noted in interviews that she avoided being alone in the house. She said that it felt as if she was being watched by something in the shadows of the house. Hudson mentions that doors inexplicably slammed shut without anybody touching them. She described a sense that the house itself felt alive with whispers and footsteps that nobody could explain.
Then there’s the film’s eerie mantra, “It doesn’t work, if you don’t believe.” A line written as fiction, perhaps. But by the time shooting had wrapped more than one person on set believed that something had been awakened.
The Serpent and The Rainbow: When Voodoo Fights Back
Nearly two decades earlier, director Wes Craven filmed The Serpent and The Rainbow, a terrifying tale based on actual events. Adapted from the work of Harvard ethnobotanist Wade Davis, the film chronicles a journey into the heart of Haitian voodoo culture. Where zombification isn’t a myth, it’s a ritual.
But it just wasn’t the story that was dangerous. From the start, the production faced intense opposition from Haiti. Voodoo is a deeply respected and feared religion there, not a Hollywood gimmick. The crew was accused of exploiting sacred practices.They were threatened, followed and eventually arrested by the Haitian government. This forced the production to continue in the Dominican Republic.
Yet even away from Haiti, the sense of dread did not let up. Cast and crew reported hallucinations, nightmares and illness. One assistant director claimed to see a shadowy figure watching him from the jungle. He later stated that it was the same specter that had haunted him in Haiti. The figure would always vanish whenever approached. Wes Craven himself said that the experience shook him deeply. That the feeling lingered long after they had wrapped. He called it one of the most difficult and creepy shoots of his career.
Local practitioners warned the filmmakers that they had violated spiritual boundaries and would pay for it. According to some of the crew a voodoo priestess, angered by the crew’s intrusion, performed a ritual to curse the film. She warned them that the spirits that they had disturbed would not be easily silenced. She informed them that no matter where they go, the shadows would not rest quietly.
By the time production wrapped, the crew had no doubt that something had gone wrong and the film had been cursed.
Belief As A Portal
What binds The Skeleton Key and The Serpent and The Rainbow together isn’t just their subject matter, it’s their legacy in fear. Both films treat belief not as superstition but as a power. In The Skeleton Key, the protagonist is only overtaken once she begins to believe. In The Serpent and The Rainbow, a man of science is forced to confront the spiritual world that logic cannot protect him from.
This idea, that belief can open doors, is central to both voodoo and horror. It’s not the ritual, the chant or the charm that holds true power, it’s the conviction behind it. On these film sets, belief didn’t stay confined to the script. Once the cast and crew began to feel its effects – the malfunctions, the nightmares, the shadows in the corner of their vision – doubt gave way to fear. Fear, in spiritual traditions like voodoo, is as good as faith.
In stories rooted in ancient traditions, the line between performance and actual participation is razor-thin. When you re-create sacred rights, even when cameras are rolling, you may be doing more than just telling a story, you might be invoking something. Once the belief takes hold, the veil lifts just enough to let something through.
Both films leave viewers with a chilling reminder: belief doesn’t just unlock the story, it unlocks a door. Once it’s open something might step into our world.
A Haunted Genre
Other horror films have long been rumored to have crazy curses – The Exorcist, The Omen and Poltergeist – all plagued with mysterious deaths, accidents and unexplained phenomena. But movies rooted in voodoo and hoodoo seem to stir something older and something less forgiving. These aren’t just ghost stories or tales of demonic possession. They are depictions of living spiritual systems, steeped in history, pain and power. When filmmakers treat these traditions as mere props or plot devices, they find themselves in dangerous territory.
Unlike traditional hauntings, which cling to objects or locations, the spirits summoned by voodoo are invited in. They are summoned, intentionally or not. That means that the set itself can become a ritual space. The chant. The recreated altar. The costume. All of it may echo practices meant to call something forth. If done without reverence, that “something” may not leave when the cameras stop rolling.
It’s no coincidence that The Serpent and The Rainbow and The Skeleton Key left their cast and crew unnerved. They weren’t just movies that told scary stories. They ventured into the belief system that views spiritual forces as active, intelligent and deeply rooted in place. While Hollywood can fake the blood and screams, it can’t fake respect. That’s earned or ignored at one’s own peril.
The horror genre has always thrived on pushing the boundaries. But when those boundaries push into sacred ground, the fear takes on a life of its own. Because the most terrifying thing isn’t what’s written in the script, it’s what might be watching between takes.
“When you dance with the spirits, you better know the steps.” Haitian proverb.