Many people think horror movies are the end all be all of fright entertainment, but long before the video camera and motion pictures came along, audiences were watching monstrous events unfold on the stage of a theater. Shakespeare gave us death, destruction, murder, ghosts and plenty of sex, so maybe watching a little carnage under the bright lights isn’t exactly a new concept.
The theater has always had its darker side, though. Stories of actors who never left, unexplained sightings and strange happenings after the audience has gone home have been passed down for generations. Even those mysterious ghost lights left burning on empty stages have become part of theater lore.
Now you can pull back the curtain and explore some of those stories with a new paranormal double bill: Theatre Hauntings: West End Ghouls and Theatre Hauntings: Dark Knights on Broadway.
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Directed by Robin Bextor (Peaky Blinders: The Real Story, Nosferatu: The Real Story) and Simon Hanning, the documentaries travel across the pond to investigate some of the most infamous supernatural stories connected to London and New York’s legendary theaters.
Theatre Hauntings: West End Ghouls heads into London’s West End, where centuries of theatrical history have left behind plenty of stories about spirits that apparently refuse to leave the building. The documentary explores the ghost of a World War I soldier said to haunt London’s Coliseum, the tragic murder of actor William Terriss outside the Adelphi Theatre and the mischievous spirit of legendary clown Joseph Grimaldi at Drury Lane.
The film features interviews with Stage Ghosts and Haunted Theatres author Nick Bromley, eyewitness accounts and dramatic reconstructions as it digs into the strange history hiding behind London’s famous stages.
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Then it’s across the Atlantic for Theatre Hauntings: Dark Knights on Broadway, where the bright lights of New York’s theater district illuminate a whole new collection of dark tales.
The documentary investigates the life and death of silent film star Olive Thomas, reported sightings of Charles Frohman at the Empire Theatre, the long running supernatural superstition surrounding Macbeth and the bizarre story of a trapeze artist who allegedly vanished during a performance.
Both films offer a look at the history, legends and paranormal stories lurking behind some of the world’s most famous theaters. Whether you believe the spirits are still hanging around or simply enjoy a good ghost story, there is something particularly creepy about imagining an empty theater after the final curtain has fallen.
Theatre Hauntings: West End Ghouls and Theatre Hauntings: Dark Knights on Broadway arrive on UK digital October 5 from Reel2Reel Films, making this double bill a pretty damn fitting choice for some Halloween viewing.