While the Northridge, California house where the thriller Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension was filmed was home to plenty of scary scenarios, it was what followed actress Brit Shaw off set that made her most nervous.
“One night, we had shot this really creepy scene right before I was leaving set, and I kind of felt this presence, like someone was with me,” Shaw, now safe on a movie set outside Atlanta, explains. “I did this slow turn around as I was walking to my car, but no one was there. Then, when I got home that night, at around two in the morning, my TV came blasting on static at the loudest volume. This is the only time it’s ever happened—it never happened again, even when the power went out.”
Despite the supernatural scare, Shaw made it back to set, where she says she developed a newfound love of horror movies—and managed to work with some very impressive co-stars.
“We were on set and there was a scene that we were shooting where my character walks into a room with all of these animals in it,” she explains. “We shot the day and ended up not using the footage—the monkey didn’t make the movie—but the monkey is famous! It’s Crystal, this famous monkey who’s been in so many movies.” Indeed, Crystal has appeared in Night at the Museum and The Hangover 2, making her something of an animal superstar. “She probably makes more money than all of us,” Shaw adds.
And while Shaw says the film’s Northridge location—close enough that she could drive there and back daily from her Los Angeles home—made filming a breeze, one gets the feeling she won’t be headed back to the house where the latest installment in the blockbuster Paranormal Activity series was filmed.
“Moving forward, I am going to go to more scary movies,” she says, “but I’m going to try not to take them home with me.”
