Eeriness of Callan Park gives Ravenswood film crew the creeps
A LOW budget horror film shot at an abandoned psychiatric hospital in Sydney’s inner west was so spooky it even gave the film crew the creeps.
Inner West
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A CAST member refused to return to a film set at an abandoned psychiatric hospital in Lilyfield as “spirits whispered in his ears”.
The supernatural horror feature film, Ravenswood, was mostly shot in Callan Park, over two weeks last year with 40 crew members.
It follows four US tourists – Sofia (Madeline Marie Dona), Carl (Adam Horner), Belle (Isabel Dickson) and Michael (Shane Savage) – on a vacation to Sydney who decide to go on a ghost tour of Ravenswood.
The deserted hospital is known to be the most haunted place in Sydney.
The Callan Park Hospital for the Insane (1878-1914) was an asylum located in the grounds of Callan Park.
In 1915, the facility was renamed Callan Park Mental Hospital. Since 1994, it has been formally known as Rozelle Hospital.
Horner, who is the executive producer and actor, said the film was set to be released worldwide in March.
“This was an incredibly low-budget Australian film and was a tough shoot, but we pulled it off,” Horner, 24, a former Newtown High School of the Performing Arts and Newtown resident, said. “We had a crew member refuse to come back to set. I think his exact words were ‘you guys don’t understand what you’re dealing with’.”
Actor Dona said: “I felt a real sense of eeriness. Most of our shoots were at night.”
CALLAN PARK’S GHOSTLY LEGACY:
1839: Crown solicitor and police magistrate John Ryan Brenan acquired the land, which he named Garry Owen Estate
1864: Sydney businessman John Gordon bought the land and renamed it Callan Park after Brenan went bankrupt.
1885: The site was transformed into a psychiatric hospital, known as Callan Park Hospital for the Insane 1915
1915: The facility was bought by the NSW Government and renamed Callan Park Mental Hospital.
1994: The hospital became formally known as Rozelle Hospital
1996: Sydney College of the Arts took possession of the building
2008: The precinct, including some buildings and historic rock carvings, was listed on the NSW State Heritage Register.
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