Sarah Paxton
Actress Sara Paxton has vowed to stay away from haunted houses in 2012 after a series of spooky encounters in the past two years.
The Last House on The Left star agreed to stay in the spirit-friendly guest house where her scary new thriller The Innkeepers was shot during filming - and she still wishes she had checked into a more modern place nearby.
It used to be an old school and all the children burned to death! I freaked out!! It reeked like burned hair
The old inn, The Yankee Pedlar in Connecticut, was the site of a famous tragedy and the place was crawling with ghosts.
Paxton tells BlogtalkRadio, "The Yankee Pedlar is supposed to be super haunted so I was really nervous about it. A lot of weird stuff did happen but I couldn't tell if it was really ghosts or a really old building. My doors would randomly violently fly open, lights would flicker on and off; the phone would ring and nobody would be on the other end of the line.
"I'd wake up in the middle of the night, sitting straight up from weird dreams. Because we were living there, I didn't want to freak myself out because I'd never be able to sleep so I kept telling myself, 'It's the wind,' even though my windows were closed."
And the actress admits she has a habit of finding herself in America's spookiest haunts.
She adds, "The summer before last I was in New Orleans. I just happened to be filming a movie in Shreveport, Louisiana and I decided to take a road trip during my days off with a few of the cast members... I just packed a bag with some money and when I got there I randomly picked a hotel. They were like, 'We have two rooms available - one with a balcony and one for only $60-a-night, but there's no windows.' I took the $60 one and it was in the basement.
"I opened the door and instantly the smell of burned hair was in my face. It was creepy and I did not get a good vibe. I went online and I Googled their number, so I wouldn't have to go upstairs to the front desk and all over my Google web browser it said, 'Most haunted hotel in New Orleans'.
"It used to be an old school and all the children burned to death! I freaked out!! It reeked like burned hair. We changed rooms to the one with the balcony, and, in the middle of the night, my clothes were scattered everywhere. I did go out that night drinking, so I thought maybe I had one too many hurricanes (cocktails) and just rampaged the room and threw my stuff around.
"But the next morning, when I was checking out, they told me it was one of the little children that died in the room that was moving my stuff! I'm like, 'Get me outta this place... No more little dead kids!'"