Last week, FANGORIA was invited to tour the closed-down Linda Vista Hospital in Los Angeles as part of the promotion for Paramount’s DVD/Blu-ray release of THE DEVIL INSIDE. This place is legendary for being haunted. How legendarily haunted? Read below…

I attend a lot of press junkets. At most, a marketing team will show you clips from the project in question, a few stars or crew will come out and talk about how making the film, then they offer you coffee or maybe a sandwich. It’s a standard pattern. I knew something a little strange was up with the DEVIL INSIDE junket when I got word it was being held at Linda Vista. Plus, the invite requested we wear “closed toe shoes”!? Linda Vista has been shuttered since the 1990s and now serves two purposes: 1) as a shooting location for hospital TV shows and films like DEXTER and OUTBREAK and 2) as a mecca for ghost hunters, who swear the place is riddled with specters.

Linda Vista was opened in the early 1900s to serve as a railroad hospital. California was still being modernized at the time, and railroads were spreading all around the southern end of the state. Construction injuries were rarely minor, so the hospital became known mostly for missing limbs and amputations. By the 1970s, the facility had been converted into a regular community medical center, and found itself at the center of Los Angeles’ gang violence, including plenty of stabbings and gunshot wounds. In 1991, the hospital closed its doors to the public, but immediately became the focus of an endless flow of paranormal investigators, all claiming the vast corridors and rooms were chock full of unhappy spirits. Over the past two decades, the hospital suffered from disrepair, numerous break-ins and even a group of people who would hold satanic masses in the basement.

It’s easy to see how ghosts could flock to this place. It’s creepy as hell! The hospital is rundown and silent, but as numerous film crews have come through, each has added their own layer of freakiness. Some walls are blood-splattered. Some are decorated like a 1950s surgical room, while others have been attacked with spray paint and graffiti during the many break-ins. Old medical equipment litters the rooms and hallways. Lights flicker, if they work at all. And lurking on the bottom floor are some of the most soul-rattling spaces, like the boiler room, the morgue, the crematorium and the surgical room, which reportedly had the highest death count of any room in the hospital.

As part of the press trip to Linda Vista, we were able to not only get a tour and full history of the haunted grounds, but also heard a real “white witch” speak on haunting and exorcisms. But the coolest moment of my Linda Vista experience happened just outside the hospital’s front door. After the tour had ended and the press was getting one-on-one interviews with some of the DEVIL INSIDE cast, I grabbed a soda and went to sit out in front of the hospital, waiting for my photographer to catch up. A nearby high school was letting out, and teenagers began streaming down the sidewalk in front of the building. Each one slowed down and peered into the hospital’s propped open doors, straining to see inside. A group of teens formed at the corner, talking and glaring into the building with simultaneous intrigue and fear. Eventually, they approached. The boy spoke in a fascinated manner, like he was asking how cars run or why the sky is blue—“Is the hospital open? Are they letting people go inside? Did you go inside?”

Seeing that this place obviously held a lot of curiosity for the teens, I mentioned that I was here for a press event, and did a tour. I asked what they could tell me about the place. One girl had been standing in front of me for a minute now, but never once looked at me. Her eyes stayed fixed, staring just inside the open door. She suddenly darted her eyes to me long enough to ask, “Did you see the headless bleeding baby?” No, the headless bleeding baby had apparently been left off the tour agenda. A few more teens wandered over, and I listened to an assortment of neighborhood folk stories regarding the hospital. Supposedly, a serial killer lives in there, and Satanists…and an escaped mental patient. The ghosts smack people. And I heard several more tales of the headless bleeding baby. Though a few of the students were brave enough to walk up and peer inside the front door, a number of them stayed back, saying their parents had told them never to go near the place.

It was a creepy day indeed. Check out below more of the photos taken by the brave David McKendry—who would often walk into pitch-black rooms and not know what he was photographing till his flash went off. And be sure to check out THE DEVIL INSIDE, now available on DVD and Blu-ray from Paramount. 

---

News - Latest