After deciding to spend the night in the haunted island of Poveglia, five people from Colorado had to be rescued by Italian firefighters, after reaching the island by water taxi and having decided to spend the night. As the night came and darkness loomed, an unknown presence began to haunt them. They endured hours of sheer terror until a passing sailboat overheard their screams and called the authorities that came to rescue them.
The island of Poveglia has a dark past. People who contracted the plague were taken to the island to die by plague doctors. Legend has it that you can still hear the scream and voices of plague victims who died years before. If this story sounds familiar to you, it’s because it was featured in a 2009 episode of the hit TV show, Ghost Adventures.
Beyond reality television, the past of Poveglia has inspired the plot of the film The Plague Doctor, a psychological thriller set in Venice, Italy, with a dark and ominous atmosphere that is inspired by tales and events about the mysterious plague doctors, the Venetian masks that they wore, and the island of the Venetian Lagoon, known to be the setting of some gruesome events. An Italian crew has already filmed a few sequences inside a hospital built on the island.
The film’s director, Emanuele Mengotti, was born and raised in the Italian island of Lido, which lies on the Venetian lagoon, right in front of Poveglia, where he used to go as a child. Also working on the film, as art director is Luca Nemolato, whose credits include James Wan’s hit thriller The Conjuring.
You can check out the teaser trailer and stills for the upcoming The Plague Doctor, below, and visit the film’s official site for more information.
