A recent episode of HALLOWEEN WARS on the Food Network, a Halloween-themed cooking competition inspired this season by Zak Bagins’ Haunted Museum and several of the supposedly cursed pieces on display there, featured a challenge based on the “haunted mirror” that had belonged to Bela Lugosi. Zak Bay-gins stated that Bela Lugosi was rumored to have been involved in the occult, hinting that this is the reason why the mirror is “cursed”.
Listen to me very carefully, friends: The claim that Lugosi was into the occult and used the mirror in his “rituals” is a blatant lie. There is no evidence whatsoever for such a claim, and no such claims will be found outside of the ones made by Bay-gins and the guides at his museum.
The mirror may indeed be cursed. I do believe there are items at the Haunted Museum that have legitimate connections to the paranormal. But if the mirror *is* cursed, it is most certainly *not* because it once belonged to Bela. Zak Bay-gins is a huckster, and he is trying to use Bela’s name and celebrity status to ascribe legitimacy to his exhibit. That’s unfortunate, because it seems the mirror might have an actual tragic history that might serve as catalyst for it being “cursed” or “haunted”. But that history only started *after* Bela owned the mirror—though there is even some doubt concerning *that* claim! More on this last bit in a follow-up.
