Like most “haunted” locales, the Manila Film Center holds a tragic past.

In 1981, then-First Lady Imelda Marcos ordered the construction of the film centre, intending for it to be the pièce de résistance of the inaugural Manila International Film Festival.

Thousands of labourers were hired, and perhaps just as many died when the scaffolding collapsed on November 17, 1981, entrapping workers amidst debris and cement. 

A media blackout ensued, and a reluctant rescue operation commenced belatedly. Rumours began to spread of the building’s haunted nature, with many speaking of curses and ghostly apparitions.

Despite the accident, the Manila Film Center continued to be built, so legend has it that the remains of hundreds of workers are still entombed within the building. 

And in fact, the Manila International Film Festival still went ahead in 1982—with its tragedy unbeknownst to the guests who obliviously walked through what had been the site of a massacre.

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Singapore’s Old Changi Hospital has gained a reputation for being haunted, with many eerie and frightening ghost stories that have been passed down from generation to generation.

During World War II, it was captured by Japanese forces and used as a healthcare facility for prisoners of war. But instead of treating them, the hospital was reportedly used as a torture chamber.

There have been rumours that even today, you can hear screams echo throughout the hospital’s corridors late at night. After the war, the hospital was eventually handed over to the Ministry of Health, which opened it to the public. Because of its hilltop location, it was difficult for both patients and healthcare personnel to scale the hospital’s steep stairs, and it was closed down.

It is still abandoned to this day and is one of Singapore’s hotspots for ghost sightings and supernatural happenings. 

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The tragic landslide and collapse of the Highland Towers apartment building in Ulu Klang in Selangor, Malaysia, on December 11, 1993, resulted in the deaths of 48 residents. 

Today, the derelict structures that once were blocks 2 and 3 of this condominium are still around—unsurprisingly the target of ghostly conspiracies and apparent spooky sightings, especially of a pontianak, the spirit of a pregnant woman who suffered a violent death.

Though earmarked for demolition in recent years, the abandoned towers have remained, attracting thrill-seekers and ghost hunters who are determined to capture evidence of the supernatural within its dark ruins. 

If you think the island of Gunkanjima, variously known as Hashima Island or Ghost Island, looks like it’s been frozen in time, that’s because it essentially was.

Once the home of a thriving community of over 6,000––its tiny 1 sq km area was, for a time, the most densely populated place on the planet––Gunkanjima was developed in the 1900s by the Mitsubishi Corporation, keen to harvest rich deep-sea coal deposits in the surrounding oceans.

The coal ran out in 1974, and the island’s residents swiftly vacated, leaving it to be taken over by nature. The site is now a designated Unesco World Heritage Ssite and a popular filming location. It was featured in 2012’s Skyfall.

There are spooky abandoned buildings, and then there’s South Korea's Gonjiam Psychiatric Hospital.

Closed in the 1990s, this mysterious spot is a favourite destination of tourists who scale the fence to check out the labyrinth of old treatment rooms, which still house old machinery, creaky furniture—and the rumoured spirits of former patients.

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