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For more than ten years, Zak Bagans, a celebrated paranormal investigator, has popularized ghost hunting through his enduring series Ghost Adventures. Earlier this year, the beloved show transitioned from the TRVL Channel to the streaming platform discovery+, and during our conversation with Bagans in January, he expressed his excitement about exploring new creative possibilities for supernatural, reality-based content on the platform.
Fans seeking evidence of the paranormal can access the complete library of Ghost Adventures, including its numerous special episodes, on discovery+. Additionally, Bagans has expanded his repertoire with spin-offs like Destination Fear and Ghost Adventures: Aftershocks. This shift has also enabled him to explore a new frontier: scripted storytelling.
The Haunted Museum is Bagans's latest project, a scripted anthology series drawing inspiration from artifacts housed in his real-life Haunted Museum in Las Vegas. Created in partnership with horror icon Eli Roth (Hostel, Cabin Fever), the series includes Hitchcockian-style commentary from Bagans at the start of each episode. It premiered on October 2 with two spine-chilling stories about a malevolent dollhouse and a device designed to contact the spirit realm.
“With countless artifacts in my collection, I could have easily created a hundred films,” Bagans shares with Mytour, discussing the challenge of selecting which pieces from his Haunted Museum would feature in the new anthology series. “While we may only have fragments of information about each item, we aimed to explore the mysteries surrounding them—these questions sparked the creative process, leading to a uniquely enigmatic approach to storytelling.”
Before the release of the final seven episodes, which will debut weekly on the streaming platform through November, we spoke with Bagans to delve deeper into The Haunted Museum. He revealed the chilling backstory of the museum’s most unsettling artifact: a cursed mirror allegedly owned by Dracula star Bela Lugosi.
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Dracula and the Ancient Art of Scrying
UNIVERSAL PICTURES VIA HERITAGE AUCTIONS, PUBLIC DOMAIN // WIKIMEDIA COMMONSThe story began when Cindy Lee approached Bagans with a peculiar request: Would he accept a mirror she wanted to part with?
The mirror once hung in a Hollywood Hills home owned by her uncle, a lawyer and B-movie producer who was tragically murdered in a mob-style killing in 1982—a case that remains unsolved. The house had previously been occupied by Bela Lugosi, the actor famous for his iconic portrayal of Count Dracula in the 1931 classic.
“It’s well-documented that her uncle, Frank Saletri, resided in Bela Lugosi's former home, where this mirror hung,” Bagans explains. “Cindy was convinced the mirror absorbed negative energy from the murder. When discussing mirrors and their paranormal connections, the concept of scrying inevitably arises.”
Lugosi was reportedly fascinated by this ancient form of divination, which involves gazing into reflective surfaces like mirrors or crystal balls to receive messages from the spirit world.
Bagans noted that Nostradamus was known to practice scrying and even reportedly foresaw his own death through it. Regarding Lugosi, Bagans added, “Many believe he may have dabbled in the occult.”
A Fatal Artifact
After Lee inherited the mirror following her uncle’s tragic death, unsettling events began to unfold.
“Once the mirror was in her home, her daughter started experiencing severe disturbances,” Bagans explains. “She claimed to feel bites on her neck while looking into it and saw a shadowy figure within the mirror.”
Lee recounted that her other daughter also suffered from horrifying nightmares of being assaulted by the same dark presence, waking up covered in scratches. The emotional and, reportedly, physical strain on Lee and her family became unbearable, prompting her to reach out to Bagans.
“She was desperate to part with it and brought it to my museum,” Bagans explained. “She didn’t want to sell it or throw it away. That’s how many of these artifacts end up here—people fear retaliation from the spirits attached to them.”
Skepticism in the Paranormal
discovery+“All of that convinced me to display it in the museum,” Bagans says, though he maintains a skeptical approach to items like the mirror Lee brought him.
“The research varies,” he notes. “People provide fragments of information, share their experiences, or write letters, and that’s often all we have.” However, Bagans emphasizes that the stories people share about their inexplicable paranormal encounters are no less significant to them.
“The stories people share with me are deeply personal and real. They tell me how their loved ones were profoundly affected, and in some cases, even lost their lives due to these cursed objects,” he explains. “I have no choice but to take them seriously.”
Bagans also recounted his personal encounter with the mirror after it joined the museum’s collection, referencing a 2017 episode of Ghost Adventures.
“A glowing orb appeared on the wall opposite the mirror, moved across the room, and vanished into the mirror itself,” Bagans recalled. “That was some of the most convincing evidence we’ve captured—it’s visual, something you can see with your own eyes.”
It was this sense of witnessing the unexplainable firsthand that inspired Bagans to explore scripted storytelling.
“There are many films today inspired by true paranormal events,” he said. “But if I were to create something like this, I wanted it to feel genuine—rooted in the history of these artifacts—so viewers could experience real fear and excitement, just as those who encountered these items in real life did.”
To discover how the mirror’s eerie tale unfolds and the sinister surprises it holds, tune in when the episode premieres on November 6, 2021.
Catch new episodes of The Haunted Museum, a special two-hour event, Ghost Adventures: Goldfield Hotel, and Halloween Wars (featuring Bagans) exclusively on discovery+.
