Factual error: When they go into the water, they put mouthpieces in, but, a few times, they talk to each other, which is impossible with mouthpieces in.
Factual error: At the beginning of the movie, the main characters are supposedly in Amsterdam, but everyone is speaking German, it's not just the main characters doing this.
Factual error: When Angela is watching the security video on her laptop of her sister committing suicide, you can see she's playing it using Quicktime. She rewinds a couple of seconds by clicking on the first button of the video player. Actually, when you click this button, it takes you to the beginning of the video. The second button would have rewound it a short time. (00:25:20)
Factual error: In the fire at the lighthouse, Stevie puts her hand on the fire extinguisher nozzle. It would have frozen her hand and made it stick to it.
Factual error: On the hike to the cave, Sarah and her friends encounter a deer carcass - a red stag, which are not found in North Carolina.
Factual error: During the credits, as the house is shown, a paper wasp nest is shown hanging from the eaves. Crawling all over it are honeybees, which do not live in paper nests.
Factual error: When the orphans are taken at the start of the film, the police car outside is a 1990's Ford Crown Victoria, despite the events being said to occur 22 years ago- meaning the early 1980s.
Factual error: When Dahlia is on her cell phone with her lawyer, she goes down into an underground subway and is still talking to him. Her call should have been cut short, because cell phones in NYC don't work in underground subways.
Factual error: As the film itself notes, the major action starts in spring 1818 and continues for several weeks if not months. However, many of the trees remain leafless and the weather is nothing like the norm in spring and summertime Tennessee.
Factual error: Throughout the movie, as the train speeds through the starry night, the constellation Orion is recognizable (presumably rising) on the horizon. Oddly, Orion never rises any higher as the night progresses. Also, at the latitude of the southern U.S., the constellation would not rise (or set) vertically as shown but would be tipped at a considerable angle.
Factual error: According to netstate.com the average monthly high in the state of Louisiana is 93.3 degrees F (34.05 degrees C) with summer months often exceeding 100 degrees F (37.77 degrees C), making it impossible for a functional multi-story wax structure to remain functional for any extended period of time, regardless of wax content.
Factual error: In order to be electrocuted you need to connect a high voltage to a low voltage. Touching a power line does not get you electrocuted unless you make contact with the ground. So electrocuting the locusts by making them fly against a powerline can not work because they are not 'grounded'.
Factual error: When looking at Anna's cell phone, you can see the logo for Telus, a Canadian communication company that only offers cell phone service in Canada.
Factual error: After George and Kathy leave the Doctor's office they drive through town. When they are talking in the car there is a shot where, next to George's face, you can see the sign of the town hall where the scene was filmed, 'Village of Antioch' in Antioch, Illinois. (00:46:00)
Factual error: We see a solar eclipse take place, yet we also see numerous shots of the moon in which is at least half-full. Some of these lunar shots must be within a couple of days of the eclipse, though it couldn't take less than 7 days for the phase of the moon to change that much.
Factual error: The Daily Astorian office where Rachel works has the Columbia River in the background, however the real Daily Astorian office is located well off the waterfront. (00:10:15)
Factual error: Owen's phone is a Nokia 3300 which is one the phones which are designed to be wider rather than taller (like an N-Gage). Throughout the film when Owen speaks on the phone he holds it the wrong way around. He holds it to his right ear with the rounded edge of the phone pointing upwards to the top of his head. Holding it this way would mean he'd have the microphone to his ear and be speaking into the speaker. I noticed this because I have the same phone, obviously the actor was not sure which end was which and guessed, getting it wrong. I noticed this during the scene where he phones the girl that got stood up at her dance.
Factual error: In the last scene of the film when the bike drives through the barb wire it cuts through the girls head higher than the guys even though he's lower down on the bike.
Factual error: In the scene where Caroline finds the conjure record, it is written in ink on the sleeve that it is from "New Iberia Parish". Such a parish does not exist in Louisiana. There is a town called New Iberia, but the parish for that town is Iberia Parish.
Factual error: Police do not wait 24 hours to start looking for a possible missing person.
Suggested correction: Sorry to burst your bubble here but there is scuba equipment which allows for talking whilst using a regulator.
They're not wearing such equipment. In the movie they're just wearing regular mouthpieces.
In the DVD commentary the writers explain that the divers should have been wearing full face masks which allow for communication, but the director changed it for mouthpieces, but kept the talking in. They pointed out this mistake.