“Cursed Films” is a five-part documentary series that explores the myths and legends behind some of Hollywood’s notoriously “cursed” horror film productions. From plane accidents and bombings during the making of “The Omen” to the rumored use of real human skeletons on the set of “Poltergeist,” these stories are legendary amongst film fans and filmmakers alike. Were these films really cursed, as many believe, or just the victims of bad luck and bizarre circumstances?
“Cursed Films” claims to shed light on five classic horror films, “Poltergeist,” “The Omen,” “The Exorcist,” “The Crow,” and “Twilight Zone: The Movie,” and begs the question, “were they really cursed?” Of course, anybody who knows anything about scary movies knows about these so-called vexations that supposedly plagued these titles but why they included “Twilight Zone: The Movie” in this list is absolutely absurd, the tragic accident that befell actor Vic Morrow and two young children, was exactly that, a freak accident and had nothing to do with the subject matter, unlike the other films included herein.
With films like “The Omen” or “The Exorcist,” people are more likely to believe that because they deal with Satan and the occult, they could very easily submit to the powers of the dark side but in reality, that is highly unlikely. The documentary speaks with witches and Satanists and they claim that while it is possible, unless someone specifically casts a spell on the production, the chances that the devil would go out of his way to interfere with the making of a film are extremely implausible. After all, as one Satanist puts it, if it’s a story about the Prince of Darkness, he would want the world to see it as it would benefit him.
Horror enthusiasts are only too familiar with the alleged curses associated with “The Exorcist,” “The Omen,” “Poltergeist,” and “The Crow,” and while Linda Blair, the actress who played Regan, the young girl who falls victim to demonic possession in “The Exorcist,” is being interviewed, she debunks some of the controversies that surrounded the release of that film in 1973. There was talk of people fainting or succumbing to heart attacks at various screenings around the US because the film was so scary but she informs us that the person in charge of marketing for Warner Bros. at the time, many years later told her that it was all part of the marketing campaign, to get people to go and see the movie. And it worked. The film was a huge hit and spawned two sequels, two prequels, and a TV show. When Ms. Blair was asked if she ever felt any demonic presence on the set, she responded with a resounding no.
While I would personally choose “The Omen” over “The Exorcist,” I do so because “The Omen” was scarier for me thanks to the fact that it wasn’t as in-your-face as “The Exorcist.” While the deaths are up there on the screen to see in their full, bloody glory, they are hinted at far in advance of their manifestation so you are left wondering exactly when and how the grisly fates will befall their intended victims, much like the “Final Destination” series that would come along nearly 25 years later. Behind the scenes, however, things were somewhat more drastic, and, at times, horrifying. Star Gregory Peck’s son shot himself just before he started work on the film, an animal trainer who choreographed a scene in which actress Lee Remick and her onscreen son Damien are attacked by baboons at an animal enclosure, mysteriously died the day after the scene was filmed, on three separate occasions, crew members who were flying to the set had their planes struck by lightning, special effects designer John Richardson and his girlfriend were involved in a car accident in which she was decapitated, much like the fate which befell actor David Warner’s character in the movie, and Gregory Peck ended up canceling a plane reservation only to later discover that the plane and everyone on board were killed in a freak accident shortly after takeoff. Both director Richard Donner and Mace Neufeld state that they felt the set did indeed have a curse on it.
While “Poltergeist” is my favorite ghost story of all time, there was a supposed curse on that film and its subsequent sequels. Young actress Heather O’Rourke died in 1988 while she was filming “Poltergeist III” and actress Dominique Dunne, who played her older sister in the original movie, died a few years later after being strangled by her ex-boyfriend. Actor Will Sampson, who played a shaman in “Poltergeist II: The Other Side,” died of complications of a heart-lung transplant and actor Julian Beck, who played the central antagonist in the second movie, died from stomach cancer. These are not curses, just tragic deaths but because they were all linked to films that dealt with ghosts and the afterlife, people like to assume they were cursed.
“The Crow” was supposed to be Brandon Lee’s breakout role from having appeared in a number of low-budget action pics, wanting to prove to the world that he was more than just a martial artist in the vein of his father, Bruce Lee, and while he completed most of the film, he was tragically killed when a prop gun filled with blanks, inadvertently dislodged a dummy round which had been used in an earlier scene, causing it to strike Lee with the same velocity as a real bullet, striking down the young actor in his prime at just 28 years of age, five years younger than his father when he died in 1973. The movie supposedly had a curse on it when accidents occurred at an alarming rate throughout the production; an electrician was electrocuted and while he survived, his ears had to be removed, a hurricane destroyed much of the film’s set, and then the untimely passing of Lee. Things got even weirder when people started talking about a curse on the Lee family, which ended Bruce Lee’s life in 1973 having just completed what would become his biggest movie ever, “Enter the Dragon,” but causing his then-current film, “Game of Death,” to languish in limbo until the producers and director of “Enter the Dragon” decided in 1978, to complete the movie using lookalikes. Again, it feels like the production was plagued with accidents, the worst one taking the life of Brandon Lee.
When “Twilight Zone: The Movie” was released in 1983, it was marred in controversy because of director John Landis’ segment titled “Time Out.” It centered on a bigot and racist named Bill Connor (Vic Morrow), who after being passed by for a promotion by a Jewish co-worker, stops by a bar after work and ends up getting drunk, spewing racial slurs against Jewish, Asian and black people. After he leaves, he finds himself back in Nazi-occupied France during World War II being chased by two SS officers. He then finds himself being transported through time to the Vietnam War where he appears as a Vietcong and is fired at by US soldiers, then he lands in the rural US South during the 1950s where the KKK mistake him for a black man and try to hang him. The segment was supposed to put Bill in the position of those afflicted during different timeframes so he would know how it felt to be in their shoes but tragedy struck the set when Morrow and two young Vietnamese children were decapitated by a helicopter when a planned stunt went awry. The scene was supposed to have Morrow redeem himself by grabbing both Vietnamese children and getting them to safety through a swamp with a US helicopter in tow, shooting at them and blowing up everything in its path but some of the fireworks were detonated while the helicopter’s tail-rotor was still above them, causing the pilot to lose control and as a result, it crashlanded, killing Morrow and the two children in the process.
While this accident was indeed tragic, and affected everyone on set, even ending the friendship between director John Landis and Steven Spielberg, who was directing another segment, the production was in no way cursed. I have no idea why it was included in this documentary as all the other titles deal with demons and ghosts and the afterlife, this was an anthology film with each of the four segments dealing with different subject matters. The purported curses linked to the four other titles herein have been around as long as the movies themselves and most horror aficionados are only too familiar with them and because this is geared more towards that fan base, I find it hard to recommend this title simply because everything contained is common knowledge. If you are not versed in these films and their “curses,” then it might be worth a look but again, everything presented is on the internet to discover. In the end, we won’t ever know if these movies were really cursed or just victims of misfortune and rotten luck, we can surmise all we want but when all is said and done, what happened happened, there’s no changing that, whether we want to believe or not.
Available on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital HD August 18th
