DAY 7: Cursed Films (ShortHand’s 13 Days of Halloween)

Summary

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RedHanded Podcast – DAY 7: Cursed Films (ShortHand’s 13 Days of Halloween)

Date: October 24, 2025
Hosts: Georgia Hardstark & Karen Kilgariff
Theme: Exploring infamous “cursed films” in Hollywood—separating eerie reality from myth, and the role of chaos, coincidence, and PR in the most notorious on-set tragedies.

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Overview

This Halloween special of RedHanded delves into the legends and truths behind “cursed films”—movies surrounded by stories of death, disaster, and supernatural misfortune. Georgia and Karen walk listeners through the most infamous examples, reflecting on whether these curses are real, the result of reckless filmmaking, or just clever marketing. The episode moves through history’s creepiest filmmaking mishaps with wit, skepticism, and their signature banter.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Origins of “Cursed Films” and Horror Lore

[05:19]

• There’s a deep audience fascination with sinister stories and film curses, often fueling film success.
• “Myths about films being cursed can build hysteria around upcoming releases inevitably getting bums on seats.” – Karen Kilgariff
• The duo promises to review famous examples: The Exorcist, The Omen, Twilight Zone: The Movie, The Wizard of Oz, Poltergeist, and Cannibal Holocaust.

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2. The Exorcist: Hollywood’s Most Famous “Cursed” Movie

[06:34–11:20]

• Uncanny Set Disasters:

  • Filming began with a fire started by a bird—destroying all but the infamous possession bedroom.
  • A priest was brought in to bless the set (to little effect).

• On-Set Deaths & The “Trash Bag Murderer”:

  • Multiple cast and crew deaths, including Linda Blair’s grandfather and director’s brother.
  • Real-life murderer Paul Bateson appears in a hospital scene.
  • “He’s like, in the fucking Exorcist, like, touching the little girl, like, ew. No.” – Georgia Hardstark [09:52]

• PR Stunts & Manufactured Hysteria:

  • Fainting audiences and ambulances outside were partly orchestrated for publicity.
  • “The fire, yes, was an accident and Bateson was just a piece of shit. As for the deaths… they were just coincidental.” – Georgia [11:20]

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3. The Omen: Lightning, Tragedy & Creepy Coincidences

[11:20–19:09]

• String of Lightning Strikes:
  • Gregory Peck’s, the producer’s, and the writer’s planes all struck by lightning; another crew member narrowly missed.
• Deadly Plane Crash:
  • Peck narrowly avoided boarding a plane that crashed, killing the pilot’s family on the ground as well.
• Grisly Parallels to Film:
  • Special effects designer’s fiancée, Liz Moore, was decapitated in a crash reminiscent of the film’s goriest death; the crash happened near a sign reading “66.6 km to Ommen”—though this is likely an urban legend.
• Hosts’ Take:
  • “I have never in my life… seen a 0.6km away sign. Why would you bother?” – Karen [18:20]
  • The two conclude these events are tragic and oddly coincidental, though not supernatural.

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4. Twilight Zone: The Movie – Real Tragedy vs. Myth

[19:09–22:24]

• On-Set Catastrophe:

  • Actor Vic Morrow and two illegally hired child actors killed by a crashing helicopter during a Vietnam War scene, due to criminal negligence.
  • “It was horrendous… the most tragic accidents in Hollywood history.” – Georgia [21:10]

• No Curse, Just Recklessness:

  • No supernatural explanation; the tragedy sparked necessary changes in film safety laws.
  • “That just cheapens, in my opinion, the tragedy of what really happened.” – Georgia [22:17]

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5. The Wizard of Oz: Separating Fact from Urban Legend

[22:24–25:59]

• Accidents & Dangerous FX:

  • Several near-deadly accidents: falling “monkeys”, chemical burns, actors hospitalized by toxic makeup (aluminum dust for the Tin Man!).

• Famous Urban Myths Debunked:

  • No Munchkin suicide on set: the alleged hanging figure is likely an exotic bird.
  • Rumors of abuse of Judy Garland by Munchkin actors are unsupported; on-set behavior was mostly drinking and rowdiness.

• True Tragedy:

  • The real horror was the treatment of Judy Garland: fed drugs to endure long hours, leaving her with lifelong addiction and misery.
  • “She stayed addicted to drugs her whole life… died of an accidental overdose in 1969, just 47 years old.” – Karen [25:59]

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6. Poltergeist: Real Tragedies and the Indian Burial Ground Legend

[25:59–28:08]

• Deaths of Young Stars:
  • Heather O’Rourke (12) died of undiagnosed intestinal blockage; Dominique Dunne (22) murdered by an ex-boyfriend.
• Skeleton Rumor:
  • The infamous pool scene used real human skeletons, possibly from India, but the “curse” narrative is thin.
  • “But regardless… the case for this film being cursed is quite thin.” – Karen [27:49]

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7. Cannibal Holocaust: The Most Notorious Film in History

[28:08–35:27]

• Disturbing Content:
  • Animal killings and simulated (and deeply exploitative) violence; actual animal cruelty present on film.
  • “So prepare yourselves… its very existence cursed the careers of every actor who appeared in it.” – Georgia [28:33]
• Legal Fallout:
  • Director Deodato was arrested for obscenity and briefly for murder, as the film was believed to be a real snuff film.
  • Actors were contractually forbidden from public appearances to further the illusion.
  • The crew, including indigenous actors, faced abuse; at least one actor quit the industry after filming.
• In the End:
  • The film’s “curse” is more a result of director cruelty and relentless PR tactics.
  • “Many of the cast and crew describe Deodato as abusive, remorseless and incredibly cruel.” – Georgia [34:24]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the power of marketing:
  “Myths about films being cursed can build hysteria around upcoming releases inevitably getting bums on seats.” – Karen [05:19]
• On coincidence vs. curses:
  “But then multiple people were hospitalised with mysterious and sudden illnesses. Which has to be the sign of a curse, surely? Well, no…” – Georgia [23:42]
• After listing bizarre accidents:
  “But none of them really cursed, it would appear. Apart from The Omen. I’m quite convinced by that one.” – Karen [35:27]
• Regarding reckless directors:
  “You don’t really need to believe a film is cursed when you’ve got an egomaniac at the helm. All sorts of crazy shit is going to happen…” – Karen [35:42]
• Final takeaway:
  “Because whether or not you believe in film curses, you can’t deny that they make for a much spookier cinema going experience.” – Georgia [35:22]

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Timeline of Key Segments

| Timestamp | Segment | Details | |-----------|------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 03:08 | Georgia’s B-side Horror Obsession | Personal intro to the episode’s focus on cursed films | | 05:19 | The Power of Sinister Stories | Why urban legends and horror myths persist | | 06:34 | The Exorcist | Fires, deaths, murderer on set, and manufactured PR myths | | 11:20 | The Omen | Lightning strikes, plane crashes, mirrored deaths, “666” urban legends | | 19:09 | Twilight Zone: The Movie | Fatal helicopter crash, child labor violations, hard shift to reality | | 22:24 | The Wizard of Oz | Accident-prone set, toxic makeup, debunked rumors, real tragedy of Judy Garland | | 25:59 | Poltergeist | Premature deaths, skeleton myth, and the thin evidence for a “curse” | | 28:08 | Cannibal Holocaust | Animal cruelty, staged violence, arrest of director, boundaries of realism | | 35:27 | Conclusion | Hosts’ verdict: more PR and ego than paranormal, but cursed stories persist |

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Tone & Style

The conversation blends dark humor, skepticism, and genuine horror appreciation. Georgia and Karen seamlessly balance shocking facts with pop culture banter, often highlighting the line between urban legend and documented abuse or negligence in film history.

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Summary Conclusion

RedHanded’s cursed films episode is a witty, biting, and ultimately sobering journey through the darkest history of cinema. While some strange events seem almost supernatural, the hosts argue that real curses are rare—most disasters are due to human error, ego, and sometimes, pure opportunistic PR. As entertaining as the legends might be, the real horror often lies behind the camera.

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Further Listening Recommendations:

• “Inside the Exorcist,” “Inside Psycho,” and “Inside Jaws” (Wondery)
• RedHanded’s earlier episode on “Raw” for more film mayhem.

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Transcript

[Georgia Hardstark]

Wondry plus subscribers can listen to Red Handed early and ad free. Join Wondry plus in the Wondry app or on Apple Podcasts.

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[Karen Kilgariff]

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[Narrator (Lawless Planet)]

What if I told you that the crime of the century is the one being waged on our planet? Introducing Lawless Planet Wondry's new podcast exploring the dark side of the climate crisis. Uncover shocking tales of crime and corruption threatening our world's future. Follow Lawless Planet on the Wondry app or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Hello there spooky listener. It's October, our favourite time of the year. And so to celebrate and give you all a well deserved treat, we're bringing you the 13 days of Halloween Shorthand Edition.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Usually every single week over on Amazon Music, we release brand new episodes of our Bottom Bite sized sister show Shorthand. It's like Red Handed's Little Friend, where we delve into all sorts of fascinating topics from hell in different religions, Haitian Voodoo, the death of Edgar Allan Poe, Cotard Syndrome, Japan, Suicide Forest, and so much More.

[Georgia Hardstark]

And this Halloween, from the 19th of October to the 31st of October, we are going to be pulling out 13 of our most terrifying episodes of shorthand to drop straight into your red handed feed every single day.

[Karen Kilgariff]

But beware, each episode will only be available for 24 hours. So get listening or abandon all hope.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Enjoy. Hello, hello. Hi everybody. This is another topic of which I am deeply fascinated as a shithouse horror movie fan that I am who refuses to watch any good films but has watched every single fucking terrible B side horror movie ever made. If you are like me, this is right up your alley. And if you're not like me, but you like cursed things, this is still right up your alley.

[Karen Kilgariff]

I have to make a confession.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Aha.

[Karen Kilgariff]

I absolutely, unreservedly hate the word movie. Oh, I can't stand it.

[Georgia Hardstark]

I never knew this about you.

[Karen Kilgariff]

No, I know.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Six and a half years ago I've.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Been waiting to tell you and I.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Never knew you hated the word movie.

[Karen Kilgariff]

I prefer to say film.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Is it one of your things of like how you hate it because it's like a lazy English word? Because it's like a movie, it's like a talkie.

[Karen Kilgariff]

And then the movie, it's like, come on, like let's confront what it is, you know?

[Georgia Hardstark]

But then is film not just as bad because it's like, oh, it's literally what it's on.

[Karen Kilgariff]

I just prefer it.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Fine.

[Karen Kilgariff]

So you can say movies.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Throughout this I chant, do you know what? That's great because then we don't even have to try and use the thesaurus.

[Karen Kilgariff]

In this country. It's fairly reasonable, especially in the north, to be like, oh, should we go to the pictures? Never say that in front of an American because they will laugh you down the road.

[Georgia Hardstark]

What do they say?

[Karen Kilgariff]

The movies?

[Georgia Hardstark]

Oh, they say the movies, yeah.

[Karen Kilgariff]

And I was like, oh, should we go to the pictures? And my friend was like, okay, Elizabeth Taylor.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Yeah, I guess like down here we don't really say pictures, but if somebody said it to me I wouldn't be like, it wouldn't land weird on my ear. I almost think it's like quite a more old fashioned way to say, should we go to the cinema? I'd say, go to the cinema.

[Karen Kilgariff]

I would say go to the cinema. I think my mum says the pictures.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Yeah, I would say cinema.

[Karen Kilgariff]

I probably said it when I was a child, but that's because my mum says it. Anyway, now we've got that outside.

[Georgia Hardstark]

I'm so glad we spent so long writing really tight, succinct intros for these episodes.

[Karen Kilgariff]

So I'm just gonna get inundated with Instagram voice notes of people saying the word movie. Anyway, if Fred handed his testament to anything, it's that people love a sinister story. People have loved swapping Grimm tales since time immemorial, and it's the reason that we both have jobs. And almost as soon as we started to make films, we started to make horror films. But what happens when the terror isn't just on screen? Film lore is full of stories of bizarre accidents, shocking coincidences, and even murders, all of which give rise to urban legends and bloodthirsty cult followings. And these sinister associations are no bad thing for filmmakers. It's like when the FBI wrote that letter to NWA for Straight out of Compton, and Dre was like, thank you so much. You've just sold millions more records. Myths about films being cursed can build hysteria around upcoming releases inevitably getting bums on seats. So we're going to take you through some of the most famous examples of films that were plagued by disaster, causing many to believe that they were truly cursed. And we're going to ask the question, were these creepy events a result of real curses coincidence, or was it just really good pr? Here is the shorthand.

[Georgia Hardstark]

So we begin our curse voyage through horror history with possibly the most famous cursed film of them all, William Friedkin's the Exorcist. And what makes the Exorcist so infamous? Well, because literally everything that you could possibly imagine going wrong in the production of a film that went wrong, and then some. In fact, the shit that went down during the making of this masterpiece is arguably more unbelievable and terrifying than the film itself. Like how, as soon as filming began, a bird flew into a circuit box and started a fire that burned down almost the entire set of the house's interiors. But strangely, the only part of the set that was untouched by this fire was. Was the bedroom, the one used for filming the exorcism scenes. Now, this madness was enough to spook the makers of the film into hiring an actual Jesuit priest to bless the set in the hope of preventing any further otherworldly chaos. But it turned out that that priest wasn't priesting quite hard enough, because seemingly all his blessings did was just piss Pazuzu off even more, because things only got a whole hell of a lot worse after that.

[Karen Kilgariff]

A number of people involved with the production or their relatives actually died during filming during the first week. Linda Blair's grandfather died after the first day, the director's brother died, and the actor playing the Night watchman, the crew member responsible for the aircon on the set, and the assistant cameraman's newborn baby all died, too. And if that's not creepy enough for you, how about the fact that a suspected serial killer even appears on The Exorcist? In 1972, Friedkin went to the NYU radiology department and watched radiologists carry out a procedure called a cerebral angiogram, which was used to take an X ray of pictures of the blood vessels inside people's brains. At the time, cerebral angiogram involved sticking a needle into a patient's artery, which. Which would then cause blood to spray out. And watching that was disturbing enough to make Friedkin put that exact procedure in his film. He even asked the radiologist and his team to be in the production. This included a young man named Paul Bateson, a neuroradiology technologist. Little did Friedkin know when he hired Paul Bateson, that Paul Bateson would go on to be dubbed the Black Murderer.

[Georgia Hardstark]

I've also heard him called the Trash Bag Murderer or the Trash Bag Killer. Trash. Terrible name.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yeah, it's not great.

[Georgia Hardstark]

So, in 1977, five years after the release of the Exorcist, the body of a man named Addison Verrill was discovered in Bateson's apartment. Verrall was a film industry journalist for Variety and had been beaten and stabbed to death. A few weeks later, Paul Bateson was arrested and made a full confession. At the time of his arrest, the police had been investigating a series of unsolved murders of gay men in the West Village area of New York, all with a similar mo. The unidentifiable victims had all been chopped up, placed in bags and dumped in the Hudson River.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Although we do have to say there was never any hard evidence linking Bateson to the Trash Bag Murders. But a lot of people do suspect that he was responsible and he at.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Least killed one person. Yeah, and he's like, in the fucking Exorcist, like, touching the little girl, like, ew. No.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Friedkin actually paid Bateson a visit in prison and he claimed that Bateson confessed to having murdered numerous other men.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Friedkin would say that he would, wouldn't he?

[Karen Kilgariff]

In the end, Bateson was sentenced to 20 years for murder, but he was never convicted of any others. That's despite allegedly being offered a shorter sentence by the police to officially confess to all of the murders.

[Georgia Hardstark]

So given the fire, the deaths of people close to the film the Bag Murderer, plus countless stories of fainting audience members and rumours that screening the film would haunt the theatre Forever. All of this undeniably helped the Exorcist become one of the most successful films in cinematic history. But were these things really the work of the devil? Probably not. In fact, a PR agent who worked on the film actually got in touch with Linda Blair years later and the curse took another hit. The agent revealed that because Warner Bros. Never believed the Exorcist was going to do well, they had hired her, the PR agent, to cause a buzz around the movie using reports of faintings and ambulances parked outside movie theaters. The fire, yes, was an accident and Bateson was just a piece of shit. As for the deaths, tragic and a spookily timed as they were, they were just coincidental.

[Karen Kilgariff]

The next cursed film in our Lineup is the 1976 horror classic the Omen. Do you know which cathedral is in the opening shot? Oh, it might not be the opening shot, but it's the cathedral where they go.

[Georgia Hardstark]

No, it's in Guildford. Oh, there you go.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yeah, it's very brutalist and horrible. Anyway, we're not going to say spoilers because if you are pissed off that we've ruined a 50 year old film, you need to go and talk to someone that's not me. The film's plot is very straightforward. An American diplomat played by Gregory Peck and his wife Catherine, not played by Gregory Peck, are desperate for a baby. So they decide to adopt one. They end up with little baby Damien. And Damien's nanny hangs herself. Then around the age of five, Damien pushes his newly pregnant mum off a balcony. More and more people around Damien begin to die in spectacular ways until his dad finally realizes that he's only gone and adopted the Antichrist, complete with a 666 engraved in his little head.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Yeah, I mean, Gregory Peck, outstanding actor and the Omen, you know what, it like had its time.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yeah.

[Georgia Hardstark]

It's just when you watch it back now, you're like, Gregory. I'm like, no, I'm not being fair. Like it is a good film. It just, it hasn't stood the test of time like I think the Exorcist has.

[Karen Kilgariff]

No, I think I agree with you there.

[Georgia Hardstark]

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[Narrator (Lawless Planet)]

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[Karen Kilgariff]

Are we really safe? Is our water safe? You destroyed our tap.

[Narrator (Lawless Planet)]

And crimes like that, they don't just happen.

[Ad Voice]

We call things accidents.

[Elena Urquhart or Ash Kelly]

There is no accident.

[Karen Kilgariff]

This was 100% preventable.

[Narrator (Lawless Planet)]

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[Karen Kilgariff]

But scary it is. But it was the madness that took place off camera that is the real scary stuff.

[Georgia Hardstark]

In one of the aforementioned spectacular deaths in the film, a lightning bolt breaks off a spear from the top of the church, which then falls and impales a priest. Coincidentally or not, a year before the film's release in 1975, Gregory Peck's plane was struck by lightning. On its own, that isn't that uncommon. But then the movie's executive producer, Mac Neufeld's plane was also struck by lightning just a couple of weeks later. So what I hear you ask is just a coincidence. But there's more. A plane carrying the movie's writer, David Seltzer, was then also struck by lightning. And while they were filming in Rome, the movie's producer, Harvey Bernhardt, just barely missed getting hit by a bolt of lightning, too. That's four separate incidents of lightning strikes involving four different people, all of whom were working on the Omen, I heard.

[Karen Kilgariff]

And again, I don't know whether this is true or whether it was a very clever PR stunt orchestrated by Mel Gibson. But in the Passion of the Christ, during the filming of that, apparently the actor who played Jesus got struck by lightning three times.

[Georgia Hardstark]

And, oh, I have watched an episode of River Monsters where the cameraman gets struck by lightning. Yeah, you feel so sorry for him. He's just standing there filming Jeremy Wade, like, in the water, looking for some fish, and then suddenly the camera just drops. And then it cuts to, like, when they found another camera to start filming again. And this poor guy is just, like, looking dazed because he just literally got struck by lightning. And he just looks a bit like, I think I need to go home now. So maybe River Monsters is cursed.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Maybe. At one point, Gregory Peck was meant to be filming an action scene for the Omen, but when it was delayed, the private jet that Peck was meant to be on was no longer needed. The following day, that same jet hit a flock of birds shortly after takeoff and crashed, killing everyone on board. And this is even weirder. The plane, on its way down, hit a car and killed everyone inside the car. And who was in that car? The pilot's wife and kids.

[Georgia Hardstark]

That's fucking crazy. But then also, it did happen just shortly after takeoff. Did the wife just drop him off at the airfield? It's horrible. I know it's horrible. It's horrible. But it's like, is that everyone's like, oh, my God. But it's like she was probably dropping him off at work. It's so sad. And it just gets worse because at one point, the Omen special effects designer John Richardson and his fiance, Liz Moore, were driving through the Netherlands together when they too were involved in a horrific car crash. Richardson only had some minor injuries, but Moore wasn't so lucky. And that's putting it very mildly because she was decapitated by a tire that smashed through the windscreen. And this is made all the more creepy because if you've seen the Omen, you'll remember that there is a scene where a character is decapitated by a falling sheet of glass as he's driving. Now, listen, car accidents happen all the time. I know that. I believe you when I hear you screaming at your phone as you listen to this episode. But Richardson and Moore's car crash not only took place on Friday the 13th, 1976, but it also happened right next to a street sign that read 66.6 kilometres to the city of Oman. Allegedly.

[Karen Kilgariff]

I have never in my life Big fat. Allegedly. In all of my years of driving in many countries in which I have driven. Yeah. Have I ever seen a 0.6km away? Why would you bother?

[Georgia Hardstark]

I mean, the only thing I can think is, right, the Americans don't use kilometers. Yes, they use miles. So was the sign in miles. And somebody's done a quick. A quick conversion which could turn out at a 0.6. And then they're saying it's like the whole Nero thing where it's like the number of the B 666 and then they just like added it up wrong or like did his name wrong. So, no, I think there wouldn't have been a sign in kilometers anyway in America. So that's the only thing I can think of. But yeah, allegedly. Allegedly.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Allegedly.

[Georgia Hardstark]

But if you ask me, the film's cursed.

[Karen Kilgariff]

And now we've got the 1983 sci fi horror that is Spielbergs the torture Twilight Zone.

[Georgia Hardstark]

I was gonna do the sound.

[Karen Kilgariff]

I can't. I can't.

[Georgia Hardstark]

I can hear it in my head. I can't do it out loud because I am tone deaf. You do it.

[Karen Kilgariff]

I don't. I don't think I know what it is. It's like I similarly can hear it in my head, but I don't want to do it.

[Georgia Hardstark]

I need to hear it out loud again.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Oh, yeah, okay.

[Georgia Hardstark]

That wasn't what I was hearing in my head, but now that makes sense. Cool. Anyway, whatever.

[Karen Kilgariff]

It's kind of like a xylophone version of a slowed down Jaws. The shark from Jaws. Yes, Quite so. The 70s were truly the wild west of Hollywood filmmaking, where almost anything went and directors behaved with almost absolute impunity. Go and listen to our episode on raw.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Oh my God. Yeah. I mean, that was in the 80s, but Twilight Zone came out in the 80s and yes, Raw would have started production in the 70s, so yes, truly, they were doing whatever the fuck they wanted. There is no doubt about that.

[Karen Kilgariff]

And this era did give us some of the greatest films ever made. But when taking risks, as basically all of them did, quite a lot of shit went wrong.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Yeah, I feel like we don't need to look at these olden timey, spooky films and be like, oh my God, all these things happen. It's because people were so reckless in the 70s.

[Karen Kilgariff]

And they were certainly reckless on the set of the Twilight Zone, which witnessed one of the most tragic accidents in Hollywood history.

[Georgia Hardstark]

This one's really sad, actually.

[Karen Kilgariff]

The Twilight Zone film is an anthology, so it's four stories in one film. It was directed By George Miller, Steven Spielberg, Joe Dante and John Landis. John Landis segment was called Time Out. It's a story of a man who hates Jewish, black and Asian people, who's then forced to live several different lives. One of a black man being hunted by the KKK in 1950s Alabama. Another one being a Jewish man surviving in Nazi occupied France. And the last one, a Vietnamese man escaping Americans during the Vietnam War.

[Georgia Hardstark]

It was during the filming of the Vietnam War segment when the tragedy unfolded. The scene involved the lead actor Vic Morrow carrying two child actors being rescued during an air raid as a helicopter flew overhead. Pyrotechnic simulated the explosions, but one of the fireballs accidentally hit the helicopter which caused it to crash on top of Morrow and the two kids, Renee, Shin Yi Chen and Maika Dinh. Six year old Renee was crushed by the right side of the helicopter which then turned over and the blade decapitated Morrow and seven year old Micah. It was horrendous. And it was made especially worse when you learned that the two child actors had been hired illegally and the studio hadn't even been following basic child labour laws. Infuriatingly, none of the directors and producers or even the studio went to court for this. But huge changes were made to the laws around film safety as a result. So I guess that's something. Now a lot of people try to say that this was the result of a curse, but that just cheapens, in my opinion, the tragedy of what really happened. Because in reality it's caused by the stupidity and criminal negligence of the people that were in charge. Yeah.

[Karen Kilgariff]

And now we've got the scariest of them all. The 1939. Fucking hell. 1939 classic, the wizard of Oz.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Oh my God.

[Karen Kilgariff]

I know.

[Georgia Hardstark]

When was World War I?

[Karen Kilgariff]

1917.

[Georgia Hardstark]

I don't know anything about World War I and I'm keeping it that way. What even happened in World War I?

[Karen Kilgariff]

I explained it to you.

[Georgia Hardstark]

I refuse to remember.

[Narrator (Lawless Planet)]

Okay.

[Karen Kilgariff]

A lot of people truly believe that the production of the whimsical, light hearted acid trip of a film was cursed. And there are a number of reasons why. Some of them are true, some of them are false. So we're going to separate fact from fiction for you once and for all. Yes, it is true that there were numerous accidents during filming that almost cost cast members their lives. Two actors playing the winged monkeys fell from a massive height when their harnesses broke and they almost died. The Wicked Witch of the west stunt double badly burned her leg after a broomstick explosion. This was 1939. Let's remember, special effects were very new and very full of fire. So nothing too creepy just yet. But then multiple people were hospitalised with mysterious and sudden illnesses. Which has to be the sign of a curse, surely?

[Georgia Hardstark]

Well, no, because it was found and this is just so 30s of them that the makeup was what had been causing the mysterious illness. They had painted the Tin Man's face with pure aluminium dust, which led to the original actor being hospitalised for nine days under an oxygen tent and eventually quickly replaced. Margaret Hamilton, the Wicked Witch got burns from her makeup, which was made from copper.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Just stick some lead on her face while you're at it.

[Georgia Hardstark]

I mean, do you know what they probably fucking did? So that like, explains away the whole illness situation. And some of you may be thinking, well, what about the story of the Munchkin who hanged himself on set? Sorry, that's just an urban legend. It is not real. The rumour started because some people think that in the scene where Dorothy, the Scarecrow and the Tin man are skipping down the yellow brick road singing we're off to see the wizard, you can see a figure hanging from a tree in the background. But this figure is likely one of the exotic birds that the producers had borrowed from the LA Zoo. And the rumour only started in 1989, after the 50th anniversary of the film.

[Karen Kilgariff]

And it doesn't even really look like a person I've seen it.

[Georgia Hardstark]

It doesn't even make any sense. So, yeah, not true. And another rumour that's probably also untrue is that according to Al Jean Harmetz, author of the book the Making of the wizard of Oz, is the actors playing The Munchkins molested 16 year old Judy Garland.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yeah, probably not true. She didn't like the Munchkin actants. They drank a lot apparently and they scared her. But none of the cast or crew ever heard or saw anything, ever heard a whisper about a Munchkin assaulting Judy. In reality, the most sinister thing about the making of the wizard of Oz is how Judy Garland was treated by the studio. She was only 16 when she was filming the wizard of Oz and the film execs fed her uppers and downers so that she could work incredibly long days. And she stayed addicted to drugs her whole life. But even before then she was suffering from depression and eating disorders and she tried to kill herself a lot of times. Eventually, Judy Garland died of an accidental overdose in 1969, just 47 years old. I didn't know she was that young.

[Georgia Hardstark]

So, moving on, our penultimate entry is Poltergeist a film that many people believe is cursed by murderous, restless Indian ghosts. Let's get into it. The film's plot goes as a middle class family moves into a house in California that's built on top of a Native American burial ground and ghosts abduct their young daughter. Now this young daughter is played by 12 year old Heather O', Rourke, who tragically died before completing the second movie after doctors misdiagnosed her with Crohn's disease, when what she actually had was intestinal blockage, which is so dangerous.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Crohn's is no joke, man.

[Georgia Hardstark]

No, Crohn's is no joke, but that's not what was wrong with her. And you can die of an intestinal blockage like so, so quickly. And that's exactly what happened. So then in 1982, the year that the original Poltergeist was released, Dominic Dunne, who played the eldest sibling, Dana, was murdered. The 22 year old had been dating chef John Thomas Sweeney, but she ended things after he started to get violent. After the film's release, Sweeney turned up at Dunn's house begging for her to take him back. And when she refused, he strangled her to death. And in the end, Sweeney served just three years.

[Karen Kilgariff]

O' Rourke and Dunn's deaths led to a bizarre urban myth about the swimming pool scene in the film. In this scene, Diane Freeling, the mother of the family, is dragged into a swimming pool by a demonic force. When she tries to escape, the pool suddenly fills with mud and a bunch of human skeletons from the burial ground beneath the house. According to Jobeth Williams, the actress playing Diane, these skeletons were not plastic, they were real human bones.

[Georgia Hardstark]

That's so much harder, I know.

[Karen Kilgariff]

And if you believe the conspiracists, these skeletons were stolen from India and sold to the production company. And it was their angry ghosts that had caused the death and murder of o' Rourke and Dunne. Regardless, Indian skeletons or not, the case for this film being cursed is quite thin.

[Georgia Hardstark]

But finally, we come on to the creme de la creme of horrific movie making tales. A film that both invented and defined a whole genre. The Italian director Rugero Deodante made what's been described as the most controversial movie in history. His 1980s exploitation film, Cannibal Holocaust.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Have you seen it?

[Georgia Hardstark]

I've seen enough.

[Karen Kilgariff]

I haven't seen it.

[Georgia Hardstark]

I've seen more than enough. I tried to watch it. It's disgusting, it's horrible. I don't want to watch it. But I have seen multiple long form reviews that basically play you Everything you need to know. And I know the entire plotline of. Of Cannibal Holocaust. And I also know all the horrible shit I'm about to tell you. So prepare yourselves. Because although Cannibal Holocaust isn't regarded as a cursed film in the supernatural sense of the word, its very existence cursed the careers of every actor who appeared in it. So its release led to both a national outcry in Italy and Deodato being charged with multiple counts of murder. But let's start with the film itself. Cannibal Holocaust tells the story of four documentarians who go missing while investigating a cannibal tribe in the Amazon basin. Their fate is revealed through some discovered spools of tape revealing the atrocities that they both suffered and importantly committed. And a lot of people say that Cannibal Holocaust is the very first ever found footage film. False. Not true. The first ever found footage film that we know about is the final broadcast. It's not Cannibal Holocaust. I won't give it to them because this film is fucking trash. So the four missing documentarians, made up of three men and a woman, are played by Gabriel York, Francesca Chiardi, Perry Perkichen and Luca Barbareschi. The footage itself shows intense stomach churning scenes of murder, castration, six real animals being killed, and two gang rapes.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Do you remember when we were on.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Tour and you were like, do you.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Want to go and get some breakfast? I was like, in a minute, I'm watching Blowback.

[Georgia Hardstark]

I was like, okay, I'll just wait. Then it was like seven in the morning. Whatever you got to do, man, to get through tour.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yeah, so, yeah, and I love that.

[Georgia Hardstark]

The best bit about that is also that you couldn't get the TV in your room to work. So you were just watching it on your phone. Like, yeah, I'm just. I'll be down for breakfast in a bit. I'm just watching Bone Tomahawk on my phone. You're so weird. It's hilarious.

[Karen Kilgariff]

And actually, I tried to rewatch it on my TV at home and it's really boring. I was just like, what was I doing? It's not even a good film.

[Georgia Hardstark]

That's amazing.

[Karen Kilgariff]

That's amazing. So burn Tomahawk and Cannibal Holocaust. Not exactly fun for all the family, but in many ways, the making of Cannibal Holocaust was almost as disturbing as the film itself. The budget was just $100,000, so the director led his crew and a group of completely unknown actors into the town of Leticia, Colombia, near the borders of Peru and Brazil. Filming in the humid and unpredictable conditions of the rainforest, Deodato hired local tribespeople to play the cannibals. We don't really know if the locals were aware of exactly what they were taking part in. Actually. It turns out that the indigenous girl that Deodato used in a gang rape scene was actually only 14 years old in real life. And according to Deodatta himself, this girl didn't even know what the film was. He just communicated with her via an interpreter. That three men would get a bit rough with her, but none of it was real.

[Georgia Hardstark]

And like I said, I've seen some of this particular scene, and the expression on the poor girl's face is definitely one of genuine terror and confusion, because not only did she not know what this one was, she didn't know what a film was, full stop. So, like, when she's being told it's just acting, that concept didn't even exist in her mind. So all of the actors taking part in the scene were against doing it as well. But Deodato insisted. And when Francesca Chiardi, who plays Faye, refused to show her breasts on camera, Deodato led her away from the crew and screamed at her until she cried and gave in. Needless to say, this was not a union gig. Deodato sidestepped a ton of the usual bureaucracy that would have gone with filmmaking even back then, and allowed him to create something with even more fucked up sequences. Because, like we said, the film included real life animal killings, which is basically the only thing that Deodato has ever copped to saying that it was stupid of him to have done it. And just in case you're wondering what animals die in, this included actors using knives to kill a coatee. And if you don't know what that is, basically think of the squirrel from Ice Age. Also, a tarantula is killed, a boa constrictor and two squirrel monkeys. But possibly the worst killings involved the actor Perry Perkinen, who was forced to decapitate and dismember a live turtle and then remove its entrails.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Jesus.

[Georgia Hardstark]

And that is in the fucking film.

[Karen Kilgariff]

And unsurprisingly, that scene had such a profound effect on Perkinen that he quit acting altogether and nobody ever heard from him again after they finished shooting. Film also showed Luca Barbareschi shooting a pig in the head with a.22 caliber rifle at point blank range, which led to animal rights groups calling him to be murdered. When Cannibal Holocaust was released on 7th February 1980 in Milan, it was pulled from screens just 10 days later, and Deodatta was arrested and charged with obscenity.

[Georgia Hardstark]

And it's literally because they couldn't figure out how he had done some of the things.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Oh, yeah.

[Georgia Hardstark]

In the film. So in Cannibal Holocaust, there's like a scene of a woman who's, like, impaled on a spike, and they're like. They literally couldn't figure out how he had done that. They were like, yeah, murder. He must have killed him.

[Karen Kilgariff]

And in the lead up to the film's premiere, Deodato had marketed Cannibal Holocaust as though it were a real snuff film. And after a French magazine in 1981 suggested that some of the deaths in the film were real, Deodato found himself facing murder charges. Apparently he'd even included a clause in all of the actors contracts which prevented them from appearing in any films, commercials, or any media for a whole year after the film's release. So that people would believe they were actually dead. Yeah.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Is why he chose four unknown actors like Blair Witch. Yeah. And then basically kind of even forbid them from, like, going outside the house for a while after. So people genuinely thought, he's killed these people. This is a fucking snuff film. So having to backtrack and now prove that the movie wasn't actually real found footage. Deodato and the cast spoke out and demonstrated in court how some of the special effects actually worked. So the murder charges against Deodato were dropped, but he was still sentenced to four months parole, along with the cinematographer and producers for Animal Cruelty. Many of the cast and crew describe Dear Datta as abusive, remorseless, and incredibly cruel. And the controversy surrounding the film, the murder charges, and it being banned in over 50 countries was of course, used in its marketing and PR, just like all of the cursed films before and after it. Because whether or not you believe in film curses, you can't deny that they make for a much spookier cinema going experience.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yeah.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Not that Cannibal Holocaust is ever getting played in a cinema.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yeah.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Rough stuff.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yeah. But none of them really cursed, it would appear. Apart from the Omen. I'm quite convinced by that one.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Yeah. There's some bits in there that are like, oh, that's quite strange. But, yeah. I think really all you need to know is that directors have massive God complexes and are constantly on an ego trip.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Yep.

[Georgia Hardstark]

As they will do anything. I mean, if you go and listen to. I know we've talked about this podcast before, but it's so good, it deserves another shout. Out. Go listen to Inside the Exorcist, Inside Psycho, Inside Jaws. They are wonder podcasts, but we were shouting about them before. They're really, really good and in that you will get to grips like even to a small extent, like the lengths that some of these directors are willing to go to. And also go listen to our episode. Like Hannah said on Raw, you don't really need to believe a film is cursed when you've got an egomaniac at the helm. All sorts of crazy shit is going.

[Karen Kilgariff]

To happen and if you're William Friedkin, you never do anything ever again.

[Georgia Hardstark]

It was the only thing you wanted to make. So that's it guys. We hope you enjoyed it and we will be back next time with some more things.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Or will we? Yes, we're contractually obliged to Bye.

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[Elena Urquhart or Ash Kelly]

It's all a lighthearted nightmare on our podcast Morbid. We're your hosts. I'm Elena Urquhart. And I'm Ash Kelly and our show is part true crime partners spooky and part comedy. The stories we cover are well researched. Of the 880 men who survived the attack, around 400 would eventually find their way to one another and merge into one larger group with a touch of humor. Shout out to her Shout out to all my therapists. Throughout the years there's been like eight of them. A dash of sarcasm and just garnished a bit with a little bit of cursing. That mother is not real. And if you're a weirdo like us and love to cozy up to a creepy tale of the paranormal, or you love to hop in the Way Back machine and dissect the details of some of history's most notorious crimes, you should tune in to our podcast Morbid. Follow Morbid on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to episodes early and ad free by joining Wondery plus and the Wondery App or on Apple Podcasts.