ShortHand: Cursed Films

Summary

RedHanded – ShortHand: Cursed Films
August 7, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this episode, the RedHanded hosts delve into the chilling world of "cursed" films—those movies rumored to be plagued by accidents, deaths, and inexplicable misfortune. They explore the roots of these sinister tales, question whether curses or pure chaos are to blame, and dissect the role of Hollywood mythmaking (and sometimes marketing) in fueling these stories. From The Exorcist to Cannibal Holocaust, the episode traverses cinematic history, sorting fact from fiction and questioning if what lurked behind the camera was sometimes scarier than what appeared onscreen.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Fascination with Cursed Films

• The episode opens with banter about horror film terminology, launching quickly into society’s love for sinister stories and swapping "Grimm tales" ([03:03]).
• "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?" – Host 1 ([03:15])
• The hosts emphasize how stories of cursed productions generate hype and add fuel to a film’s legend, much like infamous music scandals can drive sales.

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2. The Curse of The Exorcist

Timestamps: 04:19–09:08

• A Chain of Tragedies:
  • Set fire started by a bird, burning down everything except the exorcism bedroom ([04:40]).
  • Multiple deaths connected to the production: Linda Blair's grandfather, director's brother, crew members, and a newborn of the assistant cameraman. ([05:29])
• True Crime Intersection:
  • Paul Bateson, a radiologist appearing in the film, later confessed to a real murder and was suspected in several others: "He’s, like, in the fucking Exorcist, like, touching the little girl, like—" – Host 2 ([07:37])
• Marketing Machinations:
  • Tales of fainting audiences and hauntings were heavily amplified by PR: "They had hired her, the PR agent, to cause a buzz around the movie, using reports of faintings and ambulances parked outside movie theaters.” – Host 2 ([08:33])
• Memorable Moment:
  • "[About the curse] The fire, yes, was an accident and Bateson was just a piece of shit. As for the deaths… they were just coincidental." – Host 2 ([08:54])

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3. The Omen: Death, Lightning, and Urban Legends

Timestamps: 10:10–15:46

• Lightning Strikes (Literally):
  • Gregory Peck, the executive producer, and the writer all had their planes struck by lightning; a producer barely escaped being hit on the ground ([11:38]).
• Plane Crash Avoidance:
  • Peck avoided boarding a chartered jet that later crashed, killing the pilot’s entire family as well ([13:10]).
• On-Set Accidents Mirror Plot Deaths:
  • Special effects designer John Richardson’s fiancé, Liz Moore, was decapitated in a car crash eerily echoing the film ([13:37]).
  • Creepy coincidence: The crash happened on Friday the 13th, allegedly next to a sign reading "66.6km."
• Skepticism:
  • “I have never in my life, big fat allegedly…Have I ever seen a .66km away?” – Host 1 ([14:56])
  • Host 2’s rational take on the "curse": "But if you ask me, the film's cut." ([15:42])

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4. Twilight Zone: When Recklessness Turns Deadly

Timestamps: 15:46–18:59

• Industry Recklessness:
  • “The 70s were truly the wild west of Hollywood filmmaking, where almost anything went and directors behaved with almost absolute impunity.” – Host 1 ([16:27])
• Tragic Helicopter Accident:
  • Actor Vic Morrow and two illegally hired child actors killed by a helicopter during pyrotechnics accident ([17:46]).
• Reality vs. Superstition:
  • Hosts stress it was negligence, not supernatural: “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.” – Host 2 ([18:47])

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5. The Wizard of Oz: Accidents, Makeup Madness & Urban Myths

Timestamps: 19:00–21:34

• True Accidents:
  • Two actors (winged monkeys) almost died in harness accidents; others hospitalized due to toxic makeup (Tin Man’s face painted with aluminum dust) ([19:28], [20:18]).
• Famous Urban Legend Debunked:
  • No Munchkin hanged himself on set; supposed "hanging silhouette" is likely a zoo bird ([20:49]).
• The Darkest Truth:
  • The real “curse” was Judy Garland’s mistreatment—force-fed pills, enduring abuse, leading to lifelong addiction and her early death: "The most sinister thing about the making of the Wizard of Oz is how Judy Garland was treated by the studio." – Host 1 ([21:50])

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6. The Poltergeist Curse: Deaths & Real Skeletons

Timestamps: 22:41–24:50

• Cast Deaths:
  • Heather O'Rourke (child star) died tragically from misdiagnosed illness; Dominique Dunne (eldest daughter) murdered by an ex-boyfriend who served only three years ([22:41], [23:22]).
• Real Human Skeletons Used:
  • In the iconic pool scene, real skeletons were utilized; some claim they were stolen from India, their ghosts angered ([24:02]).
• Supernatural Skepticism:
  • “Regardless… the case for this film being cursed is quite thin.” – Host 1 ([24:50])

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7. Cannibal Holocaust: Reality More Horrific Than Fiction

Timestamps: 24:50–32:04

• Exploitation, Animal Cruelty, and Legal Trouble:
  • Filmed in Colombia, often with non-consenting locals; actress forced into exploitative scenes ([28:29], [29:56]).
  • Numerous real animal killings onscreen; one actor never worked again after decapitating a turtle ([29:57]).
  • Director Deodato was charged with murder after rumors persisted the film was a real snuff film—he’d contractually disappeared his actors to bolster the story ([30:41]).
• PR, Not Paranormal:
  • The notoriety, murder charges, and "ban in 50 countries" claim all fed the film’s legend and infamy, showing again how "cursed" status can drive a film’s market value ([31:06]).
• Final Takeaway:
  • “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.” – Host 2 ([32:51])

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Memorable Quotes

• On manufactured curses:
  "Myths about films being cursed can build hysteria around upcoming releases inevitably getting bums on seats." – Host 1 ([03:42])

• On real evil:
  "The fire, yes, was an accident and Bateson was just a piece of shit." – Host 2 ([08:54])

• On debunking The Wizard of Oz’s darkest labels:
  "The most sinister thing about the making of the Wizard of Oz is how Judy Garland was treated by the studio." – Host 1 ([21:50])

• On Cannibal Holocaust’s cruelty:
  "The film included real animal killings… the actor Perry Perkinen, who was forced to decapitate and dismember a live turtle and then remove its entrails." – Host 2 ([29:56])

• On the real source of chaos:
  "You don’t really need to believe a film is cursed when you’ve got an egomaniac at the helm." – Host 2 ([32:51])

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Notable and Fun Moments

• Britishisms & Film Vocabulary:
  Hosts debate whether to say "movie," "film," or "pictures," adding lightness and personal anecdotes ([01:42–02:57]).
• Lightning as Aggressive Marketing:
  Multiple stories of lightning striking those involved with The Omen—hosts joke about River Monsters’ crew member being struck as well ([11:38–12:44]).
• Skepticism Interwoven Throughout:
  Hosts regularly stop to question the logic of so-called curses, casting a critical and often humorous eye:
  • “Big fat allegedly” ([14:56])
  • “Not that Cannibal Holocaust is ever getting played in a cinema. Yeah. Rough stuff.” ([32:04])
• Dark Humor:
  "But none of them really cursed, it would appear—apart from The Omen. I’m quite convinced by that one." – Host 1 ([32:11])

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Conclusions & Reflections

While the hosts find elements of the “curse” trope compelling—and The Omen’s string of disasters especially “strange”—they ultimately attribute most trouble to a mix of recklessness, negligence, poor safety standards, and creative PR. The real horror, they argue, is the danger directors were willing to accept in pursuit of their vision and the abuses hidden by the glamour of filmmaking.

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For Further Listening:

• The hosts recommend “Inside the Exorcist,” “Inside Psycho,” and “Inside Jaws” for more deep dives into film lore and history ([32:19]).
• They also reference their own episode on the notoriously dangerous production of "Roar".

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Quick Segment Guide

• Intro & Film Vocabulary: 01:14–02:57
• The Exorcist: 04:19–09:08
• The Omen: 10:10–15:46
• Twilight Zone: 15:46–18:59
• Wizard of Oz: 19:00–21:34
• Poltergeist: 22:41–24:50
• Cannibal Holocaust: 24:50–32:04
• Conclusions: 32:11–33:07

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Language & Tone: Casual, darkly humorous, skeptical, and sometimes openly gory—very much in the signature style of RedHanded.

Transcript

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[Host 1]

Hello.

[Host 2]

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 curse things, this is still right up your alley.

[Host 1]

I have to make a confession. Aha. I absolutely, unreservedly hate the word movie. Oh, I can't stand it.

[Host 2]

I never knew this about you.

[Host 1]

I prefer to say film.

[Host 2]

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.

[Host 1]

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

[Host 2]

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

[Host 1]

I just prefer it.

[Host 2]

Fine.

[Host 1]

So you can say movies.

[Host 2]

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

[Host 1]

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.

[Host 2]

What do they say?

[Host 1]

The movies?

[Host 2]

Oh, they say the movies.

[DSW Advertiser]

Yeah.

[Host 1]

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

[Host 2]

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.

[Host 1]

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

[Host 2]

Yeah, I would say cinema.

[Host 1]

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

[Host 2]

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

[Host 1]

So I'm just gonna get inundated with Instagram voice notes of people saying the word movie. Anyway, if red handed is 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 first 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.

[Host 2]

So we begin our cursed 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 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 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.

[Host 1]

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 in 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 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 Bag Murderer.

[Host 2]

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

[Host 1]

Yeah, it's not great.

[Host 2]

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. Verrill 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 M.O. the unidentifiable victims had all been chopped up, placed in bags, and dumped in the Hudson River.

[Host 1]

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

[Host 2]

least killed one person. Yeah, and he's, like, in the fucking Exorcist, like, touching the little girl, like

[Host 1]

no, Friedkin actually paid Bateson a visit in prison and he claimed that Bateson confessed to having murdered numerous other men.

[Host 2]

Friedkin would say that.

[Host 1]

He would, wouldn't he? 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.

[Host 2]

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 as spookily timed as they were, they were just coincidental.

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[Host 1]

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.

[Host 2]

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

[Host 1]

Yeah, it's very brutalist and horrible. Anyway, we're not gonna 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.

[Host 2]

Yeah, I mean, Gregory Peck, outstanding actor and the Omen. You know what? It, like, had its time.

[Host 1]

Yeah.

[Host 2]

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.

[Host 1]

No, I think I agree with you there. But scary it is. But it was the madness that took place off camera. That is the real scary stuff.

[Host 2]

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.

[Host 1]

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.

[Host 2]

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.

[Host 1]

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.

[Host 2]

That's fucking crazy. But then also, it did happen just shortly after takeoff. Did the wife just drop him off at the airfield? 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 them 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 66.6km to the city of Oman. Allegedly.

[Host 1]

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.66km away? Why would you bother?

[Host 2]

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 B666. 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.

[Host 1]

Allegedly.

[Host 2]

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

[Host 1]

And now We've got the 1983 Sci Fi Horror that is Spielberg's the Twilight Zone.

[Host 2]

I was going to do the sound. I can't. I can't. I can hear it in my head. I can't do it out loud because I am tone deaf. You do it.

[Host 1]

I don't. I don't think I know what it is.

[Host 2]

It's like, oh, wait, let me.

[Host 1]

I similarly can hear it in my head, but I don't want to do it.

[Host 2]

I need to hear it out loud again.

[Host 1]

Oh, yeah, okay.

[Host 2]

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

[Host 1]

That. It's kind of like a xylophone version of a slowed down Jaws. The shark from Jaws.

[Host 2]

Yes, Quite so.

[Host 1]

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.

[Host 2]

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.

[Host 1]

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.

[Host 2]

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,

[Host 1]

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

[Host 2]

This one's really sad, actually.

[Host 1]

The Twilight Zone film is an anthology, so it's four stories in one film. It was directed by George Miller, Steven Spielberg, Joe Danting and John Landis. John Landis. Segment was called Time Out. It's the 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.

[Host 2]

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 Micah 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.

[Bus Driver / Interviewee]

Yeah.

[Host 1]

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

[Host 2]

Oh my God.

[Host 1]

I know.

[Host 2]

When was World War I?

[Host 1]

1917.

[Host 2]

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

[Host 1]

I explained it to you.

[Host 2]

I refuse to remember.

[Host 1]

Okay, 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?

[Host 2]

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.

[Host 1]

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

[Host 2]

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.

[Host 1]

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

[Host 2]

It doesn't even make any sense.

[Host 1]

No.

[Host 2]

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.

[Host 1]

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.

[Host 2]

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.

[Host 1]

Crohn's is no joke, man.

[Host 2]

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.

[Host 1]

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 Jo Beth Williams, the actress playing Diane, these skeletons were not plastic. They were real human bones.

[Host 2]

That's so much harder, I know.

[Host 1]

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 Dunn. Regardless, Indian skeletons will not. The case for this film being cast is quite thin.

[Host 2]

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 Ruggiero Deodante made what's been described as the most controversial movie in history. His 1980s exploitation film, Cannibal Holocaust.

[Host 1]

Have you seen it?

[Host 2]

I've seen enough.

[Host 1]

I haven't seen it.

[Host 2]

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 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 Perkikhan and Luka Barbareschi. The footage itself shows intense stomach churning scenes of murder, castration, six real animals being killed, and two gang rapes.

[Host 1]

Do you remember when we were on tour and you were like, do you want to go and get some breakfast? I was like, in a minute, I'm watching bloke Donald go.

[Host 2]

I was like, okay, I'll just wait then. It was like seven in the morning. Whatever you gotta do, man, to get through tour. Yeah. So, yeah, and I love that 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'll be down for breakfast in a bit. I'm just watching Bone Tomahawk on my phone. You're so weird. It's hilarious.

[Host 1]

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

[Host 2]

That's amazing. That's amazing.

[Host 1]

So Bone 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 Deodato 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.

[Host 2]

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 film 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 and 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 it 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 coatie. 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.

[Host 1]

Jesus.

[Host 2]

And that is in the fucking film.

[Host 1]

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. The 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.

[Host 2]

And it's literally because they couldn't figure out how he had done some of the things. Oh, yeah, 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. So they were like, yeah, murder. He must have killed him.

[Host 1]

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.

[Host 2]

Yeah. Is why he chose four unknown actors like Blair Witch.

[Host 1]

Yeah.

[Host 2]

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.

[Host 1]

Yeah.

[Host 2]

Not that cannibal holocaust is ever getting played in a cinema. Yeah. Rough stuff.

[Host 1]

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

[Host 2]

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 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 a another shout out. Go listen to Inside the Exorcist, Inside Psycho, Inside Jaws. They are wondery 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 to happen.

[Host 1]

And if you're William Friedkin, you never do anything ever again.

[Host 2]

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.

[Host 1]

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

[Host 2]

Sam.