The first series of Shudder’s mini-series Cursed Films documents the phenomena of film sets, particularly those within the horror genre, rumoured to be cursed following consecutive tragic events that have plagued filmmakers during the course of production, and post-release. The series seeks to discover whether these cursed films are in fact legitimately damned through some sort of otherworldly influence, plain bad luck exploited as a marketing ploy or a cover-up for something much more nefarious and devastating.
Touching on classic horror films such as The Exorcist, The Omen, Poltergeist, The Crow and The Twilight Zone Movie, Cursed Films consists of first-hand perspectives from professionals who worked on the films in question, experts in specific fields, as well as fans of the films, which gives the episodes a balanced view of the dissection of rumoured curses. The Omen episode is one which demonstrates the most typical view of what a cursed film is, and looks to examine the argument of why the Devil or Anti-Christ would put a hex on the film set, and why, if it was satanically cursed, were the accidents not more effective at halting production. The Exorcist episode covers the rite of exorcism and the frenzy that surrounded the film, but the most interesting aspect of this instalment is how much the film and the audience’s gendered reactions affected the lead actress of Linda Blair, who played the possessed child Regan.
The Poltergeist chapter paints a sad picture of the question of any sort of curse, being a direct exploitation of the tragic deaths of two of the film’s stars, Heather O’Rourke and Dominique Dunne. To believe that these deaths occurred due to the inclusion of a few real human skeletons (a practice which is quite normal) is an insult to the memory of these actors, as the Cursed Films series sets out to explain. The most interesting episodes of the series are The Crow and The Twilight Zone Movie, where the series works to lift the veil and dispel the myth of cursed sets, by revealing that these productions were actually plagued by studio malpractice, whether it was a gun misfiring killing The Crow star Brandon Lee during filming or the illegal exploitation of child actors in The Twilight Zone Movie as well as stunt work gone wrong, which resulted in the death of the two child actors as well as the film’s star Vic Morrow.
Cursed Films are bite-sized documentary episodes debunking the “cursed film set” phenomena and myths, and revealing the behind-the-scenes situations which cause the films’ reputations to precede them.
Cursed Films Series One is out now on Shudder & Acorn Media Blu-Ray
