Cursed Films : Cursed Films (Shudder)

Just watched 2 episodes of this. The first was about The Exorcist, the second about Poltergeist (which was very good, and heartbreaking), and am about to start episode 3, The Omen. Fascinating stuff.

Finished it. Wow. Episode 4 dealt with The Crow and fhe final episode, The Twilight Zone movie, the most traumatic of them. The set builder of that could hardly talk about that movie without crying. Kane Hodder talked a bit about stunt directing (and briefly about what happened to him when he a fire stunt went wrong and he ended up with 45% of his body covered in 3rd degree burns). Holy crap the final episode is quite something.

Vic Morrow got decapitated filming the Twilight Zone movie.

Along with 2 children. Cut in half. They show the chopper crashing.

Were the 2 children literally cut in half? Or was it just a magic trick by David Copperfield?

Yes (ar least that's what they said in the episode). And the parents were on set…

Rumor was that the Father caught his little Girl's torso in mid air. Similar to Lynn Swan's catch of a throw from Terry Bradshaw in Super Bowl XIV

Jeeeeesus, if that's true…

I don't remember that being said in the episode. They there was an eerie momentary silence after the crash and someone asked "Where's Vic?"

I think Vic just always had bad luck. Like when He was supposed to play a character called Mortie Whiteshoes in Godfather Part 2.

The character was gonna be Hyman Ruth's right hand man. And then Coppola and Puzo dropped the character from the film abruptly.

So no role in Godfather 2 for Vic Morrow.

I didn't know that. It's a bit of an understatement calling what happened to him on the TZ movie bad luck.

Its also an overstatement to call it a curse. At least no one tried to play Soccer with his head. I note this because they were 2 professional Soccer players in the cast listed as extras.

Oh I wouldn't call it that either.

We split the difference and chalk it up to Divine providence.

I was going to suggest negligence. John Landis was pretty cavalier about safety regulations.

Right?

Yeah, I got that impression too. Unconcerned for safety before, unfazed after. Or at least it seemed that way. He may have inappropriate affect… I can't imagine not being rocked to the core by something like that.

Yeah.

I can understand how in each of the movies covered where death occurred, that they felt they didn't want to finish the film. I felt the sadness of the crew talking about Heather O'Rourke and how grim it felt having to finish the final scene with a stand-in. Although in that case I'm sure Heather would have wanted them to finish it, as she had loved being in the films and had a great time.

Can't imagine how it must feel for the crew watching the TZ movie, remembering what happened.

Rebel Without a Cause as well

That will probably be covered next season. It's only 5 episodes.

That was hilarious. I caught second hand embarrassment from that. It wasn't the best episode. The last one was. Man, when the set designer/builder cried…ugh. I'd be haunted by that forever, too.

Btw thanks guys, for chatting with me about this. I often feel like I'm farting against the wind here.