So, While looking around for some gruesome movies I found some interesting things ABOUT movies , Some curious and dark facts about a couple of movies that I thought you would find interesting , Anyway this movies are also called "cursed movies" supposedly because they had many deaths IN , WHILE and AFTER the movie , of course related deaths ... deaths with something in common , Anyway , here's the list of the movies and the story behind each . Hope you find this interesting.
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Has supposedly cast a number of misfortunes on people involved in the Superman franchise over the decades, from career ruin to death.
First there's George Reeves, who played Superman in the 1950's TV series Adventures of Superman. He was found dead in 1959 of a single gunshot wound to the head. The death was ruled suicide but his fingerprints were never found on the gun, so unless he shot himself with his feet (and that's some length to go to just to screw the insurance company) it was probably murder.
Then of course there's Christopher Reeve--eerily similar surname, eerily similar bad luck. After success in four Superman films he was thrown form his horse in 1995, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down and demonstrating vividly the reasons mankind has largely abandoned horses as a mode of transportation.
Slightly less severe misfortune landed on Richard Pryor who, if being in Superman III wasn't misfortune enough, was later diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. Then you have Margot Kidder (Lois Lane) who suffered from bipolar disorder and Marlon Brando (Jor-El) who withdrew from society and dedicated himself to becoming the fattest man on earth.
On the outer edges of the Curse Zone we've got various actors who starred in Superman adaptations and had their careers die on them afterwards. Dean Cain, who played Superman in Lois & Clark, is one example. Those who don't believe in the curse often point out that Cain's co-star Teri Hatcher later went on to star in the long-running TV show Desperate Housewives. On the other hand, those who do believe in the curse often point out that Teri Hatcher later went on to star in the long running TV show Desperate Housewives.
So what caused this one? Did they disturb another ancient burial ground? Well, we like to think the curse was called down by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the two people who created Superman. Having created one of the country's most beloved superheroes while under contract to DC Comics, they were completely screwed out of the royalties.
In 1975 the couple finally were begrudgingly awarded a yearly pension from Warner, DC's parent company, who wanted to avoid bad publicity prior to release of the first film. Though, apparently, the 35 grand a year they paid out wasn't enough to offset the bad karma.
That, or the "curse" is just a series of meaningless coincidences.
Most Tenuous Link to the Curse:
According to inside sources, (again, Wikipedia), "In 1963 John F. Kennedy's staff approved of a Superman story in which the hero touts the president's physical fitness initiatives, scheduled to be published with an April 1964 cover date. On November 22, Kennedy was shot and killed." To our knowledge, this is the first time Superman has been touted as the second gunman.
- The Poltergeist Trilogy
Everyone who appeared in the poltergeist trilogy is now dead, says an extreme and entirely untrue version of the poltergeist curse. Indeed, Nancy Allen, (Robocop's sidekick), is very much still alive. It's just her career that's dead. What is true is that four of the trilogy's actors all died within 6 years of the first movie, giving rise to talk of The Poltergeist Curse.
Supposed deaths include child actor Heather O'Rourke, who appeared in all three films and died just before the third film was released. Suffering what was thought to be the flu, she was taken to hospital and later died on the operating table from complications. Then, Julian Beck, (who played the terrifying old man in Part 2), died of cancer...
and Native American actor Will Sampson died during an operation (note that he was wanted at the time for the suffocation of a lobotomized Jack Nicholson and vandalism of state property).
Then we have Dominique Dunne (who played the oldest child in the first film) who was strangled to death by her boyfriend the same year the film was released. That's where the "curse" starts to get shaky, since that seems less like supernatural misfortune and more like having a shitty, murderous boyfriend.
So what did the film makers do to supposedly piss off the spirits? Well, they used real human remains as props in the first Poltergeist movie. You know, the movie about how desecrating the remains of the dead angers their spirits.
What sucks about that is that none of the supposed curse victims were actually involved in the decision to use real human remains on the set. Doesn't it ruin the whole point of a curse when you go inflicting it at random? That's just sloppy.
Most Tenuous Link to the Curse:
According to a noted expert on the film (Read: Wikipedia) JoBeth Williams, who played Diane Freeling, claims she returned home from the set each day to find pictures on her wall askew! She would then straighten them out, only to find them crooked again the next day!
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- Atuk (Unreleased)
The Curse:
Atuk is a "hilarious" fish out of water screenplay about an Eskimo who comes to New York. It was never filmed however because people in Hollywood just don't know a good thing when they see it. Oh and also, it killed John Belushi.
Belushi had read the script and was interested in the role when he died of a drug overdose in 1982. So what, right? But everything, as Einstein once said, is relative. And everything, as a Cracked editor once said, can be made to look like it's connected for the purposes of a comedy article.
After Belushi's death the lead role went to comedian Sam Kinison. Numerous problems delayed production, Kinison demanded parts of the movie be re-written and production was halted. A few years passed, the script remained cursed and Kinison died in a car crash. The curse had apparently struck again.
The film's lead role was then passed to John Candy in 1994. Candy took the script completely unaware that it was cursed (Read: a fish out of water comedy about an Eskimo) and promptly died of a heart attack. The screenplay was buried in Hollywood somewhere and all chubby comedians swore to stay clear of the film for good.
Except for Chris Farley, who in 1997 was also in talks for the lead role when he died of a drug overdose.
Most Tenuous Link to the Curse:
In 1994, the same year John Candy was murdered (by a screenplay), Michael O'Donoghue died. Who's Michael O'Donoghue? Well, he was John Belushi's friend. Man, that's creepy.
- Rosemary's Baby
The Curse:
Rosemary's Baby is a 1968 Roman Polanski film about a Manhattan woman whose husband signs a Faustian pact with the Satan-worshipping cult next door.
The film's composer died of a brain clot one year after making the film, the same way a character in the film dies. Then producer William Castle suffered kidney failure soon after the film was made, and swore the movie was cursed after crying out "Rosemary, for God's sake drop that knife" while being treated.
But those stories aside, the curse is mainly built around the insanely shitty luck of Roman Polanski. In March of 1969 Polanski had bought a house for himself and his 8 months pregnant wife Sharon Tate. Unfortunately, Polanski had broken the first rule of real estate: never buy a house from someone who pissed off Charles Manson.
The former owner of the house was music producer Terry Melcher, who had previously refused to record Manson's music. Manson expressed his disappointment by ordering his cult to go to Polanski's house. There, they killed Sharon Tate, her unborn baby and four others, stabbing the victims multiple times. After the murders, one of the killers took a rag, soaked up some of Tate's blood and wrote "pig" on the front door with it. So as curses go it was a lot worse than the crooked pictures thing.
Polanski was in London at the time and thus survived the onslaught. He went on to have a successful career, critical flop Pirates aside, free from problems. Oh, except later when he was charged with statutory rape. He could try to blame the curse for that one but we don't think it would hold up in court.
Most Tenuous Link to the Curse:
The Manson family nicknamed their murder spree "Helter Skelter" after the Beatles song. Later, John Lennon would be murdered outside his hotel The Dakota. This was the same hotel used in some scenes of Rosemary's Baby. A coincidence? Yes.
- The Conqueror
The Curse:
When you think of Genghis Khan (Mongolian, conqueror of half the known world, shrewd military tactician, Mongolian, mass murderer, Mongolian, vengeful, Mongolian) who do you picture? John Wayne, right? Exactly. And that's why he was an inspired casting choice for Howard Hughes' 1956 epic The Conqueror. Speaking before the film was made, Wayne said "the way the screenplay reads it's a cowboy picture, and that's how I'm going to play Genghis Khan. I see him as a gunfighter."
Speaking during the film, as Genghis Kahn, Wayne said "There are moment's fer wisdom, Juh-mooga, then I listen to you. And there are moment's fer action, then I listen to my blood. I feel this Tartar wuh-man is fer me, and my blood says, 'TAKE HER!"
So clearly a film headed for success and mass universal critical acclaim. Damn you, supernatural curse!
At one point a flash flood nearly killed the entire crew. Having survived that, lead actress Susan Hayward survived an attack by a black panther.
Unfortunately for Susan and the rest of the cast, health and safety
Thus the actors and crew were exposed to nuclear fallout for the 13 weeks they filmed in Snow Canyon, downwind from the Yucca Flats were the US Army tested 11 atomic bombs. The rest of the movie was filmed in Hollywood, but Howard Hughes managed to maintain the integrity of the movie's Mongolian setting by shipping 60 tones of nuclear contaminated dirt from Snow Canyon back to Hollywood.
Over the next few years, 91 of the 220 crew members developed cancer, 46 died including John Wayne, Susan Hayward and the director. One of the film's other stars, Pedro Armendariz, committed suicide when he found out his cancer was terminal.
In his last days, Howard Hughes, with his beard and fingernails grown disturbingly long, living a now reclusive lifestyle, reportedly watched The Conqueror over and over again, racked with guilt, as he waited for the sweet embrace of death.
Good movie though.
Most Tenuous Link to the Curse:
It's claimed that during filming, the actors had to endure temperatures of over 120 degree heat! That's unheard of, except, you know, in deserts, like the one they were filming in.
- The Omen
The Curse:
No film in history has had worse luck than The Omen. Hell, nothing in history has had worse luck than The Omen. The Jews have had better luck.
During filming scriptwriter David Seltzer's plane was hit by lighting, as was star Gregory Peck's, as was executive producers Mace Neufelds'.
Lucky for all of them, lighting doesn't strike twice. But know what does? IRA bombings. A hotel Neufeld was staying at during production was bombed by the IRA, as was a restaurant the director and actors were scheduled to eat at. Luckily no one died.
An assistant to special effects consultant John Richardson on the other hand, wasn't quite as lucky. On Friday the 13th of August 1976, Richardson crashed his car in Holland. His assistant was sliced through by the car's front wheel. Scrambling out of the wreckage, Richardson looked up and saw a road sign: Ommen, 66.6km.
One of the film's tiger handler's died. Gregory Peck's son shot himself. A plane scheduled for use in the film, which was rescheduled and used for a commercial flight instead, crashed and killed everyone on board.
We're not saying we believe in curses. We're just saying we should probably stop making movies about Satan.
Most Tenuous Link to the Curse:
A stuntman who worked on The Omen later hospitalised himself while working on the film A Bridge Too Far. Which is creepy. Except he's a stuntman. And deliberately threw himself off a roof.
- The Twilight Zone
Movie people commonly refer to two categories of workers: "above the line" and "below the line." The first group consists of actors, producers and directors. The second, larger group includes camera operators, stunt personnel, makeup artists and technicians of all sorts. In The Twilight Zone, unit production manager Dan Allingham oversaw most of the below the line hiring. Allingham was also first assistant director.
The second assistant director, Anderson House, had reservations about working children after hours and around a helicopter and special-effects explosives. He shared those concerns with Allingham. House wanted to know if Landis planned to film the kids during the daytime and artificially simulate night, then insert those shots into ones actually made at night. Allingham told him no. Later House asked if Allingham knew if Landis had considered using dummies or dwarf stunt people instead of children. Allingham replied that Landis had rejected those ideas because he thought they would look phony. House pursued the issue and Allingham told him there was no point in discussing it further.
Allingham recommended that Paul Stewart be put in charge of the special-effects explosives. He had a fine reputation in the field and had previously worked with Vic Morrow on Combat!
In early July 1982, Landis asked George Folsey to locate two young Asian children for the roles. Folsey agreed to do so despite misgivings. Production assistant Cynthia Nigh recalled Folsey coming out of a meeting with Landis and production manager Dan Allingham. The trio discussed the illegal hiring of kids and, according to Nigh, Folsey joked, "We'll probably all be thrown in jail for this!"
Child actress Renee
(AP/Wide World)
Folsey phoned Dr. Harold Schuman, husband of Folsey's production secretary Donna Schuman. Folsey knew that Dr. Schuman had often worked with Asian people and asked for his help. Dr. Schuman called a former associate of his, Dr. Peter Chen, and explained that he had friends who were trying to cast a couple of Asian children in a movie. Dr. Chen phoned his brother, Mark, who had a 6-year-old daughter named Renee. Mark discussed the idea with his wife, Shyan-Huei and little Renee. Shyan-Huei thought being in a movie "would be a very fine experience" for Renee who "would have a lot of memories of what she had done" when she grew up. The prospect of acting thrilled the girl.
Dr. Chen then approached Dr. Daniel Le and his wife Kim-Hoa, parents of a 7-year-old boy named My-ca (Farber and Green spell it sans hyphen). Little My-ca was an outgoing child who loved getting his picture taken. When told that he could be in a movie, the lad jumped up and down, shouting, "I like it! I like it!"
The youngsters were introduced to John Landis who thought the cute children were perfect for the parts.
On the night of July 22, 1982, Renee and My-ca were on location at Indian Dunes Park. According to "Death in the Twilight Zone," a Rolling Stone article on the case, "The park is actually a private property . . . enclosed by steep, chaparral-covered cliffs. At the base of one of those cliffs, on the south shore of the Santa Clara River — a shallow, slow-moving stream that irrigates orange and avocado groves a few miles to the west — a 'Vietnamese Village' had been assembled out of bamboo poles, palm thatch and cardboard."
There were several delays in shooting.
At one point, the pilot of the helicopter, Dorcey Wingo, talked about the scene with Vic Morrow. The actor was planning to toss a stick at the helicopter as he escaped across the river and wondered if that would be a problem. Wingo worried that an object contacting the rotor could be dangerous. Perhaps it would not do any harm, he suggested, if Morrow threw a lightweight piece of balsa.
It was after 2:00 a.m. when the children's scene was about to start. Both of Chen's parents were there as was Kim-Hoa Le, My-ca's mother. Landis wanted to add some more realism to the youngsters' appearance so he smeared a little mud on their faces and tore holes in their clothing.
To set the children at ease, Morrow made funny faces. Both youngsters giggled uncontrollably. They could not stop when the camera started rolling and Landis had to repeatedly halt the scene and tell the kids to quit laughing. He got the scene he wanted at 3:30 a.m. Their parents were given envelopes with $500 in cash inside and told the children would be needed again the next night.
The kids showed up late July 23, 1982. Renee accompanied by her mother and My-ca by his father. It was the night they were going to film the climactic scene of Bill carrying two children across the river away from the attacking helicopter ending with his vowing, "I'll keep you safe, kids! I swear to God!" as the village exploded in the background.
At 9:30 p.m., Landis needed a shot before that one. Renee and My-ca were in a hut, and Morrow was to pick them up and carry them to the shore. Landis was directing the scene from several feet out in the water. A water bomb exploded and Renee started crying because dust got into her eyes.
Concerned, Shyan-Huei Chen asked George Folsey, "Is it dangerous?"
"No, not dangerous," he assured her, "just a loud noise."
The director comforted Renee. Then the two children, with their parents, went back to a motor home to rest up for the final scene.
That scene's first shot, of the helicopter heading toward the mock village, was filmed at 11:30 p.m. Pilot Wingo sat in the cockpit with Dan Allingham, who was focusing a spotlight on the scene underneath.
Vic Morrow stood in the river. Technicians fired guns, cueing special-effects experts to detonate bombs. Flames flew toward the chopper. A water ball splattered the windshield and Wingo could not see out of it. He put his head out of the window and swore because the heat burned him.
A fire-safety officer named Richard Ebentheuer told his superior, George Hull, he was concerned that the helicopter might crash because of the size of the blasts. Hull told his underling to take his fears to the filmmakers.
Ebentheuer let out an expletive and said, "The helicopter will be on the ground!"
Later, Ebentheuer was asked in court why he did not take Hull's advice and report his fears directly to the moviemakers. He testified, "That's not the way the chain of command works in the fire department." Thus, neither Hull nor Ebentheuer took the latter's criticisms up with the filmmakers.
When the helicopter landed, Wingo told Allingham to let Landis know that the explosions should not be so close to his aircraft. "You're right," Allingham agreed, saying, "Safety first." Camera operator Roger Smith said he would not film it unless someone made sure the explosives did not get so close to the helicopter. Allingham assured him too that he would take it up with Landis. Allingham later told Smith not to worry because he had spoken to the director and Landis said that in the next scene they "would be flying over the water filming Vic and the two kids."
Assistant camera operator Randy Robinson and Wingo were discussing the intense heat of the fireball and, according to Outrageous Conduct, a smiling Landis told them, "You ain't seen nothing yet!"
My-ca and Renee were found sleeping in the trailer. George Folsey and an assistant woke them up and asked if the kids wanted a bite to eat.
Later, both parents would claim that Folsey warned them against letting firefighters on the set know that the children were employed. "If the firemen approach you," he supposedly said, "please tell them that you are not working for us. Say you are my friend, you are here to help me. Don't tell them anything about the money or the children working." Since Chen's English was poor, Folsey allegedly asked Dr. Le to repeat the message to her. He did but in English because he was Vietnamese, she was Chinese, and he did not speak her native tongue.
As Chen and Dr. Le stood with other spectators watching the helicopter approach the faux village, anxiety seized Chen. "Is it dangerous?" she asked Dr. Le.
"George told me it would be scary," he replied, "but he said not to worry."
At 2:20 a.m., John Landis ordered the filming to start.
Vic Morrow went into the knee-deep water, holding a child under each arm.
The director shouted through his bullhorn at the helicopter, "Lower! Lower! Lower!" An assistant repeated the order to the pilot through a walkie-talkie.
"Fire! Fire! Fire!" Landis commanded. Machine gunners Gary McLarty and Kenny Endoso fired as the aircraft descended. A special effects technician set off simulations of shots hitting the water.
James Camomile, a burly, soft-spoken technician, was in charge of setting off bombs in the back of the village. He worked with a firing board on which he ran a nail across to detonate explosions. Camomile had a welder's hood on his head to keep dust out of his eyes. Another technician, Jerry Williams, set off blasts at another side of the village. Two camera operators ran up a slope to get away from the pain of the heat.
The blasts terrified Daniel Le who, according to "Death in the Twilight Zone," was reminded of what he had witnessed in the actual war in Vietnam. "All the memory of the war came to my mind," he claimed. "I was so horrified. I was screaming. The second blast, I fell down on the ground . . . I cried, 'God!' . . . I was so fearful, and I knew danger. It was not something made up, but real danger."
Wingo felt his craft was in trouble and had difficulty guiding it through the fireballs. Sitting beside him in the cockpit, Allingham was alarmed and told the pilot to get out of there.
On the ground, Camomile did not know of the helicopter's troubles. He detonated two charges close together and those bombs, in some way, harmed the aircraft.
The helicopter went out of control.
Child actor My-Ca
(AP/Wide World)
In the water, Morrow dropped Renee Chen. He grabbed at her but the helicopter's right skid slammed into the child, killing her. Then its whirling main rotor ripped off the middle-aged actor's head and the head, a shoulder, and an arm of 7-year old My-ca.
"That's a wrap!" John Landis shouted through the loudspeaker and the standard, banal words signaling the end of filming day sounded sickeningly incongruous. "Leave your equipment where it is. Everyone go home. Please, everyone go home."
The mother of Renee Chen and the father of My-ca Le were screaming. Taken to a local hospital, they were treated for shock, then driven home.
Some cast and crew believed telling everyone to immediately go home was misguided. Script supervisor Katherine Wooten commented, according to Farber and Green, "It might have been better if we had stayed together for awhile to console each other."
Posting more later!
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