Other films are recognized for their plot, others for the bizarre incidents and disasters associated with their shooting. A list of 20 movies that are supposedly cursed has raised movie fans' interest in the movies, since unexpected accidents, tragic deaths and unusual events involving movie casts and crews have raised questions.
Whether it be Poltergeist, The Crow or The Wizard of Oz, these films are much more than what happens on screen. Many people believe that these films were cursed because of bad luck or because of some supernatural event, but there is still no proof that these movies were actually cursed. The true stories are still intriguing and disturbing.
Why Are Some Movies Considered Cursed?
Some movies are considered cursed because of tragic deaths, unexpected accidents, and strange incidents involving their cast and crew during or after filming.
Poltergeist
The 1982 film that Steven Spielberg co-wrote with Tobe Hooper and directed about a suburban family plagued by spirits is considered a horror classic and is also counted among the most cursed films ever made because four of its actors died soon after making the movie and its sequels. Heather O'Rourke was 12 when she died of cardiac arrest while undergoing surgery for an intestinal obstruction.
She played daughter Carol Anne when she was six. Dominique Dunne played her older sister Dana; her domestic partner killed her five months after the film opened. Cast member Julian Beck died of stomach cancer and Will Sampson died after a heart and lung transplant.
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Twilight Zone: The Movie
Saturday was the final day of filming of, Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983). It was the most tragic day when a low-flying helicopter struck actor Vic Morrow and two child actors, Renee Shinn Chen and Myca Dinh Le (shown below) on the set, exploding when special effects backfired. Authorities charged Director John Landis and four other people involved in the production with involuntary manslaughter, but the jury found them innocent following a 10-month trial in 1987.
The Crow
Hollywood superstar and scion of martial arts legend Bruce Lee, Brandon Lee was destined for great things until a freak accident on the set of 1994's The Crow claimed his life. Plenty of rumors and conspiracy theories surround the young actor's death at the age of 28, but the reality is that an effects technician simply forgot to check the prop gun before filming and a round was fired into his stomach. No one knew Lee had been shot until he didn't get up when director Alex Proyas yelled 'cut.'
The actor was rushed to the hospital, where he died after five hours of surgery. Digital effects helped complete the film, while Hollywood took a stark lesson from Lee's tragedy and promised it would make its sets safer.
Rebel Without a Cause
Widely deemed "one of the most important American films of the 20th century", this 1955 hit also served as a tragic film – four of its stars died prematurely. James Dean died aged 24 when a car crash occurred just a month before Rebel Without a Cause hit cinemas.
Nick Adams – who played Chick – died of an apparent drug overdose in 1968. Dean's co-star in Giant, Sal Mineo, suffered a fatal stabbing outside his apartment in 1976. Actress Natalie Wood drowned off California's Catalina Coast aged 43 in 1981, but the incident, which authorities initially declared an accident, remains somewhat suspicious.
The Conjuring
It's already frightening enough that that 2013 horror film about an entire family being possessed by demonic spirits is based off the real-life case file of ghost hunters Ed and Lorraine Warren. But according to director James Wan, other unexplainable things happened during production - crew members would wake up in the middle of the night to the sound of unexplained noises, or they witnessed objects moving of their own accord.
Vera Farmiga, who plays Warren, kept waking up around 3 a.m. or 4 a.m. because that was the exact time in the movie when all the demons started to attack. She even received the script to read before filming began, but after she received it, someone reportedly threw her computer across the room and damaged its screen with three mysterious scratches.
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Quantum of Solace
It's also perhaps fitting that anyone playing Bond should be prepared for a fight, but Daniel Craig experienced one misadventure after another on the 2008 film Quantum of Solace. Several on-set mishaps left Craig with, among other things, bruised ribs, a missing finger, a torn rotator cuff (that needed rotator cuff surgery) and a kick in the face that required plastic surgery.
Crew members weren't immune either, with one mechanic crashing one of the movie's DB5 Aston Martin cars into Lake Garda, a stuntman falling from scaffolding and another ending up in the ICU while filming a crash for the film's opening sequence. All of that, plus a fire at the film studio, has given this one the label of "cursed."
The Wizard of Oz
Many consider this 1939 magical film, which won two Oscars, to be the most influential film of all time, but some also consider it to be the most cursed one. The crew had a number of accidents on set, including broken wires that caused two people in flying monkey costumes to fall to the ground. Betty Danko, who acted as the stunt woman for the Wicked Witch, severely injured her leg when the stick she was riding on blew up.
The original cast member playing the Tin Man, Buddy Ebsen, suffered poisoning from the aluminum dust in his makeup and had to be rushed to the hospital for damage to his lungs 9 days into filming. When he lingered in the hospital longer than producers liked, the producers fired him from the film and replaced him with actor Jack Haley.
FAQs
1. What are some of the most famous supposedly cursed movies?
Some well-known examples include Poltergeist, The Crow, Twilight Zone: The Movie, The Wizard of Oz, and The Conjuring. These films are associated with tragic deaths, production accidents, or unusual stories.
2. Why is Poltergeist considered a cursed movie?
Poltergeist is often called cursed because several cast members died prematurely, including Dominique Dunne and Heather O'Rourke. These tragedies led to rumours about a curse surrounding the film and its sequels.
3. What happened during the filming of Twilight Zone: The Movie?
A helicopter crash during filming in 1982 killed actor Vic Morrow and child actors Myca Dinh Le and Renee Shinn Chen. The tragedy led to criminal charges against several people involved in the production.
4. Was Brandon Lee's death on The Crow set caused by a curse?
No evidence supports the idea of a curse. Brandon Lee died in 1993 after being struck by a projectile fired from a prop gun that was improperly prepared. His death raised serious concerns about film-set safety.
5. Are supposedly cursed movies really haunted?
There is no reliable scientific evidence that these movies are cursed or haunted. Their reputations generally come from tragic events, accidents, coincidences, and stories shared by cast members or filmmakers.
