If you’re a pop culture or movie fan, chances are you’ve heard some of the lore behind the scariest horror movies ever made. Stories about how actor Gregory Peck’s airplane was struck by lightning when he was en route to shoot The Omen, the film about a child presumed to be the son of the devil. Or how Twilight Zone: The Movie captured the deaths of three actors on film during a production tragedy. Rumors about the set of Poltergeist being haunted swirled for years after several cast members suffered tragic deaths during and after the film series was released.
But there are details and stories behind these films — some of which are about the devil or evil spirits, which only adds to the mythology — that are even creepier than you may realize, and they’re all laid bare in the series Cursed Films (available on AMC Plus). Every episode of the show, which was first released in 2020, focuses on one film. Season 1 has episodes about the aforementioned movies, as well as The Exorcist and The Crow. Season 2 features films such as Rosemary’s Baby and Stalker, among others.
I love creepy coincidences and scary stories, and each episode of Cursed Films digs into the real details behind some tragic disasters and spooky events that plagued these horror movies. The evidence is enough to suggest that, if you’re willing to believe it, there may have been sinister forces at work on these film sets. I don’t think of myself as terribly superstitious, but at a certain point, you have to consider that maybe making a film like The Omen, about a kid who is the antichrist, actually did attract some bad juju. The series leaves it up to us, the viewers, to draw our own conclusions.
The second episode focuses on The Omen, and several people who were on set and involved in the film’s production appear. It all kicks off with an anecdote about the film’s religious advisor, Robert Munger, who is paraphrased as saying, “If you’re going to be dealing with the subject matter of the devil, you’re inviting the devil into this and bad things are going to happen.” (This is a warning that is repeated often by others who remember making the film.)
Filmmaker Richard Donner and others recall that star Gregory Peck and screenwriter David Seltzer were both aboard separate flights that were hit by lightning as they traveled to England for the shoot. Donner also explains that the film’s special effects supervisor, John Richardson, was in a car accident where his fianceé was killed in a manner similar to one of the deaths in the film. It’s one thing to read about these scary stories online, but Cursed Films adds some gravity by including the filmmakers and others who were there to offer their firsthand accounts.
In the show’s episode about The Exorcist, we learn the film also suffered the deaths of several cast and crew members, and that there’s even a murderer who plays an extra in the movie. As with all the movies discussed in the series, you can choose to buy into these stories as being part of a curse or not, but as journalist Matt Miller states, “Thinking of The Exorcist as cursed adds to the legacy of the film.” It doesn’t need to be true to still be thrilling.
Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.
The Exorcist episode kicks off a discussion about horror and its relationship to religion, and while The Exorcist and The Omen deal directly with that topic, the episode about Twilight Zone: The Movie is about the human errors that led to a fatal on-set accident that killed actors Vic Morrow and child actors Myca Dinh Le and Renee Shin-Yi Chen. (The podcast Behind The Bastards has an even more thorough and devastating investigation into the errors and negligence that caused the tragedy on that set if your interest is piqued.)
As a concept, Cursed Films is not really unique. Netflix also has The Movies That Made Us, a docuseries about the making of iconic movies, including several horror classics — but what makes the former stand out is its respectful inclusion of religious scholars, occultists and others who offer their insight and perspective on the meanings of curses, prophesies and spiritual messages. If you’re diving into a horror marathon this spooky season and plan to watch or rewatch one of these classics, Cursed Films is perfect for companion viewing. Whether you believe in dark forces or chalk things up to coincidence, learning the often scary, tragic stories behind these films definitely adds to their lore and terror.
