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Shudder’s new unscripted look at harrowing horror film productions, which were labeled as “cursed” by the media because of their genre (while PR wizards sometimes simultaneously exploited said rumors) is an engrossing dive into the some of the most famous on and off set tragedies to ever happen in cinema. Over five 30-minute episodes, the iconically ghoulish legacies of The Crow, Poltergeist, The Exorcist, The Omen, and Twilight Zone: The Movie are laid bare in stunning and intriguing fashion.
Now, even at a short episodic run time, not every film being showcased here contains enough conversation fodder to fill up a full chapter. This is where Cursed Films falls a little short. The series works best when we’re hearing from those who worked on the film or from those who study horror films today (Linda Blair, Richard Donner, Fangoria’s Phil Nobile Jr., film critic April Wolfe, etc) and focuses on the outlandishly taboo takes the press, both mainstream and tabloid, presented in order to assuage the public’s anxiety over coincidence and happenstance tied to these maligned movie sets.
Cursed Films even works well when that type of psychological coddling is probed more and experts are introduced who can explain why people think projects and objects can carry and nurture dark energy. The docuseries stumbles slightly though when it brings in black magicians and their ilk to explain how a “real” curse would work. Or to give their opinions on how Satan might have, in fact, been protecting these films. It’s here the the show, surprisingly, feels like it doesn’t have that much to say overall and is reaching out into the fringe aspects of YouTube for some clunky clock-watching.
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That said, the two episodes where the most metaphysical theorizing occurs, the installments about The Omen and Poltergeist, also happen to create an interesting back-to-back story. 1976’s The Omen, which featured a sinister story centered on the Antichrist, had a production that was surrounded on all sides, pre and post, by suspicious phenomenon and disturbing violence (including a freakin’ decapitation). With this episode, Cursed Films takes the most liberties with regards to the film possibly being an actual jinxed endeavor.
Then however, Poltergeist, which some fans enjoying thinking is a “cursed” franchise since two of its stars (including the famous poster girl, Heather O’Rourke) died off-screen over the course of three movies, represents a prime example of social psychosis working over time to try and make sense of the senseless. In fact, one of the best moments from Cursed Films comes from Poltergeist’s Special Make-Up Effects Artist, Craig Reardon, taking the cursed rumors (which often stemmed from the film’s use of real skeletons), and those who entertain them, to task because they’re an insult the two young actresses who died. The Omen chapter feels a touch loosey-goosey with reality while the Poltergeist episode is a harsh dressing down – almost a scolding to those who too easily endorse macabre myths.
Then there are the actual awful on-set deaths that occurred, infamously, during The Crow and Twilight Zone. These episodes are the true standouts of the series because of sheer shock-and-awe and devastating sadness. Brandon Lee’s death on the set of The Crow not only represented the apex of an already ill-fated film shoot but it got swept up in the whirlwind of conspiracies that surrounded his famous father’s demise two decades earlier.
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On the flip side, Twilight Zone’s terrible and calamitous helicopter accident that claimed three lives, two of which were young children (and – warning – the actual footage is shown), is an infuriating instance of a stunt gone wrong that just might not have an easy culprit to blame. Though, between Twilight Zone and The Exorcist, Cursed Films does examine the type of chaos a reckless “auteur” (like John Landis and/or William Friedkin) can invite to their set when caution is constantly thrown to the wind. To contrast the exploits of Landis’ notorious set, Troma Films’ Lloyd Kaufman is given a small spotlight as the example of someone who places everyone else’s safety and well-being far above the movies he’s making.
Cursed Films hits you from a lot of angles. You definitely get a panoramic, and cross-time, view of these films, though some expert opinions resonate better than others. Once you hear from a few of the people who were there though, and who were part of some of the tragedies, and watch them have to relive some of that agony, it makes the occultist “talking heads” seem more silly and reductive.
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