There are so many movies that have the reputation of being cursed, and Cursed Films is exploring five of them on Shudder.
Last week, they looked at The Exorcist. The 1973 flick saw many people related to the film die. Linda Blair broke her back when a stunt went wrong. The house where they filmed was destroyed by fire, and only one room was left untouched. Can you guess which one?
Some people believed the movie was cursed because they welcomed the devil in because of the topic.
That was that movie’s story, what about Poltergeist? Two of the five leads died before the final movie was done filming. Each of the three movies saw an actor die shortly after it came out, after it was done filming or before they were done filming.
Dominique Dunne was murdered by her ex-boyfriend movie just after the movie came out. She was just 22. Julian Beck starred in the second movie and he died of stomach cancer in 1985 before the movie came out. His character was in the third film, and this was before CGI. Therefore, they put a death mask on another actor to make it look like him. Finally, Heather O’Rourke, who starred in all three movies, died before they were done filming the final film. Her death was caused by congenital stenosis of the intestine at the age of just 12. The docuseries explains how they were able to film her final scenes without her.
Those are just three of the reasons why this horror franchise is cursed. There are more scary things about it that are featured in the episode that is streaming now. Plus, we find out what happened to the house from the movie and the very scary clown. that almost took the life of another actor from the film.
As scary as two cursed movies, The Omen is even scarier. There were a lot of near misses for some of the people who worked on the feature; and then there were a few that were not so lucky. Gregory Peck’s planes were involved in two freaky accidents. Luckily for him, he was not on either plane when the accidents happened. There were a few bombings that narrowly missed crew members. Those are the survivors, there was an animal trainer who was killed by a lion shortly after they filmed at a zoo. There were others who were near to the production who did not live to see the movie’s premiere.
Are these movies truly cursed? That is something they ask in each episode. Their theories made me wonder, but they will stop me from thinking what I think. The lore is just as much interesting as the film they are attached to.
I thought I knew a lot about the curses on these films, but I learned even more by watching the series.
Next Thursday, they look at The Twilight Zone and Creepshow.
Hopefully, this series will get picked up for a second season, and they add Rebel Without a Cause to their list. That is the most cursed film in all of Hollywood history. All three leads died young of tragic deaths. But that is for next season. This season features the five films and you can watch three of the episodes now on Shudder.
Some of the scariest movies ever made are The Exorcist, The Omen, and Poltergeist. All three of those movies had something happen when the cameras weren’t rolling that is scarier than the movie itself.
Several cast members from Poltergeist died young, including the two actresses who played the daughters. They were not the only ones to die before their movies came out. Vic Murrow and Brandon Lee were both killed, making their movies The Twilight Zone: The Movie and The Crow.
Shudder is streaming a 5-part documentary, Cursed Movies, that looks at the curses behind all of those films starting on April 2nd. Were they really cursed, or was it just a coincidence that several people, who worked on The Omen, were on different planes that all got struck by lightning while the feature was in production?
We will find out. Make sure to keep the lights on because you won’t be able to sleep at night after you watch this docuseries. Truth is always scarier than fiction.
Hopefully, if they get a second season, they will do the most infamously cursed movie. While Rebel Without a Cause was not a horror movie, what happened to all three leads is.
Belzebuth, which is streaming on Shudder now, is the type of horror movie you watch that stays with you long after the credits roll. It is a scary movie that plays out in the perfect amount of time. While some movies drag on and on, they waste no time with getting the story started and keeping up the pace during the whole feature.
Belzebuth starts with Detective Ritter (Joaquín Cosio) being excited because his baby boy was just born. That happiness will not last because a nurse will go into the maternity ward and stab him several times before slashing her own throat.
The movie skips ahead five years and a young boy opens fire in a kindergarten class. He kills several students, some teachers and himself. Detective Ritter is called out to cover the case. It is a mystery why this boy did it.
As the country deals with that horror, a woman wraps herself with a live wire and jumps into a pool, killing several children and herself. Again Ritter is asked to investigate this case. Ivan Franco (Tate Ellington) shows up at the scene and tells Ritter the three crimes are all connected.
Together the two of them will look for what is connecting all of these horrific murders. They will talk to a psychic for guidance. As she looks for a connection with them, they find out that there is a very strong entity that does not want to be stopped.
The two men will go to Vasilio Canetti (Tobin Bell). He is a former priest who was excommunicated as a consequence for something he did during an exorcism. He tells them what the connection is and why they are out to kill certain children including Ritter’s son. The three of them will work together to protect a special little boy.
However, along the way, one of them will be possessed by a demonic spirit. The spirit will do everything in his power to kill that boy. It is a fight of good vs evil with only one winner. Who will it be?
Belzebuth was directed by Emilio Portes and written by him and Luis Carlos Fuentes. The film does not rely heavily on special effects which makes it even more terrifying. You feel you are there with them and all of this is really happening. Movies that are not CGI heavy are more believable and scary because they feel authentic. I cannot remember the last time a possession film went old school, but they made the right choice by not giving into computer graphics.
The movie takes place on the Mexican/USA border, so large parts of it are in Spanish. However, about a quarter of the way through, they switch to English and go back and forth from thereon.
Belzebuth is the perfect movie to watch with someone because it is too scary to watch alone. Make sure to Shudder and Shrill this weekend with someone special.
Shudder released the first trailer for their reboot of Creepshow and I cannot wait for the series to debut on September 26th. Some people said the It: Chapter 2 trailer was scary. It does not have anything on the series. This looks like it is going to be the horror series we have been craving and have not been getting.
Not only will they be doing 12 new episodes over 6 weeks, but there are also plenty of great stars appearing in them like Kid Cudi, Jeffrey Combs, Bruce Davison, DJ Qualls, Adrienne Barbeau, Giancarlo Esposito, David Arquette, Tobin Bell, Tricia Helfer and Dana Gould.
The best part, this season they are not doing the cockroach episode. If you saw the original 1982 movie, then you know why I am grateful for that. I hate bugs and that segment still gives me nightmares.
To read all about the upcoming episodes, then click here!
We have seen creature features that have featured killer dogs, cats, birds, sharks, piranhas, alligators and even Zombeavers, but I don’t think we ever saw one with a boar? That is until now. Shudder is exclusively streaming Boar about an oversized pig running wild in the Australian Outback and killing anyone who comes in his path.
Bruce (Bill Moseley) takes his wife, his stepson, his stepdaughter and her boyfriend on vacation in the Outback to relax and get to know each other. They are joined by Uncle Bernie (Nathan Jones) who is almost as big as the killer swine they don’t know is about to ruin their holiday and everyone else’s whose path he comes across.
The indestructible hog, who is the size of a minivan, has no mercy. He chews up his victims and then spits them out. Sometimes he just bites off their heads and swallows the body whole. He is one mean hungry killer. Since he kills everyone he meets, no one knows that he is the monster leaving a bloody path of destructrion wherever he goes. Even if the beast didn’t eat all of those people he sees, who would believe that a porker the size of a tank existed.
He will be able to survive all the attacks on him, until he finally meets his match in Uncle Bernie and his famil. Will this be the end of the monster who is not Kosher or he will he be the ultimate winner in this walkabout?
So many horror movies rely heavily on CGI to make them scary, but they only make creatures features feel more unbelievable than the concept already is. Boar is so well done, you almost believe he is real like some of the movies from the ’70s that used real animals to actually create the effect. Even though you are looking at a mouse the size of a bathroom, you believe it because it looks authentic. That is why I believed Boar and threw out all the bacon in my house. I don’t want him coming after me.
If you like creature features with a lot of awesomely bad kills, then you are going to hog wild for this film. You might just say you’ll be as happy as a pig in mud.
