Cursed Films (2020) s01e02 Episode Script

1
J'j'j'
j'j'j'
j'j'j'
j'j'j'
- my name is mace neufeld.
I'm a feature
and television producer,
and I was executive producer
of "the omen".
Omen came about because
a friend of mine,
Harvey bernhard, came to me
with the idea of doing
a story about the devil child.
- The curse attached to
the omen is an interesting one
because it kind of almost seems
self-inflicted in a way.
They had a religious advisor
named Robert munger on set,
who I think - before mostly
anything had begun - had said,
if you're going to be dealing
with this subject matter,
the devil, you're inviting
the devil into this,
and bad things are going
to happen.
- (Screaming)
- There are some people that
say "the omen" was cursed
because of the subject matter
of a child
As, um, the antichrist.
Robert munger, the minister
who came up with the idea,
thought Satan's greatest trick
is to remain invisible.
The film was trying
to make him visible,
and so that's why Satan
was trying to stop the film
from being made.
- In the very beginning,
when we were first setting up
the process
of shooting the film in england,
munger told us
we were treading on
very thin ice;
that the antichrist
would do everything
not to have this picture made.
Um, for me that was in one ear
and out the other.
In the beginning, Gregory peck
was coming to england
and his plane was struck
by lightning.
That was scary.
Then, David seltzer was coming
over - the writer -
just a few days later,
and his plane was struck
by lightning.
- Two planes carrying
two crew members,
both being hit by lightning
on the way to set
is pretty spooky.
- Also, Gregory peck was
supposed to be on a flight
that he cancelled,
and then the plan apparently
crashed
and killed everyone on board.
- The plane took off,
hit a flock of birds,
crashed at the end of the runway
and into a a road
and hit a station wagon.
And in the station wagon
was the wife
and the two children
of the pilot of that plane.
They had dropped him off.
- There were a lot of strange
things happening
that you could call cursed.
The ira at that time was,
in 1975,
was very active in London.
We're staying at a hotel on
piccadilly opposite green park.
My wife and I were walking out
of the hotel
when suddenly there was a
Massive boom.
They'd set off a bomb a block
and a half away.
We were booked to go
into Scott's restaurant,
and they blew up the restaurant.
As these things began to happen,
we all became very wary.
Woman: Welcome to windsor
safari park.
- We shot in a place called
windsor safari park,
and there was a sequence
with baboons.
Woman: Keep all car windows
closed.
- Suddenly the car that
Lee remick was driving stalled.
She couldn't get out.
And Lee remick
is trapped in a car
being attacked by baboons.
Lee was really terrified,
(screaming)
And it shows in, in that scene.
(Screaming, baboons bark)
(Tires squeal)
We shot this at an animal park.
One of the handlers
at the park was killed.
- The animal handler on the show
was eaten by a lion
Allegedly.
- Lions or a lion ate
the zookeeper.
- Not during the filming,
but close to the filming.
- When we left, and he was
securing the place, he left
His cabin door open or something
and the lions attacked
and killed him.
- Another report said
it wasn't a lion,
it was a tiger.
- After the making of the film,
our special effects supervisor,
John Richardson,
had an automobile accident.
And his fiancee
Was decapitated.
- The accident replicated
a decapitation in the movie.
(Loud crash, glass whooshes)
(Glass shatters)
- (Screaming)
- People said it happened
- Near a sign
- That said, uh, "omen."
- Omen.
- O-m-m-e-n.
- 66.6 kilometres.
- But these things that happened
around the making of the film
seemed to be more than
coincidental.
That's the best way
I can put it.
- With movies that deal
with demonic archetypes
- Three sixes.
- There's definitely
the potential
for all types of phenomenon.
The production for these movies,
they start to make
what you would call
a substantial contact
with these forces.
They start to distill them
into the atmosphere,
the production,
also into the individuals
that are involved in
the production.
Those sensitive to these forces
notice the little glitches
and the matrix of things like
Consecutive plane flights
getting struck with lightning.
Absolutely, the film "the omen"
was, was, no doubt,
an active gateway
in its own right.
- I'm Michael correll.
I'm known on the Internet
as uncle birch.
Uh, I'm a witch.
Some people think that
if you just don't believe
in this kind of stuff
you can't be harmed by it.
We call those targets.
That person won't be protecting
themselves.
They won't have any spiritual
protection
and when everything goes wrong
in their life,
they won't try and fix it.
And then it's like, yeah,
it's like a virus,
like a festering virus.
It gets worse and worse
and worse with time.
- Who is it?
- I went and saw "it follows"
and, you know, the story is
This sort of unknown evil
follows you
after you've had sex.
-And get rid of it, okay?
Just sleep with someone
as soon as you can.
Just pass it along.
- I mean, it's really easy
to read that
as sort of a really shallow
kind of a metaphor
for sexually transmitted
diseases.
But on the other hand,
why get rid of the idea
Of evil as an infection vector?
Because the idea of
supernatural infection
is really common.
This idea that we can have evil
passed on to us
and we can somehow be tainted
with it.
- Ungh!
- (Speaks in foreign tongue)
(Harsh exhale)
(Growling hiss)
- To talk about curses
you have to define
what is a curse.
Some of the earliest curses
are found in Egyptian
execration texts,
or in mesopotamian rituals,
or in biblical texts.
Curses often come as part
of what's called a covenant.
A covenant is sort of like
a contract
between a superior party
and an inferior party
and there are curses in
these contracts.
What's gonna happen to you
if you don't do it?
If you look in the Bible,
it can be animals
that are cursed,
it can be people
that are cursed,
it could be places
that are cursed.
- Cursing was quite widespread
in antiquity.
We have lots of examples
and lots of phenomena
about cursing.
One of these phenomena
is narratives.
So these are stories of figures
like Jesus or prophets
or other holy men cursing
somebody else -
striking them dead,
striking them blind.
We also have tomb curses
or grave curses.
- (Reading) "Death eternal
punishment for
Anyone who opens this casket."
Good heavens,
what a terrible curse!
- In ancient texts,
curses were pronounced, so
It was premised on the belief
that words had creative power.
Pronouncing the curse
will have an effect in
the real world.
Just by speaking something,
you could make something happen.
- The occult colours
mainstream life
in ways that we rarely suspect.
Lots of people in public life,
probably in the same measure
as those in private life,
are interested in divination,
tarot, dream interpretation.
- We've come to have our
fortunes told.
Can you really read the future?
- I will not disappoint you,
my lady.
- There are people today
in different parts
of the United States
and other parts of the world
who will still pay somebody
to curse a troublesome neighbour
or to curse a love partner
who jilted them.
- In this day and age,
witchcraft's huge,
folk magic's huge.
We got hoodoo, we got voodoo,
we got konja.
There's all kinds of different
magics out there.
I've been a witch my whole life.
I talk to spirit just like
I talk to you sitting here.
It's just this is normal to me.
And some people out there
are just -
I will even say - are just
so out there,
I can't believe it.
J'j'j'
j'j'j'
- Black magician.
Yeah, absolutely,
black magician.
You know, it's not filmmaking
that I do,
and it's not necessarily
just vlogging.
It's doing black magic,
performing as crazy and
out-there rituals as I can.
Just kinda pushing the envelope
further and further and further,
for myself and documenting
that for video.
Three, two, one, go. (Claps)
Hey, guys. It's e.A. Koetting.
Is it possible for a film set
or a film production
to be cursed?
From a black magician's
standpoint,
this is a tricky question
because, for the most part,
in order for there to be
an actual curse,
you have to have somebody
on the other end of it
pushing that curse -
another black magician
that's trying to harm somebody
through that curse.
For example, satanists
who might not like films
mocking their religion.
- There was some watered-down
versions of satanism.
It could be that the satanists
didn't like that portrayal.
- After spending a week
searching for these people,
I finally met their leader.
As he explained his beliefs
and methods,
I realized I was dealing
with a maniac.
- There was a time,
especially back when those
movies were coming out there,
that satanists were concerned
with some PR work.
- In the making of "the omen",
I got a lot of crackpot threats.
One of these terrible letters
I've gotten
said my blood will run
on the streets
for doing what I did.
- Since we're talking about
films being cursed,
we're gonna do a practical
experiment
and see if we can curse a film
that's in production.
It's one of the most unique
feelings
to call on a destructive force
and to
Let it flow through you.
The feeling that I'm left with,
whether I'm trying to kill
somebody through magic
or I'm trying to destroy
a business
or whatever it is,
the emotion I'm left with
at the end of it
is always humility.
I'm just humbled by it.
(Singing bowl resonates)
- The premise of all curses
is that pronouncing the curse
will have an effect
in the real world.
- (Unclear)
I invoke doom
for this empire,
for this creation.
- There's no one,
as far as I know,
that pronounced a curse
on "the omen".
(Whispering)
That was a very strongly
felt presence.
(Crows caw)
- The mere fact that
A production is looking
to encapsulate
and embody the essence
of many of these forces
is where it begins.
- Probably the most common
magic in the whole world
and almost every culture
practices
this type of magic on earth,
and it's called sympathetic
magic.
The rules of sympathetic magic
are like attracts like.
And in Hollywood
you're gonna know this
by the Hollywood version
of the voodoo doll.
- Look! An authentic
voodoo doll.
Somebody already sent for it.
- Get a doll and you get
somebody's hair
and fingernails,
maybe their picture.
Put 'em in the doll,
on the doll.
And then you do the thing
that you want to have happen
to the doll.
- Ready for another shot, dad?
- And then that likeness
attracts it
to the other person.
Depicting a demonic curse
extremely accurately
could bring the magic
of like attracts like to you.
Oh, "the omen", just like,
you know, the antichrist.
If the devil exists,
if the antichrist exists,
that's some pretty intense
energy to be depicting.
- Yeeeee-haaaaw! Hooo!
- Yeee-haw!
- The nature of the film
can be enough
to kind of ignite its own spark.
You have many films -
like you're talking about
"city slickers" -
that don't cross the threshold
of creating a substantial
contact
- So long, cowboy.
- 'Cause that film is
spiritually neutral.
Horror does
Seem to have that knack of uh
Crossing the threshold
into darker and dangerous
subject matter.
- It's almost the perfect
cocktail of variables
that get people thinking
about supernatural ideas
and possibilities.
When you watch a horror movie,
you're watching it to escape.
Even though you know it's
a movie,
you're thinking about things
that are outside of
conventional thinking
or scientific understanding
of the world.
People become more
open-minded to,
or more interested in,
supernatural ideas.
And so when you watch
these movies,
it just kind of puts you
in the right mindset
to wanna see patterns
or, you know,
believe in conspiracies
or to believe in curses.
- With "the omen",
what you have is a series of
coincidences or incidents
then that people then weave
into a narrative
about a curse.
- That's what coincidence
theory is about,
just trying to get connections
between what is rational
and what is, uh, weird.
And you know, on the one hand,
rational can look weird, too.
- Our brains are designed to
believe all sorts of things,
whether there are ghosts,
poltergeists,
angels and demons,
and gods and aliens
and conspiracies.
We have all this propensity to
just see patterns everywhere,
just assume everything
is connected.
Okay, we're about to show you
a short clip
of three basketball players
dressed in black
and three basketball players
dressed in white.
Each of them is passing
a basketball
back and forth between
themselves.
Your task is to count
the number of passes
between just the three
white-shirted players.
All right, you ready?
(Sneakers squeak on floor)
How many of you saw the gorilla?
What? What gorilla?
Here it is again.
I'll rewind it.
Oh, come on, that's a different
tape, shermer!
No, it's the same one.
So the famous gorilla
experiment,
this was done by Christopher
chabris and his team
in which they were testing
to what extent
people do not see things
in their environment.
You know, it's like how could
you miss a gorilla?
Well, 50% of subjects
don't see the gorilla.
And the reason is 'cause
they're attending
to counting the number
of passes.
And by being focused on
one thing,
you might miss something
that's completely obvious,
right there in front of you.
Half.
This is interesting cognitively
because it shows how much
we miss
that's right there
in front of us.
Not only do we see things
that are not real,
we miss things that are real.
Now we're talking about cursed
horror films.
I'd like you to think about
putting those films
that are cursed in a box.
And we're gonna put this box
right here
and then we're gonna draw
a square around it
in which we have three other
boxes.
So, in this box, number one,
we have cursed horror films:
"Poltergeist" and "the crow"
and "the exorcist" and so on.
Now what I want you
to think about is
The second box over here,
which are cursed
non-horror films:
Superman, you know -
I mean, Christopher Reeves fell
off a horse, broke his neck -
and apocalypse now -
you know, Martin sheen
has a heart attack
and all these weird things
that happen.
Okay, why aren't we talking
about that cell?
'Cause they're not horror films.
In this box down here,
I want you to think about
non-cursed horror films
like "the shining".
- Come and play with us, Danny.
- This is one of the scariest
films ever made.
(Dramatic crescendo)
No curses.
Or, more recently, "it"
or "get out."
Why don't we notice those?
And then the fourth category
of course, is
Non-cursed, non-horror films.
Pick any of them:
"Citizen Kane", "Casablanca"
You know, people had long
careers after that.
Nothing weird happened.
So you have to keep in mind
all four categories
and remind yourself, look,
I'm only focusing on this one,
but all the other ones
put it into context.
And when you see the bigger
picture you realize, okay,
there's actually nothing
to be explained.
- Seeing patterns in the world,
that's how we form meaning,
that's how we learn to exist.
And that can extend to seeing
patterns
where there aren't patterns.
Maybe it's a significant
coincidence.
Maybe it was a message sent
to me from somewhere.
There's the case of
Mark Chapman,
the guy who killed John Lennon.
So he was outside John Lennon's
apartment in New York City,
wondering if he should actually
go through with it.
And just at that moment,
Mia farrow walked by
and she starred in
Rosemary's baby.
And then he recognized that
the building,
is called the Dakota.
It was used in the filming
of Rosemary's baby,
which was directed by
Roman polanski,
whose wife, Sharon Tate,
was murdered by
the manson family.
And they were a fan
of the Beatles' song,
helter skelter,
and, of course, John Lennon
is in the Beatles.
And he took this as a sign
that he should go through
with it
and kill John Lennon.
- Horror films tend to,
in a bizarre way,
mirror real life.
- What're they doing?
- Why do they come here?
- It's a kind of instinct,
memory, what they used to do.
- The mirror of real life is
that we are frightened
of things that could go wrong
in the world.
It's the same reason
we love coincidence stories.
We love coincidence stories
because it gives us a feeling
that the world is smaller
than it is.
- Yeah, see that word's kind
of a problem for us.
We don't witches uh
We just don't believe in
coincidence.
There's action
and there's reaction.
There's something happened
that caused that to happen,
and some things are weird
and hard to explain.
- There's a saying that
the greatest trick
the devil ever played
was to get people to not
believe that he exists.
And I have a hard time
with that one as well
because it's to the devil's
advantage to be known.
Whether we're talking about
angels or demons or gods,
the one thing that they want
is attention.
- It's exciting to me
to actually to think
that the devil is a film fan.
I don't want to like put my
head into the logic of a devil,
but just squeeze the heart
if you wanna kill somebody.
I don't know, maybe the devil
is a real artist
and likes the poetry of some
of these things.
But even then, if the devil
was an artist,
and I'm not saying he isn't,
uh, I think he would go -
or she -
would go to great pains
to really drive it home,
like be killed by a kid.
Because if you really wanna do
a curse on "the omen",
you dress a kid in a little
Angus young prep-boy uniform
and have that kid show up
at the door, ring the bell,
and then just look at you funny
and then your head explodes.
(Doorbell rings)
Oh, the devil's here.
(Laughter)
- If Satan wants to stop
a project,
if he wants to bring
a plane down,
he's gonna bring a plane down.
Actually, it seems like Satan
is helping the film.
Every time there's a big mishap,
the ira explosions, for example,
it was the crew that was safe
and other people that died.
So how is it that Satan
is trying to stop the film
and he keeps killing
other people?
- To me, this is the opposite
of a curse.
This is a blessing.
If it was cursed,
wouldn't Gregory peck
have been on that flight?
- But maybe we're looking
at this all wrong.
Maybe these films aren't cursed
by the devil.
Maybe these films have been
blessed by the devil.
Perhaps the devil has been
at work all along.
When demons work in this world,
they like to sign their
signature, their autograph,
on everything that they touch
so that those of us
who are paying attention
can look and can see
the very clear signature
of the powers of magic
and the powers of darkness
in the world around us.
- No, actually
Actually, I think it was
a blessed film production.
Certainly, as far as
I was concerned.
- No, I think it's just
the opposite.
I think it was a very blessed
film.
- In the end, it all worked out.
We were a big hit and uh
Everybody got through it.
- I do think that these movies
and the stories that sometimes
sprout up around them
confirm people's senses,
rightly or wrongly,
that we don't understand
everything in life.
The edwardian builders
of the Titanic
who boasted that they built
an unsinkable ship
didn't have it all figured out.
Victor Frankenstein didn't
have it all figured out
when he thought he could unlock
the key to life.
But I'm not for a moment
suggesfing
that anybody should throw
rationalism out the window.
- And it's obvious why
the devil would be doing this.
This is the age of the
antichrist.
The devils have been let loose
upon the world.
And they want to make sure
that we know
that they are among us.
J'j'j'