ShortHand: Cursed Films

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I never knew this about you. I prefer to say film. Is it one of your things of like how you hate it because it's like a lazy English word? Because it's like a movie. Yes. It's like a talkie and then the movie. It's like, come on. Like, let's confront what it is. It is, you know. But then is film not just as bad because it's like, oh, it's literally what it's on. I just, I just prefer it. Fine. So you can say movies throughout this. I chant. Do you know what? That's great because then we don't even have to try and use the thesaurus. In this country, it's fairly reasonable, especially in the north, to be like, oh, should we go to the pictures? Never say that in front of an American because they will laugh you down the road. What do they say? The movies. Oh, they say the movies. Yeah. And I was like, oh, should we go to the pictures? And my friend was like, OK, Elizabeth Taylor. Yeah, I guess like down here, we don't really say pictures. But if somebody said it to me, I wouldn't be like, it wouldn't land weird on my ear. I almost think it's like quite a more old fashioned way to say, should we go to the cinema? I'd say go to the cinema. I would say go to the cinema. I think my mum says pictures. Yeah, I would say cinema. I probably said it when I was a child, but that's because my mum says it. Anyway, now we've got that out. I'm so glad we spend so long writing really tight, succinct intros for these episodes. So I'm just going to get inundated with Instagram voice notes of people saying the word movie. Anyway, if Fred handed his testament to anything, it's that people love a sinister story. People have loved swapping grim tales since time immemorial, and it's the reason that we both have jobs. And almost as soon as we started to make films, we started to make horror films. But what happens when the terror isn't just on screen? Film law is full of stories of bizarre accidents, shocking coincidences, and even murders. All of which give rise to urban legends and bloodthirsty cult followings. And these sinister associations are no bad thing for filmmakers. It's like when the FBI wrote that letter to NWA, first straight out of Compton, and Dre was like, thank you so much. You've just sold millions more records. Myths about films being cursed can build hysteria around upcoming releases, inevitably getting bums on seats. So we're going to take you through some of the most famous, examples of films that were plagued by disaster, causing many to believe that they were truly cursed. And we're going to ask the question, were these creepy events a result of real curses, coincidence, or was it just really good PR? Here's the shorthand. So we begin our curse voyage through horror history with possibly the most famous cursed film of them all, William Friedkin's The Exorcist. And what makes The Exorcist so infamous? Well, because literally everything that you could possibly imagine going wrong in the production of a film went wrong and then some. In fact, the shit that went down during the making of this masterpiece is arguably more unbelievable and terrifying than the film itself. Like how, as soon as filming began, a bird flew into a circuit box and started a fire that burned down almost the entire set of the house's interiors. But strangely, the only part of the set that was untouched by this fire was the bedroom. The one you'd usually see in a the exorcism scenes. Now this madness was enough to spook the makers of the film into hiring an actual Jesuit priest to bless the set, in the hope of preventing any further otherworldly chaos. But it turned out that that priest wasn't priesting quite hard enough, because seemingly all his blessings did was just piss Pazuzu off even more, because things only got a whole hell of a lot worse after that. A number of people involved with the production, or their relatives, actually died during filming. During the first week, Linda Blair's grandfather died. After the first day, the director's brother died. And the actor playing the night watchman, the crew member responsible for the aircon on the set, and the assistant cameraman's newborn baby, all died too. And if that's not creepy enough for you, how about the fact that a suspected serial killer even appears in The Exorcist? In 1972, Friedkin went to the NYU Radiology Department, and watched radiologists carry out a procedure called a cerebral angiogram, which was used to take an x-ray of pictures of the blood vessels inside people's brains. At the time, a cerebral angiogram involved sticking a needle into a patient's artery, which would then cause blood to spray out. And watching that was disturbing enough to make Friedkin put that exact procedure in his film. He even asked the radiologist and his team to be in the production. This included a young man named Paul Bateson, who was a doctor at the University of New York. He was a doctor at the University of New York. He was a neuroradiology technologist. Little did Friedkin know, when he hired Paul Bateson, that Paul Bateson would go on to be dubbed the bag murderer. I've also heard him called the trash bag murderer, or the trash bag killer. Trash. Terrible names. Yeah, it's not great. So in 1977, five years after the release of The Exorcist, the body of a man named Addison Verrill was discovered in Bateson's apartment. He was a film industry journalist for Variety and had been beaten and stabbed to death. A few weeks later, Paul Bateson was arrested and made a full confession. At the time of his arrest, the police had been investigating a series of unsolved murders of gay men in the West Village area of New York, all with a similar MO. The unidentifiable victims had all been chopped up, placed in bags and dumped in the Hudson River. Although we do have to say there was never any hard evidence linking Bateson to the trash bag murders. But a lot of people do suspect that he was responsible. Friedkin actually paid Bateson a visit in prison, and he claimed that Bateson confessed to having murdered numerous other men. Friedkin would say that. He would, wouldn't he? In the end, Bateson was sentenced to 20 years for murder, but he was never convicted of any others. That's despite allegedly being offered a shorter sentence by the police to officially confess to all of the murders. So given the fire, the deaths of people close to the film, the bag murderer, plus countless stories of fainting audience members, and rumours that screening the film would haunt the theatre forever, all of this undeniably helped The Exorcist become one of the most successful films in cinematic history. But were these things really the work of the devil? Probably not. In fact, the PR agent who worked on the film actually got in touch with Linda Blair years later, and the curse took another hit. The agent revealed that because Warner Brothers never believed The Exorcist was going to do well, they had hired her, the PR agent, to cause a buzz around the movie, using reports of faintings and ambulances parked outside movie theatres. The fire, yes, was an accident, and Bateson was just a piece of shit. As for the deaths, tragic and as spookily timed as they were, they were just a piece of shit. Bateson was a piece of shit. This is a paid advertisement from BetterHelp. If you could wake up tomorrow and feel better about one thing in your life, what would that be? For me, it'd probably be doing less doomscrolling and worrying about things I can't control. 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It's called Burden of Proof, Luigi Mangione. And it's from our friends over at ABC Audio and 2020. If you already know the story, you already know the story. In December 2024, shots rang out on a Manhattan sidewalk and United States Department of Health and Social Care UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shot dead. Luigi Mangione has pled guilty to federal charges. But there's so much more to this story than what unfolded on the street that day. In the new podcast Burden of Proof, Luigi Mangione, ABC News legal analyst Brian Buckmeyer goes deep into this case and what it all means. He'll unpack the murder itself, the two men at the heart of the story, and how this case has affected the conversation about health care in America. Whatever you feel or think you know about the case of Luigi Mangione and the and Brian Thompson, this podcast will make you think more critically. Follow the Burden of Proof, Luigi Mangione, wherever you get your podcasts. Or listen ad-free on Apple Podcasts by subscribing to 2020 True Crime Plus. Again, that's Burden of Proof, Luigi Mangione. The next cursed film in our lineup is the 1976 horror classic, The Omen. Do you know which cathedral is in the opening shot? It might not be the opening shot, but it's the cathedral where they go. No. It's in Guildford. Oh, there you go. Yeah, it's very brutalist and horrible. Anyway, we're not going to say spoilers because if you are pissed off that we've ruined a 50-year-old film, you need to go and talk to someone that's not me. The film's plot is very straightforward. An American diplomat, played by Gregory Peck, and his wife, Catherine, not played by Gregory Peck, are desperate for a baby, so they decide to adopt one. They end up with little baby Damien. And Damien's nanny hangs herself. And then, around the age of five, Damien pushes his newly pregnant mum off a balcony. More and more people around Damien begin to die in spectacular ways, until his dad finally realises that he's only gone and adopted the Antichrist. Complete with a 666 engraved in his little head. Yeah. I mean, Gregory Peck, outstanding actor. And The Omen, you know, it like had its time. Yeah. It's just when you watch it back now, you're like, Gregory. I'm like, no, I'm not being fair. Like, it is a good film. It just, it hasn't stood the test of time like I think The Exorcist has. No, I think I agree with you there. But, scary it is, but it was the madness that took place off camera that is the real scary stuff. In one of the aforementioned spectacular deaths in the film, a lightning bolt breaks off a spear from the top of the church, which then falls and impales a priest. Coincidentally or not, a year before the film's release, in 1975, Gregory Peck's plane was struck by lightning. On its own, that isn't that uncommon. But then, the movie's executive producer, Mac Neufeld's plane, was also struck by lightning just a couple of weeks later. So what, I hear you ask, is just a coincidence. But there's more. A plane carrying the movie's writer, David Seltzer, was then also struck by lightning. And while they were filming in Rome, the movie's producer, Harvey Bernhardt, just didn't know what was going on. And he barely missed getting hit by a bolt of lightning, too. That's four separate incidents of lightning strikes involving four different people, all of whom were working on the omen. I heard, and again, I don't know whether this is true or whether it was a very clever PR stunt orchestrated by Mel Gibson, but in The Passion of the Christ, during the filming of that, apparently the actor who played Jesus got struck by lightning three times. Oh, I have watched an episode of River Monsters where the cameraman gets struck by lightning. Really? Yeah, you feel so sorry for him. He's just. Standing there, filming Jeremy Wade, like, in the water, looking for some fish. And then suddenly the camera just drops, and then it cuts to, like, when they found another camera to pick and start filming again. And this poor guy's just, like, looking dazed because he just literally got struck by lightning. And he just looks a bit like, I think I need to go home now. So maybe River Monsters is cursed. Maybe. At one point, Gregory Peck was meant to be filming an action scene for the omen. But when it was delayed, the private jet that Peck was meant to be on was no longer needed. The following day, that scene was shot. The same jet hit a flock of birds shortly after takeoff and crashed, killing everyone on board. And this is even weirder. The plane, on its way down, hit a car and killed everyone inside the car. And who was in that car? The pilot's wife and kids! That's fucking crazy. But then, also, it did happen just shortly after takeoff. Did the wife just drop him off at the airport? I know it's horrible. It's horrible. But it's like, is that. Everyone's like, oh my god. But it's like, she was probably dropping him off at work. It's so sad. And it just gets worse. Because at one point, the omen special effects designer, John Richardson, and his fiancée, Liz Moore, were driving through the Netherlands together when they too were involved in a horrific car crash. Richardson only had some minor injuries. But Moore wasn't so lucky. And that's putting it very mildly because she was decapitated by a tire that smashed through the window. And this has made all the more creepy. Because if you've seen The Omen, you'll remember that there is a scene where a character is decapitated by a falling sheet of glass as he's driving. Now listen, car accidents happen all the time. I know that. I believe you when I hear you screaming at your phone as you listen to this episode. But Richardson and Moore's car crash not only took place on Friday the 13th, 1976, but it also happened right next to a street sign that read, 6.6 kilometers to the city of Omen. Allegedly. I have never in my life. I think that allegedly. In all of my years of driving and in many countries in which I have driven. Yeah. Have I ever seen a.6 kilometers away? Why would you bother? I mean, the only thing I can think is, right, the Americans don't use kilometers. Yes, that's true. They use miles. So was the sign in miles and somebody's done a quick. A quick conversion, which could turn out at a.6. And then they say, it's like the whole Nero thing. Well, it's like the number of the B666. And then they just like added it up wrong or like did his name wrong. So no, I think there wouldn't have been a sign in kilometers anyway in America. So that's the only thing I can think of. But yeah, allegedly, allegedly, allegedly. But if you ask me, the film's cut. And now we've got the 1983 sci-fi horror that is, Spielberg's The Twilight Zone. I was going to do the sound. I can't, I can't, I can hear it in my head. I can't do it out loud because I am tone deaf. You do it. I don't, I don't think I know what it is. It's like, oh, wait, let me. I similarly can hear it in my head, but I don't want to do it wrong. I need to hear it out loud again. Oh, yeah. Okay, that wasn't what I was hearing in my head, but now that makes sense. Cool, anyway, whatever. It's kind of like a xylophone. It's like a xylophone version of a slowed down Jaws the Shark from Jaws. Yes, quite. So the 70s were truly the Wild West of Hollywood filmmaking, where almost anything went and directors behaved with almost absolute impunity. Go and listen to our episode on Raw. Oh, my God. Yeah. I mean, that was in the 80s, but Twilight Zone came out in the 80s. And yes, Raw would have started production in the 70s. So, yes, truly, they were doing whatever the fuck they wanted. There is no doubt about that. And this era did give us some of the greatest films ever made. But when taking risks, as basically all of them did, quite a lot of shit went wrong. Yeah, I feel like we don't need to look at these old and timey spooky films and be like, oh, my God, all these things happen. It's because people were so reckless in the 70s. And they were certainly reckless on the set of The Twilight Zone, which witnessed one of the most tragic accidents in Hollywood history. This one's really sad, actually. The Twilight Zone film is an anthology. So it's four stories. It was directed by George Miller, Steven Spielberg, Joe Dante and John Landis. John Landis' segment was called Time Out. It's a story of a man who hates Jewish, black and Asian people, who's then forced to live several different lives. One of a black man being hunted by the KKK in 1950s Alabama. Another one being a Jewish man surviving in Nazi-occupied France. And the last one, a Vietnamese man escaping Americans during the Vietnam War. It was during the filming of the Vietnam War segment when the tragedy of the war began. The scene involved the lead actor, Vic Morrow, carrying two child actors, being rescued during an air raid as a helicopter flew overhead. Pyrotechnics simulated the explosions. But one of the fireballs accidentally hit the helicopter, which caused it to crash on top of Morrow and the two kids, Renee Shin-Yi Chen and Micah Din. Six-year-old Renee was crushed by the right side of the helicopter, which then. "'turned over, and the blade decapitated Morrow and stopped. year old micah it was horrendous and it was made especially worse when you learned that the two child actors had been hired illegally and the studio hadn't even been following basic child labor laws infuriatingly none of the directors and producers or even the studio went to court for this but huge changes were made to the laws around film safety as a result so i guess that's something now a lot of people try to say that this was the result of a curse but that just cheapens in my opinion the tragedy of what really happened because in reality it's caused by the stupidity and criminal negligence of the people that were in charge yeah and now we've got the scariest of them all the 1939 fucking hell 1939 classic the wizard of oz oh my god i know when was world war one 1917 i don't know anything about world war one and i'm keeping it that way what even happened in world war one i explained it to you i refuse to remember okay a lot of people truly believe that the production of the whimsical light-hearted acid trip of a film was cursed and there are a number of reasons why some of them are true some of them are false so we're going to separate fact from fiction for you once and for all yes it is true that there were numerous accidents during filming that almost cost cast members their lives two actors playing the winged monkeys fell from a massive kite when their harnesses broke and they almost died the wicked witch of the west stunt double badly burned her leg after a broomstick explosion this was 1939 let's remember special effects were very new and very full of fire so uh nothing too creepy just yet but then multiple people were hospitalized with mysterious and sudden illnesses which has to be the sign of a curse surely well no because it was found and this is just so 30s of them that the makeup was what had been causing the mysterious illness they had painted the tin man's face with pure aluminium dust which led to the original actor being hospitalized for nine days under an oxygen tent and eventually quickly replaced margaret hamilton the wicked witch got burns from her makeup which was made from copper just stick some lead on her face while you're at it i mean do you know what they probably fucking did so that like explains away the whole illness situation and some of you may be thinking well what about the story of the munchkin who hanged himself on set sorry that's just an urban legend it is not real the rumor started because some people think that in the scene where dorothy the scarecrow and the tin man are skipping down the yellow brick road singing we're off to see the wizard you can see a figure hanging from a tree in the background but this figure is likely one of the exotic birds that the people who are watching this video are familiar with so i'm going to tell you a little bit more about it and then we'll get back to you in a bit but before we do that let's take a look at some of the rumors that the producers had borrowed from the la zoo and the rumor only started in 1989 after the 50th anniversary of the film and it doesn't even really look like a person i've i've seen it it doesn't even make any sense so yeah not true and another rumor that's probably also untrue is that according to al jean harmetz author of the book the making of the wizard of oz is the actors playing the munchkins molested 16 year old judy garland uh yeah probably not true she didn't like the munchkin actants they drank a lot apparently and they scared her but none of the cast or crew ever heard or saw anything ever heard a whisper about a munchkin assaulting judy in reality the most sinister thing about the making of the wizard of oz is how judy garland was treated by the studio she was only 16 when she was filming the wizard of oz and the film execs fed her uppers and downers so that she could work incredibly long days and she stayed addicted to her whole life but even before then she was suffering from depression and eating disorders and she tried to kill herself a lot of times eventually judy garland died of an accidental overdose in 1969 just 47 years old i didn't know she was that young yeah this is a paid advertisement from better help if you could wake up tomorrow and feel better about one thing in your life what would that be for me it'd probably be doing less doom scrolling and worrying about things i can't control the thing is better have so many different meanings based on who we are and whether it means practicing simple daily habits to feel more positive or really digging deep about what we want to achieve in life therapy can be a great place to start with more than 6 000 qualified therapists across the uk better help connects people with support that fits their needs and preferences and if it's not the right fit that out makes it easy to switch therapists at any time at no extra cost many better help members in the uk match with a therapist in as little as 24 hours so getting started is simpler than many people expect feeling better looks different for everyone whether you're looking to manage stress build healthier habits or simply check in with yourself therapy can help you move forward sign up and get 10 off at betterhelp.com red-handed that's better h-e-l-p dot com slash red-handed i want to tell you about a new podcast that has me hooked it's called betterhelp.com burden of proof luigi mangione and it's from our friends over at abc audio and 2020. if you already know the story you already know the story in december 2024 shots rang out on a manhattan sidewalk and united healthcare ceo brian thompson was shot dead luigi mangione has pled guilty to federal charges but there's so much more to this story than what unfolded on the street that day in the new podcast burden of proof luigi mangione abc news legal analyst brian buckmeyer goes deep into this case and what it all means he'll unpack the murder itself the two men at the heart of the story and how this case has affected the conversation about health care in america whatever you feel or think you know about the case of luigi mangione and brian thompson this podcast will make you think more critically follow the burden of proof luigi mangione wherever you get your podcasts or listen out free on apple podcast by subscribing to 2020 true crime plus again that's burden of proof luigi mangione insurance isn't one-size-fits-all and shopping for it shouldn't feel like squeezing into something that doesn't fit that's why drivers have enjoyed progressives name your price tool for years with the name your price tool you tell them what you want to pay and they show you options that fit your budget enough hunting for discounts trying to calculate rates and tinkering with coverages maybe you're picking out your very first policy or maybe you're just looking for something that works better than what you're looking for that's why we're here today for the first part of this 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me it'd probably be doing less doom scrolling and worrying about things i can't control the thing is better can have so many different meanings based on who we are and whether it means practicing simple daily habits to feel more positive or really digging deep about what we want to achieve in life there are so many different meanings based on who we are and therapy can be a great place to start. With more than 6,000 qualified therapists across the UK, BetterHelp connects people with support that fits their needs and preferences. Whether you're looking to manage stress, build healthier habits, or simply check in with yourself, therapy can help you move forward. Sign up and get 10% off at betterhelp.com slash redhanded. That's betterhelp.com slash redhanded. In December 2024, shots rang out on a Manhattan street. On a sidewalk. And UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shot dead. Whatever you feel or think you know about the case of Luigi Mangione and Brian Thompson, this podcast will make you think more critically. Follow the Burden of Proof, Luigi Mangione, wherever you get your podcasts, or listen ad-free on Apple Podcasts by subscribing to 2020 True Crime Plus. So, moving on. Our penultimate entry is Poltergeist. A film that many people believe is cursed by murderous, restless Indian ghosts. Let's get into it. The film's plot goes. As follows. A middle-class family moves into a house in California that's built on top of a Native American burial ground, and ghosts abduct their young daughter. Now, this young daughter is played by 12-year-old Heather O'Rourke, who tragically died before completing the second movie after doctors misdiagnosed her with Crohn's disease when what she actually had was intestinal blockage, which is so dangerous. Crohn's is no joke, man. No, Crohn's is no joke, but that's not what was wrong with her. Yeah. And you can die of an intestinal blockage. And you can die of an intestinal blockage, like, so, so quickly. And that's exactly what happened. So then in 1982, the year that the original Poltergeist was released, Dominic Dunn, who played the eldest sibling, Dana, was murdered. The 22-year-old had been dating chef John Thomas Sweeney, but she ended things after he started to get violent. After the film's release, Sweeney turned up at Dunn's house, begging for her to take him back. And when she refused, he strangled her to death. And in the end, Sweeney served just three years. Overall, Dunn's deaths led to a bizarre urban myth about the swimming pool scene in the film. In this scene, Diane Freeling, the mother of the family, is dragged into a swimming pool by a demonic force. When she tries to escape, the pool suddenly fills with mud and a bunch of human skeletons from the burial ground beneath the house. According to Jo Beth Williams, the actress playing Diane, these skeletons were not plastic. They were real human bones. That's so much harder. I know. And if you believe the conspiracists, these skeletons were stolen from India and sold to the production company. And it was their angry ghosts that had caused the death and murder of O'Rourke and Dunn. Regardless, Indian skeletons or not, the case for this film being cursed is quite thin. But finally, we come on to the creme de la creme of horrific movie-making tales. A film that both invented and defined a whole genre. The Italian director, Ruggero Diodante, made what's been described as the most controversial movie in history. His 1980s exploitation film, Cannibal Holocaust. Have you seen it? I've seen enough. I haven't seen it. I've seen more than enough. I tried to watch it. It's disgusting. It's horrible. I don't want to watch it. But I have seen multiple long-form reviews that basically play you everything. And I know the entire plotline of Cannibal Holocaust. And I also know all the horrible shit I'm about to tell you. So prepare yourselves. Because although Cannibal Holocaust isn't regarded as a cursed film in the supernatural sense of the word, its very existence cursed the careers of every actor who appeared in it. So its release led to both a national outcry in Italy and Diodato being charged with multiple counts of murder. But let's start with the film itself. Cannibal Holocaust tells the story of four documentations. Who go missing while investigating a cannibal tribe in the Amazon basin. Their fate is revealed through some discovered spools of tape. Revealing the atrocities that they both suffered and, importantly, committed. And a lot of people say that Cannibal Holocaust is the very first ever found footage film. False. Not true. The first ever found footage film that we know about is the final broadcast. It's not Cannibal Holocaust. I won't give it to them because this film is fucking trash. So the four missing documents. The documentarians, made up of three men and a woman, are played by Gabriel York, Francesca Chiardi, Perry Perkican and Luca Barbareschi. The footage itself shows intense stomach-churning scenes of murder, castration, six real animals being killed and two gang rapes. Do you remember when we were on tour and you were like, do you want to go and get some breakfast? I was like, in a minute, I'm watching Blood Talk. I was like, okay. I'll just wait then. It was like seven in the morning. Whatever you gotta do, man, to get through tour. And I love that the best bit about that is also that you couldn't get the TV in your room to work. So you were just watching it on your phone. Like, yeah, I'll be down for breakfast in a bit. I'm just watching Bone Tomahawk on my phone. It was so weird. It's hilarious. And actually, I tried to rewatch it on my TV at home and it's really boring. So I was just like, what was I doing? It's not even a good film. That's amazing. That's amazing. So, Bone Tomahawk and Cannibal Holocaust. Not exactly fun for all the family. But in many ways, the making of Cannibal Holocaust was almost as disturbing as the film itself. The budget was just $100,000. So the director led his crew and a group of completely unknown actors into the town of Leticia, Colombia. Near the borders of Peru and Brazil. Filming in the humid and unpredictable conditions of the rainforest, Deodato hired local tribes people to play the cannibals. We don't really know if the locals were aware of exactly what they were taking part in. Actually, it turns out that the indigenous girl that Deodato used in a gang rape scene was actually only 14 years old in real life. And according to Deodato himself, this girl didn't even know what the film was. He just communicated with her via an interpreter. That three men would get a bit rough with her, but none of it was real. And like I said, I've seen some of this particular scene. And the expression on the poor girl's face is definitely one of genuine terror and confusion. Because not only did she not know what this film is, she didn't know what a film was full stop. So like when she's being told it's just acting, that concept didn't even exist in her mind. So all of the actors taking part in the scene were against doing it as well. But Deodato insisted. And when Francesca Chiardi, who plays Faye, refused to show her breasts on camera, Deodato led her away from the crew and screamed at her until she cried and gave in. Needless to say, this was not a union gig. Deodato sidestepped a ton of the usual bureaucracy that would have gone with filmmaking even back then. And it allowed him to create something with even more fucked up sequences. Because like we said, the film included real life animal killings. Which is basically the only thing that Deodato has ever copped to. Saying that it was stupid of him to have done it. And just in case you're wondering, what animals die in this? It included actors using knives to kill a coati. And if you don't know what that is, basically think of the squirrel from Ice Age. Also a tarantula is killed, a boa constrictor and two squirrel monkeys. But possibly the worst killings involved the actor, Perry Perkinan. Who was forced to decapitate and dismember a live turtle. And then remove its ends. In trails. Jesus. And that is in the fucking film. And unsurprisingly, that scene had such a profound effect on Perkinan that he quit acting altogether. And nobody ever heard from him again after they finished shooting. The film also showed Luca Barbareschi shooting a pig in the head with a.22 cannibal rifle at point blank range. Which led to animal rights groups calling for him to be murdered. When Cannibal Holocaust was released on the 7th of February 1980 in Milan. It was pulled from screens just 10 days later. And Deodato was arrested and charged. With obscenity. And it's literally because they couldn't figure out how he had done some of the things. Oh yeah. In the film. So in Cannibal Holocaust there's like a scene of a woman who's like impaled on a spike. And they're like, they literally couldn't figure out how he had done that. So they were like, yeah, murder. He must have killed him. And in the lead up to the film's premiere, Deodato had marketed Cannibal Holocaust as though it were a real snuff film. And after a French magazine in 1981 suggested that some of the deaths in the film were real. Deodato found himself facing murder charges. Apparently he'd even included a clause in all of the actors' contracts which prevented them from appearing in any film's commercials. Or any media for a whole year after the film's release. So that people would believe they were actually dead. Yeah. It's why he chose four unknown actors. Like Blair Witch. Yeah. And then basically kind of even forbid them from like going outside the house. Wow. For a while after. So people genuinely thought he's killed these people. This is a fucking snuff film. So having to backtrack. And now prove that the movie wasn't actually real found footage. Deodato. And the cast spoke out. And demonstrated in court how some of the special effects actually worked. So the murder charges against Deodato were dropped. But he was still sentenced to four months parole. Along with the cinematographer and producers for Animal Cruelty. Many of the cast and crew described Deodato as abusive, remorseless and incredibly cruel. And the controversy surrounding the film. The murder charges. And it being banned in over 50 countries. Was of course used in its marketing and PR. Just like all of the cursed films before. And after it. Because whether or not you believe in film curses. You can't deny. That they make for a much spookier cinema. going experience yeah not the cannibal holocaust is ever getting played in a cinema yeah rough stuff yeah but none of them really cursed it would appear apart from the omen i'm quite convinced by that one yeah there's some bits in there that are like oh that's quite strange but yeah i think really all you need to know is that directors have massive god complexes and are constantly on an ego trip as they will do anything i mean if you go and listen to i know we've we've talked about this podcast before but it's so good it deserves another shout out go listen to inside the exorcist inside psycho inside jaws they are wandering podcasts but we were shouting about them before they're really really good and in that you will get to grips like even to a small extent like the lengths that some of these directors are willing to go to and also go listen to our episode like hannah said on raw you don't really need to believe a film is cursed when you've got an egomaniac at the helm all sorts of crazy shit and if you're william freaking you never do anything ever again it was the only thing you wanted to make you so that's it guys we hope you enjoyed it and we will be back next time with some more things or will we yes we can trashly oblige to real value shows up in reliability you don't have to second guess like a set of firestone all-season tires they're designed to deliver confidence inspiring wet weather traction and a quieter ride no matter the road season after season firestone all-season tires for durability you can count on just like firestone all-season tires for durability you can count on just like people count on you firestone always dependable since 1900 you know that moment when everything lines up when life gives you the green light and you just go that's the 2026 toyota camry no hesitation no friction just a car that's right there with you ready responsive in control the whole way through because when it's your moment you shouldn't have to think twice the 2026 toyota camry go like you mean it test drive at your local toyota dealer or visit toyota.com today toyota let's go places see packages and options at toyota.com for future availability