Cursed Movies & Haunted Films

[Music] in the dim glow of the Silver Screen lies a realm where time is suspended and souls dance eternally in flickering frames film A peculiar kind of alchemy possesses The Uncanny ability to capture not only the VIS of actors but the very essence of their being it's as though the lens becomes a portal in snaring their laughter their pain their dreams and sealing them in S Lloyd Amber with every real that turns they transcend mortality becoming spectral performers forever bounds are their roles yet admit this luminous enchantment lies a darker truth but in the depths

of Shadow and light sometimes unwittingly filmmakers summon more than they bargain for like incantations etched in Emotion there are forces Uninvited that seep through leaving marks echoing Whispers of something beyond our understanding these accidental sorceries these uninvited guests remind us that even in the art of creation there are things we may never truly control the screen then becomes a spectral mirror reflecting not only the living but the Echoes of the Unseen leaving us to wonder are we watching the story or is the story watching us welcome to the tape library and if you are joining

me on release day a happy Halloween to you all tonight we're going to be diving into the realm of Cinema and exploring movies that are said to either have been cursed or haunted in some way from the terrible tragedies that befell several notable horror movies to a film that claims to have literally captured Spirits in its frames I had picked this topic for a Halloween special as I thought it would be a bit of a fun one how wrong I was this is going to get very dark at times you have been warned get yourself

a warm drink dim the lights and get comfortable it's time for a movie night my friends one you won't soon forget sometime in the early 2010s filmaker Alex Monty Canoa and his producer were looking for inspiration for their next project project when fate seemingly stepped in the pair were walking for a car park just off of Hollywood Boulevard when they noticed the bag that had been left on the side of the lot curiosity got the better of them and inside they discovered 19 rolls of old 16 mm black and white film stock the inspiration hit

them almost instantly and after realizing the stock had simply been thrown out decided to use it in their next movie they began furiously writing a short comedy drama a tribute to the 1920s using the film they had found in an old hand cranked camera they filmed return to Babylon a silent movie that reenacted the liars and Scandals of the film stars of the silent era the film was shot in a number of Infamous locations from the time the homes of Rudolph Valentino and Norma town Dage were both featured as well as the Magic Castle many

of these locations have been said for years to be some of the most haunted in Hollywood so the groundwork was laid there for the cast and crew to be aware of potential paranormal activity during the production many of the people working on the film spoke of strange phenomena most refer to a feeling of being watched as they walked around the old homes of the Hollywood Elite but some claimed it went further than that with odd sounds and even the feeling of being touched the actress Jennifer Tilly in particular spoke of feeling like she was being

grabbed by unseen hands all of this continued during the duration of filming but as you'll learn tonight this type of thing isn't unheard of on film sets what makes return to Babylon such an interesting case is what came next during the editing process the director noticed something unusual within the raw footage for brief moments often just single frames the actor's appearances seemed to be changing this wasn't just errors in the film processing faces would distort and take on unnatural forms fingers would grow into long clawed tendrils Shadows would appear on the edges of frames figures

would appear out of nowhere their faces contorted with grimaces of pain or Terror and then be gone as quickly as they appeared some claimed that some of these strange shifts made the actors seemingly take on the appearance of some of the long departed actors the film was referencing if only for a fraction of a second experts have looked at the footage and struggled to decipher how these visual effects if that's what they were were achieved but the director and crew remained firm to this day that there was no manipulation of the footage while this could

have been an attempt as a clever marketing strategy on the part of the filmmakers it would be an odd choice to paint such a light-hearted film as proof of something darker while the images captured in the film look almost demonic to many the director didn't see it that way he believed the shape-shifting forms to look biblical in a much more positive way he believed that this was a divine presence making itself visible through his movie returned to Babylon continues to Fascinate and divide the Paranormal world to this day while there may be a rational explanation

to what is witnessed here it remains one of the most compelling pieces of evidence of a haunted movie to have ever surfaced over the years many horror movie productions especially those that delve into the world of the occult are said to have been cursed but few can hold a candle to the events that took place during the production of the 1976 movie The Omen in in case you somehow have never seen it the omen is the tale of the birth of the Antichrist into the world a seemingly innocent young boy who Bears the mark of

the beast and brings about death and Destruction for anyone who happens to cross his path tragedy would very quickly befall the production when the lead actor Gregory peek was due to fly over to England to film a scene a last minute delay meant that PE would not be needed until later in the week so his flight was canc canell the plane that he was due to be on took off without issue although that very quickly changed the plane hit a flock of birds causing it to plummet out of the sky and crash killing everyone on

board what makes this incident all the more tragic was that the plane crashed into a car that was driving away from the runway inside the car was the family of the pilot all of whom lost their lives peek would make it to London following this incident in September of 1975 but on Route his plane would be struck by lightning obviously an unusual occurrence but not unheard of however on another transatlantic flight just a few weeks later the same thing would happen to produc of Mace Newfield it would then happen a third time to writer David

seltzer finally dream production lightning struck a fourth time narrowly missing producer Harvey Bernard while the crew were filming in Rome luckily in all four incidents the filmmakers were not hurt producer M newfeld had another near miss when he was turned away from a fully booked restaurant just days after his brush with the lightning only for it to be destroyed by an IRA bomb that day along with director Richard Donner's Hotel speaking of which Richard Donner actually believes The Omen is a blessed film that these near misses for the people that worked on the film actually

shows that something was keeping them safe from tragedy this protection would soon run out though animals involved in scenes of the film began to act strangely the director was able to capture some very genuine reactions in the scene in which baboons terrorized the family during the Safari tour as the animals started acting unexpectedly aggressive for real the Rottweilers that were used in the film attacked their handlers on numerous occasions and most infamously the day after filming the Safari scenes a zookeeper who had been hired to help with the animal scenes was eaten by a tiger

the most chilling incident though would befall special effects designer John Richardson and his partner Li more shortly after leaving the production of the omen to move on to the next job in Holland the pair were driving late at night just after midnight in fact on August 13th 1976 a Friday when they were involved in a catastrophic head-on collision remarkably Richardson survived the accident with only minor injuries but Mo wasn't so lucky a tire crashed through the wind screen decapitating her instantly in a moment that chillingly echoed a scene from the movie Richardson would apparently go

on to add an even more disturbing detail to this story moments before the accident they had made a joke about the fact that they had just passed a sign for the city of omen and that it was 66.6 km away in 2009 Ty West released the incredible House of the devil a truly creepy 80s throwback that is full of occult Horrors and Slow Burn Terror during the production many of the cast and crew were put up in the nearby Yankee Peddler in Wes became fascinated by the location the crew members and himself were witnesses to

a whole host of strange goings on TVs turning on by themselves lights that would flicker strange phone calls that were made with seemingly no one on the other end and all of them began to encounter strangely vivid dreams nothing major but enough for a buzz to start amongst the crew who were quickly beginning to question if the location might be haunted and as it turned out they were right the hotel staff confirmed that they and many of the people who stayed in the hotel had encountered the exact same things to such an extent that the

entire town believed the hotel was haunted the story of its haunting goes like this in the heart of downtown torington Conneticut looms the Yankee Peddler a relic of the past shrouded in an eerie atmosphere built in 1891 this Grand Inn holds secrets that chill the bone it's said that in 1910 the original owner Alice met her her end within its walls setting off a chain of unexplained events Room free fire fre where she breathed her last carries a lingering presence guest reports seeing ghostly figures and catching whiffs of untraceable sense Alice it seems isn't ready

to leave her spirit is felt a Vigilant Hostess ensuring guest comfort in the lobby her rocking chair sways as if moved by unseen hands but it's room 295 that bears the brunt of the Paranormal Activity guests have felt a spectral touch an eerie companion slipping under their covers lights flicker casting the room into a dance of Shadows in a chilling coincidence one guest shared a dream a dream their companion also vividly recounted it's as though the boundaries of reality blur Within These Walls the Yankee Peddler once a bustling Hub now Harbors Alice's lingering Spirit there's

a place where the pass refuses to rest where the line between the living in The Departed gross Fin and where every Creek and rustle Tells A Tale of the supernatural Tai West was obviously very pleased at his horror movie production now involved a very real ghost story but rather than including this Tower in the promotion of House of the devil he instead returned a few years later and shot a movie not only inspired by the events that were taking place at the in but also filmed inside the building itself the following is all from the

director's own words in an interview he did with indiewire back in 2012 I wanted to make a ghost story I was trying to think of how to do it cheap then I thought why not make a movie we lived the place let us there before so they were likely to let us do it again that's kind of how it all came to be they let us back in and we moved very quickly I'm a skeptic so I don't really buy it but I've definitely seen doors closed by themselves I've seen a TV turn off and

on by itself lights would always burn out in my room everyone on crew has very vivid dreams every night which is really strange the one story that is most intriguing to me in the film the most haunted room is the honeymoon suite that's where the ghost stuff started in the hotel the only reason why I picked the room that I picked to shoot in was because it was big enough to do a dolly shot no more thought went into it other than pure technical reasons so when we're finishing the movie I find out that the

most haunted room in real life is the room I picked to be the haunted room in the movie it could be coincidence it's weird that it happened that way the dreams came back the first day I walked in the vibe was there Sarah Paxton will wake up in the middle of the night thinking someone was in the room with her everyone has stories as winter began to take hold of Washington DC in 1972 a priest felt himself drawn to a street in the historic neighborhood of Georgetown there he approached a man the priest claimed to

not know who he was or why he was there but he felt he needed to give this man something The Medallion the priest then said to the man reveal the devil for the trickster that he is he will seek retribution against you and he will even try to stop what you are trying to do to unmask him before walking away the man the priest had approached was was Jason Miller an actor he was in Georgetown that day taking a break in between filming scenes for a little film known as The Exorcist the production of The

Exorcist was much like the omen plagued by a series of disturbing events there are nine deaths associated with the production of the film that all happened before it could be completed including that of actor Jack mcgoran who played the film director frown from Reagan's bedroom window the number of injuries happened on set as well although it's worth noting that this was the 1970s and did feature a director who was known to fire a gun to get genuine reactions of fear from his actors speaking of William freakin he received a call late one night from the

film's production manager telling him not to come to set the next day freakin was enraged assuming that he was being fired from the production but that was not the case a fire had swept through the set destroying every part of the house except for Reagan's bedroom this was disturbing enough for the production crew to call a priest a set and bless it when the six we rebuild was complete another unusual story that took place during the production centers around the small role of one of the hospital workers in the film the scene where Reagan is

taken to the hospital for scans featured the real Radiologists that were working there one of whom was Paul Bateson Bateson would later be charged with the murder of film industry journalists Addison veril there were also accusations that Bateson was a man behind the bag murders a series of killings that targeted gay men in Manhattan in the 1970s however a lack of evidence meant he was not charged with these leaving the identity of the bag murder ser serial killer unsolved to this day his encounters with Bateson LED freakin to make cruising a movie about the murders

the release of the exist saw levels of Hysteria the few films had generated before that point tals of people fainting in the theaters vomiting in the aisles ambulances parked outside just in case they were needed but one of the most interesting is an alleged screening that happened in r room supposedly there was a cinema located between two churches despite some level of public outcry they had decided to screen The Exorcist Midway through the screening lightning hit the crucifix positioned on top of one of the churches where it had stood for 400 years the crucifix crashed

to the ground breaking apart right in front of the cinema we found only touched the surface of tales of haunted or cursed movies out there we have time for one more tonight but if you've enjoyed this episode and would like to see a part two let me know in the comments below one final story tonight this is a good one we're going to be getting into some very dark topics here so I'll put out a general trigger warning if you are at all sensitive to real life events this goes beyond just a movie and unveils

a curse that depending on what you believe has been blamed for the deaths of some of the most famous people to ever walk the earth in 1965 writer Ira 11 was desperately searching for his next big idea when he glanced over at his then pregnant wife her due date June 1966 those numbers 666 rolled around in his head religious counterculture was becoming a thing all over the country and he started to conduct an idea that he knew many would find Blasphemous he feared this book that was beginning to form in his mind would end his

career but it didn't it was a tale of a young wouldbe mother in her New York apartment and a dangerous cult that has plans for her baby Levin however had nothing to worry about at least at a time the book was a masterpiece and received rave reviews very quickly a movie was commissioned but just as quickly as the movie was completed Levin saw his family fall apart when his wife divorced him the Catholic Church widely denounced both the book and movie and living was regularly seen as a figure of evil in the Catholic community over

the years Levin partially blamed himself for a rise in interest in the cult and Satanism in particular the satanic Panic that rolled in over the coming decades did nothing to help this and over the years Levin seemingly developed if not a hatred then at least a regret over what many considered to be his Masterpiece the auor though got off easy unlike many other the films we feature today the filming of Rosemary's Baby seemingly had no issues beond producer Robert Evans describing an eerie feeling whenever he was inside the apartment complex the film was set in

however just one year after the film's release the acclaimed film's composer Kristoff kamida fell off a cliff he was left in a coma for 4 months before passing away a tragic accident but hauntingly one that echoed Levan's book this was the same fate that the witch he has cursed Rosemary's inquisitive friend with in his tale famed horror filmmaker William Castle was one of the first people signed on to the project ultimately being announced as a producer by Robert EVN Castle received huge amounts of hate mail for his involvement with the film seemingly the stress of

which saw him quickly develop kidney stones that left him hospitalized while there he began to have vivid hallucinations of scenes from the film apparently even shouting out loud during his surgery Rosemary for God's sake dropped that knife the fate of the film's director and his then girlfriend Sharon Tate have become a collective piece of horrifying popular culture Tate had been desperate to play the role of Rosemary but the studio opted to go with Mia faraoh instead Tate would be present throughout the shooting of Rosemary's Baby however and would even appear as an extra it is

said that during this time she began to develop an interest in the occult the pair relocated to California shortly after completion of the film and by the summer of 1969 Tate was heavily pregnant with Roman pansy's baby he was due to go and work in London but just before he left he claims he was hit with a strange morbid feeling the thought of you will never see her again palansky shook it off as pre-travel anxiety he was wrong Sharon Tate her unborn child and several of her friends were brutally murdered by the Manon family just

days later the following nights the family would go on to kill Leno and rosemary Lanka in their home writing messages on the walls in blood at both sides one of which read Helter Skelter a reference to a Beatle song and what Charles Manson had referred to as a calling to Kickstart a race war in the following years pansy's life fell apart he turned to substance abuse he would later go on to molest an underage child plying her with drugs and alcohol before abusing her palansky spent 42 days in jail but has since avoided returning to

any countries that would see him extradited to the US to face further charges to this day he continues to make films despite technically being a fugitive people couldn't make sense of the murders and to this day insane rumors and conspiracies circulate around them with some claiming palansky sacrificed his partner an unborn child for a success or that the Beatles Were Somehow involved in some sort of Satanic ritual that caused the events interestingly much of the White Album the album that features Helter Skelter and Piggies was written with the star of Rosemary's Baby Mia fararo present

The Beatles obviously denounced the crimes with John lenon saying all that Manson stuff was built around George's song about pigs and this one held to Skelter pool song about an English Fairground it has nothing to do with anything and least of all to do with me fast forward 11 years John Lennon is living in the famous New York apartment block the Dakota he had no idea that for the past 3 months a man had been planning to kill him Mark David Chapman approached lenon and Yoko Ono as they headed towards their limousine that evening he

asked Lennon for an autograph a moment that happened to be captured by an amateur photographer later that night as the couple returned to the Dakota Chapman was still there he shot lenon five times and then sat and waited for the police to take him away in some versions of events it is claimed that when deciding if he should go through with it Chapman saw Mia faroh walking past him as he stood outside the Dakota he saw this as a sign that he was meant to do it the death took place in the shadow of the

Dakota the building that Robert Evans had felt a creeping presence in the building that famously was a set of Rosemary's Baby the building has a long history of tragedy and hauntings with reports of Paranormal Activity taking place throughout with an especially High number of strange sightings taking place in the basement lenon himself claims to have seen The Apparition of a crying woman walking through the halls of the building and even what he described as a UFO from his window Yoko would claim to see and even speak to Jon's ghost in the Dakota after his murder

the woman that lenon described has also been seen in the building by workers as far back as the 1960s a number of famous stars that had visited or called the Dakota home would go on to Die Young besides with Marilyn Monroe Judy Holliday and Judy Garland all having been within its walls over the years maybe if you believe in the idea of curses at all it isn't the book or film of Rosemary's Baby that is cursed maybe it just so happens they chose the wrong building to create a horror movie in that's all for this

entry into the tape Library if you've enjoyed this episode then please be sure to subscribe also liking the video is a really easy way to support the channel are there any curse movies you think I should have included here comment them below and I can work them into the next entry into the series thanks for sticking with me until the end until next time pleasant dreams