AI Summary
5 min readSelects: Can movies be cursed?
The idea that a movie can be cursed sounds like pure Hollywood marketing, but the stories that accumulate around certain films are genuinely strange. In this episode from November 2017, Josh and Chuck walk through the most famous alleged movie curses — from Poltergeist to The Omen to Superman — while their source, writer Ed Grabianowski, goes out of his way to insist that curses aren't real. The tension between the eerie coincidences and the rational explanations is what makes the topic worth exploring.
What makes a movie seem cursed
The basic pattern is simple: when multiple bad things happen around a single film — deaths during or after production, accidents on set, or a string of tragedies among cast and crew — people start connecting the dots. But as Josh and Chuck point out, movie sets have always been dangerous places, especially in the early days of Hollywood. In the 1928 film Noah's Ark, 600,000 gallons of water were used for a single take of the flood scene; three extras drowned, and one survivor needed a leg amputation. In the 1941 Errol Flynn film They Died with Their Boots On, three extras died during a cavalry charge — one was thrown from his horse, his sword stuck into the ground handle-first, and he was impaled on it. Even as recently as 1983, the Twilight Zone movie saw Vic Morrow and two child actors killed by
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What you'll learn
- 1 (01:31) **Welcome & Episode Premise** - Josh and Chuck introduce the topic: can movies be cursed? They set up the skeptical framework that coincidences and tragedies are often mistaken for supernatural curses.
- 2 (06:59) **The Skeptical Foundation: Real Dangers, Not Curses** - The hosts establish why bad things happen on movie sets, using historical examples to show that tragedy is a statistical inevitability, not a supernatural phenomenon.
- 3 (09:59) **The Poltergeist Trilogy & The Tragedies of Its Cast** - The hosts dissect the most famous "cursed" movie franchise, examining the deaths of three cast members close to the films' production.
- 4 (15:50) **The Wizard of Oz: A "Happy" Film Marred by Tragedy** - The hosts explore the many on-set accidents and off-screen tragedies associated with the 1939 classic, separating fact from urban legend.
- 5 (24:06) **The "Superman Curse": George Reeves & Christopher Reeve** - The hosts examine the tragic fates of two actors who played Superman, a role frequently cited as being cursed.
- 6 (29:44) **The Conqueror: The Real Curse of Radiation** - The hosts pivot to a film whose "curse" has a clear, non-supernatural cause: radioactive fallout from nuclear testing.
- 7 (34:12) **The Omen: A Litany of Close Calls** - The hosts recount the string of eerie near-misses and tragic coincidences that surrounded the 1976 film about the Antichrist, which even the skeptical author found unnerving.
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Show Notes
First of all, movies can't be cursed because curses aren't real. However, that can't stop Josh and Chuck from taking a look at some movies throughout history that have had a disturbing number of bad things surrounding their production and release. Dive into the world of cursed movies in this very fun classic episode.
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