Cursed Films Blu-ray review
An entertaining look into the world of “cursed films”, and why people believe.
Cursed Films is a Documentary series produced by the streaming service Shudder, owned by AMC Networks and is one of Shudder’s most popular series.
It has been on the streaming service since 2020 and now for all of us who haven’t got a subscription to Shudder it arrives on Blu-ray and digital on 27th February 2023, courtesy of Acorn Media International
The series is written, directed and edited by Jay Cheel(How to Build a Time Machine, Beauty Day) and premiered in April 2020 on Shudder. It proved popular and the second series premiered in April 2022.
This series focusses, as the name may suggest, on supposedly “cursed” or jinxed productions.
If you are a film fan you’ll have probably heard of them before, like the Poltergeist films having many cast members who sadly passed away or the many strange things that happened during shooting The Omen.
If you haven’t then you’re in for a treat, if you have then you’ll discover so much more information about these mythic tales.
The Cursed Films Blu-ray contains all five half hour(ish) episodes from the first series, each covering a single film and they all include interviews with film critics, journalists, podcasters, cast, crew and witches.
Yes, witches.
The five films covered in this series are:
This 1982 classic has the cursed film moniker due to the deaths of many of the franchises cast. Most notably the young star Heather O’Rourke passed away during the filming of the sequel in 1988. Dominique Dunn was sadly murdered by her boyfriend and Julian Beck who played Reverend Kane in Poltergeist II also passed.
People started talking about the skeletons in the film being real human skeletons from India and this is why these tragic deaths happened, the film and it’s subsequent sequels were cursed! Do you think a Hollywood production would actually use real human skeletons? You’ll find out in this episode.
The episode is an entertaining look at all of these rumoured curses and why people believe them.
If any film’s likely to actually be cursed then it’s going to be the 1976 classic all about the son of Satan isn’t it?
The rumoured curses surrounding this film make it even more eerie than it already is.
They ignored the warnings that the Devil would not want this film to be made!
Planes struck by lightning, a truly peculiar tragedy with another plane that should have had a cast member on board, a bombing, crazed baboons, animal handlers being eaten, automobile accidents, actual curses and death threats this production had the lot.
Following up the episode on the Son of Satan with one on the 1973 film about his mate Pazuzu, is perfect.
Religion and horror are always going to be uncomfortable bedfellows.
Set fires with Regan’s bedroom being left undamaged, deaths of cast, crew and their relatives. William Friedkin’s wierdness leading to injuries and Paul Bateson all get covered in this episode.
The 1994 film based on the James O’Barr‘s comic book series is well known for the death of it’s star Brandon Lee in an on set accident.
Pre production warnings, 2 electricians in a horrific accident on day one, storm destroying sets, “the curse of the crow”, Brandon Lee’s death and the “Lee family curse” are all discussed in this episode.
This episode is quite melancholic, I think due to the recent nature of the tragedy.
The 1983 film of the 1950’s cult TV series became well known for an on set incident that led to the death of veteran actor Vic Morrow and two children.
Although this episode is about the film, it is essentially only interested in one sequence from the movie which is the Vietnam part of the “Time Out” segment which is where Morrow and child actors Renee Chen and My-ca Dinh Le tragically lost their lives.
Terrible set safety protocols, Hollywood power plays, John Landis’s poor, legally dubious and dangerous decisions that led to the tragedy are discussed. This episode also features footage of the actual incident.
This episode closes the series well as it shows that “curses” are often just poor decisions made by very ordinary people.
The series is pretty much what you would expect from a talking head documentary on this subject, well put together, well shot with well placed archived footage. The people interviewed are knowledgable and have distinct, clear voices.
The series episode choice is perfect, leading from the “Could it actually be cursed?” levels of Poltergeist and The Omen through to the behaviour of people on film sets leading to perfectly avoidable accidents each episode builds on the jinx debunking nature of the overall documentary.
I really enjoyed this series, and look forward to seeing season 2 (I may have to renew my subscription to Shudder)
So what of the Blu-ray? The picture quality in each episode is great for what is a standard talking head style documentary show. The 1080p HD transfer from RLJE Films and Shudder from 2020 is really sharp and the poorer quality archival footage even looks good.
The sound on this Blu-ray is lossless DTS-HD MA 5.1 and is really clear throughout with no noticeable volume leaps in scenes that often plagues modern films.
The disc contents themselves are pretty thin on the ground with a main menu, episode choice, an extremely basic “set-up” menu which allows you to choose English SDH, French or Spanish subtitles and that’s it, the only bonus feature being a commentary track on each episode from Jay Cheel.
Although now a lapsed subscriber I had originally watched this series on Shudder. The series is very much an easy binge watch as the episodes are short and clip along nicely.
I enjoyed rewatching each episode as was and then rewatching once more with the commentary track. I found these commentaries interesting and they added another level to the stories surrounding these incidents and the people discussing them from Jay’s point of view. Jay’s voice is very clear throughout and, thankfully, not annoying. He also leaves plenty of time to allow the key scenes in the episodes to be heard.
Skilfully put together with a unique, nuanced take, Cursed Films gives an in-depth, enthralling insight into some of the most pivotal horror films ever made and will entrance, entertain and enrich all film fans.
Recommended
On Blu-ray and digital 27 February 2023
