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Scottish Sunday: International: International

Curse Of The Omen ... and other Hollywood Hexes

From The Omen to The Exorcist and Rosemary’s Baby there are tales of fatal accidents, devil worship, doomed planes and car crashes … Barry Didcock looks at some of the most cursed films of all time and finds a Poltergeist-style gumbo of death, disaster and hard-to-explain events. Is this a trail of satanic hexes, or do we just want to believe?

Late night, an empty road, a car. A man and a woman speed towards a head-on collision which will kill one of them and burn an unforgettable image into the mind of the other. It sounds like the pitch for a movie but, while film is at the heart of it, this story is very real indeed. The place is Holland, the year 1976, the date August 13 – a Friday, as bad luck would have it. The man is designer John Richardson, currently working on Richard Attenborough’s second world war epic, A Bridge Too Far, but most recently employed as special effects consultant on supernatural chiller The Omen. The woman is Liz Moore, his assistant. In a few moments she’ll be dead, cut in half when the car’s front wheel slices through the chassis and into the passenger seat. Richardson will survive to tell the tale – and quite a story it is too.

Less than a year earlier, he had masterminded the parade of gruesome deaths which had made The Omen a box office smash, among them the decapitation of a photographer played by David Warner. And, like everyone else who had worked on the film – including stars Gregory Peck and Lee Remick – he was well aware of the whispers and rumours which had surrounded its filming. There had been talk of a hex, a curse, a hoodoo. Did he believe it? Not then, perhaps. But as he came to in the minutes after the crash, he saw something that must have chilled him to the bone: his passenger, dead from injuries which bore an uncanny resemblance to the ones he had prepared for Warner. And a road sign marking the distance to an otherwise insignificant Dutch town. It read: Ommen, 66.6 km. Today, Richardson is sanguine about his experience. Others are less inclined to forget theirs.

Producer Harvey Bernhard, well aware of the Hollywood gossip that had The Omen lined up as the latest in a long line of cursed films, started wearing a cross on set. “I wasn’t about to take any chances,” he says 30 years later. “The devil was at work and he didn’t want that film made. We were dealing in areas we didn’t know about and later on in the picture it got worse, worse and worse.”

Bob Munger, the man who came up with the idea for the film, had misgivings even before production started. “I warned Harvey at the time. I said, ‘If you make this movie you’re going to have some problems. If the devil’s greatest single weapon is to be invisible and you’re going to do something which is going to take away his invisibility to millions of people, he’s not going to want that to happen’.”

He was right to be worried. In June 1975, just two months before filming was due to begin, Gregory Peck’s son had killed himself with a bullet to the head. The actor set off for London in September in a sombre mood which wasn’t much soothed when his plane was hit by lightning high above the Atlantic. A few weeks later, executive producer Mace Neufeld also left Los Angeles. You think lightning doesn’t strike twice? It does in this story. “It was the roughest five minutes I’ve ever had on an airliner,” says Neufeld. The curse of The Omen had begun.

There was much more to come. The hotel in which Neufeld and his wife were staying was bombed by the IRA. So, too, was a restaurant where the executives and actors, including Peck, were expected for dinner on November 12. A plane they had been due to hire for aerial filming was switched to another client at the last minute and crashed on take-off, killing all on board. A tiger handler died in a freak accident.

Even when filming finished, the curse seemed to follow the actors and technicians to different projects. Richardson we know about, but the story of stuntman Alf Joint is almost as chilling. He too went to work on A Bridge Too Far, but was badly injured and hospitalised when a stunt went wrong. He only had to jump from a roof on to an airbag, an average day’s work for someone like him. But this time, something odd happened. He appeared to fall suddenly and awkwardly. When he woke up in hospital, he told friends he felt like he had been pushed.

These and other stories surrounding The Omen have now been collected for a Channel 4 documentary, The Curse Of The Omen. Producer Alan Tyler admits that he was as sceptical as anyone else when researching the project, but says he was gradually convinced by the facts. “What we were really shocked by is that, while there are some aspects of it where you can say, ‘I don’t really buy that’, the further into it you go, the more you’re not sure. So we went from being quite cynical to at least having doubts.”

Tyler and his team interviewed Bernhard, Neufeld and Munger as well as director Richard Donner, actor Billie Whitelaw and Richardson himself. Harvey Stevens, the young English boy who played the demonic Damien, will not speak about the hex, and Gregory Peck never went on record about it. But, says Tyler, “The crew that we spoke to had a sense that everyone involved in the production was freaked out to some extent. They all felt that something wasn’t quite right and that included the cast. These were seasoned professionals – they had seen a lot of productions and doubtless a lot of production accidents. Yet they themselves pick this film, more than any other, as having something extraordinary about it.”

Of course, as Tyler’s scepticism demonstrates, stories of cursed films have been around almost as long as there have been publicists to make them up. What better way to market a film than mention a curse associated with it? What better way to boost longevity, especially in the age of the internet, where conspiracies and cults grow like digital lichen?

And, of course, where curses are concerned, we’re all willing participants. “People really want to believe,” says Adele Hartley, director of Dead By Dawn, Scotland’s international horror film festival. “Everyone feels a little guilty about toying with the supernatural, they think maybe we are opening some doors we shouldn’t, so it’s very tantalising. I’m almost a believer.”

Yet some of the stories simply defy explanation, cannot be explained by chance alone. For instance each of the three Poltergeist films was marked by a death – the murder of lead actress Dominique Dunn in 1982, a year after the release of the first film; the death of actor Julian Beck in 1985, as production on Poltergeist II began; and the death of 12-year-old actress Heather O’Rourke from septic shock less than a year after the release of Poltergeist III.

The Intriguing World of Cursed Films

Cursed films have always captured the imagination of film enthusiasts and fans alike. The stories surrounding their production and the unfortunate events that followed seem too uncanny to dismiss as mere coincidence. From tragic accidents on-set to strange occurrences off-screen, these films have left an indelible mark on both the industry and those involved.

One of the most infamous examples is The Omen (1976), a supernatural horror film that was surrounded by whispers of a hex or curse throughout its production. The film's critical success and its chilling storyline, coupled with the strange events that followed, has fueled speculation about the existence of a curse. Actors and crew members experienced eerie accidents and misfortunes, leading many to believe that there was more to the film than meets the eye.

Other notable examples include The Exorcist (1973), which has been linked to a series of disturbing events both on and off the set, and Rosemary's Baby (1968), which is said to have been cursed by tragic incidents that occurred after its release.

While some may dismiss these stories as mere superstition or coincidence, there are those who find the patterns and occurrences too unsettling to ignore. The allure of cursed films lies in the mystery surrounding them and the desire to uncover the truth behind the alleged hexes.

The Haunting Effect on Hotels

It is not just the films themselves that are affected by these alleged curses. The hotel locations used during the filming of cursed movies have also been subject to strange and unexplainable phenomena. From bombings to accidents to bizarre coincidences, these hotels have become an integral part of the curse folklore.

In the case of The Omen, the curse seemed to extend beyond the set and into the lives of those involved in the film. One incident involved a hotel in which the film's producer and his wife were staying being bombed by the IRA. Another instance occurred when a restaurant scheduled to host a dinner for the film's executives and actors, including leading star Gregory Peck, was also attacked by the same terrorist group.

These eerie occurrences not only added to the mystique surrounding the cursed film, but they also left a lasting impression on the people who witnessed them. The incidents served as a reminder that the alleged curse had the power to manifest itself in unexpected ways, even outside the realm of the film itself.

As the tales of cursed films continue to captivate audiences around the world, the legends surrounding the hotels associated with these movies only add to the intrigue. Whether it be strange accidents, unexplained events, or tragic coincidences, these hotels have become part of the tapestry that weaves together the stories of these cursed films.

Conclusion

While the debate about cursed films and their alleged hexes continues, there is no denying the fascination and allure they hold for both filmmakers and audiences. Whether it be the chilling events surrounding The Omen, the unsettling occurrences tied to The Exorcist, or the tragic incidents following Rosemary's Baby, these films have left an indelible mark on the collective consciousness.

As for the hotels that have had the misfortune of being associated with these cursed films, they too have become part of the narrative surrounding the alleged curses. The strange and unexplained events that have occurred within their walls only add to the mystique and intrigue of these storied locations.

While it remains to be seen whether these curses are mere coincidences or something more sinister, one thing is for certain: cursed films continue to capture our imaginations and offer glimpses into a world where reality and the supernatural intertwine.

London

Manchester

Chester

Portstewart

Wellingborough

Kenilworth

Lisburn

Coleraine

Dagenham

Whitehaven

Merthyr Tydfil

Dunstable

West Bay

Helston

Richmond (North Yorkshire)

Castle Donington

Welshpool

Cowes (Isle of Wight)

Worksop

Chigwell

Orpington

Selby

Peterhead

Uckfield

Haddington

Congleton

Orford

Kyle of Lochalsh

Oakham

Leominster

Elie

Chertsey

Alton (Staffordshire)

Huntly

Horning

Rugeley

Diss

Whitchurch (Shropshire)

Annan

Winchelsea

Arley

Whetstone

West Mersea