10 Cursed Movies (& The Truth Behind Them) (2024)

Some of Hollywood’s most iconic movies are also rumored to have "cursed" productions. Due to a combination of urban legends and well-known unfortunate accidents on the set of these films, the curse behind a movie’s making becomes as popular as the movie itself. Many of these films are considered cursed for tragic reasons involving injuries, fires, lightning, and death. From Superman to Poltergeist, these "cursed" movies make for sensational stories, but this list will also delve into the truth behind each movie’s supposed curse.

Chaos and misfortune are common in any film production, yet the most famous troubled productions lead audiences to believe a movie is cursed. For this list, "cursed" refers to a movie’s troubled and tragic film set or the horrific events that occurred after a film’s release. Some of these cursed movies include events that can be violent, graphic, and triggering. Whether these events are coincidences or signs of a curse is solely for the reader’s interpretation, but this list will attempt to explain a movie’s curse and its truth.

The Omen

The Omen is a film about a couple who unknowingly adopt a child who’s the Antichrist. Unexpected deaths and misfortune surround the child in the movie, but death and misfortune also surround the movie’s production. The producers were allegedly warned that if they were going to make a film about the devil, do not be surprised if the devil tried to stop it. The Omen’s cursed movie troubles started in pre-production when lead actor Gregory Peck’s son died of suicide two months before filming began. Then, as Peck and another producer flew to London to start filming, both planes were struck by lightning.

When The Omen’s filming started, the production saw plenty of unfortunate events. A plane that was meant to be used for aerial shots was switched at the last minute, and the initial plane the crew was meant to board reportedly crashed, killing everyone on board. One memorable scene featuring angry baboons at the zoo required an animal trainer. Unfortunately, the animal trainer was killed by a tiger the day after filming. The Omen’s closeness to tragedy can be viewed as accidents and even lucky circumstances in the film’s favor, but the events gave the film more notoriety, as some viewers believe The Omen’s production is cursed to this day.

Superman

The Superman curse refers to violent tragedies for actors who played the famous DC Comics character. The curse was initiated when George Reeves played Superman in the 1950s television series The Adventures of Superman. In 1959, Reeves died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The curse continued with ±, who played Superman in the late 70s and 80s in four classic Superman films. In addition, Reeve suffered a horse-riding injury that left him paralyzed from the neck down. The two terrible tragedies involving the Superman lead actors created the urban legend of the Superman curse, but many other actors have played the iconic character in television and film without injury.

Poltergeist

Poltergeist continues to be a horror staple and encapsulates 80s suburbia while delivering constant chills, but the most chilling part of Poltergeist is what happened behind the scenes. The Poltergeist set is infamous for using real human skeletons in its memorable reveal that the Freeling family’s house was on a native burial ground. The irony is that many believe that the film’s use of real skeletons caused the Poltergeist curse and premature deaths of the film’s actors.

Dominique Dunne, who played the family’s eldest daughter Dana was murdered by an abusive ex-boyfriend five months after Poltergeist’s premiere. The film’s youngest and arguably most iconic star, Heather O’Rourke, shockingly died of cardiac arrest at 12 after an unknown genetic intestinal issue. While the film continues to find new horror audiences each year, Poltergeist’s story is now synonymous with its unfortunate deaths. O’Rourke may have passed, but her delivery of the famous line "They’re here!" lives on in cinema forever.

The Crow

The Crow’s curse is due to the death of its star, Brandon Lee. The movie is about a man returning from the dead who encountered the worst accident during production. Brandon Lee, the son of famous martial artist Bruce Lee, was killed on set after a bullet in a prop gun was fired and mortally wounded the actor. This horrific incident and the film’s source material caused rumors of The Crow being cursed, but experienced film crews view the troubled production as a preventable accident. The Crow’s firearms specialist was relieved early that day, and the tragedy serves as a warning to movie studios that cut costs at the expense of safety.

Atuk

Unlike other cursed films that completed production, Atuk (Inuit for "Grandfather") and its curse have remained in development for forty years. The unfilmed American comedy is based on the novel The Incomparable Atuk and is about an Inuit hunter who ends up in the big city. Urban legend claims that the film is cursed due to the deaths of many actors who have shown interest in the lead role. Some of these actors include John Belushi, John Candy, Chris Farley, and Sam Kinison. While these actors suffered all too-soon deaths, one could also attribute Belushi, Farley, and Kinison’s deaths to substance abuse before their interest in this unmade film.

Rosemary’s Baby

Filmmaker Roman Polanski’s personal tragedy after Rosemary’s Baby is possibly more famous than the film itself. Rosemary’s Baby is about a pregnant young woman who suspects her elderly neighbors of being part of a Satanic cult that wishes to harm her baby. The film received rave reviews but was overshadowed by an event eerily similar to another rising cult in the late 1960s: The Manson Family.

The Manson Family members followed Charles Manson, a man they believed to be a manifestation of Jesus Christ. While initially immersed in hippie culture, the cult turned violent after increased drug use and an obsession with Hollywood. A year after Rosemary’s Baby was released, the Manson Family broke into Polanski’s house while he was away. They brutally murdered five people residing in the house, including Polanski’s pregnant wife and Hollywood star Sharon Tate. The high-profile murders shocked the world. Some believe Rosemary’s Baby to be cursed in its creepy similarities to cult and pregnancy, but one of the murderers claimed that they simply wanted to make national headlines.

The Passion Of The Christ

While The Passion of the Christ followed Jesus Christ’s last days alive, the biblical drama had many unfortunate accidents during its production that led to people thinking the film was cursed—the accidents on set primarily focused on Jim Caviezel, the actor who played Jesus. Caviezel suffered hypothermia, pneumonia, a dislocated shoulder and was struck by lightning while filming Passion of the Christ. The film’s depiction of Jesus’ suffering was criticized as excessive and inaccurate, with some claiming this depiction was a reason behind the curse. But Caviezel believes his time in The Passion of the Christ is more of a blessing than a curse.

Twilight Zone: The Movie

Twilight Zone: The Movie's set accident is one of the most tragic in film history. The movie was meant to be a tribute to the 1960s television series and had significant talent behind the scenes. Steven Spielberg, George Miller, Joe Dante, and John Landis directed four different segments for the film, with Spielberg and Landis also serving as producers of Twilight Zone: The Movie. Unfortunately, while the film was intended to honor the Twilight Zone series, it became its own cautionary tale.

Landis’ segment, "Time Out,'' starred Vic Morrow as a prejudiced man who gets taken back in time to experience the historical dangers of prejudice—one particular scene called for Morrow’s character to rescue two children from a helicopter chasing after them. Unfortunately, during filming, the helicopter flew so close to the ground that it spun out of control, decapitating Morrow and one of the child actors and crushing the other child to death. Landis and the segment producers were criticized for illegally hiring child actors and utilizing them in such a dangerous scene. While Landis avoided a conviction for manslaughter, Spielberg ended his working relationship with Landis after the incident.

Rebel Without A Cause

Rebel Without a Cause is a cinema classic, but the James Dean film also carries the title of being cursed due to the premature deaths of its three main stars. The coming-of-age drama featured James Dean, Sal Mineo, and Natalie Wood as teenage outcasts who bonded in a world with parents and leaders that didn’t understand them. Rebel Without a Cause was praised for its portrayal of clashing generational values and each of its lead performances, but the stars never got to see the full legacy of their film.

The most horrific aspect of each star’s premature death is the violent nature of their demise. Dean died in a head-on car collision a month before the film’s release. In the 1970s, Mineo was stabbed to death by a mugger outside his apartment. The most mysterious death was Natalie Wood’s, who reportedly drowned while on a boat trip with her husband, Robert Wagner, and friend, Christopher Walken. Wood’s floating body was found a mile from the boat, but the autopsy also showed bruises on her. Wagner claimed Wood and he had an argument that night but maintained he had no part in her death.

The Exorcist

The Exorcist is considered one of the most frightening horror movies in history, but the set of The Exorcist had its own share of terror. While anything can go wrong during a movie’s production, events seem to go especially wrong during a horror movie’s production. The movie about a young girl experiencing demonic possession suffered production delays after an unexpected fire burned down the set. The one part of the set that reportedly survived the fire was the young girl’s bedroom, where the exorcism occurs. Ellen Burstyn also suffered a back injury on set that left her on crutches for the rest of the film’s production.

These dangerous events led to an actual priest blessing the film set. Unfortunately, the blessing did not extend past the film shoot as two actors, Jack MacGowran, who plays a film director, and Vasiliki Maliaros, who plays Father Karras’ mom, both died just before the film’s release. The troubled production and deaths surrounding the film sparked rumors about The Exorcist being a cursed movie. Yet The Exorcist is one of the top-grossing and critically successful horror films to this day and, like many films on this list, possibly benefits from its label as cursed.