Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		5.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		2.5

Cursed Films: Season Two Blu-ray Movie Review

More like "shit happens".

Reviewed by Randy Miller III September 20, 2022

Jay Cheel's Shudder documentary series Cursed Films investigates myths, legends, and facts surrounding Hollywood movies that endured unusual or unexplained deaths, injuries, or other phenomena before, during, or after production. The first season aired in 2020 and tackled five of film history's most obvious candidates: Poltergeist, The Omen, The Exorcist, The Crow, and Twilight Zone: The Movie (specifically, the John Landis-directed segment "Time Out"), with each one featuring key crew members, fans, and other personalities who argue for or against the possibility of dark forces being responsible for the tragedies. The end result was, while slightly hampered by its vague endorsement of supernatural or unexplained elements, nonetheless a pretty compelling watch from start to finish.

This second season includes five episodes produced during 2021-22 and, like the first season, are titled after the films they focus on: The Wizard of Oz, Rosemary's Baby, Stalker, The Serpent and the Rainbow, and Cannibal Holocaust. They're even marketed the same way, with the Blu-ray's back cover summary repeating the first season's text almost verbatim while ending with an identical question: "Were these films really cursed, as many believe, or just the victims of bad luck and bizarre circumstances?". But sadly, the series' focus has taken a turn for the worse: most of these films are clearly just the victim of known and documented production problems -- or, in the case of Cannibal Holocaust, just an infamous video nasty -- and have absolutely no real mystery at their core. This makes several episodes feel padded and formless, as the paper-thin propositions of their supposed "curses" don't hold enough weight to fill even half of these 40-minute endeavors. Additionally, the producers of Cursed Films seem to have doubled down on their coverage of obvious frauds and, while some of these wishy-washy "testimonials" are obviously played for lightweight laughs, it no longer feels appetizing within the context of certain episodes. Simply put, my eyes rolled regularly.

This season's rickety opener "The Wizard of Oz" may just be the outright worst of the bunch. There's no real argument for a curse given -- not that one exists -- as it stumbles through well-traveled territory like numerous on-set accidents, The Tin's Man's powdered aluminum makeup, asbestos snowflakes and, of course, the "munchkin suicide". Participants are second-hand at best due to the film's age but some really take the cake for bullshit, like an obsessive video store owner (above) who provides VHS video "evidence" and two unnamed fans who probably weren't even born before the film's 60th anniversary. The credible guests are more fun, such as esteemed Mythbusters co-host Adam Savage, who accidentally deflates the entire mission statement of Cursed Films in just a few short sentences. Ouch.

"Rosemary's Baby" is more of the same... but if this isn't the season's lowlight, it's awfully close. Drawing tasteless comparisons to the source story, it suggests a handful of events during that time period -- including, most notably, the murder of Polanski's wife, Sharon Tate -- may have stemmed from the film's brash portrayal of Satanic elements and rituals but otherwise offers no real material worth considering. While "The Wizard of Oz" was a pointless episode in its own right, it at least got by on the strength of multiple subjects; this has even less to work with, and it shows.

At this point I was honestly tempted to give up, so it's fortunate that the third episode "Stalker" is by far the best one of the season. Andrei Tarkovsky's celebrated and heavily scrutinized film was, of course, the victim of many production and post-production difficulties that included a year's worth of footage being "unusable", on-set friction between the director and first cinematographer (which may have been related to the first problem), and multiple post-release deaths that may have stemmed from one scene filmed outside a highly polluted factory. While all of these mysteries are fairly well-known to fans, they're balanced out with several excellent first-hand interviews including an assistant cameraman (who's sternly corrected by his wife on several occasions) and a few giants in the field, such as famed cinematographer Roger Deakins. There's also some great footage of a charismatic Ukranian tour guide -- whose footage, among other scenes, was captured before the Russian invasion earlier this year -- who joyfully walks us through some of the original filming locations. It's really enjoyable stuff, but this is unfortunately as good as the season gets.

I'll group the last two together, both due to their similar themes and the fact that I'm less familiar with the title films. Both "The Serpent and the Rainbow" and "Cannibal Holocaust" are driven by the intensity of their source material, with the former focusing almost solely on the racist roots of voodoo's portrayal in pop culture. This episode documents the film's notoriously tough production as well as its source novel, featuring interviews with first-hand contributors like author Wade Davis, actors Bill Pullman and Cathy Tyson, and even Jonathan Craven, the set dresser and director's son. It's still not exactly convincing from any honest perspective but at least documents a film that, in my opinion, deserves a little extra attention. But "Cannibal Holocaust" is another step backwards: this episode likewise documents the video nasty's filming and notorious backlash after its release, but there's really nothing here beyond the realm of "lots of shit went down" and its first-hand participants -- most of the key actors, and even director Ruggero Deodato -- respectively apologizing for or defending their participation in this monumentally visceral film. (Not surprisingly, this episode also begins with a warning about explicitly violent and disturbing content, so viewer discretion and all that.)

From start to finish, this second season of Cursed Films is both fitfully better and sometimes worse than its lukewarm 2.5-star rating suggests. While it's certainly valuable from a historical perspective (after all, any legitimate information, first-hand or otherwise, about known classics and deep cuts alike is generally worth sitting through), its tone and focus are all over the place, and dare I say the series as a whole has somewhat lost its way after just ten episodes. Here's hoping it finds more solid footing in possible future seasons, even if the well is slowly drying up for candidates that haven't already been documented in detail like Waterworld and Apocalypse Now. For now, RLJ Entertainment's Blu-ray edition follows the template of its solid first-season release in every department but the bonus features.

Cursed Films: Season Two Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Simply put, the 1080p transfer on RLJ Entertainment's Blu-ray shares almost identical highlights with the first season. This is a visually outstanding production with crisp and carefully-lit interview footage, equally impressive vintage photos and archival printed material, film clips that play approximately as strongly as their most recent home video editions, and even older behind-the-scenes footage that looks as good as its sources will allow. Although the largest portion of this material (the interviews) is framed at 2.00:1, anything in a more narrow aspect ratio is typically window-boxed to fit with very little cropping. A fantastic-looking release, and one worthy of another rare five-star rating.

Cursed Films: Season Two Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Likewise, the DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio mix once again serves up crisp dialogue during recent interviews, film clips play with their respective mono/stereo/surround mixes as heard on recent home video releases, and the original score by newcomer Weyes Blood (who incidentally appeared in this odd little film I enjoyed reviewing back in 2020) likewise occasionally ventures into rear channels for additional sonic ambience. It's a clean and trouble-free presentation that, despite my reservations about the season's content as a whole, is just as strong as what came before.

Optional English (SDH) subtitles are offered, and non-English speakers get forced yellow subtitles (seen above).

Cursed Films: Season Two Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This two-disc set ships in a keepcase with spooky cover artwork and a promotional insert that just gets in the way of Disc 1, dammit. The extras are less impressive than last time, with no audio commentaries to be found.

• Extended Interview with Adam Savage (1:40) - One of the season's most level-headed guests speaks briefly about the power of film props -- specifically, Dorothy's dress and ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz -- and their emotional importance to him as a lifelong fan of cinema.

• Extended Interview with Gregg Turkington (2:31) - On the other end of the spectrum, Wizard of Oz curse aficionado and retro video store owner Greg Turkington talks about his 15 different VHS copies of the film and his efforts to keep them separated in case of accidental damage.

• Deleted Sequence (9:43) - This deleted scene from episode #2 features David Oman at the Oman House, his home on Los Angeles' Cielo Drive that sits roughly 150 feet from the Sharon Tate property. Among other topics, he provides a brief tour of the area and speaks about activities that took place during the production of Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (with a few "unofficial" video recordings, naturally).

Cursed Films: Season Two Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Horror sequels usually disappoint, so it's no surprise that this second season of Shudder's documentary series Cursed Films can't avoid the sophomore slump. Despite a number of solid first-hand interviews, valuable vintage material, and thoughtful connective tissue linking several episodes together, these five outings are extremely hit-or-miss due to some of their flimsy "cases" and unsteady focus. (It's the kind of noticeable, nagging drop-off that makes you question if the first season was as good as you remembered.) Regardless, some of this material has merit and, if nothing else, die-hard fans of the films covered will want to at least have a look. RLJ Entertainment's Blu-ray features outstanding A/V quality but comes up short on extras, favoring deleted scenes over creator input. Try before you buy.