Sometimes all we need is a momentary reprieve from our surroundings and a bit of distraction from the real world. Movies serve this exact purpose; they are a great form of escapism as they allow us to lose ourselves in them. Some people, however, have literally lost their lives to movies. Here’s a list of 11 movies that either killed a crew memberย on set, was the cause of death of someone in the audience orย gave a homicidal person the extra incentive they needed to kill people.
1- The Crowย
Theย cult classic that was released in 1994 starred Brandon Lee, the son of martial arts legend Bruce Lee.ย The movie tells the story of a rock musician who is granted life and power by a crow. Leeย was killed in a stunt accident on set during a scene that he was supposed to get shot in. The prop crew accidentally left a fragment of metal from a previous set of rounds inside the prop gun. The actor, Michael Massee, who was supposed to shoot Lee in the movie, fired the gun at him, not knowing that the gun contained a fragment of a real bullet. Lee was fatally injuredย in the abdomen and died after a 6 hours surgery.
2- Catch-22
It was said that John Jordan had a death wish because of how many times he was injured during shooting. The rotor blades from a helicopter once cut his leg off and he ended up losing a leg on the set of “You Only Live Twice”. During Catch 22, however, the second unit director refused to wear a harness while boarding a plane. He ended up falling 2,000 feet to his death into the Gulf of Mexico, but not before he was sucked out of the open door of the plane.
3- The Twilight Zone the Movie
The death of actor Vic Morrow was also the result of another accident on a movie set. During filming a Vietnam sequence, the tail blade of a helicopter that was hovering overhead came off because it was flying too low in order to avoid the explosions on set. The plane, therefore, crashed andย Morrow was decapitated. Two other child actors that he was carrying were killed along with him.
4-ย The Basketball Diaries
The Basketball Diaries was a case of life imitating art a bit too realistically. Leonardo DiCaprio’s character was spiraling into insanity and felt disgust towards his classmates thus, went on a shootingย spree in his algebra class during a dream sequence.
In real life, Barry Daleย Loukaitis was a troubled youth and is said to have suffered from Bipolar disorder as well as a superiority complex. One day, he felt aย murderous rage toward his fellow students and went on a killing spree during his fifth period algebra class. He went in armed with three guns and shot two of his classmates as well as his teacher. He quoted The Basketball Diaries while aiming the guns at his victims by saying “This sure beats algebra, doesn’t it?”
5-ย Raju Gari Gadiย
The Indian horror comedy, Raju Gari Gadi, is about seven reality TV show contestants who try to survive a night in a haunted house. During a screening of the movie in Hyderabad, a 55-year-old man died of a heart attack. The theater workers later reported that during the movie he headed for the exit twice, but went back each time. However, nobody discovered the dead bodyย until after the lights went up and the theater workers started to clean the room.
6-ย The Passion of the Christ
At the time of its release, The Passion of the Christ was widely criticized for its excessive viewing of blood and violence. While it can’t be argued that the movie was indeed a gore fest, it’s still hard to envision it killing people off. Two people were reported to have died during different screenings of the film.
The first incident occurred in February 2004 in Wichita, Kansas. A local 56-year-old newswoman, Peggy Law, suffered a fatal heart attack during the crucifixion scene. A nurse who was among the audience tried to revive her but failed. She was taken to a nearby hospital and died on the spot.ย A month later, the movie which was described as “one of the bloodiest movies of the decade” was also too much for the 43-year-old Brazilian pastor, Jose Geraldo Soares to handle. He rented out a theater to watch the movie and his wife noticed that he’d lost consciousness and it turned out that he had dropped dead.
7- Avatar
But Avatar isn’t even a scary movie! It was, however, the straw that broke the camel’s back for a 42-year-old Taiwanese man who felt ill and left during a showing of the movie. Avatar was an epic movie that broke records in visual effects and transported the audience to a whimsical alternate world. Unfortunately, it was a little too stimulant for the poor soul who kicked the bucket while watching it. The man was taken to the emergency room and remained unconscious for 11 days until he died from a severe stroke. His doctors blamed his death on the film by saying that he got “over-excited” from watching the movie. This settles the question of whether a person can actually die from unrestrained excitement.
8-ย Grand Masti
Imagine going for a whiff of some needed humour and dropping dead out of laughter instead? You don’t really have to imagine because this s*it is real. Grand Masti is an Indian sex comedy and the cause of death of a 22-year-old man named Mangesh Bhogal. A spokesperson for the theatre reported to DNA India at the time that “Those who sat beside the youth said he was laughing his heart out and it was then that he suffered a major stroke”. He literally laughed himself to death and was declared dead before being admitted to the hospital.ย
9-ย The Warrens of Virginia
Martha Mansfield was 24 at the time of her death. She was the star of the silent film, The Warrens of Virginia, and died while resting inย between takes. She was taking a break inside a car when someone lit a cigarette, threw a match into the car she’s in and walked by. The match landed on top of her highly flammable costume and in an instant, she went up in flames. A co-star threw a coat around her and succeeded in extinguishing the flames, but to no avail! She later died at the hospital from complications as she was severely burned.
10-ย Queen of the Damned
Queen of the Damned is generally described as the baffling sequel to the far superior Interview with the Vampire. It’s not exactly a famous movie therefore not reallyย the typeย of film that one would assumeย triggered the death of anybody.
Alan Menzies and Thomas McKendrick were two friends who watched Queen of the Damned together. Upon watching the movie, Menzies begged his friend to borrow it. He watched it over a 100 times in the few months that followed. Menzies then became obsessed with the main character, a millennia old vampire, and asserted that she used to visit him late at nightย offering to grant him immortality if he killed for her. Menzies confided in his friend and McKendrick did what anyone would do; he told his friend that he was being crazy. Menzies was deeply offended and considered this to be an insult to the character. Things took an unexpected turn from here. Menzies bludgeoned his friend to death, drank his blood and ate half his head!
11-ย American Psycho
A not-so-averageย adolescent named Michael Hernandez was a boy who idolized superheroes and serial killers alike. One of his idols was Patrick Bateman from American Psycho, and sadly, this was the one he chose to imitate. He murdered a 14-year-old fellow classmate one day and was sent to prison. Hernandez’s parents testified that he was insane way before the murder actually occurred. This is only one other case of life imitating art. Although it can be argued that the movie is to blame, Hernandez was a troubled kid. This means he probably would have killed someone or done something of the sort regardless of the film.
The next time you watch a movie, read a little about its history because some of it might surprise you. ย
