The Tape Library - Archive of the Paranormal & the Unexplained - Cursed Movies & Haunted Films | HALLOWEEN SPECIAL

Episode Date: October 31, 2023

Embark on a harrowing journey into the shadows of Hollywood's most cursed films, where the line between reality and the supernatural blurs. From the unsettling distortions of 'Return to Babylon' to the malevolent forces entwining 'The Omen,' we unveil the sinister secrets that linger over these productions. Venture into the haunted heart of the Yankee Peddler Inn, where the creators of 'House of the Devil' and 'The Innkeepers' dared to dwell. Discover the ominous legacy of 'The Exorcist,' a film marked not only by its own dark narrative but also by the chilling deeds of Paul Bateson, a murderer who played a horrifying role in its creation. Unearth the connections to 'Rosemary's Baby,' from the Manson family's malevolence to the tragic end of John Lennon, all echoing through the haunted halls of the Dakota in New York City. Brace yourself for a Halloween special that plumbs the depths of the paranormal. Are you prepared to face the world of cursed movies? Do you have a supernatural story to share? Drop me an email at [e-mail] You can check out The Tape Library in audio form on all of your favourite podcast providers. Tiktok - https://www.tiktok.com/@thetapelibrary Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/people/The-Tape-Library/100094332411836/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/thetapelibrary Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio Additional footage and audio from Envato, Pexels and the Youtube Audio Library Archive of the Paranormal, the strange and the unexplained. The Tape Library brings you the creepiest stories, to keep you horror junkies up all night. True scary stories of ghosts, cryptids, UFOs and true crime. Chapters 00:00 Cursed Films 02:50 Return To Babylon 07:19 The Omen 11:26 The Innkeepers/House of the Devil 16:16 The Exorcist 20:38 Rosemarys Baby Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the dim glow of the silver stream lies a realm where time is suspended, and souls dance eternally in flickering frames. Film, a peculiar kind of alchemy, possesses the uncanny ability to capture, not only the visage of actors, but the very essence of their being. It's as though the lens becomes a portal, ensnaring their laughter, their pain, their dreams, and sealing them in celluloid amber. With every reel that turns, they transcend mortality, becoming spectral performers, forever bound to their roles,

yet admit this luminous enchantment lies darker truth. But in the depths of shadow and light, sometimes unwittingly, filmmakers summon more than they bargained for. Like incantations etched in emotion, there are forces, uninvited, that seep through, leaving marks, echoing whispers of something beyond our understanding. These accidental sorceries, these uninvited guests, remind us that even in the art of creation, there are things we may never truly control.

The screen then becomes a spectral mirror, reflecting not only the living, but the echoes of the unseen. Leaving us to wonder, are we watching the story, or is the story watching us? Welcome to the tape library. And if you were joining me on release day, a happy Halloween to you all. Tonight we're going to be diving into the realm of cinema and exploring movies that are said to either have been cursed or haunted in some way.

From terrible tragedies that befell several notable horror movies to a film that claims to have literally captured spirits in its frames. I had picked this topic for a Halloween special as I thought it would be a bit of a fun one. How wrong I was. This is going to get very dark at times. You have mourned. Get yourself a warm drink, dim the lights, and get comfortable. It's time for a movie night, my friends. One you won't soon forget.

Sometime in the early 2010s, filmmaker Alex Monti Canoati and his producer, were looking for inspiration for their next project. When fate seemingly stepped in. The pair were walking through a car park, just off of Hollywood Boulevard, when they noticed a bag that had been left on the side of the lot. Curiosity got the better of them, and inside they discovered 19 rolls of old 16mm black and white film stock. The inspiration hit them almost instantly, and after realizing the stock had simply been thrown out, decided to use it in their next movie. They began furiously writing a short comedy drama.

a tribute to the 1920s. Using the film they had found in an old hand-cranked camera, they filmed Return to Babylon, a silent movie that re-enacted the lies and scandals of the film stars of the silent era. The film was shot in a number of infamous locations from the time. The homes of Rudolf Valentino and Norma Talmadge were both featured, as well as the Magic Castle. Many of these locations have been said for years to be some of the most haunted in Hollywood. So the groundwork was laid there for the cast and crew to be aware of potential paranormal activity. During the production, many of the people working on the film spoke of strange phenomena. Most referred to a feeling of being watched as they walked around the old

homes of the Hollywood elite. But some claimed it went further than that, with odd sounds and even the feeling of being touched. The actress Jennifer Tilly in particular spoke a feeling like she was being grabbed by unseen hands. All of this continued during the duration of filming. But as you'll learn tonight, this type of thing isn't unheard of on film sets. What makes return to Babylon such an interesting case is what came next. During the editing process, the director noticed something unusual. Within the raw footage, for brief moments, often just single frames, the actor's

appearances seemed to be changing. This wasn't just errors in the film processing. Faces would distort and take on unnatural forms. fingers would grow into long clawed tendrils, shadows would appear on the edges of frames, figures would appear out of nowhere, their faces contorted with grimaces of pain or terror, and then be gone as quickly as they appeared. Some claim that some of these strange shifts made the actors seemingly take on the appearance of some of the long-departed actors the film was referencing, if only for a fraction of a second. Experts have looked at the footage and struggled to decipher how these visual effects, if that's what they were, were achieved. But the director and crew remained firm to this day, that there was no manipulation of the footage. While this could have been an attempt as a clever marketing strategy on the part of the filmmakers,

it would be an odd choice to paint such a light-hearted film as proof of something much darker. While the images captured in the film look almost demonic to many, the director didn't see it that way. He believes the shapeshifting forms to look biblical in a much more positive way. He believed that this was a divine presence, making itself visible through his movie. Return to Babylon continues to fascinate and divide the paranormal world to this day. While there may be a rational explanation to what is well, witnessed here. It remains one of the most compelling pieces of evidence of a haunted movie to have ever surfaced. Over the years many horror movie productions, especially those that delve

into the world of the occult, are said to have been cursed. But few can hold a candle to the events that took place during the production of the 1976 movie, The Omen, in case you somehow have never seen it. The Omen is the tale of the Blondeau. earth of the Antichrist into the world. A seemingly innocent young boy who bears the mark of the beasts and brings about death and destruction for anyone who happens across his path. Tragedy would very quickly before the production. When the lead actor Gregory Peck was due to fly over to England to film a scene, a last-minute delay meant that Peck would not be needed until later in the week, so his flight was cancelled. The plane that he was due to be on took off without issue.

although that very quickly changed. The plane hit a flock of birds, causing it to plummet out through the sky and crash, killing everyone on board. What makes this incident all the more tragic was that the plane crashed into a car that was driving away from the runway. Inside the car was the family of the pilot, all of whom lost their lives. would make it to London following this incident in September of 1975, but on route his plane would be struck by lightning. Obviously an unusual occurrence but not unheard of, however, on another

transatlantic flight, just a few weeks later, the same thing would happen to producer Mace Newfield. It would then happen a third time to writer David Seltzer. Finally during production, struck a fourth time, narrowly missing producer Harvey Bernard, while the crew were filming in Rome. Luckily, in all four incidents, the filmmakers were not hurt. Producer Mason Newfeld had another near-miss when he was turned away from a fully booked restaurant, just days after his brush with the lightning, only for it to be destroyed by an IRA bomb that day, along with director Richard Donner's hotel. Speaking of which, Richard Donner actually believes the omen is a blessed film.

That these near misses for the people that worked on the film actually shows that something was keeping them safe from tragedy. This protection would soon run out, though. Animals involved in scenes in the film began to act strangely. The director was able to capture some very genuine reactions in the scene in which baboons terrorized the family during a safari. tour, as the animals started acting unexpectedly aggressive for real. The Rottweilers that were used in the film attacked their handlers on numerous occasions,

and most infamously, the day after filming the safari scenes, a zookeeper who had been hired to help with the animal scenes, was eaten by a tiger. The most chilling incident though would befall special effects designer John Richardson and his partner, Liz Moore. Shortly after leaving the production of the Omen to move onto their next job in Holland, the pair were driving late at night. Just after midnight, in fact, on August 13, 1976. A Friday, when they were involved in a catastrophic head-on collision, remarkably Richardson survived the accident with only minor injuries. But Moore wasn't so long. lucky. A tire crashed through the windscreen, decapitating her instantly. In a moment that

chillingly echoed a scene from the movie, Richardson would apparently go on to add an even more disturbing detail to this story. Moments before the accident, they had made a joke about the fact that they had just passed a sign for the city of Omen and that it was 66.6 kilometers away. In 2009, Ty West released the incredible House of the Devil, a truly creepy 80s throwback that is full of occult horrors and slow-burn terror. During the production, many of the cast and crew were put up in the nearby Yankee Pedlar Inn. West became fascinated by the location. The crew members and himself were witnesses to a whole host of strange goings-on,

TVs turning on by themselves, light that would flicker, strange phone calls that were made with seemingly no one on the other end, and all of them began to encounter strangely vivid dreams. Nothing major, but enough for a bus to start amongst a crew who were quickly beginning to question if the location might be haunted. And as it turned out, they were right. The hotel staff confirmed that they, and many of the people who stayed in the hotel, had encountered the exact same things, to such an extent that the entire town believed the hotel was haunted. The story of its haunting goes like this. In the heart of downtown Torrington, Connecticut, looms the Yankee peddler,

a relic of the past shrouded in an eerie atmosphere. Built in 1891, this Grand Inn holds secret. that chill the bone. It's said that in 1910, the original owner Alice met her end within its walls, setting off a chain of unexplained events. Room 3-5-3 where she breathed her last carries a lingering presence. Guests report seeing ghostly figures and catching whiffs of untraceable sense. Alice, it seems, isn't ready to leave.

Her spirit is felt A vigilant hostess Ensuring guest's comfort In the lobby her rocking chair Sways as if moved by unseen hands But it's room 295 that bears the brunt Of the paranormal activity Guests have felt a spectral touch

An eerie companion slipping under their covers Lights flicker casting the room into a dance of shadows. In a chilling coincidence, one guest shared a dream, a dream their companion also vividly recounted. It's as though the boundaries of reality blur within these walls. The Yankee peddler once a bustling hub, now harbors Alice's lingering spirit. There's a place where the past refuses the rest, where the line between the living and the departed grows thin, and where every creek and rustle tells a tale of the supernatural.

Ty West was obviously very pleased at his horror movie production now involved a very real ghost story, but rather than including this tale in the promotion of House of the Devil, he instead returned a few years later and shot a movie not only inspired by the events that were taking place at the inn, but also filmed inside the building itself. The following is all from the director's own words in an interview he did with IndyWire back in 2012.

I wanted to make a ghost story. I was trying to think of how to do it cheap. Then I thought, why not make a movie we lived? The place let us there before, so they were likely to let us do it again. That's kind of how it all came to be. They let us back in and we moved very quickly. I'm a sceptic so I don't really buy it, but I feel like it,

but I've definitely seen doors closed by themselves. I've seen a TV turn off and on by itself. Lights would always burn out in my room. Everyone on crew has very vivid dreams every night, which is really strange. The one story that is most intriguing to me. In the film, the most haunted room is the honeymoon suite. That's where the ghost stuff started in the hotel.

The only reason why I picked the room that I picked to shoot in was because it was big enough to do a dolly shot. No more thought went into it other than pure technical reasons. So when we're finishing the movie, I find out that the most haunted room in real life is the room I picked to be the haunted room in the movie. It could be coincidence. It's weird that it happened that way.

The dreams came back the first day I walked in. The vibe was there. Sarah Paxson will wake up in the middle of the night, thinking someone was in the room with her. Everyone has stories. As Winter began to take hold of Washington, D.C. in 1972, a priest felt himself drawn to a street in the historic neighborhood of Georgetown. There he approached a man.

The priest claimed to not know who he was, or why he was there, but he felt he needed to give this man something, a medallion. The priest then said to the man, Revelled the devil for the trickster that he is. he will seek retribution against you and he will even try to stop what you were trying to do to unmask him before walking away

the man the priest had approached was Jason Miller an actor he was in Georgetown that day taking a break in between filming scenes for a little film known as the Exorcist The production of The Exorcist was much like the omen, plagued by a series of disturbing events.

There are nine deaths associated with the production of the film that all happened before it could be completed, including that of actor Jack McGowan, who plays the film director thrown from Reagan's bedroom window. A number of injuries happened on set as well, although it's worth noting that this was the 1970s, and did feature a director who was known to fire a gun to get genuine reactions of fear from his actors. Speaking of William Freakin, he received a call late one night from the film's production manager telling him not to come to set the next day.

Freakin was enraged, assuming that he was being fired from the production. That was not the case. A fire had swept through the set, destroying every part of the house, except for Reagan. bedroom. This was disturbing enough for the production crew to call a priest to set and bless it when the six-week rebuild was complete. Another unusual story that took place during the production centres around the small role of one of the hospital workers in the film. The scene where Reagan is

taken to the hospital for scans featured the real radiologist that were working there, one of whom was Paul Bateson. Bateson would later be charged with the murder of film industry journalists Addison Verrill. There were also accusations that Bateson was the man behind the bag murders, a series of killings that targeted gay men in Manhattan in 1970s. However, a lack of evidence meant he was not charged with these. Leaving the identity of the bag murders serial killer,

unsolved to this day, his encounters with Bateson led Freaking to make cruising a movie about the murders. The release of the exorcists saw levels of hysteria that few films had generated before that point. Tales of people fainting in the theatres. Vomiting in the aisles. Ambulances parked outside just in case they were needed. But one of the most interesting is an alleged screening that happened in Rome. Supposedly there was a cinema located between two churches.

Despite some level of public outcry, they had decided to screen the exorcist. Midway through the screening, lightning hit the crucifix, positioned on top of one of the churches, where it had stood for 400 years. The crucifix crashed to the ground, breaking apart, right in front of the cinema. We've only touched the surface of tales of haunted or cursed movies out there. We have time for one more tonight. But if you've enjoyed this episode and would like to see a part of the film, Part 2. Let me know in the comments below. One final story tonight, and this is a good one.

We're going to be getting into some very dark topics here, so I'll put out a general trigger warning if you are at all sensitive to real life events. This goes beyond just a movie, and unveils a curse that, depending on what you believe, has been blamed for the deaths of some of the most famous people to ever walk the earth. In 1965, writer Ira Levin was desperately searching for his next big idea. When he glanced over at his then pregnant wife, her due date, June 1966. Those numbers, 666, rolled around in his head. Religious counterculture was becoming a thing all over the country,

and he started to conduct an idea that he knew many would find blasphemous. He feared this book that was beginning to form in his mind would end his career, but it didn't. It was a tale of a young would-be mother in her New York apartment and a dangerous cult that has plans for her baby.

Levin, however, had nothing to worry about, at least at a time. The book was a masterpiece and received rave reviews. Very quickly, a movie was commissioned, but just as quickly as the movie was completed. Levin saw his family fall apart when his wife divorced him. The Catholic Church widely denounced both the book and movie, and Levin was regularly seen as a figure of evil in the Catholic community.

Over the years, Levin partially blamed himself for a rise in interest in the occult, and Satanism in particular. The satanic panic that rolled in over the coming decades did nothing to help this. And over the years Levin seemingly developed, if not a hatred, then at least a regret over what many consider to be his masterpiece. The author though got off easy. Unlike many of the films we featured today, the filming of Rosemary's Baby seemingly had no issues. Beyond producer Robert Evans describing an issue, eerie feeling whenever he was inside the apartment complex the film was set in. However,

just one year after the film's release, the acclaimed film's composer Christoph Kameda fell off a cliff. He was left in a coma for four months before passing away. A tragic accident, but hauntingly, one that echoed Levin's book. This was the same fate the witches cursed Rosemary's inquisitive friend with in his tale. Famed horror filmmaker William Castle was one of the first people signed onto the project, ultimately being announced as a producer by Robert Evans. Castle received huge amounts of hate mail for his involvement with the film, seemingly the stress of which saw him quickly develop kidney stones that left him hospitalized.

While there he began to have vivid hallucinations of scenes from the film, apparently even shouting out loud during his surgery. Rosemary, for God's sake, drop that knife. The fate of the film's director and his then girlfriend Sharon Tate's have become a collective piece of horrifying popular culture. Tate had been desperate to play the role of Rosemary, but the studio opted to go with Mia Farrow instead. Tate would be present throughout the shooting of Rosemary's baby, however,

and would even appear as an extra. It is said that during this time she began to develop an interest. In the occult, the pair relocated to California shortly after completion of the film, and by the summer of 1969, Tate was heavily pregnant with Roman Polanski's baby. He was due to go and work in London, but just before he left, he claims he was hit with a strange morbid feeling. The fault of, you will never see her again. Polansky shook it off as pre-travel anxiety. He was wrong.

Sharon Tate, her unborn child, and several of her friends, were brutally murdered by the Manson family just days later. The following night, the family would go on to kill Leno and Rosemary Labyanka in their home, writing messages on the walls in blood at both sides, one of which read, Helter Skelter, a reference to a Beatles song, and what Charles Manson had referred to as a calling to kickstart a race war.

In the following years, Polanski's life fell apart. He turned to substance abuse. He would later go on to molest an underage child, plying her with drugs and alcohol before abusing her. Polansky spent 42 days in jail, but has since avoided returning to any countries that would see him extradited to the US to face further charges. To this day, he continues to make films, despite technically being a fugitive. People couldn't make sense of the murders, and to this day insane rumors and conspiracies

circulate around them, with some claiming Polanski sacrificed his partner and unborn child for a success, or that the Beatles were somehow involved in some sort of satanic ritual that caused the events. Interestingly, much of the White album, the album that features Helter Skelter and Piggy's, was written with the star of Rosemary's baby, Mia Farrow, present. The Beatles obviously denounced the crimes, with John Lennon saying, all that Manson stuff was built around George's son. song about pigs, and this one Helter Skelter, Paul's song about an English fairground. It has nothing to do with anything, and least of all to do with me. Fast forward 11 years.

John Lennon is living in the famous New York apartment block, the Dakota. He had no idea that for the past three months, a man had been planning to kill him. Mark's David Chapman approached Lennon and Yoko Ono as they headed towards their limousine that evening. He asked Lennon for an autograph, a moment that happened to be captured by an amateur photographer. Later that night as the couple returned to the Dakota. Chapman was still there. He shot Lennon five times and then sat and waited for the police to take him away. In some versions of events it is claimed that when deciding if he should go through with it,

Chapman saw Mia Farrow walking past him as he stood outside the Dakota he saw this as a sign that he was meant to do it the death took place in the shadow of the Dakota the building that Robert Evans had felt a creeping presence in the building that famously was the set of Rosemary's baby

the building has a long history of tragedy and hauntings with reports of paranormal activity taking place throughout, with an especially high number of strange sightings taking place in the basement. Lennon himself claims to have seen the apparition of a crying woman walking through the halls of the building, and even what he described as a UFO from his window. Yoko would claim to see and even speak to John's ghost in the Dakota after his murder. The woman that Lennon described has also been seen in the building by workers as far as back as the 1960s. A number of famous stars that had visited or called the Dakota home

would go on to die young besides Lenin, with Marilyn Monroe, Judy Holliday and Judy Garland, all having been within its walls over the years. Maybe if you believe in the idea of curses at all. It isn't the book or film of Rosemary's baby that is cursed. Maybe it just so happened, they chose the wrong building to create a horror movie. That's all for this entry into the tape library. If you've enjoyed this episode, then please be sure to subscribe. Also, liking the video is a really easy way to support the channel. Are there any cursed movies you think I should have included here?

Comment them below and I can work them into the next entry into the series. Thanks for sticking with me until the end. Until next time. pleasant dreams