Cursed Films (2020): Season 1, Episode 5 - Twilight Zone: The Movie - full transcript

- When the new Hollywood
came about,

your Scorseses and your
Coppolas and your De Palmas,

and your Friedkins,
and your Ciminos,

they really kinda bought
into their own press,

this kind of swinging dick,
auteur theory,

two-fisted filmmaking.

- The '70s were kind of
the wild west.

People love hearing stories
about William Friedkin

firing a gun on the set
of "The Exorcist".

It would just take one tweet
to come out of a production

of someone just firing a gun



to get a reaction from
somebody else

and then that director's career
would be over.

- They were pushing boundaries.

They were pioneers of cinema.

- There was a lot of belief
when these auteurs

were creating beautiful art,
but at what cost?

- Certainly, there's a culture
that's happening in the '70s

that is letting these guys
run wild

and we got a lot of great
films out of it,

but you also get a lot of...
mishaps.

- The incident on the set
of "The Twilight Zone"

always stuck with me.

Film sets are controlled chaos.

I've been here at Blumhouse
for about four years now



and I've been on a fair share
of sets

and it is really interesting
to see,

you know, how many precautions
are made.

Someone's gotta take a slight
step backwards down a staircase

and we've gotta do a bunch
of safety meetings,

and for good reason.

- For all the coincidences
that have to be connected

to give life to these cursed
legends,

The Twilight Zone accident

sort of lays that all bare,

it's... it's just something
horrible that happened.

- I'm Stephen Farber,
a film critic

and co-author of the book
"Outrageous Conduct:

Art, Ego, and The Twilight Zone
Case".

John Landis
and Stephen Spielberg,

came up with the idea of this
anthology film

inspired by The Twilight Zone
TV series,

which had a real cult following.

Narrator: You unlock this door
with the key of imagination.

Beyond it is another dimension,

a dimension of sound.

The Twilight Zone.

- The basic idea of Landis'
segment

was just for this bigot
to experience prejudice

in these different settings

and to get a sense of what
the people that he had maligned

would go through.

Vic Morrow who was the leading
actor in this segment,

he wasn't that impressed
with John Landis,

but he was impressed

that Spielberg was involved
with the movie,

and he needed a job, frankly.

His career had not been going
that well at that time.

John Landis had had a very big
box office success

with "Animal House".

He had a somewhat less
but still success

with the "Blues Brothers".

This was the auteur era,

where, uh, directors were
really granted carte blanche.

There was not much oversight
by the studios.

- I met Frank Marshall
years and years ago.

I built a relationship
with Frank

and he called me up
and he says, you know,

I like you to be involved
in more of my pictures

and Frank had offered me
"The Twilight Zone,"

which introduced me
to John Landis.

I sat down with John
and we started to discuss

how we can create those worlds

and it was very important
to be as real,

as realistic as possible.

We found the backlot
at Universal

for the European street.

Also, for the, uh, cattle car

and creating that scene.

- The studio felt it would
be better

if you learned something
from this experience

that would redeem the character,

so Landis came up with the idea

of the Vietnam sequence

where he would save the lives

of two Vietnamese orphans

who were in danger.

I think Landis was considered
to be...

talented but erratic

and not the most mature
in judgment,

or the most responsible
in terms of filmmaking,

and several of the crew people

were concerned about
his cavalier attitude

towards safety.

- One of the scenes
is Vic Morrow

is running through the jungle,

coming through the greenery
of Vietnam,

which I filled in...

- Help me!

- ...and he is being shot at.

- No!

- To get the realistic feel
of them being shot at,

before the bullets go off,

he is pulled off out of scene

and the bullets shoot,

and they rip the shit out
of the greenery,

the palm fronds
and the whole thing.

Well, they used real bullets
that night.

That was something that John
insisted on doing.

John called me into his office
and said,

we're gonna go to Valencia,

and we drove through this area

that did have aspects
of a jungle.

So I was walking by myself

and there was a stream,

and a large cliff on the other
side of the stream.

I went over to John and
I brought him over to the,

to the stream and I said,

John, I see a village over
there.

He says, what are you talking
about?

So I said to him,
if you agree with me,

that we shoot the set
in one direction only,

I will build you a village -

if we always angle the camera
in one direction

as we dolly back.

He said, he said, yes.

And uh...

I went back,

did a little research,

and I built that village.

The set was unbelievable.

It was Vietnam.

That evening I was approached

by many of the top people
in Hollywood,

putting them-- their hands
around me

and saying, this is remarkable,

how does it feel to be
in the big time?

The scene, basically,
to lay it out for you,

was Vic is coming into
the village,

a helicopter comes in,

he picks up the children,

comes up to the water's edge

and then runs towards
the camera,

saving the children.

Excuse me.

- It was illegal to work
children

after, I think, like
eight o'clock at night.

They wanted it to be done
much later

to have an authentic
night scene,

and when the casting directors
heard

what the scene entailed

with children...

in the vicinity of explosions

underneath a helicopter,

the casting director said

this sounds like a dangerous
scene.

So Landis said,

we'll get them off the street
ourselves.

A number of people made remarks

that if they were hiring
the children illegally

and if they found out about
the explosions,

we're gonna be sent to jail.

- We did a lot of tests

where the helicopter comes down,

how high it is,
where it is positioned.

- They had done an earlier scene

without the actors
and the children,

just kind of testing
some of the things out

with the explosions
and the helicopter,

and the helicopter was rocked
violently

by these explosions

and the people in
the helicopter said,

Gee, that seemed kinda rough.

And John Landis is reported
to have said,

you think that was big?

You ain't seen nothing yet.

My name is Kane Hodder. Uh...

Among other things,
I've been a stuntman for 40,

almost 42 years,

and played Jason in several
of the "Friday the 13th" films.

Sometimes things just happen
on sets.

I can tell you any number
of times I've done a stunt

where something happened

that I really didn't expect.
Like uh...

I did a, a, what's called
a pipe ramp.

It's a where you take a car
and you hit a pipe like this

and it makes the car go
like that -

fly in the air.

I did one of those on
"Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3".

As the stunt coordinator,

I placed where the camera would
be safe

and just so happened,
when I hit the ramp,

it just happened to hit
so it kinda flipped like that

and went quite a bit further
than I anticipated.

You know, unfortunately
things, at times, just happen.

So 1977,

a local reporter wanted to do
a story on me

for the Reno Newspaper.

And I said, you know,
if you want,

I could do a fire stunt
for you live.

I still don't know exactly
what went wrong,

but I suddenly burst into
way more flames

than I was expecting,

uh, I panicked.

I ended up having

what they said was 45%
third degree,

which is a lot.

The next five and a half months
was spent in the hospital

going through tremendous
amounts of pain

and uh...

psychological stuff,
I would say.

Later in my career, I started
doing fire stunts again

and became kind of known for it.

What you do as best you can
as a stunt coordinator

is try to avoid anything
that you can think of

that could possibly go wrong

but knowing there's no
guarantee of anything.

- Here's what's happening
right now.

We are locked down with camera,

the stuntman is prepping,

and then we're gonna light him
on fire.

- Action, Friedrick!

- Nothing could be that good.

I think it'd be that
unbelievable.

Not since the Vietnam Buddhist
priest

was there such a flame out.

- I think that large-scale
productions

are kind of a breeding ground
for these stories

because there's so many more
opportunities

for these weird little things
to happen,

these mishaps that take on
a life of their own,

or these big accidents, again,
that we have to sort of

get our heads around.

The other end of that spectrum
is a guy like Lloyd Kaufman

and Troma Studios.

One of these mishaps would end
Troma forever.

- I don't want women with tiny
babies coming through here,

tripping over wires,
bumping into people, right?

You don't want people falling
on cables, right,

especially little tiny babies.

Hello, hello, I'm Lloyd Kaufman,

President of Troma
Entertainment,

creator of "The Toxic Avenger".

And believe it or not,

Troma Entertainment is the
oldest independent movie studio

in the world.

44 years of making movies
of the future,

like "The Toxic Avenger",
"Class of Nuke 'Em High",

"Tromeo and Juliet".

- Ahhh!

- And now "Shakespeare's
Shitstorm",

our version of "The Tempest".

There's nothing more ego
oriented or narcissistic

than making an ode to a movie...

Christ Almighty.

I'm sorry, start over.

Uh, that didn't, yeah,
acting there's not right.

It's about the art,
it's about the movie.

I'm a total narcissist,

but I'm motivated by film.

Yes.

Why are you calling me?

You've got assistant directors
to talk to, no joke,

'cause we're in the middle
of a shot, I'm sorry.

I never was for the money.

After Yale University,
I had a job in California,

I would have taken that.

Instead, I took acid and I
decided to stay in New York

and work for a shitty little
company called Troma.

Brendon, you know, we're gonna
do the car crashing

through the, uh,
garage tomorrow?

No, you cannot be there,
nor can Caleb,

or that guy, whatever
his name is.

This guy's over on a big ladder
here, right now.

- Everybody ready?

And action car.

- You all right, Erin?
- Yeah, dude.

- Holy shit.
- Yes, sir.

- Can I get your view
on how that stunt went?

- Um...

The three rules of production -

Troma rules of production -
we're not posted.

Troma has three rules
of production:

safety to humans,
safety to peoples' property,

and make a good film.

We put up signs around the set.
Action!

And the words make a good movie

are smaller than safety
to humans

and safety to peoples' property

because a movie is only a movie.

Cut! Let's go back
and get the close-ups.

Don't run, don't run.

- Don't run, please walk.

- When you think about it,

effects or stunts,

or even film people in general,

we do things that are
inherently dangerous

and our safety record
would put GM to shame,

or any other industry.

So what I'm doing here is
I'm gonna make a fireball.

That's a one-pound propane tank
that goes in

and we put a small, uh,

black powder charge in the end

that'll shoot that knife
through there,

a spark will go off and uh...

we'll get, uh, some magic
happening.

You can never get used to
the amount of power you have

as far as the, uh,
the explosions

and uh, uh, fireballs,
or, you know, bullet hits

and things like uh...
of that nature,

or even, you know, air and
hydraulics and stuff like that,

'cause it is a lot of power,
and if you get too used to it

or you just, you don't respect
it enough,

then, uh, generally the, uh,
effects God comes down

and has an unusual bowel
movement in your Cheerios.

- I was very worried about
the kind of explosions

that were gonna be used
in this picture.

All of the positions of
the explosions

are very, very well laid out

and communicated with everybody,

especially to myself.

- So this is a fairly big
lifting charge

for a very small mortar,

but we'll put some debris on top

so we can, you know, throw it
up in the air

and put some dust
so we get some trails.

- John asked me if I could move
one of the huts

more to the center
of the village.

I said, fine. So I had my team
bring it over.

Things are being said
and I'm walking around

and I find that there's an
explosion underneath this hut

and I said,
get special effects on the phone.

I want him here now.

I was pissed.

So he came over to me
and he said,

what's up Rich and I said,

what the hell is this doing here

and why wasn't I told?

So it's just da, da, da, da, da
and it's just,

it's, it's angled back
at the, uh, hill

and it's, it's okay.

I said, that's not how it works.

If I don't like it,
it's not gonna be here, okay?

I'm the man.

So if anything else
is on this set

that I don't know about,

you better fuckin' tell me.

It's important for people
to know

how much work goes into trying
to figure out

and look at every possibility
that could come into play

before a big shot like this.

- It was the last night
of shooting.

It was the final scene

with the rescue of the two
children.

- The decision was made

that we needed all five cameras shooting

to get all five shots.

And I looked-- and I sat there
looking at this...

the huey coming in,

the smell of gasoline filling
the air,

it was amazing.

John Landis and I...

chose an area upstream,

not too far from where Vic
was gonna walk by us.

- The parents of the children
asked,

is this dangerous?

And they were told by
the producer

who had hired them,

Oh no, it's just like
a Disneyland ride.

Vic Morrow felt it
was physically demanding

and a little bit overwhelming,

but he felt that

he couldn't afford to be
too vociferous

in challenging this powerful,
uh...

film director,

so he did it against
his better judgment.

- All I can say, what I
remember that night, is...

how big the explosions were.

Looking over at Vic coming
across the water,

the bombs going off around him,

and, and I said, it's okay,

we all planned this.

We know where the helicopters
are gonna be.

The huey comes into play.

And I realize that...

things are getting too close
to the helicopter.

And I turned around,
I said, run.

- The explosions were too
close to the helicopter,

damaged it,

brought it down into the river,

killing Vic Morrow
and the two children

while their parents were
standing watching this.

- I turn,

and there's the helicopter

on the ground.

Silence.

And then there's the words,

where's Vic? Where's the kids?

I don't really remember
what I did after that.

All I remember was seeing
the children's parents,

one hugging a tree,

realizing that the children
and Vic were cut in half.

Newsreel: Five companies
involved in the filming

of "The Twilight Zone" have
been fined a total of $62,000

for what a California
safety board termed

"willful and serious safety
violations

in the helicopter crash
that claimed three lives".

- And there's still one more
question to be considered.

The children who were killed
were working without permits.

State labor officials may
file criminal charges

against the producers for
illegally working the children

at 2:30 in the morning.

- Our office would never have
approved children,

six and seven years of age,

to be in that area.

- Well, Landis went to all
three of the funerals actually.

He went to the children's
funerals

and he went to Vic Morrow's
funeral.

And he very much wanted to speak

at Vic Morrow's funeral

and said something
to the effect that,

uh, film lives forever,
Vic is immortal.

- The trial is just beginning.

At issue, who's responsible
for three deaths

on "The Twilight Zone" movie
set.

Lawyers for the film's director
blame an explosives expert,

but Sandy Kenyon reports
prosecutors disagree.

Sandy: The trial got underway
with two different accounts

of how the tragedy occurred.

The defense claimed
a bazaar accident

led to three deaths.

The prosecution laid the blame
on the filmmakers,

accusing them of staging
a dangerous stunt.

- You have to use your own
common sense.

You cannot mix explosions,
a helicopter,

and human beings,
let alone children,

and not realize that there's
a potential for danger.

- The jury ultimately
felt that the prosecutor

had not proved that high
standard

of criminal negligence.

- You don't prosecute people
for unfore-

foreseeable accidents.

- We, the jury, in the
above-entitled action,

find the defendant, John Landis,

not guilty of involuntary
manslaughter.

- Outside the courtroom the
director's victory statement

was tempered with remorse.

- Almost five years ago
an accident happened on the set

of one of my films that killed
three people

and that nothing,
none of this changes that.

- They had had to pay fines
already

for hiring the children
illegally,

but they were not convicted
of crimes.

- This is a terrible,
terrible accident that,

obviously, will cause pain
and anguish to all of us

for the rest of our lives.

- They found him innocent.

And I was married,
two young kids,

working hard in my career -

at the, at the prime of...

of one of the biggest producers
in Hollywood

putting his, his hand around me
and says,

how does it feel to be
in the big time -

and my career was over
in a blink of an eye.

- I wasn't there at
"The Twilight Zone" incident

but sometimes it's nobody's
fault in particular.

Everybody wants to point
a finger at,

at whose fault it was,

but there's not always
an obvious person to blame.

Things happen. That's the
nature of doing stunts.

- If I was responsible
for somebody

getting seriously injured...

It's just a fuckin' movie,

that's why you don't...
you don't do those things,

you don't...
it's just not worth it.

I would stop making movies.

I would be selling shoes,
or hot dogs, or whatever,

or maybe blowing my fuckin'
brains out.

I couldn't live with it.

So I'm, I'm, it's a dangerous
profession moviemaking.

- We're making a movie here,

we're not, uh, you know,

saving the world, or splitting
the atom or, you know,

taking a, a, a shot at the moon
or something, you know.

- I think that Landis can't
be held fully accountable

for everything happening
on that set,

but you have to blame somebody, right?

There has to be a reason for
something terrible happening.

That's the crux of all this
cursed thinking.

I think that the age of curses
is ending

because of the way our lives
are recorded 24/7.

We are moving away from this
sort of urban legend,

word-of-mouth stories

because too of our lives
is word-of-mouth anymore.

I think seeing these things
changes

how our minds process them.

So it seems like an accident
like on the set

of "The Twilight Zone"
is not the result of a curse

but maybe that accident
is a curse.

It's something that the effects
guy has to live with;

it's something that
the casting director

who hired those kids
has to live with.

Everybody on that set has been
given a life sentence

of having that accident
in their brain pan

for the rest of their lives.