Customer Reviews

Hollywood Hex: An Illustrated History of Cursed Movies (Creation Cinema Collection)

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Hollywood Hex is fascinating reading and gives especially indepth analyses of events surrounding The Exorcist, Rosemary's Baby, and Twilight Zone" The Movie. The Exorcist chapters describe in detail all the strange deaths and other incidents which occurred during and after filming. Not to mention the unprecedented audience reaction which is now legend (fainting, vomiting, insanity, etc.) The only conclusion is that something is happening beyond coincidence, the question is is it a "curse" or is it the power of suggestion. This section also gives very insightful analysis into the film's theme and it's relation to the audience and human frailty. What's really troubling is the fact that in the end it's only a movie, but that fact is lost on so many in the audience, and unfortunately some in the cast and crew. Also of interest is the across the board condemnation of the film from Christians (you would think they would consider the film pro-Christian propaganda, but NOOOOO.)
Rosemary's Baby also has it's own "hex". Obviously the relation to the Manson murders, but also some deaths of cast and crew, and of course John Lennon at the Dakota entrance (where the film was set).
But the most disturbing chapter is Twilight Zone: The Movie which gives details of the negligence that killed Vic Morrow and 2 child actors. And all for a poor rip-off of a TV series.
When you read this book, you'll know show biz is dangerous biz. Onset accidents, wacko members of the public who threaten actors (whether or not they play the bad guy roles), drug ODs, crime victims, suicide. Finally any movie that seems more than just a movie should be attributed to the talent of the cast and crew...any other conclusion is irrational.

Mikita Brottman has done it again! Following her charming andexquisitely detailed "Meat is Murder!", Brottman offers"Hollywood Hex", a book brimming with so much information your head will explode if you read too quickly. Intelligent, delightful, and quite simply, unsurpassable. Whether you like movies or just like to read, this book is recommended to everyone!

A superficial treatment of the subject that appears to have been slapped together. Shows no signs of research, insight and barely a passing interest in the genre. Not sure what the author set out to accomplish here but I'm certain that he didn't do it.

Not a bad book, but beware, some of the facts here are incorrect. On one page the author claims Lenny Bruce died of a heroin overdoes (un-true, morphine), and that Mama Cass of the Mommas and the Poppas died choking on a donut. Cass died of heart failure while eating, but an autopsy report showed no food in her windpipe. With one page containing two errors, and some of the research seeming... lazy to be kind, this book is interesting, but if you are looking for a well-researched, fact checked book, this is not it.

Though this book will never be used in any film studies class, I would wager it will have a readership far beyond that of any film studies books.

The reason for this is because, well, this book is fun.

In an informative but not salacious way this book takes you inside the most scarey movies of recent Hollywood history to examine whether they were hexed.

In this way, we journey inside Rosemary's Baby to see how this truly disturbing film effected people both on and off the set. Though the essayists connection of Rosemary's Baby with the Manson murders is tenuous, it was still creepy to consider the similarities of the plight of the mythical Rosemary with that of Sharon Tate (wife of Rosemary director Roman Polanski) whose pregnancy was tragically interrupted.

Then we go inside the Exorcist, a film that like Rosemary's Baby had a disturbing effect both on its viewers and its cast and crew.

Hollywood Hex really hits its stride with movies of the 80s where the running tragedy that was the story Poltergeist 1, 2 and 3 leads naturally into the even greater tragedy of the making of Twilight Zone. In Twilight Zone, production cost cutting and sloppiness litterally cost the lives of Vic Morrow and two Vietnamese children essentially for nothing.

Though much of this book is fun reading, I would suggest that readers purchasing this book treat it as a grazing book. Go to the chapter(s) or subject(s) you find most interesting and then read on to the rest rather than reading them in the order they're actually presented.

Oh...and one final note: though this book writes of gruesome happenings, the photos are very tame so it's one where you wouldn't need to leave it around for younger readers to see and be adversely effected by.