You should count yourself lucky if you went for one of these horror movies and came out alive because, for some people, the final credits actually are final. Here’s a glimpse at some movies that really killed the viewers.
The Conjuring 2 (2016)
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The Conjuring franchise obtains an extra queasy dash of scariness thanks to the reality that it’s based on the supposedly real-life exploits of real people, which has served the two movies in the series scare up good reviews and remarkable box-office receipts. But 2016’s ‘The Conjuring 2’ may have been a bit too scary for one filmgoer in India. As per the report published by the Times of India on June 17, 2016, an unknown attendee at a show in Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu, passed away during the movie’s climax.
During the film, the afflicted viewer, described as a 65-year-old male, reportedly complained of chest pains and was taken to the hospital, where the doctors declared him dead on arrival. His body was later on remanded to another hospital for further investigation, but it never arrived—as the ‘Times’ put it. The driver disappeared with the deceased’s body, urging an inquiry to determine the identity and whereabouts of the dead man. Perhaps we’ll discover more about the story in a Conjuring series a decade or two from now.
Raju Gari Gadi (2015)
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During a screening of the ‘Indian horror comedy’-Raju Gari Gadi, life imitated art a little bit too realistically. Raju Gari Gadi says the story of seven reality TV show participants trying to survive a night in a haunted house. However, for a 55-year-old man, the viewing experience turned out to be too much. He had a heart attack and expired during a screening in Hyderabad. The man, identified as Amaranatham from Attapur, reportedly went for the exits twice during the film, only to turn around every time. As and when the theatre workers began clearing out the room after the lights went up, they found Amaranatham lifeless in his seat.
It all makes for a somewhat sad testimony to the spine-tingling potential of the film, but as it turns out, there’s a something more to the story: after investigators had reached Amaranatham’s family to notify them of his death, they found that he had a history of heart problems. Hence you don’t have to worry about scheduling your own viewing of Raju Gari Gadi as long as your heart is in good working condition.
The Creeping Unknown (1955)
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One of the initial and arguably one of the most shocking—instances of a filmgoer dying during a movie, happened during a showing of the British import ‘The Quatermass Xperiment’. It narrated the story of an astronaut who returns to Earth contaminated with an alien parasite that threatens to end all life on the planet.
It was released in America in the year 1956 under the title ‘The Creeping Unknown’. The movie also entered the annals of horror history in November of that year when, according to a story described in Variety and related in the 1997 book ‘The Hammer Story: The Authorised History of Hammer Films’, a nine-year-old boy sustained a ruptured artery and expired during a screening in Illinois.
Aliens (1986)
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Aliens cannot be even considered as the scariest entry in the franchise. However, it was the last feather that broke the horse’s back, for a student in India. M Prabhakar, later on, excused himself to use the restroom after staying up all night so as to watch a horror movie marathon that included ‘Blood, Ghost, and Atmakatha’, along with ‘Aliens’. He came out yelling and then collapsed from shock, dying soon after.
According to the reports by Times of India, Prabhakar’s collapse wasn’t observed by his fellow filmgoers initially. However, by the time they started reviving him, the movie marathon was over, and it was too late to rescue him. He was reported dead on arrival at one of the local hospitals.
The Passion of the Christ (2004)
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Some viewers criticised Mel Gibson’s biblical epic for excess massacre and violence in representing the death and resurrection of Jesus. Those critics may have had a purpose, given that two people are identified to have expired during screenings of the movie.The first event occurred in the year 2004, in February. It was during a screening in Wichita, Kansas, where Peggy Scott, who was 56-year-old, experienced a fatal heart attack during the ‘highest emotional part of the movie’-crucifixion. A nurse who chanced to be in the theatre tried reviving Scott, but her attempts were unsuccessful, and Scott was declared dead after being taken to a hospital.
After a month or so, the same fate was experienced by Jose Geraldo Soares, who was a 43-year-old Brazilian pastor. He had rented out a theatre so as to watch the movie along with his congregation. During the film, Soares’ wife found that he’d lost consciousness; similar to the case of Peggy Scott’s death, a medical professional chanced to be in the theatre. However, they were not able to save Soares. Although some were keen to blame the film’s violence for Soares’ passing, a family friend argued those allegations, answering that he was calmly watching the movie near his wife.
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010)
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23-year-old Damian Anthony Smythe crept into the screening of ‘The Twilight Saga: Eclipse’ in Wellington, New Zealand. It was during the summer of 2010, and he was seen unresponsive when the lights came up—with an empty bottle of whisky lying on the floor near him.
The coroner’s conclusions were pretty much what you’d suspect, given the details: Smythe’s death was connected to severe alcohol toxicity and mentioned in the report as a bitter, tragic loss of the life of a person, who was so young. Smythe’s father confirmed his son’s drinking problem, informing reporters that he’d tried persuading him to enter rehab, but in vain.
Avatar (2009)
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Avatar, which was James Cameron’s 3D CGI epic, sealed a groundbreaking performance in visual effects, but they, unfortunately, validated to be a little too stimulating for one person in Taiwan. An unidentified 42-year-old man felt sick and left a show of Avatar; by the time he reached the emergency room, he fell unconscious from a critical stroke, and after 11 days he died. The man had a record of high blood pressure, and doctors condemned his death on “over-excitement from watching the film.” We’re truly not sure if that counts as a negative or positive review.
Grand Masti (2013)
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Although most of the movies on the list fall into one dramatic class or other, there are exemptions like the Indian sex comedy ‘Grand Masti’ which also applies to this ‘less than prestigious club’. The victim, in this case, is 22-year-old Mangesh Bhogal, who went to the theatre with his girlfriend to enjoy a little raunchy humour. However, he ended up laughing so hard that he sustained a fatal heart attack.
A spokesperson for the theatre told DNA India that those who sat beside the youth said that he was laughing his heart out and it was suddenly that he experienced a severe stroke. He was then hurried to Cardinal Gracias Hospital at Vasai West, where he was pronounced dead.
Freaks (1932)
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Freaks, which was directed by Tod Browning is a drama, which is widely regarded as a classic even today. It was released in the year 1932. However, but it confronted more than a little blowback during its first release. While adapting the Tod Robbins short story ‘Spurs’, Browning, who’d spent time in the circus as a child, was inspired by his real-life experiences. He had hired real sideshow performers to bring life to the story of a circus midget, Harry Earles, whose personal riches inspires a beautiful trapeze artist, Olga Baclanova, to marry him in the hopes of killing him and acquiring his money.
Freaks’ story was provocative enough for its day, yet Browning further abused many critics and viewers by using a cast that involved a professional hermaphrodite, real-life conjoined twins, an armless woman, a man whose body ended at his torso, and a bearded lady—among others. Some blamed the movie of utilising its stars, while others were merely offended, and the studio—who’d hired Browning after his huge success directing Dracula—was left with a release that concluded up being pulled from theatres even after a series of edits intended to pacify the public.
According to Don Sumner’s book Horror Movie Freak, the problem with Freaks actually began even before the film arrived in theatres. One of the women who attended a test screening supposedly threatened to sue the studio for making her suffer a miscarriage. Do you think it is a false story? Maybe—but one that shows how the line between cinema and reality has been blurred from the starting.
