Hollywood Hex: An Illustrated History of Cursed Movies

From the myths of old Hollywood to recent on-screen accidents, the motion picture industry has long been associated with violent and untimely death. Hollywood has always been a magnet for suicides, murders, mysterious accidents and brutal mayhem; the simple fact is that, in the age of motion pictures, human death ahs become an inescapable part of show business. Hollywood Hex is a study of films that have, in one way or another, resulted in death and destruction. Some are directly responsible for the accidental deaths of those involved in their creation; others have caused tragedy indirectly by inspiring occult movements, serial killers, copycat crimes, psychotic behaviour in audiences, or bizarre and freakish coincidences. These “cursed” films include “The Exorcist”, “Rosemary’s Baby”, “Twilight Zone – The Movie” and “The Crow”; films that have become notorious and compelling in their new role as inadvertent epitaphs, as documents on the subject of human mortality. Subjects covered range from the earliest Hollywood suicides and jinxed movies, to the death cult of James Dean, to links with Charles Manson, Satanic churches, snuff culture and mass murders, plus the mysterious death of Bruce Lee and the equally strange demise of his son Brandon. In the tradition of Kenneth Anger’s Hollywood Babylon , Hollywood Hex discloses and examines the dark, enigmatic connections between cinematic narratives and human catastrophe, forming a psychogeographic study of the Dream Factory which will fascinate the reader with its far-reaching implications.