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Horror Movie that Causes Madness...?


JaegerMonster

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So we've all heard the legends and seen movies or TV shows about the film that supposedly drove its audience crazy or drove them to kill each other in a murderous frenzy, etc. What I'm wondering is, is there a basis in fact for this particular legend?

I seem to recall hearing something about an incident in Philly or Baltimore or somewhere (def. someplace on the East Coast, NOT Hollywood) where a murder was committed in the theater, or the film caused people to react violently, something like that...back in the 1960s or maybe '70s.

I'm sure that - if this is a true story - this would have been the inspiration or "launching point" for the legend, which would of course have become more and more exaggerated over time ("You die three days after watching it!").

I want to say it was in Maryland, but for some reason I'm also stuck on Philadelphia. Could have been Delaware or Virginia, for all I know... Wish I could remember where I initially heard it.

Anyway - it's an intriguing idea. Anyone else remember such a story?

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I don't know about a specific location, but I do remember there was a movie in the sixties that was supposed to have a detrimental effect. It was similar to Mondo Cane, I think.

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My Dad was in the Marines during the latter half of the Vietnam war and came home in 1972 (as I recall anyway, I was just six). Along with the larger things he brought back from the service, he had a metal cigar box with smaller things in it. There were some letters and postcards in the box and a few black and white pictures of South Vietnam soldiers holding up severed heads which was disturbing to me at that age because it was real. My Dad was a horror fan and minor collector of the bizarre; he died only 7 years later at which time I was thirteen. Said cigar box was given to me but it didn't have the photos in it. However, the box did have a few newspaper clippings and letters sent between my Uncle and my Dad. In one of the letters was a story about some people being attacked or getting hurt at a movie theater during some horror film screening (I'm 47 now so I only recall generalities but your post rang a bell!). I was somewhat afraid because I didn't know if it happened where we lived or what (Michigan). I have no idea where it happened because just the article was clipped, no banner or date or anything like that to tell what paper it came from. The box, and it's contents, were lost in a basement flood in the late 1980's along with some original Famous Monsters books he collected and some EC comics reprints. I asked my Uncle David if he remembered sending my Dad that article and he said he didn't remember anything about it. I always figured it was something like the deal when they wired the seats to vibrate when they showed The Tingler or something. Could have been a gag article/publicity thing but I sure wish I had that box again.

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A couple of years past 50... ;)

I would have been in my 20s, but at the time I was involved in a bit of "mind expansion" so I don't remember that time period as well as I might have otherwise, LOL.

DSOTM, that's pretty creepy. Where did your Uncle live at the time?

J.K., do you remember any other specifics? Mondo movie sounds like a plausible springboard...

Edited by JaegerMonster
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Well the 60's-70's was the hayday of the exploitation film, that combined with a couple of seedy theaters could have easily birthed a bizarre legend. Funny considering a few years prior we had the William Castle "horror" films, where guys dressed like ghosts, and vibrators in the seats would be deployed to mess with the audience. Maybe that stuck with people in some subliminal wa.

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I remember vaguely hearing something in a movie theatre that happened in the early 70's; I grew up in Allentown, PA, so I want to say that it happened in Philly, but it could be Baltimore or D.C. Definitely somewhere on the East Coast, though. As a young, avid moviegoer at that time, before VTR's, anything that was happening in theaters would have gotten my attention. I don't think it had anything to do with subliminal suggestion, though I hear that that was fairly common in the late 50's-early 60's, a bit before my time. This had more to do with some type of audience reaction where people left the movie or something happened during the movie that wasn't quite that innocent. I can't remember if people got hurt during the film or were made to leave the movie, but it was definitely something along those lines.

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So we've all heard the legends and seen movies or TV shows about the film that supposedly drove its audience crazy or drove them to kill each other in a murderous frenzy, etc. What I'm wondering is, is there a basis in fact for this particular legend?

No.

Question answered.

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There's a famous movie about this.

They all want this reel of the film, that if you watch it you die at the end. Everyone goes insane and kill or commit suicide iI think

It ends with them watching it in the theater.

I forget the name now. It's presented as if it's a true story, but I do not think it is.

Edited by Simbi Laveau
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It took me a while to find it. It's an episode of Masters of Horror, directed by John Carpenter.

It's called Cigarette Burns.

Norman Reedus and Udo Keir are in it

"Cigarette Burns" is the eighth episode of season one of the horror anthology series Masters of Horror.

It was directed by John Carpenter,and Scott Swan. It premiered December 2005.

The episode concerns rare films dealer Kirby Sweetman who is deeply in debt and trying to keep his small independent theater open. He is hired by an old cinephile, Mister Bellinger to find the only existing print of an elusive thirty-year old movie,"La Fin Absolue du Monde", which supposedly sparked a homicidal riot during its premiere at the Sitges Film Festival, after which it was destroyed. The episode follows Kirby as he pursues a series of clues that lead him inexorably towards a horrific and bloody conclusion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Carpenter%27s_Cigarette_Burns

http://headhuntershorrorhouse.wikia.com/wiki/Masters_of_Horror:_Cigarette_Burns

Edited by Simbi Laveau
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Wow...seems a nerve has been touched

Masters of Horror, directed by John Carpenter.

It's called Cigarette Burns.

Norman Reedus and Udo Keir are in it

You sir, have just made a sale

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Wow...seems a nerve has been touched

You sir, have just made a sale

Have you never watched Masters of Horror?

Theyre sick. The Takeshi Miike one was completely banned from being aired in the USA.

They get famous horror directors to do the episodes.

I think there were a few seasons.

I've seen many of them. Some are on YouTube in full. This one is.

Theyre an hour long.

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DSOTM, that's pretty creepy. Where did your Uncle live at the time?

My Uncle was in Flint, MI at the time (murder capital of the US now!) ; my Dad came back to the states through So. Carolina. I can't find any Google references to it alleging to have happened around here so maybe in the So. Carolina / Atlantic coast area. Still checking as it definitely struck a chord from child hood. As an aside, one of the other creepy things Dad brought back was an album called "Black Mass" by Lucifer. I hated that thing! It was just trippy music but it scared the crap out of me at age 7. Ah, the 70's...........

Saw Cigarette Burns once a few years back; seems like it had someone threading his guts into the projector? And maybe an Angel (or demon) in it? That's about all I remember from it....have to find it on YT and give another look.

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  • 2 weeks later...

"Mortal Remains (1972) is an American horror film...screened once only; its Baltimore premiere was truncated by a violent outburst or altercation which resulted in the destruction of the sole known print of the film.

Who the heck has only ONE print of their film? At a private screening, sure, but a premier in a commercial theater?

Oh, and Wikipedia had this to say:

Karl Atticus

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

This page has been deleted. The deletion and move log for the page are provided below for reference.

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Have you never watched Masters of Horror?

Theyre sick. The Takeshi Miike one was completely banned from being aired in the USA.

They get famous horror directors to do the episodes.

I think there were a few seasons.

I've seen many of them. Some are on YouTube in full. This one is.

Theyre an hour long.

Have you never watched Masters of Horror?

Theyre sick. The Takeshi Miike one was completely banned from being aired in the USA.

They get famous horror directors to do the episodes.

I think there were a few seasons.

I've seen many of them. Some are on YouTube in full. This one is.

Theyre an hour long.

Ive seen a few, jsut not the one you mentioned earlier

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I heard that people reading Sutter Cane books would go mad and kill people and stuff.

-EDIT-

Also if you stare at my avatar for 30 seconds and say 'The Devil in my Dreams' 6 times then it will visit you tonight...

Edited by bulveye
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Some that I have seen were really good, the adaption of the Lovecraft story "Dreams in the Witches House" was really, really creepy

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  • 2 weeks later...

I heard that people reading Sutter Cane books would go mad and kill people and stuff.

-EDIT-

Also if you stare at my avatar for 30 seconds and say 'The Devil in my Dreams' 6 times then it will visit you tonight...

Maybe that's why I can't look at you avatar to long....No offense but I hate it only because it creeps me out otherwise the graphics are pretty cool :)

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  • 2 weeks later...
 

Apocalypse Now is probably the most potent clash of organized madness and surreal fantastical swamp, the divide is so divinely concealed and you never really can grasp which is the safer line to acknowledge.

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