The first season of explored the spooky legends around movies like and . It’s back for a second season (streaming on Shudder), and I’m pleased. It’s a compelling, well-made show… you just have to accept that “cursed” doesn’t always mean “CURSED!” Sure, it entertains the notion that some films were made under a dark,. It certainly has a tragic history – as when the film’s young composer, Krzysztof Komeda, died of a head injury soon after its release when a fight at a drinks party left him in a fatal coma. Or how the director’s pregnant wife, Sharon Tate, was slaughtered in the Hollywood Hills during the infamous Manson murders, and John Lennon shot outside the New York apartment building where the film was set. When you add the whole “God is Dead! Hail Satan!” storyline, it becomes the perfect soil in which the curse narrative can bloom and people start noticing the details. One talking head suggests Komeda’s death after three months in a coma was a clear ‘wink’ from the actual Devil, because a character in the film called Hutch also dies in a coma… after three months. Pretty spooky? Maybe. But I contacted Komeda’s biographer just to check. She confirmed that he actually died after months in a coma. Which sounds a bit less ‘cursey’.
