Georgetown Exorcism It tells a twisted story based on typical urban legends. Anthony Miller (Russell Crowe) is an actor in trouble who agrees to take the place of a dead actor on a movie set. The film has been in the works for a dark movie about an obsession with a little girl. But once Anthony steps on the set, everything around him seems to conspire to force him into the darkness of his worst vices and actions. Which of course will open the door to the supernatural element.
Everything else seems like the plot of a typical horror movie until certain facts are taken into account. Director Joshua John Miller is the son of Jason Miller, the American actor and playwright who played Father Karras in The Exorcist William Friedkin. And it is known that during the filming of the movie, there were some incidents that the press regarded as, at the very least, disturbing. Even more curiously, the actor suffered from a depressive disorder due to alcohol and addiction, which ultimately had a serious impact on his film career. Something that Georgetown Exorcism shown through a character whose last name is even “Miller”.
The truth is, the mecca of cinema is full of these kinds of situations. Urban legends that turn out to be true. Or that are at least partly based on something real. Here are five stories so twisted that they have become legends of black Hollywood, but they have a real basis. From a gruesome murder to dark rumors that surrounded blockbuster for many years. This is a collection of stories that are just as horrific as their fictional version.
Los Angeles serial killer.
In 1987, writer James Ellroy wrote Black Dahlianovel noir which told of the dismembered find of an aspiring actress. The fiction—the first in a saga called “The Los Angeles Barracks”—reveals that the young woman’s death was not simply an act of barbarity. There is also the possibility that a serial killer is hiding in the Mecca of cinema. Step by step, the story takes on more serious implications. Which led to the conclusion that the murder was simply an act of unprecedented cruelty.
And while Ellroy made this one of the most disturbing detective stories of the 20th century, it really only tells the story of an event that shook up golden Hollywood: the death of Elizabeth Short. On January 15, 1947, the body of the actress, who had barely made it into Hollywood, was found, tortured and cut in half, in Leimert Park in Los Angeles. The most terrifying thing is that various forensic examinations, They made it clear that he had endured long and painful torture before his death.
Added to all of the above is the fact that this problem has never been solved. No evidence was found on the body’s remains that would allow one to determine the place where the victim was supposedly kept before her death. During the height of the Hollywood panic, dozens of preventive arrests were made, as well as dozens of interrogations. No one gave an answer, and eventually the case became part of Hollywood’s black chronicles. What’s worse? Over time, Elizabeth Short’s murder became part of all sorts of films and TV series, without investigating the true origins of this story. The most famous work: a 2006 film directed by Brian De Palma and starring Scarlett Johansson.
The Horrors of Bela Lugosi
Hungarian actor who made history with his acting Dracula From an aristocratic and nefarious point of view, all sorts of rumors surrounded him. From the fact that he refused to dress like a normal man outside of the film set, to the fact that he slept in a sinister sarcophagus. So the reputation of a strange man followed him for most of his life and even, This is part of the black chronicle of Hollywood.
The truth is that the actor took the role of Count Transylvanian so seriously that many of the rumors surrounding him turned out to be true. His portrayal of Dracula in 1932, made famous by Tod Browning, wowed audiences and made the performer the center of Universal’s monstrous cycle. For Lugosi, it was a role tailor-made for him, to which he added his distinctive accent and a neat aesthetic that made him a role model in later years.
But the actor had become addicted to morphine. This meant that as his fame grew – and he had more money to support his vice – his behaviour became increasingly erratic and incomprehensible. In his home life, he began dressing in costumes from the film and bringing all sorts of funeral paraphernalia. to his home at 5620 Harold Way, Los Angeles.
Falling into disaster
In the midst of this situation, he began to run out of papers, so he decided to try to recover by checking into a rehab clinic. This only worsened his condition and led him to erratic delusions, in which he believed himself to be Dracula and tried to bite nurses. There were rumors that he even escaped custody at various private clinics where he stayed, and was seen wandering around Los Angeles. dressed in the rags of his old movie outfit.
The situation reached a more complex level when it became obvious that his sanity was largely dependent on morphine, but another dose could lead to death. All of the above led to the actor eventually plunging into all sorts of hallucinations, which never fully recovered. On August 16, 1956, Bela Lugosi died without remembering his true identity. and turned into a full-fledged psychiatric patient.
Max Shrek was a vampire
In 1920, director Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau decided to make a film adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. But he encountered strong resistance from Florence Balcombe, the writer’s widow, who owned the rights and refused to release the book. sell them for a film that does not directly pay homage to her husband’s work.
Murnau was not discouraged and eventually made a film based on the novel, but with different names and locations. Despite this, the heir to the rights sued and succeeded in having the film censored and reviewed by the critics of the time. as an unauthorized copy of the original story.
But the most unique thing was that in the midst of the controversy about the similarity – or not – of the film to the book “Dracula”, the public was shocked by a rumor. Namely: that the unknown German actor Max Schreck, who played Count Orlok in the plot, was in fact a vampire. Moreover, Schreck, who declared himself as an actor method, he never showed himself outside the clothes and makeup of his role on the set.
A curious legend for a Hollywood myth
So, even though Prana Film filed for bankruptcy to avoid lawsuits from the Stoker family, the film’s fame has become a dark curiosity. There is talk of the actors disappearing. around Orava Castlein Slovakia, where the filming took place. And even the rumor became so confusing that in order to have “proof” of the actor’s nature, Among them were that he did not appear during the day and behaved eccentrically.
It soon became apparent that Murnau himself had used the obsessive method Schreck had learned from theater director Max Reinhardt in a rare publicity campaign. For years, especially while the film was struggling to get released, the rumor of a real vampire on the set captivated mystery lovers. Fun fact? In 2000, E. Elias Merhige spread the rumor to the cinema. Shadow of the Vampire, starring Willem Dafoe as Orlok/Max Schreck, told the legend as a dark myth. What earned the actor an Oscar nomination. A scary fact? The director’s head was stolen from his grave in 2015.
The Curse of Superman
This dark legend of Hollywood may be familiar to you. Namely, that every actor who plays the Man of Steel in a movie ends up going through all sorts of misfortunes and difficult situations. From George Reeves, who played the hero in the 1952 TV series and died under mysterious circumstances, to Christopher Reeves, who became a paraplegic after a riding accident. The truth is that everything that involves paper, seems to be marked by a mysterious death.
But the most curious thing is the origin of this black legend. Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created the character and tried to sell their works to different publishers. Finally, after a series of failures, they succeeded Detective Comics Inc. I bought it for only $130. Which, as it would later turn out, was the publisher’s most profitable business. Not only did Superman become one of the most iconic characters television, but his comic strip became a symbol of goodness and justice.
Things got even more complicated when the opportunity arose to turn the Last Son of Krypton story into a hit movie. By then, the two creators had decided to enter into a lengthy lawsuit that ended in a $94,000 settlement. Furious, Siegel continued to demand his rights and profits, but to no avail. So when Warner Bros. finally released the first film in its saga in 1975, the cartoonist published an angry letter. Among other insults, he denounced the “betrayal” of Superman’s essence and damned the production. The rest is Hollywood history.
The Real Corpse in Cannibal Holocaust
This strange rumor, of course, arose from the action-packed filming of a movie in 1978. The film tells the story of a group of young people who travel to investigate contacts with a group of primitive tribes. But they end up disappearing, leading anthropologist Set out to find him and eventually stumble upon the horror that gives the film its name.
With a budget of just $200,000 for such a premise, director Ruggero Deodato resorted to extreme measures. These included shooting in the heart of the Colombian Amazon jungle, without guides or experts, which caused everything from lost personnel to an infection among the actors. But the worst came when it was discovered that The film depicted real-life animal cruelty, sparking protests and accusations.
For this reason, no one doubted that there was something dark in the explicit scenes of violence and even the realistic appearance of a corpse in the film’s bloodiest episode. The alarm went off when, having spread completely across Italian soil, the film was accused of being snuff and that the murders were real.
A mystery that has never been solved
Worse, the court’s entire preoccupation was the nightmarish image. The lifeless body of a woman hanging on a stake in the middle of one of the most difficult sections, which experts had assured was impossible, was all a show. Deodato He stood trial and faced life imprisonment.
In the strangest moment of the whole event, the entire cast had to appear on television to prove they were alive. The director was eventually exonerated, although the court blocked the release of the film. The most disturbing thing? That the actress who played the impaled character could never be found. This is because because she was a Colombian actress who could not be found during the trial.
Source: Hiper Textual
