News
Has Anyone Ever Died Watching a Horror Movie?
Surely you’ve heard the expression ‘scared to death,’ which suggests that something is so terrifying that it actually has the power to stop someone’s heart. But has anyone ever actually been ‘scared to death?’ And if so, has a horror movie ever been the cause?
It’s a question you’ve probably pondered at some point, and it’s one we’ve set out to answer here today on iHorror. After doing some research through various news archives, we have indeed found two real-life tragedies that point the finger at horror movies, citing them as the causes of death.
First up, 9-year-old Utah boy Stewart Cohan passed away at the movies in October of 1956, while watching a double feature of the horror films The Creeping Unknown and The Black Sheep. During the opening moments of The Creeping Unknown, the boy collapsed and died, leading many to point the finger at the film.
During Cohan’s autopsy, the coroner’s pathologist discovered that the boy had an existing heart condition prior to his death, which his parents were not aware of. His heart was smaller than normal, which of course played a large part in his tragic death.
Nevertheless, Dr. Albert Baugher stated that “the boy died of a heart collapse after extraordinary tension while watching a movie,” indicating that it was indeed the film that pushed his young heart to its breaking point.
It’s said that Stewart was watching a scene depicting the explosion of a rocket ship when he slumped over in his seat, and took his final breath.
The second story we were able to track down comes our way from India, where a student allegedly died of shock while watching a quartet of horror movies. The films, which included Aliens and 1988’s Atmakatha, were screened back-to-back in December of 2010, which proved too much for M Prabhakar.
At around 11:30pm, Prabhakar went to the bathroom and came out screaming in shock, dropping dead in the room where his fellow students were finishing up the movie marathon. Tragically, none of them saw him fall to the floor, and it was only after the final movie ended that anyone realized what had happened.
Upon completion of the marathon, the paramedics were called, and the boy was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital.
Though cases such as these are quite rare, it’s a proven fact that fright-induced stress is very much capable of causing a heart to stop beating, as ABC News reported back in October of 2012.
‘If a shock to the system is sufficient enough it can trigger a massive surge of adrenaline, stunning your heart so severely it ceases to beat,’ wrote the site. ‘The average sudden death in any major city is about one per day. Studies show this number goes up slightly for about a week after a catastrophic event such as an earthquake or a terrorist attack and may increase on days that have a negative cultural significance, such as Friday the 13th.’
Kinda makes you think twice about marathoning the Friday the 13th films on the next Friday the 13th, doesn’t it? Be careful, friends!
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Movies
‘Evil Dead’ Film Franchise Getting TWO New Installments
It was a risk for Fede Alvarez to reboot Sam Raimi’s horror classic The Evil Dead in 2013, but that risk paid off and so did its spiritual sequel Evil Dead Rise in 2023. Now Deadline is reporting that the series is getting, not one, but two fresh entries.
We already knew about the Sébastien Vaniček upcoming film that delves into the Deadite universe and should be a proper sequel to the latest film, but we are broadsided that Francis Galluppi and Ghost House Pictures are doing a one-off project set in Raimi’s universe based off of an idea that Galluppi pitched to Raimi himself. That concept is being kept under wraps.
“Francis Galluppi is a storyteller who knows when to keep us waiting in simmering tension and when to hit us with explosive violence,” Raimi told Deadline. “He is a director that shows uncommon control in his feature debut.”
That feature is titled The Last Stop In Yuma County which will release theatrically in the United States on May 4. It follows a traveling salesman, “stranded at a rural Arizona rest stop,” and “is thrust into a dire hostage situation by the arrival of two bank robbers with no qualms about using cruelty-or cold, hard steel-to protect their bloodstained fortune.”
Galluppi is an award-winning sci-fi/horror shorts director whose acclaimed works include High Desert Hell and The Gemini Project. You can view the full edit of High Desert Hell and the teaser for Gemini below:
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Movies
‘Invisible Man 2’ Is “Closer Than Its Ever Been” to Happening
Elisabeth Moss in a very well-thought-out statement said in an interview for Happy Sad Confused that even though there have been some logistical issues for doing Invisible Man 2 there is hope on the horizon.
Podcast host Josh Horowitz asked about the follow-up and if Moss and director Leigh Whannell were any closer to cracking a solution to getting it made. “We are closer than we have ever been to cracking it,” said Moss with a huge grin. You can see her reaction at the 35:52 mark in the below video.
Whannell is currently in New Zealand filming another monster movie for Universal, Wolf Man, which might be the spark that ignites Universal’s troubled Dark Universe concept which hasn’t gained any momentum since Tom Cruise’s failed attempt at resurrecting The Mummy.
Also, in the podcast video, Moss says she is not in the Wolf Man film so any speculation that it’s a crossover project is left in the air.
Meanwhile, Universal Studios is in the middle of constructing a year-round haunt house in Las Vegas which will showcase some of their classic cinematic monsters. Depending on attendance, this could be the boost the studio needs to get audiences interested in their creature IPs once more and to get more films made based on them.
The Las Vegas project is set to open in 2025, coinciding with their new proper theme park in Orlando called Epic Universe.
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News
Jake Gyllenhaal’s Thriller ‘Presumed Innocent’ Series Gets Early Release Date
Jake Gyllenhaal’s limited series Presumed Innocent is dropping on AppleTV+ on June 12 instead of June 14 as originally planned. The star, whose Road House reboot has brought mixed reviews on Amazon Prime, is embracing the small screen for the first time since his appearance on Homicide: Life on the Street in 1994.
Presumed Innocent is being produced by David E. Kelley, J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot, and Warner Bros. It is an adaptation of Scott Turow’s 1990 film in which Harrison Ford plays a lawyer doing double duty as an investigator looking for the murderer of his colleague.
These types of sexy thrillers were popular in the ’90s and usually contained twist endings. Here’s the trailer for the original:
According to Deadline, Presumed Innocent doesn’t stray far from the source material: “…the Presumed Innocent series will explore obsession, sex, politics and the power and limits of love as the accused fights to hold his family and marriage together.”
Up next for Gyllenhaal is the Guy Ritchie action movie titled In the Grey scheduled for release in January 2025.
Presumed Innocent is an eight-episode limited series set to stream on AppleTV+ starting June 12.
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