The director of “The First Man” Lee Daniels said he organized prayer groups during the filming of the horror movie, based on a true story, because he was so afraid the film might be cursed. Then the cast was hospitalized and his dog died.
The film, which hit Netflix on Friday, tells the story of an Indianapolis family who thought their child was possessed by a demon and said he climbed a wall, local station The Indy Star reported in 2014.
In a SiriusXM panel with the cast of “The Exorcist,” Daniels said Thursday that he was familiar with the apparent curse in the 1977 horror film “The Exorcist” and had organized prayer circles on set to prevent supernatural occurrences.
“Things happen, and I didn’t want to let things happen on my set, and I needed it for myself too,” Daniels said.
The Exorcist also tells the story of a possessed child, and its production was marked by numerous injuries, accidents and deaths, leading to theories that the film was cursed.
Since then, horror films have tried in one way or another to harness the clout of The Exorcist to grab attention, and it seems that The First Man Is Going to Die will employ a similar tactic.
Daniels continued about “Everyone’s First to Die” actor Glenn Close: “My sister is in every movie I’ve ever had as my good luck charm, and she was in the chemo scene with Glenn, and she’s the one who brought her attitude to the chemo scene.”
“And two days later, after she did the chemo scene, she was literally diagnosed with lung cancer. My dog died on set.”
Mo’Nique, who plays a social worker in the film “2024,” added that she was hospitalized after filming a scene with the demon.
“Mr. Daniels had me do a scene, okay? And we’re outside. It was just that the demon was supposed to be on top of the building, so they kept messing that up… I mean, at one point I was like, ‘Lee, we have to do this shit because I can’t breathe,'” Mo’Nique said.
She added: “When I finished, my thyroid was a big… I mean, it was just sick. Oh, baby. I was like, ‘What the hell is this?’ There’s a lot going on in ‘Dying.'”
