Shudder just did a series about Cursed Films and while they covered The Exorcist, they completed neglected this off-shoot, which may be the most dangerous, most cursed movie ever.

Noel Marshall was William Peter Blatty's agent and the executive producer of that film before he decided to make this movie. Perhaps the problem is what we often discuss: the auteur complex.

Marshall wrote, co-produced, and starred in this movie alongside his then-wife, The Birds star Tippi Hedren, his stepdaughter Melanie Griffith and his sons Jerry and John.

During the filming of Mr. Kingstreet's War, Marshall and Hedren got the idea to make this film about the plight of big cats called Lions, Lions and More Lions.

They approached animal trainers for support on the training of numerous big cats, and were told the idea was impossible. Each cat would need at least two trainers on set at all time. They dismissed these experts, as we'll soon learn more about.

Hedren originally wanted actor Jack Nicholson to play the lead role, but Marshall decided to play that part.

The six months of production stretched into three years of shooting and eleven total years of production. The lions would live in Marshall's homes and would eventually reach more than 130 lions, tigers, leopards, jaguars and cougars.

I referred to this film being cursed earlier. Instead of theory and conjecture, ala that Shudder show, let me give you facts: seventy people were injured during the making of this movie. Marhsall's wounds got so bad that he got gangrene and nearly died, taking an entire year to recover. There was also a near Biblical series of calamoties, including a flood, a fire, a feline plague, destroyed equipment, Hedren breaking her leg after falling off an elephhant, John nearly being smothered by a lion and needing more than fifty stitches to his head and Melanie being attacked by a lion and needing facial reconstruction.

Two years in, most of the investors had left. Marshall would sell four houses to pay for the film, rebuild the sets and rehire a crew. At the end, the movie would cost $17 million to independently make; $48 million in today's money.

It would play theaters for a week and only bring in $2 million. Then, it went away for decades.

This is a movie that destroyed lives and a marriage.

A year after, Marshall and Hedren would split. His son John would tell Xfinity that, "Dad was crazy. He was absolutely bat expletive crazy. He was worse than the whole family put together. He was actually quite dangerous."

Marshall was known for screaming at the cast and crew, ignoring safe words and working to get a shot more than take care of them.

Jan de Bont, who would go on to shoot Cujo, Basic Instinct and, yes, Leonard Part 6 before directing Speed, Twister and The Haunting, was the cinematographer on this film. He was scalped by a lion and needed more than two hundred stitches. Of the film, he said, "The technical problems were gigantic. When you shoot with five cameras simultaneously, each has to be ingeniously disguised so they don't appear in the shots. This was my first Hollywood film. And I'll never be the same again."

Togar was one of the lead lions. He was adopted from Anton Lavey, the leader of the Church of Satan, who could no longer keep him in his small San Francisco apartment. He was perhaps the most dangerous of the lions, despite being raised in a domestic situation. He would attack assistant director Doron Kauper, which required four and a half hours of surgery to survive. Twenty of the crew walked out and would not come back.

Man, I know way too much trivia about this film. Like how Ted Cassidy - Lurch from The Addams Family - was a writer. That three of the animals had to be shot by sheriffs after they escaped during the flood. And that was one of the other lions was named Christian and he'd live with the aforementioned Togar, which means smoke.

As for the actual movie, I'd describe it as a cross between Born Free, The Birds and Jackass. It is less a narrative film when you know the story behind the movie.

A mother (Tippi Hedren) and her children (Melanie Griffith..) go Africa to find again his husband (John Marshall) who is a warden of wild animals as lions, tigers , elephants ...There occurs strange and humorous events when the wild flock invade at home and they go after the family , up and down stairs and from a floor to another .

This is a great family entertainment . It's a family film directed by Noel Marshall and starred by his then wife Tippi Hedren, also producer, and their true children . Since choice was made to use untrained animals and since for the most part they chose to do as they wished, it's only fair they share the writing and directing credits also starring as Robbie, Gary and Togar . Tippi Hedren co-wrote the book 'Cats of Shambala' about the making of this movie .Noel Marshall who married Tippi Hedren acquired a big number of big cats , lions and others animals from zoos, circuses and animal control officers especially for the making of this films . Furthermore , there appear uncredited secondaries as Will Hutchins and Zakes Moakae as two of the members of the committee . Colorful cinematography by the Dutch Jan De Bont, Paul Verhoveen's usual . Being first Hollywood movie for director-cameraman Jan de Bont . Enjoyable musical score by Minogue is performed by National Philharmonic Orchestra and Togar theme by Dominic Frontiere . Plus , touching songs written and sung by Robert Hawk.

At the end the film tells various warnings , such as : Although some scenes appear to show animals being injured , they were never actually hurt. The lions that appeared to be killed are all back to playing with their friends but the animals that are being slaughtered in Africa are a reality and many species are near extinction . In the eleven years since began filming ¨Roar¨ in most areas of Africa , 90 per cent of the animals have been killed. These are thinking , feeling beings who need your help to survive. Something must be done and there is much you can do , as contribute to one of the many effective wildlife organizations . Show your disgust with anymore who buys or owns furs of ivory. If at all possible , plan a trip to an African country with a good conservation record. The preservation of Africa's precious wildlife heritage is the responsibility of the whole world.

Noel Marshall and Tippi Hedren certainly had a, uh, interesting relationship for a while there in the 70's and early 80's. I don't know what their marriage was like behind closed doors of course, but somehow it's a great gift to the Earth that they produced the film ROAR. Why this is can't be easily explained in a review, but I can try with this: it's about a family that lives with lions and tigers and some elephants and panthers too. Or rather it's about a guy who LOVES these lions and tigers (by the way, why tigers, shouldn't they be in India and, oh, nevermind) and panthers and so on, and invites his wife to come live with him along with her and his kids. So here comes Tippi Hedren and actual real life children Melanie Griffith and John and Jerry (Marshall's kids),and when they arrive Noel is out uh doing stuff out in the plains or jungle, and they have to contend with a house full of lions. Oh, and these were UNTRAINED LIONS by the way.

In a way I should be critical of Roar. Marshall, with the exception of one sequence that takes on the qualities of a Night of the Living Dead picture with wild cats in place of the un-dead, doesn't really set up suspense very well. The fascination with watching Roar is basic but constant: these are real people, many of them likely not exactly used to the f***ing idea of hanging out with things like lions and tigers, being knocked around, chased, bombarded by their paws and jaws and bodies, and that should in all likelihood they could/should kill these people.

There's also the behind the scenes drama that imbues real danger with what's on screen so much; right on the cover of the blu-ray it states that 70 cast/crew were harmed, and looking up who got what is just staggering (to give you an idea of the extent, director of photography Jan de Bont got his skull practically knocked off, and Melanie Griffith got facial reconstructive surgery, though the fact that we didn't notice in those movies she starred in in the 80's shows how good that surgery must have been). If there was a documentary on the making of this film it might make Herzog's Grizzly Man look like kids stuff.

Indeed the hero to me of this film is de Bont; he gets his camera into places that I just couldn't think would be possible, right in the faces of these lions, capturing action that seems impossible - certainly with the knowledge that these lions didn't have proper, you know, TRAINERS. It's just a feeling of constant WTF that goes on with this - likely why it got picked up by Drafthouse Films as Drafthouse CEO Tim League is all about finding the freshest and brightest of those WHAT IS THIS sort of flick (they also released Miami Connection some years back) - and it's amazing just on that basis alone. It's also just hysterically funny in that way that the movie lacks that awareness of the danger. Or, let me rephrase that, I think the director knew that there would be danger with these cats, but, well, why carp? The attitude is that Man is the biggest enemy - the closest thing to antagonists are under-developed hunters, you know they are as they get lines showing that I guess and they have the guns - and that, with the exception of one memorable/super-bloody lion named Togar, the lions would be just peaceful and lovable creatures if left alone.

But the ethos of the filmmakers is constantly at odds with what IS shown on screen. The actors, to their credit (at least Hedren and Griffith to an extent),get this and play this fear well through a long mid-section. There's really the feeling like there isn't really any, shall we say, 'acting' going on here; to this end, Melanie is named Melanie as are the Marshall sons, though why Hedren is a different character name is anyone's guess. I'd be surprised if there even was a solid script - how do you get these lions et al to do the things they do? It's an entirely maddening enterprise to see unfold, the kind of movie that shouldn't have been made, and may even be (borderline?) unethical, but as it is here you can't look away from the metaphorical train-wreck.