10 Times People Died While Watching Movies

5. A Man Died Of Alcohol Poisoning During Twilight: Eclipse

The Conjuring 2
Summit Entertainment

Many of us have joked about how we'd rather die than watch a Twilight movie, but tragically, that scenario actually came true for a 23-year-old homeless man in July 2010.

Without buying a ticket, the unemployed Damian Anthony Smythe found his way into a screening of the third entry in the Twilight series - Eclipse - in a cinema in Wellington. Taking his seat to watch the film, Smythe began to drink a bottle of Johnny Walker Red Label whiskey, before he slumped forward and began to have a nap.

It wasn't until theatre staff started to clean the screen up that Smythe was found, his face blue and cold, with an empty one-litre whiskey bottle beside him. An ambulance was called, but it was already too late: Smythe had died of alcohol poisoning towards the end of the film.

Smythe had a lot of personal troubles, and didn't have much support in his life. It was thought that these circumstances contributed to his drinking problem, and subsequently, his death, at a frustratingly young age. The Twilight series sucks, but it's definitely better than that.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for almost nine years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. He has been writing and video editing for 10+ years, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers and uploading them to YouTube (they're admittedly a bit rusty by today's standards). If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order or to tell you about the making of 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks, Danny is the person to ask.