Cursed Painting: The Anguished Man

DISCLAIMER: This post will contain allegedly cursed images. People claim that owning copies, prints, or even looking at this work of art can cause anxiety, fear, general uneasiness. Proceed at your own discretion. If you get cursed, it's not my fault.

The Anguished Man is a cursed painting said to be one of the most cursed or haunted items in the entire world. Currently owned by Sean Robinson, given to him by his grandmother. It is not known who painted the painting, but thought to be painted by a mentally unhealthy man, who mixed his own blood into the paint used, and shortly after finishing the painting the artist committed suicide.

When not in private storage, the painting resides in the home of its owner and his family, who have reported experiencing all kinds of unexplained happenings, ranging from sensations and feelings, to noises and culminating with Sean’s son falling down the stairs, after which saying he felt that he was being pushed, by someone that wasn't there.

Sean has a YouTube channel dedicated to the painting. He has posted 9 videos documenting instances to prove the haunting or cursed nature of this work of artistic expression.

Video 1, posted over a decade ago, is slightly over a minute long, and honestly looks like a low budget indie horror movie teaser trailer. Spooky music background, a brief text history of the item and the events they have experienced. After a, what I felt was weird, slow extreme close up to the eye of the painting, it is posted that “this painting is cursed”. A few seconds later, the video ends.

Video 2. This time there is narration. Sean shows the painting, front and back, the wear along the edges and explains he is going to set his camera up on the camera for 8 hours, in an attempt to capture some haunted activity, then there is a text splash that explains he did this over 3 nights. In the rest of the video he offers three instances of unexplained activity, a noise, a door closure, and another noise. None of what I watched really convinced me anything spooky was going on, he says there were no drafts of wind, and everyone was sleeping. All of which may be true, I am still not convinced.

Video 3. Again, only slightly over a minute, back to text and background music, only this time the background music is more tension building. He set the camera up again, 4 nights at 7 hours a night this time. The unexplained examples consist of light streaks across the image, and what looks like a smoke or mist type apparition.

Video 4 Camera set up for 5 nights at 4 hours a night. Right off the bat this one has some serious creepy sounds happening, he is taping over a Friday the 13th weekend, and last night, Sunday, he captured a figure. The figure is fast moving and blurry, it appears to be someone walking by the camera. Sean claims that everyone who was in the house was sleeping, and no one was in the room when filming.

Video 5 The shortest out of them, at 33 seconds long. It's a short clip of the painting falling over, for no apparent reason.

Video 6 Once again showed a smoke, once again Sean said there was no way there could have been smoke in the room. It really just looks like someone had an incense or a cigarette off screen and the smoke drifted into view.

Video 7 Posted in 2016, 5 years after the video before it. Sean sits with the painting facing the camera. Sean says he had the painting stored away, but shortly before posting the video had it returned to him from a “paranormal group” he had loaned it to. He then says that there had been physical reactions to people after viewing the picture,he also says his son has had several nosebleeds after being around the painting. He then makes the statement that while the painting was not in the home, no unexplained events were noticed by the family, it was only after bringing the painting back into the home that that phenomenon started up again. This disputes any claim that the noises heard were just the product of an old, weathered house.

Video 8 Posted July 2017, the longest of all the videos currently on the channel. Sean gives a verbal apology for not having the planned haunted update. Sen describes what i would call a terrifying night of scrapes, and screams and his son having an unexplained nosebleed so bad medical attention was almost necessary. He explains that until he can figure out a safe way to film the painting, away from his son, he is going to store it away from the home because he doesn't feel safe with it around. Sean makes a point to note that the painting is one of a kind, and is not for sale,and makes it clear he has no intentions of ever selling it. He says he feels it is his “burden to bear”

Video 9 from May 2018, is a repost of video number 3, and is titled as such. Sean has made a recent comment under this video asking if people would be interested in viewing a live stream of the painting.

Sean and the story have been featured in various paranormal investigation shows, and there is no shortage of articles and YouTube videos about the painting. There was talk of the story being acquired by La Brea Pictures for a film in which Sean would have been acting as associate producer, but the last news that i could find was from 2016, so it seems unlikely to happen anytime soon.

As I watched these videos I found myself quite skeptical of the claims at various points throughout. The unexplained footage can be explained pretty easily, by a person manipulating things outside the camera’s view. More convincing, to me, were the testimonials given by Sean. The way he spoke came across as someone who was concerned, as well as curious. He was not overly dramatic in his telling, nor did he seem to embellish upon the events as he explained them .Furthermore adding to the believably for me was the frequency of video uploads. The videos were posted at lengthy intervals, sometimes with years between uploads, that's a long time to devote to something that isn't real.

He came across as genuine, he was telling his truth, or he appeared to be. He did not seem like he was attempting to gain massive fame or fortune from the sharing of his story. The evidence he presented wasn't convincing to me, but he was.

And then there is the painting, itself.

I feel noticeably uncomfortable staring at this painting, something about it definitely has a creepy factor to it. It is hard to know if it is the story associated with the painting, the tales of a haunting or curse, blood in the paint, or if it is simply the painting itself. Expressionless expression, in unnatural tones, contrasting and distorted just enough.

Is the cure real? Perhaps.

Whatever is or isn't attached to, or trapped within this painting is enough to make those around it feel in ways they do not like. Supernatural or psychosomatic , perhaps the curse is that a life was ended, and this was the final expression of emotion left behind by an anguished man.