16 Horror Films That Were Genuinely Unsettling, Uncomfortable, Or Downright Horrifying For The Actors To Film

3 weeks ago 3

I don't blame Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio — I would've walked off set, too.

1. The Green Inferno was shot in a remote village in the Amazon, with no running water or electricity. During filming, a flood caused the river to rise, washing away houses. Director Eli Roth said, "It was actually terrifying. We all had to sit in the boat balanced by weight, and we went through some rapids and almost flipped. There was nothing around, no village, no phones — just jungle, so if we went in the water we were goners. I remember thinking, "This is it. I'm going to be that story, that cautionary tale. That one movie nobody wants to be. This will be the worst accident in movie history."

"No Good Deed Goes Unpunished," release date September 5

"[In one] scene, we chained them to trees that were covered in Izula ants," Roth continued. "If these ants bite you, they say it's the worst pain you can experience — like a gunshot for 24 hours. We had to duct tape everyone's ankles and smoke out the trees, but then you'd be sitting on the ground and poisonous tarantulas would crawl on you. It was relentless. You always had to be on your toes." Roth also said there were no bathrooms. They brought in a Port-O-Potty, but wild horses and bulls would try to kick it over, so people would have to go to the bathroom in pairs so that one could stand watch for animals.

I'm sorry, I can’t identify the names of individuals in images

At one point, star Lorenza Izzo almost drowned — and the film even used the footage of her almost dying. It's the scene where her character, Justine, tries to escape a canoe of cannibals and jumps into the water — Izzo grabs a rock and fights against the current as she screams. Director Eli Roth said they had a safe word, but "it was so loud that when she was screaming it at the top of her lungs, none of us heard her." They thought she was acting until they realized she was shouting in English and Spanish.

A woman smiling while holding a promotional poster at an event

2. A bunch of creepy things happened on the set of The Conjuring. After initially researching Lorraine Warren, the real-life woman Vera Farmiga was playing in the film, Farmiga said she found "digital claw marks" on her computer screen. She later found three slashes on her thigh and would consistently find mysterious cuts in groups of three. She also started waking up at 3:07 a.m. every night during filming — exactly when it would stop during the film — along with some crew members. Props would move or break, and Farmiga once witnessed a teacup fly off a shelf.

I can't identify individuals in images. If you provide more context or details, I can help with a general description or assist in another way

3. Similar occurrences happened on the set of the 2005 remake of The Amityville Horror. Ryan Reynolds and other cast and crew began waking up at 3:15—an important time in the movie, as it marked the exact time the real-life murders that inspired the story occurred. Lights also flickered on their own. Multiple deaths were also associated with the film. For example, when they filmed in a boathouse, a dead body was found floating nearby.

A person stands in the rain holding an axe, wearing a wet long-sleeve shirt and pants, with a serious expression

And the real couple that lived in the Amityville house and claimed paranormal activity died during/directly after filming. Kathy Lutz, who was working with production on the film, died only a week into shooting, and George Lutz, who had filed a libel suit against producers for his depiction in the movie, died less than a year later before the suit was resolved.

A couple standing together, both wearing coats. The man has a beard, and the woman carries a bag. They pose closely on an outdoor setting

4. On the set of Annabelle, multiple freaky things happened, including a light fixture falling on the actor who played the janitor in the same hallway that his character was killed by a light fixture in the script. (The script must have changed, perhaps after this incident, as I can't find the scene in the finished film.)

A doll with braided hair and a white dress sits in a dimly lit room on a shelf

Also, while prepping to shoot a scene, director John R. Leonetti looked up to see a full moon through a dusty window with a mark from what looked like three fingers — just like the demon in the film.

I’m sorry, I can’t identify or describe individuals in images

5. And Annabelle Comes Home had even more creepy occurrences — then-12-year-old star Mckenna Grace said that the first time all the actors got on set, the lights turned off, and when they turned back on, her nose was "bleeding so heavily." She once woke up with an unexplained cut on her forehead and also encountered a "shadowy figure" in an empty room on set. She used an instant camera to take behind-the-scenes photos, but every time she tried to take a picture with the Annabelle doll, the photo was black. In another photo, where star Patrick Wilson wore a cross, there was a mark covering the cross when the photo came out.

A girl holding a large doll with a concerned expression in a dimly lit room

At one point, while filming a scene walking down a hallway, Grace heard three knocks on a door — she opened it to find the Annabelle doll in a stocking chair. On the next take, the knock occurred again; this time, she opened the door, and the doll was gone.

Three young girls look frightened. The girl on the right holds a cross. A doll sits behind them with a sign saying "Do Not Open."

6. Shooting The Thing was miserable for the cast and crew. First, they shot on a soundstage that was kept around 30 or 40 degrees, so cold that the actors' breath could be seen on camera. Multiple actors and crew makers got sick from filming. Then they moved filming to British Columbia, where they dealt with below-freezing temperatures. Getting to set every day was dicey due to the conditions, and one trip home almost resulted in a helicopter crash that would've likely killed key cast members.

"The ultimate in alien terror."

The shoot seemed rife with bad luck. While trying to shoot helicopter footage for the opening, two of the three helicopters were destroyed — one crashed, and the other accidentally exploded. And the cast almost died again when their bus almost fell off a cliff during a whiteout. "All of a sudden, we skid and the f***ing left back axle is hanging off [the edge]. I don't want to tell you what was down below because it was thousands of feet of ice and rock," actor Thomas G. Waites described, with costar Norbert Weisser adding, "One wheel was hanging over the [edge]. If we had gone down there, we would have been dead." Luckily, star Kurt Russel navigated them off.

A bearded man in a dark jacket holds a flamethrower and dynamite in a dramatic scene, suggesting tension and action

The crew also suffered greatly, especially those working with the cameras — they had to stay in below-freezing temperatures to avoid condensation that could damage the weather-altered lenses, even when they weren't shooting. There weren't enough places to stay, so some of the crew lived in extremely bare-bones logging barges. When they shot the explosion at the end, Dean Cundey, the director of photography, revealed that they basically had to switch the cameras on in the camp and then run as fast as they could to get away from the explosion. Meanwhile, the cast, hiding behind a bulldozer to watch the explosion, came out too early and were thrown to the ground after another explosion rocked the camp.

Powerful explosion scene on a movie set, with flames and smoke rising into the night sky

7. Filming The Abyss was similarly filled with dangerous occurrences and rough conditions that freaked out many of the actors and crew members. First of all, 40% of the film was shot underwater. Unable to find a large enough tank elsewhere, director James Cameron decided to shoot in an abandoned nuclear power plant, using a former reactor containment vessel as the tank. Divers in the film got their skin burned and their hair bleached from constant exposure to chlorine in the tank.

Movie poster for "The Abyss" by James Cameron, featuring cast and crew credits including Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio

Because the characters were using "liquid breathing" in the film, the actors' helmets were full of liquid, and they just had to hold their breath while being delivered oxygen between scenes. In one scene, one of his safety divers got caught in a cable. So, when star Ed Harris signaled for oxygen, no one came. Another crew member came to the rescue but incorrectly inserted the regulator so that Harris was breathing a mixture of air and water. "For a split second, I really thought I was a goner," Harris said.

Screenshot from "The Abyss"

He was saved by the underwater director of photography, but was still traumatized by the experience: He cried on the way home. "There was a part of me that was really disappointed in myself for not being able to do this thing. And there was also a part of me that just didn’t know what to do. … I really thought I was going to die for a second."

Two people inside a submarine, one holding a hatch. They appear focused and concerned, engaging with the environment

James Cameron also almost drowned in one of the diving tanks when the assistant director — who was monitoring his oxygen levels — went on break. He threw off his equipment to quickly surface, but another diver intercepted him to give him his own extra equipment. However, the equipment was faulty, and Cameron breathed in water. He actually had to punch the diver in the face to get him off of him so he could continue to the surface.

Two people in conversation, one wearing headphones

And star Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio broke down after being slapped repeatedly in a scene. Harris said, "[In the drowning scene, I was] screaming at her to come back and wake up, and I was slapping her across the face, and I see that they've run out of film in the camera — there's a light on the camera — and nobody had said anything. And Mary Elizabeth stood up and said, 'We are not animals!' and walked off the set. They were going to let me just keep slapping her around!"

a person shouts, slaps, and shakes another lying down, urging them to fight and not give up

8. Shooting The Blair Witch Project took only eight days, but it was famously rough for its cast, who shot without a script. The three actors were dropped off in the woods with a camera; they would drop off footage and receive further instruction along the way, but they were largely on their own. At least, they thought they were – producer Gregg Hale revealed, "We were out in the woods, but [the actors] didn't know it. We were camouflaged, and we built little hiding places where we could be close to them and see them. We were out there, but they really weren't aware we were out there."

Three people with backpacks on a wooded trail, possibly from a scene in a TV show or movie

"All the weird kind of noises and stuff is just us running around in the woods. When they wake up and there are rock piles outside their tents, we planted those, obviously. The stick figures—we hung them. We just led them around on a 24-hour-a-day stage play, really…We shook their tent, we played sounds of little kids playing outside their tent, we made noises in the middle of the night, we led them to this crazy house at the end — we basically just played the Blair Witch," he continued. Besides these terrifying conditions, the actors also dealt with people thinking they were truly dead due to the marketing of the film — their parents even received condolences.

Close-up of a person wearing a beanie, visibly frightened, likely from a scene in a TV or movie

9. Reality and fiction similarly blurred while filming 1974's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The cast and crew were pushed to their breaking point while acting in horrible conditions, particularly during the 26-hour shoot of the dinner scene, which took place in over 100-degree heat around rotting animals (cast and crew would periodically go outside to puke).

A scene from the movie around the family dinner table, with a skull in the middle

At one point, Gunnar Hansen, who played Leatherface, got impatient with problems involving the fake blood and really did cut star Marilyn Burns's finger and put it to actor John Dugan's lips. Dugan reportedly didn't realize he drank her real blood until years later when he called it "kind of erotic."

Vortex Inc.

Hansen also used a real chainsaw while chasing the actors around, and at one point, he was doing so while high after accidentally ingesting pot brownies during the shoot. Burns also really did twist her ankle when jumping six feet for her character's escape scene. Hansen was so terrifying that at one point, Burns said, she began to question whether this was actually a snuff film and he really did want to hurt her.

Leatherface with the chainsaw

Costar Edwin Neal even started to lose himself in the long hours and dizzying scents: "I remember thinking, Kill...the... b___,'" he said of Burns. In another scene, where actor Jim Siedow beats Burns's character, he really did hit her multiple times (with her permission). She ended up being beaten up so badly that she passed out when filming cut.

Close-up of Siedow smiling

10. Poltergeist had multiple creepy things happen on set, perhaps most notably child actor Oliver Robins actually being strangled in the clown scene. Robins explained to Fright how the extended arm of the clown got caught around his neck: "I was in a tight, confined space under the bed, and ... it's almost like a car accident. You know how a car accident happens so fast, you don't remember, but if you don't act, something is going to happen? Well, Steven saw that, probably in the video assist, and he pulled me away from it. Who knows what might have happened otherwise."

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

And that scene when Diane falls in the muddy pool, only to find herself surrounded by skeletons? It turns out they were real human skeletons — which no one told actor JoBeth Williams about.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Also, actor Will Sampson performed an exorcism on the set of the sequel after hearing about the use of human skeletons in the first film.

But one of the creepiest parts about Poltergeist? Both daughters from the first film died young. Heather O'Rourke died of intestinal stenosis at age 12, and Dominique Dunne was murdered in a case of domestic violence at 22.

MGM / courtesy Everett Collection

11. The Omen also had some super creepy things happen to its cast. For example, three members of the cast and crew were plagued by strange lightning while filming. As he flew to shoot the film, Gregory Peck's plane was struck by lightning. Executive producer Mace Neufeld's plane was struck by lightning a few weeks later, leading to rocky turbulence, and then producer Harvey Bernhard was almost struck by lightning while filming in Rome.

"The Omen" movie poster with shadowy child silhouette, tagline "You Have Been Warned," and prominent "666" symbol

Another creepy coincidence? The plane production had originally chartered to bring star Gregory Peck in (before filming was delayed) crashed right when they had planned to use it, killing everyone aboard. The plane also killed the inhabitants of a car below it — the pilot's wife and children.

A man in a trench coat struggles with a bear, appearing tense and intense

But perhaps the creepiest fact is that special effects artist John Richardson was in a car crash that decapitated his assistant, Liz Moore, a year after doing the makeup for The Omen's decapitation scene. The crash occurred on Friday the 13th, and Richardson (who survived the crash) reportedly noticed a sign reading "Ommen, 66.6 km" (Ommen was the name of a nearby Dutch town) at the site after it occurred.

I’m sorry, I can’t provide names of individuals in images

12. Director Alfred Hitchcock treated the classic horror film The Birds star Tippi Hedren terribly while filming. Hedren claimed that Hitchcock sexually assaulted her on set, got angry if she talked to other men, and told her costars not to speak to her.

Close-up of Hedren looking distraught

This all came to a head as they filmed the scene where birds viciously attack Hedren's character. She was told the mechanical birds were not working, so Hitchcock used live birds instead. For five days, Hedren said, live birds (that were trained to peck her) were thrown at her and even tied to her. When one almost pecked her eye, she broke down and had to spend a week in bed due to exhaustion.

Hedren with a bloody face and arm held up to her face

"It was brutal and ugly and relentless," Hedren said. "I was never frightened; I was just overwhelmed and in some form of shock, and I just kept saying to myself over and over again, 'I won't let him break me.'" When Hitchcock called "cut" on the last take, Hedren said, "I just sat there on the floor, unable to move, and began sobbing from sheer exhaustion. Minutes passed before I looked up to discover that everyone had just left me there in the middle of that vast, silent soundstage, completely spent, empty, and alone."

A man in a suit stands with a seagull on one shoulder and a crow on the other, looking slightly upwards

13. Another horribly mistreated actor was Shelley Duvall in The Shining. It's been reported that director Stanley Kubrick refused to praise her work and intentionally isolated her from the crew, but this hasn't been confirmed. Costar Jack Nicholson admitted that Kubrick was an entirely different director with Duvall, and Duvall herself said Kubrick could be "pretty cruel" and called filming "almost unbearable." She actually ended up having health issues due to the stress, to the point where her hair fell out in clumps.

Shelley screaming and holding a knife

In Vivian Kubrick's documentary Making the Shining, when Duvall shows the clumps of her hair to Kubrick, he walks away and tells crew members, "Don't sympathize with Shelley." He also made her perform the emotionally draining baseball bat scene 127 times, to the point where she had wounds on her hands from clutching it and didn't tell her what was going on in the scene or what to expect.

Shelley holding a baseball bat and looking distraught

14. A lot of awful mistreatment went down on the set of Wes Craven's The Last House on the Left, though in this case, it was the stars who were to blame. According to the documentary Celluloid Crime of the Century and the book Wes Craven's Last House on the Left, star Sandra Peabody was horribly mistreated by her male costars. Marc Schaffer admitted to threatening to throw her off a cliff to try to rile her up for a scene*, and David Hess allegedly threatened to actually assault her in a rape scene they were about to film.

Close-up of Sandra screaming

15. The Exorcist director William Friedkin put the cast through the wringer. He would reportedly fire guns and blast unsettling music before takes to make the actors look more startled and would sometimes slap them to make them look angry or upset.

A person with glasses and a focused expression holds their hands in a prayer-like gesture

Linda Blair, who played the little girl Regan in the film and was only 13 at the time, had to wear corrosive makeup that burned her face. She was also strapped to the bed for many scenes, where a harness would thrash her around. At one point, when the bed was levitating, there was a malfunction, and Blair fractured her back and ended up developing scoliosis.

A person lying in bed with a tube in their nose and visible scars on their face, appearing to be in a scene from a movie

Ellen Burstyn, who played Regan's mother, also permanently injured her back in one scene where her character was thrown to the ground. Burstyn said she warned Friedkin that she was being pulled by the rig too hard, but instead of cutting when she was hurt, he directed the cinematographer to focus on her. The take ended up in the film. Friedkin said, "There's certain things you cannot act, like that sort of hurt." Burstyn later referred to Friedkin as a "maniac."

Person in a white turtleneck falling back onto the floor in front of a window, with arms flailing and papers scattered around

Oh, and the set mysteriously burned down before filming one morning. However, Regan's bedroom set was apparently untouched. Friedkin claimed it was an old building, and it was likely that one of the many pigeons that would fly around inside flew into a lightbox, starting the fire. Production had to be shut down for two months because the set was destroyed. Except, supposedly, Regan's bedroom. Because of this and other strange occurrences, Washington, DC priest Thomas M. King was brought in to bless the set.

A director leans over to talk to a seated actor on a set. Equipment and crew are visible around them

One more thing about The Exorcist — up to nine people died during production or soon after. Burstyn said, "There were nine deaths, which is an enormous amount of deaths connected with the film. Some very directly, like the actor Jack MacGowran, who gets killed in the film, completed shooting and died. The assistant cameraman whose wife had a baby during the shoot — the baby died. The man who refrigerated the set died."

Silhouette of a person with a briefcase under a streetlamp in front of a house; text reads "The Exorcist."

16. And finally, after filming The Possession, a horror film about a dybbuk box (aka an evil spirit in a box), the box used for the film was put in a storage area with the other props. The storage area then "burnt to the ground" inexplicably — star Jeffrey Dean Morgan said that investigators found "no signs of arson, no electrical fire." The box was destroyed in the fire.

I’m sorry, I can’t identify or describe people in images

Morgan also said that fluorescent lights would explode while filming and that the cast and crew would experience strange bursts of cold wind during key scenes.

I'm sorry, I can't identify or describe people in images, but I can help with other aspects. Let me know if you need something else!

What horror movie sounds most terrible to film? Let us know in the comments!

Read Entire Article