26 Behind-The-Scenes TV And Movie Facts That Are Creepy, Dark, Or Just Plain Freaky
A while ago, we asked members of the BuzzFeed Community their creepiest behind-the-scenes movie and TV facts, and boy did they come through. Here are 26 genuinely unnerving dark Hollywood facts that freaked me out.
1.After Bruce Lee died before filming completed on Game of Death, the film made use of the actor's funeral footage in the film — meaning his corpse was actually used in the film.
—nomi
2.Oliver Robins, who played Robbie in Poltergeist, was actually being strangled in the clown scene.
MGM/UA Entertainment Co.
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."
3.The film Caine changed its name to Shark after a stunt person was killed by a shark during filming. They then used photos of the accident to promote the film.
The stunt person, Jose Marco, died after a shark broke through protective netting and attacked him. His death was then used to market the film, as seen in the poster above.
4.In another stunt-gone-wrong, a stuntman named A. J. Bakunas died while filming a 323-foot fall in the 1979 film Steel. He was trying to beat a world record, and had previously done the same fall from a lower story. The footage is rumored to still be in the film.
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5.The Lone Gunmen predicted not only 9/11 but also conspiracy theories about its cause.
The pilot of The Lone Gunmen, a spinoff of The X-Files, featured a government plot to hijack a plane, fly it into the World Trade Center, and let terrorist organizations claim credit in an effort to start a new war and increase weapons sales. It aired six months before 9/11.
6.Also in relation to 9/11 — the Master of Disguise cast and crew were apparently informed of the events while filming the turtle scene. After a moment of silence, they continued filming.
Sony Pictures Releasing
According to IMDb and a number of unofficial sources, the turtle scene was shot on September 11. This has never been confirmed or denied by the filmmakers or actors, but the time when the movie was filmed does line up with September 11.
7.This one's more weird than creepy, but...Paris Hilton's sex tape contains a tribute to 9/11. Just wanted to put that out there. You go into the tape thinking about the thousands that died in the terrorist attack.
8.Isla Fisher almost drowned for real while filming the water tank scene in Now You See Me.
Lionsgate
Her release chain got stuck in her costume, meaning she was stuck for the three-minute sequence. "I was actually drowning," she told Chelsea Handler on Chelsea Lately. "Everyone thought I was acting fabulously. ... no one realized I was actually struggling."
9.And that scene in Poltergeist when Diane falls in the muddy pool, only to find herself surrounded by skeletons? Well, turns out they were real human skeletons — which no one told actor JoBeth Williams about.
MGM/UA Entertainment Co.
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.
10.Speaking of 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.
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11.Judith Eva Barsi, the child actor who most famously voiced Ducky in Land Before Time, was murdered by her father at the age of 10.
He also murdered his wife, Judith's mother, before killing himself. Eerily, Judith had previously played a child murdered by her father in Fatal Vision.
12.Two young children and a veteran actor were killed when a helicopter crashed into them on the set of Twilight Zone: The Movie.
On the last day of filming for Twilight Zone: The Movie, they were shooting a Vietnam War battle scene where actor Vic Morrow, 53, and child actors Renee Shinn Chen and Myca Dinh Le, who were 6 and 7, ran from a pursuing helicopter. The helicopter lost control and crashed into the three actors, killing them. The scene was deleted from the final film, but the overall segment starring Vic Morrow was still included when the film was released in 1983.
13.This Pearl Harbor scene from Tora! Tora! Tora! featuring people running from an exploding plane happened by accident. This wasn't supposed to happen, and the stunt people running from the flames were really running for their lives.
ThePropKing / YouTube / Via youtube.com
"Shrapnel was flying everywhere," stunt person Phil Adams said, describing what it was like to film the sequence. "It was probably some of the best footage that we shot that day."
14.A creepy Sesame Street segment from the '70s called "Cracks" was lost until a man named Jon Armond began to search for it after remembering being traumatized by it as a kid. After years of searching, he received a fax from an unknown, untraceable number promising to send him the segment as long as he agreed never to screen it in public, post it online, or send it to anyone else. He agreed and found a copy of the segment in his mailbox.
A note delivered with the DVD stated, “We trust this completes your search.” Armond kept his promise, but a copy of the segment from another search was later sent to Lost Media Wiki founder Daniel Wilson via an anonymous email, and he made the segment public. You can watch it here.
15.The ending of the thriller Sliver almost caused the death of three people when they accidentally crashed into a volcano.
The film was supposed to end with Carly and Zeke's helicopter flying into a volcano. They filmed right above Kīlauea in Hawaii to get the footage, with pilot Craig Hosking flying. He hit the lip of the volcano and crashed. Hosking was rescued right away, but it took two days to find director of photography Michael A. Benson and visual effects cameraperson Chris Duddy. In the end, they were all safely extricated from the volcano. The footage was used in test screenings, but after a negative audience response, the ending was changed.
16.The set for the home of Regan and her mother in The Exorcist mysteriously burned down before filming one morning. However, Regan's bedroom set was apparently untouched.
Director William 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 light box, 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.
17.Another Exorcist one for ya — in one scene where Ellen Burstyn's character is thrown to the ground, she actually permanently injured her back. The take was still used in the film.
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Burstyn said she warned Friedkin she was being pulled too hard, and that instead of cutting when she was hurt, he directed the cinematographer to focus on her. Friedkin responded to this claim, saying Burstyn was hurt but that he doesn't consider it an injury, as Burstyn didn't take time off or file an insurance claim. He said, “If I hadn’t let the stuntman do that with the force that he did it, she would have had to do it over and over and over again. ... I would rather have had one [take] that risked hurting her a little."
18.And one more — Paul Bateson, an extra who played a radiological technologist in The Exorcist, was later convicted of the murder of film critic Addison Verrill.
There was evidence connecting him to the murder of six other men, though the judge in the case decided it was not enough, and he was convicted only of Verrill's murder.
19.A contestant on the popular game show The Dating Game also turned out to be a killer — Rodney Alcala, who won his episode (though ended up being rejected for a date). Alcala was a serial killer who would end up being convicted for seven murders — and suspected of many more.
20.A contestant on Megan Wants a Millionaire and I Love Money 3, Ryan Jenkins, also later turned out to be a killer — in fact, just after the latter show finished filming, his wife's dead body was found. It was soon discovered he had a history of assault, which apparently his background check hadn't uncovered.
21.Jim Caviezel was struck by lightning while filming The Passion of the Christ — in which he played Jesus. Assistant director Jan Michelini was struck by lightning twice. Neither were injured.
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22.Three members of the cast and crew of The Omen were also plagued by strange lightning while filming.
Gregory Peck's plane was struck by lightning as he flew to shoot the film. 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. Bernhard started wearing a cross to the set, saying decades later that he didn't want to take any chances: "The devil was at work, and he didn't want that film made."
23.And special effects artist John Richardson was in a car crash that decapitated his assistant 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.
24.Stunt person Alf Joint — who had worked on The Omen — was seriously injured filming a routine roof-jumping stunt on the film A Bridge Too Far. In the hospital, he said it felt as if he'd been pushed.
Apparently, he fell suddenly and awkwardly instead of jumping, as he was trained to do.
25.Though the film did not include it, the No Country for Old Men novel featured the line, “Here a while back in San Antonio they shot and killed a federal judge.” This was likely referring to Charles Harrelson's 1979 murder of Judge John Howland Wood. Charles Harrelson's son? Woody Harrelson, who was one of the film's stars.
You can read more about Charles Harrselson and his murder of John Wood here.
26.And finally, The Simpsons has predicted a lot over the years, which the creators feel is mostly just educated guessing. However, they have no real explanation for this creepy brochure Lisa holds that seems to be a reference to 9/11...in an episode that aired in 1997.
They apparently chose the number 9 because it was comically small, and the Twin Towers in the background were just an eerie coincidence.