10 Horror Movie Mistakes Directors Refused To Fix Because The Acting Was Too Good
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00 Life often imitates art when it comes to film, as demonstrated by the long list of horror
00:05 movies with cursed sets.
00:07 Thankfully, we won't be talking about the various deaths and injuries that have occurred
00:10 whilst filming spooky movies over the years.
00:13 Instead, let's talk about some of the more light-hearted mess-ups in horror history,
00:17 the ones that were so easily overcome that directors just chose to leave them in.
00:22 It's testament to the cast involved in these movies that they were able to power through
00:26 when everything around them was falling to pieces.
00:29 In some cases, they acted so well that you wouldn't even notice that there had been an
00:33 error.
00:34 So with that in mind, I'm Ellie with WhatCulture, here with 10 Horror Movie Mistakes Directors
00:38 Refused To Fix Because The Acting Was Too Good.
00:42 10.
00:43 You Hit Me With The Phone In Scream
00:45 Phones play a pretty big part in Wes Craven's satirical triumph, Scream.
00:50 The very first scene we get from the movie involves one, as Casey Becker first meets
00:54 Ghostface.
00:55 The device also comes into play during the movie's most famous accident-prone moment.
01:00 Towards the film's thrilling climax, Sidney Prescott turns the tables on killers Billy
01:04 and Stew, taunting them in much the same way they taunted her.
01:08 She is on the phone with a bloodied Stew, as Billy goes mad behind him.
01:13 Billy grabs the phone from Stew, screams at Sidney, and then throws it back at his accomplice.
01:18 However, because of all the fake blood, the headset got stuck to his hand and then flung
01:22 off right into the back of Matthew Lillard's head.
01:26 Like an absolute pro, the victim of this phone-based assault carried on with a quiet "Ow!" before
01:30 yelling "You hit me with the phone!"
01:33 Although to keep this PG, we've left out two words from that section of dialogue.
01:37 9.
01:38 An Expensive Error In Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes
01:41 There are many questions surrounding the 1997 horror parody movie Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes,
01:47 the major one being "Why?"
01:49 Why did anyone think this would be a good idea?
01:52 Because it's schlocky, self-aware goodness, that's why.
01:56 Director John DiBello must have thought "Why is this happening to me?" when a stunt during
02:00 filming went very wrong.
02:02 Whilst filming a scene where a helicopter was supposed to land in the background, the
02:05 whirlybird lost control and slammed into the ground.
02:08 Thankfully, no one was seriously hurt, but the low-budget film's bank balance took a
02:12 hefty hit as the chopper was valued at $60,000.
02:16 However, because everyone just sort of went with it, footage from the smash ended up in
02:21 the film itself.
02:22 That and because there was no chance they could get the money for another helicopter.
02:26 The script was changed so that one of the eponymous mutant foodstuffs took the aircraft
02:30 down and the close-ups of the cast members watching the crash are nothing short of hilarious.
02:35 If this accident was going to happen on any film set, this was probably one of the better
02:40 ones.
02:41 8.
02:42 The Moving Hump In Young Frankenstein
02:44 Mel Brooks is a very silly man.
02:46 You don't get to pen such comedy classics as Blazing Saddles, The Producers and Spaceballs
02:51 by taking yourself too seriously.
02:53 His comedy horror Young Frankenstein is no different.
02:56 A much more light-hearted version of the classic Mary Shelley tale, with Gene Wilder as the
03:01 mad scientist and a rendition of Puttin' on the Ritz that will leave you in stitches.
03:06 See what we did there?
03:08 One of the many funny parts of this film is Igor, the Doctor's disfigured assistant as
03:12 played by Marty Feldman.
03:14 As well as his many great lines, Igor also offers up some physical comedy in the form
03:19 of an ever-changing hump in his back.
03:21 Feldman had been moving the prosthetic around to different places on his body for days until
03:26 the crew caught on.
03:28 Something that would have derailed any other production actually added to the bizarre hilarity
03:32 of Young Frankenstein, and so Brooks made the call to leave it in.
03:36 It's exactly the sort of ridiculous humour that the writer is known for, so it's surprising
03:40 to find out that it wasn't his idea in the first place.
03:43 Imagine if he hadn't liked it.
03:45 7.
03:46 A shocking oversight in The Thing
03:49 One of the many great jump scares in John Carpenter's The Thing comes when Camp Doctor
03:53 Copper attempts to restart the heart of geologist Norris.
03:57 You sure picked a great time to have a heart attack, didn't you Norris?
04:00 As the physician goes to defibrillate his co-worker, he gets quite the shock when his
04:04 chest opens up to form a giant, gaping mouth.
04:08 This shock only gets bigger when said mouth rips his arms off, killing him instantly.
04:12 Talk about an accident in the workplace.
04:15 It turns out that Norris was infected by the titular thing, leading to Kurt Russell's
04:19 McCready incinerating the monster before it can harm anyone else.
04:22 Spoiler, it harms a lot more people.
04:25 The residents of the research station were actually lucky not to have been in a real
04:28 emergency as Doctor Copper was actually a complete fool.
04:32 When he tries to defib Norris, he goes to shock his stomach rather than his chest.
04:37 This is clearly because the prosthetics for the creature had to be fitted into Norris's
04:40 stomach, but thankfully nobody really cares about this medical infraction as this scene
04:44 is just so damn iconic.
04:46 6.
04:47 Who's That?
04:48 In The Ring
04:49 In terms of English-language remakes of foreign-language horrors, you can't do much better than 2002's
04:55 The Ring.
04:56 This fabled tale of a haunted videotape scared the living conkers off us all, and has made
05:00 everyone fearful of little girls with long black hair ever since.
05:04 Plenty of creepy things happen in The Ring.
05:06 Of course they do, it's The Ring.
05:08 But one of the low-key creepiest might have happened by happy accident.
05:11 Naomi Watts' Rachel goes with her ex-boyfriend to collect her cursed son Aiden from her sister's
05:16 house.
05:17 As they're about to leave, for the briefest of brief moments, a shadowy figure can be
05:21 seen lurking in the doorway behind them.
05:24 Is this Rachel's sister?
05:25 Is it an apparition caused by the haunted tape?
05:28 Is it an overly keen pizza delivery driver?
05:30 We can't say for sure, but in all likelihood it's a crew member who walked into shot by
05:35 mistake.
05:36 Thankfully, none of the cast seem to notice or care that this person is there, and their
05:40 shadowy frame only serves to heighten the tension of what is an already butt-clenching
05:44 experience.
05:45 5.
05:46 Right in the Face in The Exorcist
05:49 Watching The Exorcist is never usually a fun experience, so imagine how bad it must have
05:54 been making the damn thing.
05:56 Of course, the opportunity to be part of one of horror's greatest institutions is nothing
06:00 to sniff at, but the actors in the film had to endure some pretty frightening and disgusting
06:04 stuff, especially Jason Miller, the man who played Father Karras.
06:09 Tasked with removing the evil entity inside of little Regan McNeil, Father Karras communes
06:13 with the demon as the young girl acts as a conduit.
06:16 During one famous scene, Pazuzu lures the man of the cloth into a false sense of security
06:20 before spewing horrible green vomit directly into his godly visage.
06:25 Miller had been told that the fake stew, which was really coloured porridge, would hit him
06:28 in the chest, however when the cameras were rolling for real, the gloop was aimed a little
06:33 higher.
06:34 The actor's reaction was completely genuine, which was just one of the many ways the cast
06:38 of this film were tortured in the name of art.
06:41 4.
06:42 A Nightmare to Film in A Nightmare on Elm Street
06:45 It's a well-known fact that Johnny Depp is in the first Nightmare on Elm Street film,
06:50 but what isn't such common knowledge is just how difficult it was to film his death scene.
06:55 Playing Glenn Lance, the boyfriend of lead character Nancy Thompson, Depp makes the number
06:59 one mistake in this franchise and takes a nap.
07:01 He is then pulled through his bed as a geyser of blood shoots up onto the ceiling in a truly
07:06 stunning visual.
07:08 Stunning, but also tricky as hell.
07:10 To get the shot required, the scene was filmed in a rotating room, and the fake blood was
07:14 poured in from the top to appear like it was shooting out from the bottom.
07:18 Unfortunately, this water-based solution ended up electrocuting a crew member when it landed
07:22 directly on a lamp.
07:24 Then, because the fake blood was so heavy, it made the room tip round, making things
07:28 much trippier than the crew had originally envisioned.
07:31 Huge congrats to Depp and Sandy Lipton, who played his character's mother, for managing
07:35 to power through such a chaotic scene.
07:37 Glenn's death is really well acted, as are his mother's harrowing screams.
07:41 Oh, and the guy who got electrocuted was fine, in case you were wondering.
07:46 3.
07:47 Merman Malfunction in The Cabin in the Woods
07:50 Drew Goddard's The Cabin in the Woods ends with a giant hand shooting out of the earth
07:54 to initiate the apocalypse.
07:56 This is what we call in the business "going over the top", and it turns out that excess
08:00 is hard-wired into this movie's DNA.
08:04 During one of the highlights of the film, the part where all the caged monsters escape
08:07 and run rampant throughout the facility, technician Steve Hadley meets his horrifying end.
08:13 After banging on all movie about wanting to see the Merman in action, Hadley ends up getting
08:18 eaten alive by, you guessed it, the Merman.
08:21 How exciting for him!
08:23 In a really nice visual, the Merman starts ejecting Hadley's blood via its blowhole,
08:28 and then it keeps ejecting, and ejecting, and ejecting.
08:32 What had happened was the pump inside the prop had broken, causing it to spew the red
08:36 viscous liquid continuously.
08:39 It was only when the fake blood tank started to run out that the crew finally intervened.
08:43 This blunder was so gory and so in keeping with the film's mad nature that it was kept
08:48 in the final cut.
08:49 Feel sorry for whoever had to mop those floors, though.
08:52 2.
08:53 The Impossible Hotel in The Shining
08:56 We've talked a lot about the difficult on-set conditions faced by actors in this list so
09:00 far, and now Stanley Kubrick is here.
09:03 Terrific!
09:04 The auteur famously made life hell for his stars during the filming of the phenomenal
09:08 1980 version of The Shining.
09:10 Poor Shelley Duvall suffered so badly that her hair started to fall out.
09:14 It wasn't just those in the film that Kubrick relentlessly messed with.
09:18 It was us at home, too.
09:19 One of the most subtle bits of mind-bendery that Stan employed was to leave several mistakes
09:24 scattered throughout the layout of the Overlook Hotel.
09:27 For example, when young Danny is playing in the hotel hallway, the patterns on the carpet
09:31 change mid-scene.
09:32 Also, when we first meet its manager, we see that his office has a window in it.
09:37 This, despite the fact that the room is in the middle of the hotel.
09:40 None of this really matters, because these errors were actually left in on purpose.
09:45 They were designed to make the actors and the audience feel disorientated and to add
09:48 to the otherworldly nature of the space.
09:51 1.
09:52 Most of it, to be honest, in Jaws.
09:55 Jaws might be one of the most important films in popular cinematic history, but it was a
09:59 bloody pain in the arse to make.
10:02 Because young Steven Spielberg was an absolute nutter, he insisted on filming the movie's
10:06 ocean sequences on the actual ocean.
10:08 Now, the ocean is not known as a particularly helpful entity, as Steve found out first-hand.
10:14 The Big Blue went to town on this production, wreaking particular havoc on the several mechanical
10:19 sharks the crew were using to simulate the film's villain.
10:22 They broke down, they got rusty, they got tangled up in seaweed.
10:26 It honestly would have been easier and safer to use a real shark.
10:30 As a result, for most of the movie, Bruce - the shark's nickname - is barely seen,
10:34 merely hinted at underwater.
10:36 Not only did this create some incredible suspense, but it also drew excellent performances out
10:41 of the actors.
10:42 Turns out, you can act a whole lot better when you're not looking at a beat-up rubberfish.
10:47 And that concludes our list.
10:48 If you think we missed any, then do let us know in the comments below.
10:51 And while you're there, don't forget to like and subscribe, and tap that notification bell.
10:55 Also, head over to Twitter and follow us there, and I can be found across various social medias
10:59 just by searching Ellie Littlechild.
11:01 I've been Ellie with What Culture.
11:03 I hope you have a magical day, and I'll see you real soon.