These Horror Movies Freaked Out Their Own Stars!

#1 “Psycho”

Leigh, in her first interview after the film's release, shared the audience's horror: "I believed that knife went into me. It was that real, that horrifying. I could feel it!" She was so affected by filming it that she no longer took showers unless she absolutely had to, and she would lock all of the doors and windows and would leave the bathroom and shower door open. She said she never realized until she first watched the film "how vulnerable and defenseless one is."

#2 “The Blair Witch Project”

The actors actually camped in the woods for 8 days, and the production crew wanted to get a real response from them. They had very little interaction with each other, and so the crew stalked the actors during the day, rattled their tents at night and even gave them less food as the trip went on so that they became more angry and exhausted.

#3 “The Birds”

Hitchcock apparently had a habit of not really caring about his actresses. Tippy Hedren was tormented by him constantly and he even lied to her about the use of real birds in the film. Instead of the mechanical birds she thought she would be working with, real birds were consistently hurled at her during scenes. There's nothing like having real birds hurled at you.

#4 “The Exorcist”

Actor Jason Miller was not privy to what was going to happen during the infamous vomiting scene. He knew there was going to be some kind of projectile throwing up, but he was told it would be aimed at his chest. To his own shock, the aim was actually for his face. He finished the scene in one take but was not happy at all.

#5 “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”

Director Tobe Hooper also took the secret route for the sake of sincerity from his actors. He kept the murderer, played by Gunnar Hansen, away from everyone else so that when it came time to surprise them, their high-pitched screams were real.

#6 “The Shining”

Stanley Kubrick is also a director who has been said to be notoriously brutal on his actors. Shelley Duvall said about her role as Wendy Torrance, "From May until October I was really in and out of ill health because the stress of the role was so great. Stanley pushed me and prodded me further than I've ever been pushed before. It's the most difficult role I've ever had to play."

#7 “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”

Alright, it's not a 'horror' movie yet that tunnel scene was extremely creepy. It came out of nowhere, right? Turns out, the entire cast except for Gene Wilder felt the same way. In fact, they were never even introduced to Wilder until his first appearance in the movie, and they had never seen the set. That means that not only are the looks of extreme awe real, so are the looks of confusion and fear when Wilder starts singing his creepy song.

#8 “Halloween”

Kyle Richards was a child star in the horror flick, playing Lindsey Wallace when she was just 9 years old. After seeing the premiere she was so scared that she had to sleep with her mom until she was 15, because she was always imagining someone was under her bed.

#9 “Alien”

Remember that scene where the phallic alien hurts out of the astronaut's chest? The actors involved were literally just as scared as you were when you saw it the first time, because they had no idea the monster was going to pop out and splatter them with goo. John Hurt, the victim of the parasitic alien, was taken aside during shooting and rigged up to a device filled with rancid pig organs. The first take brought the crew closer to the table and spurted only a small amount of fake blood, and the next take was the big surprise.

Categories

More