Top 10 Shocking Horror Movie Scandals
#10: ‘Found Footage’ in “The Blair Witch Project” (1999)
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This supernatural horror film had a very low budget, but an extremely effective marketing strategy. It was promoted as real found footage - a documentary rather than a horror movie. Missing flyers were distributed at film festivals, and fake police reports and interviews were posted on the movie’s website. The campaign did wonders for the indie film’s popularity, as it went on to gross nearly $250 million. However, it also generated controversy, as some people genuinely believed that “The Blair Witch Project” might be the real deal, showing the final hours of murdered teenagers.
#9: Graphic Violence in “Night of the Living Dead” (1968)
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Today, George A. Romero’s “Night of the Living Dead” is considered an influential classic that single handedly birthed the modern zombie genre. But in its day, it met with mixed critical reviews and a lot of controversy. The MPAA rating system didn’t exist when the movie premiered, so anyone could waltz in and buy a ticket - including children. Expecting a fun Saturday matinée horror movie, they were instead treated to a nihilistic film with walking corpses and graphic violence. Several critics condemned the movie as depraved. Variety even attacked its fans, questioning their “moral health”.
#8: Mistreatment During “The Shining” (1980)
Over the years, we’ve seen more and more stories of abuse emerge from Hollywood, some involving iconic filmmakers. Tippi Hedren has gone into detail about Alfred Hitchcock’s obsession with her on and off the set of 1963’s “The Birds”. There are also claims that Shelley Duvall was mistreated by Stanley Kubrick during the filming of “The Shining”. A demanding perfectionist, Kubrick reportedly pushed her hard, requiring an exhausting number of takes - 127 for the famous baseball bat sequence. He also allegedly isolated her from the cast and crew. They argued frequently, and Duvall’s hair started to fall out from the stress. After all this torment, Duvall received a Razzie nomination for Worst Actress. Fortunately, it was rescinded in 2022 as a form of recognition and apology.
#7: Plagiarism in “Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror” (1922)
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When “Nosferatu” was originally released in 1922, the original intertitles acknowledged Bram Stoker’s novel “Dracula” as the source. And indeed, it was clearly an adaptation with a few changes here and there, such as the names. The problem was that the filmmakers had not secured the rights! Stoker himself had passed away, but his heirs sued, and production company Prana Films had to declare bankruptcy. They were ordered to destroy all existing prints of the movie. However, several copies survived, which is why we can still enjoy the film today. You might even say that it survived death!
#6: Real Intimacy in “Don't Look Now” (1973)
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Nicolas Roeg’s psychological thriller is a rich exploration of tragic themes, but the poetry was overshadowed by controversy. One infamous scene shows husband and wife John and Laura, portrayed by Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie, making love in Venice. The sequence was considered explicit back in 1973, and censors demanded careful and creative editing. It was still given an R rating in the US, and an X Rating in Britain. Rumors later arose that Sutherland and Christie had had unsimulated sex on camera. This was denied by Sutherland and the film’s producer Peter Katz.
#5: Hitchcock Pushes Boundaries in “Psycho” (1960)
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By today’s standards, the content of “Psycho” is fairly tame. But standards were quite different in 1960. Before the advent of the MPAA’s rating system, Hollywood self-censored based on guidelines laid out in the Hays Code. But the code’s influence was weakening by the late ‘50s, and fewer filmmakers were adhering to its policies. Hitchcock was one of them. “Psycho” was full of racy taboos of the time, including unmarried characters sharing a bed, a man dressed in women’s clothing, and even (gasp) a flushing toilet! Many censors also took issue with the on-screen violence, with the iconic shower scene and the death of private investigator Arbogast being heavily edited in some countries.
#4: Snuff Film Accusations Leveled at “Cannibal Holocaust” (1980)
One of the most notorious films of all time, “Cannibal Holocaust” is a notable progenitor of the found footage genre. It follows a small group of filmmakers as they venture into the Amazon rainforest and are attacked by a tribe of cannibals. Some suspected that the footage was genuine, owing both to the documentary-like nature of the movie and the grotesque realism of the violence. In fact, director Ruggero Deodato was arrested and charged with murder in Italy. The charges were dropped after the actors gave a TV interview and Deodato explained how the graphic scenes were filmed. The filmmakers were convicted of obscenity and violence however, for the real killing of animals on set.
#3: Politics & Violence in “The Hunt” (2020)
The trailer for “The Hunt” generated heated discourse online, especially from conservatives, who thought that the film celebrated elite liberals hunting down Donald Trump supporters. Its release was delayed after the shootings in Dayton and El Paso of August 2019, releasing in March 2020 just a few days before the world went into lockdown in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. It got a second life as a digital release. Once people saw the movie, some felt that it was actually vilifying liberals, others that it was a satire of American politics in general. One thing is for sure, the premise proved unsurprisingly provocative. Director Craig Zobel claimed that he didn’t intend for the movie to be controversial, which is pretty hard to believe.
#2: Religious Controversies in “The Exorcist” (1973)
The national reaction to “The Exorcist” is the stuff of legend. People fainting, throwing up, and being carried away in ambulances - it all happened, and it all helped the film become the phenomenon that it is today. But many religious officials also took issue with its content, claiming that its depictions of demonic possession and exorcism were flawed; that it encouraged Satanism; that its ending re-affirmed the power of evil; and that its visuals were blasphemous. In the United States, some religious groups picketed the film and handed out flyers. This conversation around the film only boosted its profile, leading to high returns at the Box Office and 10 Academy Award nominations, of which it won two!
#1: A Tragic Accident During “Twilight Zone: The Movie” (1983)
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Hollywood saw one of its biggest scandals ever in the early morning hours of July 23, 1982. Director John Landis was filming a scene for “Twilight Zone: The Movie,” a film adaptation of the popular TV series. The scene in question involved actor Vic Morrow and child actors named Myca Dinh Le and Renee Shin-Yi Chen, who were being paid under the table, as state law didn’t permit them to work nights. The three were required to walk underneath a helicopter while explosions went off in the background. One detonation caused the helicopter to spin out of control and it landed on top of the actors, killing all three. Several people, including Landis, were charged with manslaughter, but all were acquitted.
