Alien, the eighth passenger
This movie anecdote is well-known to many, but it never hurts to remember it. To make John Hurt's character's death scene even more believable, Ridley Scott didn't tell anyone about what he planned to do.
To do this, he put a device that would explode a bag full of pig blood and offal. At the opportune moment, the filmmaker told the actors to lean over the body of John Hurt to automatically burst the bag and cover the entire cast in blood, to the astonishment, bewilderment, and, above all, scare of the audience. Without a doubt, a scene from Alien, the eighth passenger has become one of the most iconic moments in cinema history.
Prometheus
33 years later, Ridley Scott continued to be just as rogue with his actors. We have good proof of this in Prometheus, a prequel (or rather, we should say, a prelude to a prequel) to the first installment of Alien.
To continue showing the true terror in his interpreters, Ridley Scott followed the same trend as, in Alien, that is, hiding his intentions from the rest of the cast to surprise them and obtain the most plausible reactions at key moments in the film. Like the scene where an alien snake shoots out from inside a body, completely scaring the actors.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is one of the greatest references in horror movies. But not only for its viewers but also for the actors who starred in the film. To give it more realism, his director, Tobe Hopper, prevented the actors from seeing the murderer Leatherface with his human skin mask before shooting the corresponding scenes. As you can guess, the reactions of its protagonists when meeting the murderer are completely real.
The Blair Witch Project
Undoubtedly, we have an example of realism in The Blair Witch Project, a film that even in its promotions tried to make it seem as if it were a totally true story since the story is recorded from the camcorders of a group of hikers lost in a forest.
To emphasize their protagonists' sense of doom, the directors gave the actors cameras, a map to reach a certain meeting point, and everything they needed to survive for three days, leaving them alone in the forest. Or so they were led to believe, since the film crew secretly followed them without being seen, causing different noises through the forest.
To top it all off, in the last days of filming they barely gave them food and at night they didn't let them sleep, shaking the tent and playing the recordings of the children laughing. So, if you put on the film again, know that the reactions of its protagonists are absolutely real.
The Godfather
Even in great classics like The Godfather, some actors had a really bad time during filming, although in this case, it was a three-year-old boy. Before the iconic death of Don Corleone as a result of a heart attack, the character was with his grandson.
Marlon Brando had all the weight of the scene and knew that he had to connect with the little boy somehow, so he decided to put an orange peel in his mouth and start growling like a monster. The boy, far from laughing, began to scream and the actor was forced to comfort him.
An amazing gang (The Monster Squad)
This classic 80s film tells the story of a group of teenagers who have to face the most emblematic monsters in movie history, such as the werewolf, the mummy, or Dracula, who wanted to seize an amulet that would help rule the world. Said artifact was in the hands of a five-year-old girl (played by Ashley Bank).
The young woman later revealed in an interview that she was terrified when she saw actor Duncan Regehr portrayed as Dracula. Also, during the scene where the monsters are sucked into a portal, the little girl had a really hard time as she felt like the air from the six giant fans that were used to make the vortex-sucking effect was pulling her into the portal. so did she, holding on tightly to what was closest to her to keep from flying away.
