13 Movie Facts That Might Make You Uncomfortable to Hear

Movies are supposed to make us laugh, cry, feel nervous, or forget about reality for a couple of hours. But sometimes the stories behind them are considerably less comfortable than anything that happens on screen. A beloved performance may have come with a difficult production story, a supposedly harmless scene might have involved a disturbing reality, or a familiar movie can carry details that completely change how you think about it. These facts are not necessarily shocking for the sake of being shocking. They are simply the uncomfortable pieces of context that tend to disappear once a film becomes a classic. Once you know them, however, some movies can be surprisingly difficult to watch in quite the same way again.

The Wizard of Oz (1939) Was Much More Dangerous Than It Looks

The production involved hazardous makeup, extreme heat, heavy costumes and serious accidents, including Margaret Hamilton suffering severe burns during a special effect.

Jaws (1975) Was Nearly Destroyed by Its Own Shark

The mechanical shark repeatedly malfunctioned in the ocean, forcing Spielberg to hide it more often and accidentally creating much of the suspense that made the movie famous.

The Shining (1980) Was an Exhausting Production

The shoot lasted more than a year, with extremely long workdays and an especially demanding experience for Shelley Duvall.

The Exorcist (1973) Had Real Injuries on Set

Several physical effects were so intense that injuries suffered during production became part of the finished movie, adding an uncomfortable layer to some of its most disturbing scenes.

Roar (1981) Used Real Wild Animals

The cast and crew worked alongside lions, tigers and other animals without the safety standards that would be expected from a modern production, and several people were seriously injured.

Apocalypse Now (1979) Nearly Fell Apart During Production

The notoriously chaotic shoot was plagued by severe weather, enormous production problems and Martin Sheen suffering a heart attack while filming.

Alien (1979) Deliberately Terrified Its Cast

The actors were not fully told what would happen during the famous chestburster scene, meaning their shocked reactions were largely genuine.

The Revenant (2015) Was Filmed in Brutally Difficult Conditions

Much of the production took place in remote, freezing environments, with the cast and crew dealing with demanding locations and limited windows of natural light.

Ben Hur (1959) Had a Dangerous Chariot Sequence

The famous race involved genuinely hazardous stunt work, with enormous numbers of horses and vehicles moving at high speed across the set.

The Birds (1963) Used Real Birds

Alfred Hitchcock’s production relied heavily on live birds for many scenes, and Tippi Hedren later described the filming of the attack sequence as an extremely distressing experience.

Fitzcarraldo (1982) Really Moved a Massive Boat

Werner Herzog famously had an actual 320 ton steamship hauled over a hill rather than creating the sequence with a miniature, making the production as extreme as the finished scene suggests.

The Blair Witch Project (1999) Made Its Actors Uncomfortable on Purpose

The performers were deliberately kept uncertain about what would happen next and were given instructions that allowed the filmmakers to provoke genuine reactions.

The Act of Killing (2012) Became Uncomfortable for a Completely Different Reason

The documentary asked former Indonesian death squad members to recreate killings they had participated in, creating a film whose disturbing reality comes directly from the subjects themselves.