10 Horror Movies Audiences Walked Out On
Some films are not for the faint of heart.
Horror movies are meant to be scary. It's kind of in the title.
Why is it then that horror history is full of people complaining that some films are too much? Why do people pay their hard-earned money to watch something they know is going to be too violent or gross for them? Look at the posters, people! These aren't Marvel movies!
Still, for as long as filmmakers have pushed the boundaries of what is acceptable in horror, there have been people on the other side pushing back. That is, until they get tired of pushing and decide to leave.
Walking out of the cinema is usually reserved for films that are really boring or that have Seth Rogen in them and you didn't realise. In this case, we're examining the times when audiences checked out of a movie early because they were too frightened, disturbed, disgusted, or some combination of the three.
Covering almost 100 years of cinema, this list chronicles some of the most famous cases of movie theatre abandonment and tries to discover what drove audiences to the point where they just couldn't take it anymore.
10. Freaks
In 1932, a film that came along shocked the world not through its violence or gore, but by portraying ordinary human beings with disabilities.
Freaks, directed by Tod Browning, is about a woman who joins a troupe of sideshow circus performers in an attempt to seduce and murder a man with dwarfism to claim his inheritance.
The film's cast was full of people with real-life disabilities portraying all manner of traditional "freak show" performers; a bearded lady, conjoined twins, a strongman etc.
However, despite being the main focus of the picture, a lot of the actors were made to stay away from the able-bodied cast and crew members on set. Some were also banned from viewing the film in cinemas owing to staff members feeling "uncomfortable".
This discomfort was also present in the film's test audiences, many of whom couldn't finish the original version because it was too "grotesque". As a result, half an hour of footage was cut from the theatrical release without the director's consent.
Reading people's reactions to Freaks sheds light on the stigmas disabled people faced at the time, which is ironically far more frightening than anything in the actual film.