10 Famous Horror Movie Moments That Were Completely Improvised

8. Frank - Hellraiser

Silence Of The Lambs Anthony Hopkins Jodie Foster
New World Pictures

Hellraiser was Clive Barker's directorial debut and an adaptation of his own novella The Hellbound Heart. Fortunately, even while adapting his own work, the first-time helmer was never too precious about the final cut matching his original script.

While Pinhead and his Cenobites quickly established themselves in the pantheon of classic horror movie creatures, the real monster of Hellraiser is teen heroine Kirsty's creepy Uncle Frank. Many of the moments that made Frank memorable, though, were made up on the spot.

An iconic shot of a skinless Frank smoking a cigarette came about because Barker spotted actor Oliver Smith enjoying a cheeky ciggy in full skinless makeup between takes. Enjoying the incongruity of the image, Barker decided to just throw it into the movie.

Meanwhile, once clad in the skin of his brother Larry, many of Frank's best known lines were made up on the spot by actor Andrew Robinson.

"Enough of this cat and mouse sh*t" was one that Robinson ad-libbed unprompted and Barker happily left in. Most memorably, though, the actor took his final line - a simplistic "f*ck off" - and improvised in its place the far more evocative "Jesus wept". Now that's the way to sign off before you get torn apart.

Contributor
Contributor

Loves ghost stories, mysteries and giant ape movies