10 Horror Movie Deaths Not Even The Actors Saw Coming

According to Sigourney Weaver, the only thing the cast knew about Kane's death in Alien was a single line in the script, which read "this thing emerges."

On the day of shooting the iconic chestburster sequence, the other actors were kept separate from the victim, John Hurt, meaning that none of them had a clue what they were in for. "They take John down in the morning to prep him and we're upstairs for four hours", recalled actress Veronica Cartwright. "We're sitting upstairs and nobody knows what the hell is going on."

This gave director Ridley Scott the time to fill a stand-in chest cavity with real meat purchased from a butcher's shop, complete with a few big hoses to pump in the stage blood.

When the scene was set, the actors were brought in. Action was called, and they all leaned closer to Hurt's body... only to be greeted by a shower of blood and gore, which took all of them by surprise. "None of us expected it", added Cartwright, who actually passed out when the blood hit her. Meanwhile, co-star Yaphet Kotto was so traumatized by the whole thing, that he quickly returned to his room and refused to talk to anybody.

Needless to say, Scott's sneaky tactics were highly effective in drawing a horrified reaction from his cast, and this is the take that made it into the final film.