10 Horror Movie Moments More Terrifying When You Know The Truth
2. Alex Wolff Intentionally Dislocated His Jaw - Hereditary
Throw a dart and you'll find a scene in Ari Aster's Hereditary that's imprinted on the minds of horror fans forever more.
And while far from the most immediately traumatic scene, who can forget the disturbing beat where Peter (Alex Wolff) loses control of his body at school and brutally slams his head on his desk?
Though the desk was obviously padded for the stunt, the most disturbing part of the scene is seeing Peter's increasingly contorted face leading up to the desk hit, which is grotesque enough to suggest that prosthetic work must've done the heavy lifting.
But believe it or not, this was mostly all Alex Wolff's doing, who took advantage of a pre-existing injury to briefly dislocate his jaw for the scene. In an interview with Gold Derby, he said:
"I boxed for three years and I dislocated my jaw... To preface that, no special effects are done in that scene... I dislocated my jaw and then I held my breath for about a minute and pushed out as hard as I could so my face was all red and almost purple in that scene, because I was holding my breath for so long, and I remember seeing stars and the camera's pushing in... So I did that, and then we glued my eyelid back and we glued my lip up."
The end result is certainly impressive, and proof of how something most unexpected can add something totally incredible - if gnarly - to a scene.