10 Horror Movies Scenes Shot For Real

Everyone loves hearing about a bit of movie magic; those genius ways filmmakers create illusions that fool audiences into thinking what they're watching on-screen actually went down for real on a movie set. And there have been plenty of examples of this kind of moviemaking sorcery in the horror genre in particular.

Skilfully adding certain sorts of weather into scenes in post via digital wizardry and covering performers in ridiculously believable (and sometimes rather gory) prosthetics are just a couple of examples of masterfully faking it when making it - "it" being a big-screen scary picture, of course.

Sometimes, though, tricks and tools don't quite cut it or simply aren't needed. And that was certainly the case when it came to specific moments within the following ten horror movies. Rather than going for the CG option or relying on convincing make-up, each of these films either decided to fully commit to the real deal or even ended up accidentally capturing a genuine moment of terror on camera.

From actually burning for a then record-breaking amount of time, to using a real live animal for a quite disturbing sequence, each of these films weren't just frightening, they were occasionally very real.

Nowadays, should a villainous character need to be set on fire during the events of a spooky picture, the average filmmaker will likely opt for digital flames.

For starters, it's a lot safer than really burning an actor or stunt performer on camera, even when the crew are taking the necessary precautions to keep everyone involved as protected as possible. CGI has also come an awful long way over the last few decades, and when done well, digital fire can now remarkably look just as authentic as an actual flame.

Back in 1988, however, with CGI still being in its early days as a filmmaking tool, the call was made to instead very much light Kane Hodder on fire when shooting one memorable moment in John Carl Buechler's Friday the 13th Part VII - The New Blood.

And not only was the Jason performer made to walk around while being engulfed in actual flames, he did so for a then-record uninterrupted onscreen controlled burn of 44 seconds straight, as per Newsweek.

The scene in question sees Jason covered in fire thanks to Tina Shepard's (Lar Park Lincoln) psychic powers, and knowing that Hodder is legitimately flailing around and burning here only makes the disturbing moment even more of an intense experience.

But do you want to know why this scene is really impressive? Hodder decided to throw himself into this real and extremely dangerous stunt after nearly dying in a similar situation a few years before he went full Jason.