10 Horror Movies That Made It Up As They Went Along (But Were Awesome Anyway)

If you're a die-hard fan of Gremlins, you may have known Gizmo was supposed to become the main villain. After the loveable Mogwai eats after midnight, he was meant to mutate into the gremlin, Stripe, and go on a murderous rampage.

Fortunately, producer Steven Spielberg convinced director Joe Dante to make Gizmo and Stripe two separate characters. This decision allowed viewers to perceive Gizmo as a hero, turning him into one of the most popular movie characters of the 1980s.

Although this last-minute change is well-known, there are many other tweaks which may have escaped your attention. Originally, the gremlins were meant to be brought to life with stop-motion, but this proved too time-consuming. Dante then tried to have the gremlins played by monkeys. After the primates went crazy and crapped everywhere (seriously), Dante realised the gremlins had to be animatronics.

Although Spielberg wasn't the director, he pushed for changes on a daily basis, mostly based around Gizmo's design and expanding his role in the story. Even though Gizmo wasn't meant to speak, Spielberg encouraged the director to give the mogwai some dialogue to make viewers bond with him.

But there was one more problem. Even though a lot of effort was put into making the mogwai and gremlins look realistic, they didn't look convincing in bright light.

To get around this issue, the script was rewritten so these critters were lethally allergic to sunlight. Although this idea helped ramp up tension throughout the film, it was only devised to hide crappy special effects.