10 Unexpected Reasons Behind Awesome Horror Movie Moments
3. Frank Kills Himself Because His Actor Didn't Want To Act In Rain - The Return Of The Living Dead
Cult classic zombie film The Return of the Living Dead memorably sees poor old Frank Johnson (James Karen) commit suicide rather than succumb to zombification.
In his final moments of human cognisance, Frank decides to kill himself by climbing inside a cremation chamber, burning himself alive but being spared the fate of turning into one of the undead.
It's a brilliantly gnarly and weirdly affecting sequence, yet one which was ultimately cooked up in the middle of production after actor James Karen vetoed the original scripted end for his character.
The script initially called for Frank to indeed complete his transformation into a zombie and join the undead horde outside in the rain.
But Karen didn't want to spend days shooting scenes in soggy Los Angeles exteriors, and so suggested that Frank, being such a nice guy and all, would instead kill himself before he turned.
Thankfully filmmaker Dan O'Bannon liked the idea enough that he agreed, and the movie's most memorable death scene was consequently born.