Why It Was Hell: For starters, Universal hadn't agreed upon a budget for the movie until it had already been shooting for a month, and when the studio finally came up with their number ($17.5 million), director John Landis had already burned through a large portion of it, causing the budget to ultimately balloon to $30 million. Most of the production's mayhem, however, can be attributed to the hard-partying John Belushi, whose drug use caused him to frequently arrive late to set, to the extent that a frustrated Landis ended up flushing his cocaine stash and punching him when he became aggressive. Cocaine was even in the movie's budget for night-time shoots, leading to one infamous incident in which Belushi stumbled into a nearby resident's house and stole food from their fridge. Ironically, drugs were needed to complete the shoot, as after Belushi injured his knee while skateboarding, he had to be given a strong does of anesthetics to film the final scene. Was It Worth It?: Despite enormous concerns over the film's budget and ability to connect with audiences, it opened to strong reviews and ultimately became a classic in its own right, grossing close to 4x its eventual price tag. A belated 1998 sequel, however (made without John Belushi, who died of a drug overdose a few years after the original's release), was a critical and commercial dud. Which out of control movie set did you find the most terrifying? Got any other cool on-set stories? Shout them out in the comments!
Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes).
General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.
