10 TV Moments More Terrifying When You Know The Truth
Stunts gone wrong, haunted sets, and other truths that make these TV scenes much more horrifying.
A great piece of television finds a way to grip hold of an audience member and drag them into a whole new world; one stuffed full of compelling drama, supernatural developments, or even fire-breathing beasties.
Yet, in order to realise those often larger than life or uncomfortable, hard-hitting stories that are responsible for taking up countless hours of people's free time, many an actor has found themselves thrown right into the middle of an anything but make-believe scenario that few would honestly be in a rush to take part in.
Now sure, you could argue that it's the job of a performer to immerse themselves in these dark, challenging or unpleasant waters, if that's what the role in question requires. And being paid handsomely to do so likely aided the following stars when it came to digging down deep to discover some much-needed courage to get them through the day.
But that still doesn't change the fact that each and every one of these TV moments were ultimately far more terrifying or difficult to shoot than you probably ever realised. And after discovering precisely what shocking occurrences these actors genuinely experienced in the forging of the following small-screen sequences, you may even come to appreciate said TV scenes that little bit more...
10. That Jump Scare Caught The Actors By Surprise Too - The Haunting Of Hill House
Forcing just about every single fright-fan on the planet to bolt up out of their seats back in 2018, the visual of Victoria Pedretti's ghostly Nell suddenly firing up between Theo and Shirley mid-drive was the stuff of TV nightmares.
In truth, though, it wasn't just fans taking in the Netflix slice of horror that were deeply disturbed by the shocking arrival. The actors on-set and the folks behind the monitor all crapped their pants, too.
That's because, according to showrunner Mike Flanagan, Victoria was under strict orders to pop up much earlier in the scene than castmates Kate Siegel and Elizabeth Reaser thought she would. In fact, those two assumed they had another half a page of lines to go before Victoria would break up the conversation.
However, during the first take of the sequence, Pedretti very much caught the two by surprise and the resulting reactions were "genuine." Hell, Flanagan would even confess that the folks behind the monitor were all aware it was coming, but still couldn't stop themselves from jumping in their seats at the horrifying early interruption.
You know you've done something right if a scare you're fully expecting still catches you completely off-guard.