The Revenant
Leonardo DiCaprio finally won his Oscar for this, so here’s hoping the brutal production was worth it. The shoot was delayed from May to August 2015 because of crew and location problems, forcing everyone to endure the harsh, freezing wilderness.
The Shining
Stanley Kubrick’s perfectionism was legendary, and it made this shoot a psychological ordeal. He famously pushed his actors through endless takes, wearing down the cast and crew to get the perfect sense of on-screen madness.
Roar
Often called the most dangerous film ever made, and it doesn’t feel like an exageration. During production, 70 members of the cast and crew were injured by untrained lions, including a young Melanie Griffith, who was mauled on camera.
The Passion of the Christ
This 2004 biblical epic from Mel Gibson was famously grueling, especially for the actors. The intense physical demands of the story, combined with challenging filming conditions, made for an incredibly difficult and painful production for everyone involved.
The Man Who Killed Don Quixote
This film took over 25 years to finally get made. The first attempt in 2000 was shut down by a flash flood and an injured lead actor. Its cursed production became its own documentary, Lost in La Mancha.
Aguirre, the Wrath of God
Director Werner Herzog and star Klaus Kinski’s relationship was famously explosive. Herzog reportedly threatened to shoot Kinski if he left the film, and Kinski himself fired a gun into a hut, injuring an extra’s finger.
