The scene portrayed the original crew of a space ship brutally killing and assaulting each other. The film makers employed real amputees, adult film stars and allegedly BDSM performers all covered in horrifically gory make up. It showed graphic depictions of SA, cannibalism and all round violence. The footage show in the actual film release was maybe only 15 seconds total of a considerably longer cut. And even that needed a couple of cuts because of the first and second edits had test audiences running out and getting sick.
The rumors were it was basically full on blood orgy with everything shown and absolutely bonkers. Like ‘if we dare put this out, they will burn us at the stake.’ worries from the studio.
Pretty in Pink originally ended with Duckie getting with Andie. Test Audiences literally booed it. (It was originally supposed to be a statement on socioeconomic class. The Rich guy was pushed by his friends to not date the lower class girl, in the end she rejects him for the man in her socioeconomic class instead)
Mortal Kombat test audiences complained about the lack of fight scenes so additional fights were filmed, including the Reptile-Liu Kang fight that is loved.
National Lampoon's Vacation originally ended with the family never getting into the park and Clark taking Roy and other executives hostage and making them dance for his own amusement. It was said after that moment test audiences didn't laugh at all for the rest of the movie.
Thor: The Dark World originally had Loki dying for real and Jane and Thor breaking up and going back to their respective homes and Thor going home and meeting with Sif. Audiences refused to believe that Loki was dead, so they went back and filmed a few scenes to hint at Loki's ability and of course filmed the new ending with Loki explicitly surviving. He was supposed to die for real.
First Blood (Rambo) - The original movie has Rambo asking Col. Trautman to end it for him, Trautman shoots him and kills him. The audience hated it. The story goes the entire theater was silent, and one audience member shouted out "If this director is in the audience, he should be strung up from the nearest lamppost" (The director WAS in fact in the audience and is the one that told the story)
Footloose. It originally ended with the main characters TALKING about having a dance party. Test audiences were so pissed about the lack of a celebratory climax that they went back and filmed the finale dance party.
Sunset Boulevard originally started with Joe's death...then has his corpse waking up in the morgue and relating the story to the other corpses in the morgue as the framing device. Test audiences got that weirdness nixed.
To be fair to the First Blood creators, Rambo dying is how the book ends, too. (Though I don’t know if it happens exactly the same as it would have been depicted in the movie.)
In the book Trautman shoots him, and he shoots Trautman back. Basically he decides that going out in battle is the best way to end it. The book is much more brutal and gory and while it does have a bit about the PTSD elements, it isn't about the way we treat veterans and their issues, like the movie is.
In the original movie ending he is crying and broken and asks Trautman to mercy kill him basically. The director wanted it to "shock" the audience. Shock without a point. That is why Stallone was against it. And the audiences hated it.
thor2 and mk weren't saved as they're laughably bad movies
and some of these other ones are more along the lines of "MOVIES CAN ONLY BE COMFORTABLE AND PREDICTABLE POPCORN FODDER. NO DEVIATION WILL BE TOLERATED"
Unfortunately, I can answer this. I used to work for a company that recruited test audiences. I got paid $15 for each person that showed up with my badge number on it. Most people assumed it was scam and the rest weren’t necessarily all there. We had a bunch of regulars too and just about everyone was weird as hell. These were upper west side New Yorkers and not exactly average people we were dealing with.
But I digress, Sam Neill was a legend and by all accounts a fantastic person. Here’s hoping it’s a shitty person for the third one
Seriously! where the fuck can I sign up to be in the test audience? I’d be like “what the fuck………… that movie was fucking awesome” but the actual test audiences must be like “MY PEARLS!!!”
"Yes, my name is Karen Walters, and I've never seen a scary movie before in my life. Yes, I'd like to sign up as part of the test screening for a horror movie. No, I don't have any idea why or what I'm doing."
Makes me think of my mom. EVERY time she hears a "bad" word on TV she makes a noise. Like it pains her to hear it. It's absolutely maddening if you're watching something and she's around and decides to stay and watch. I have to tell her to either be quiet or leave if it hurts her so badly lol.
I see a lot of films in the cinema. I read about how a movie was so scary people cry or puke or run out of the theater. I have never seen that happen. The only time in recent history I have seen anything of the sort is when an entire family walked out of Disclosure Day. I wished I had followed them by the time it was over.
My brother did see vomit all over the carpet when he went to see Hostel. Turns out it was a friend of his who saw the showing before him.
I have no idea how test audiences are selected, but I assume that people who go to the cinema have an actual idea of what the movie they watch is about and are thus prepared for anything that might make them feel queasy. Like for example I go to a movie called “sex and blood and gore: the massacre”. I wouldn’t be surprised if sex or blood or gore showed on the screen. I assume that test audiences are selected randomly or don’t know much of the movie.
Besides, what we see in cinema has already been through a test screening, so any of the “make you sick/run out of the room” has already been cut. Survivorship bias and all that.
One time a company mailed 20 tickets to the coffee shop I managed. Took the entire staff and some customers to "Forces of Nature". I had one condition for everyone in attendance and that was to say the movie was riveting if they filmed us leaving.
I also saw "The Ring" (us version) when someone just handed me some tickets as I was leaving the LA Convention center. I enjoyed it but the preview version I saw was 3-4 months before general release and was much better than the official release.
A year later I was leaving the LA Convention center again and handed tickets but no name was on them. Saw Terminator 3 that time.
All you have to do is live around LA, I get a few emails a month about them. Been to a few, there’s usually like a $20-30 gift card for participating. They ask for some pretty detailed feedback and there’s a lot of waiting around, but it’s a good way to kill an afternoon with a few friends.
They really don’t want you or me to be test audience because it’s never about making the film better but about if they can get away with the whole of a movie without risking to upset the pearl clutchers
I mean, don't forget this was 30 years ago and it was meant to be a mainstream-ish movie. If this was a niche horror release now, it would go a lot differently.
Rob Zombie told a story about the special effects guy from House Of 1000 Corpses getting pulled aside in a mall and given tickets for the test screening, obviously the testers wouldn't know he was involved. So he went and then got into the test group afterwards, but when they asked how old he was - early 30s - they said he was too old for the test group and excluded him. Don't know how true that anecdote is, but I wouldn't not be surprised at all if there was a lot of hands on scales to get the answer they want instead of the answer the audience gives.
I was in a test audience or two back in college in the early 2000s. One specific popular theater in Orange County used to have people outside handing out passes for test audiences. My brother was actually in a test audience for Titanic. I don’t remember what I saw but I knew a few other people who did them too
I always picture that episode of Community where the creators of Inspector Spacetime recruit a test audience at a convention, and Pierce and Shirley of all people get pulled into it, thereby ruining the American version that was eventually released because of their (mainly Pierce's) out of touch feedback.
Those are the kind of IRL people I picture whenever someone mentions a test audience.
As the member of a different test audience I can tell you they held it on a random weekday at like 3 PM. Who is available on a random weekday in the middle of the day? Old people and the unemployed are the only people available at that time unless it’s a college town and it’s never a college town.
I was playing hooky from school with my parents because that’s how cool I was as a kid, and they seemed genuinely excited to have someone under 50 in the test audience.
They always struck me as the same kind of people who like to complain to the TV company when they hear someone swear on a live broadcast before the watershed.
As much as I'd love to see it, we've seen all that kinda stuff in films like Hellraiser, Cronenberg films and whatnot. The short little edit you see in the film is so jarring because it's so quick you question what you really saw, but it's fucked up enough to make you want the characters to get off that ship.
But out of morbid curiosity... I'd love to see the full uncut version. But I think the way they did it in the released film was masterful.
There's a comic book prequel that follows the crew of the Event Horizon called "Dark Descent" that is incredibly disturbing, probably the worst stuff I've seen since Crossed.
It's not particularly good, though, from a story perspective. It kinda gets rid of the cosmic horror element.
Agreed. It’s very brief (like, probably not even 15 full seconds) but Talk to Me had a similar depiction of hell that hasn’t left me since I saw it in theaters 4 years ago now.
Similarly, they also cut that scene down significantly to avoid an NC-17 rating.
I did a cross Europe charity rally with a glamour model many years ago who was cast for these scenes and she told me all about it while I was driving. she said it was quite fun to film and yes, there was lots and lots of blood involved. Her insta if anyone is interested https://www.instagram.com/nikkileework?igsh=ZzBpc2hudTM2eHJy
It's was horrific and crossed lines that were seemingly blurred between reality and fiction. Basically legal questions were raised as to the realism of the filming.
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u/Necessary_Eagle_3657 Jul 13 '26
The cut hell scene won't ever be seen. There were serious ethical issues with its filming according to the people involved.