The Crow is a movie I watched, I'll say, ten times before learning its star was killed during filming in a freakish gun accident. My 11th and final viewing was spent examining each frame like Kevin Costner looking over the Zapruder Film for evidence of a second shooter in JFK. Turns out the tragic mid-scene death of an actor during the production of a film was not included in the final cut. Seems like a real lost opportunity.
The Twilight Zone movie is probably the most famous example of the bunch. Actor Vic Morrow and two child actors were famously killed during a horrific accident, which was made all the more terrible when it was discovered that director John Landis ran what might be one of the most dangerous, most morally bankrupt movie sets ever.
But none of them trigger my morbid fascination with on-set death quite as thoroughly as The Adventures Of Milo And Otis, the live-action kids movie about a dog and a cat who get into a series of scrapes and have to find their way back home. It's was probably really cute when you were four, but it gets remarkably less cute when you hear that pesky, unproven (but extremely prevalent) rumor that up to 30 Milos and Otises were killed during production, and one kitten may have had its paw purposefully broken for one shot, and oh my god, if that's true, the movie is a cinematic pet cemetery. The rumors were never proven, so we may never know for sure just how many animals may or may not have been killed to make 1986's 14th most forgettable movie.
But here's one unsettling bit of trivia to leave you with: You know how movies with animals in them will say "No animals were harmed during the making of this film?" The Adventures Of Milo And Otis has that, but its wording is a little ... off. It says: "The animals used were filmed under strict supervision with the utmost care for their safety and well-being."
I'm not saying they're lying. What I'm saying is, if you asked me if I killed 30 dogs and cats to make a shitty kids movie and I didn't want you to know, I think I'd say something along the lines of "Well, we did try our best." And then I'd run as fast as I possibly could away from you. Like, I-just-popped-a-boner-on-set fast.
Luis has been trapped in a full-body prosthetic suit for several hours with no hope of escape. In the meantime, you can find him on Twitter, Tumblr, and Facebook.
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