A number of dead bodies turn up in 1998’s Wild Things: Sam, Kelly, Ray, that random dude floating in the river…Wait, what? As it turns out, the deaths weren’t just happening on screen but also near the set, as the crew soon found out that sometimes people are exactly what they appear to be…
Kevin Bacon recently told Variety that one of the Florida locations for Wild Things brought some unique problems that brought a slight disruption to filming. “We were out in the swamp one night — a lot of mosquitoes, wow — and we were shooting some scene. I don’t remember what it was, by kind of a river. They had floated a raft out there so that they could put a light. All of a sudden I hear across the walkie-talkie: ‘Hey, uh, I think I just saw a floater.’ And it was a body that was floating by…It was kind of indicative of the vibe of the movie.” The story has been recounted by director John McNaughton before, noting that police did the cast and crew a solid by ensuring that the corpse didn’t ruin any shots. You know, priorities!
Wild Things ran into other problems during filming such as a tornado tearing through and nearly destroying trailers. But even before cameras rolled, Wild Things was having issues in the casting process. Take, for example, that Robert Downey Jr. was the original choice to play Matt Dillon’s character; the only problem was that he had had so many issues with drugs at the time that the studio couldn’t wrangle up proper insurance.
Yet, despite all of the troubles Wild Things had, it became…well, that’s a bit difficult. It’s objectively not a terribly well-made film, but those who are willing to treat it as trashy, sexy fun mostly had a good time with the nudity and convoluted plot twists. It’s through that that Wild Things maintains a cult following and feels like a fitting companion to everything Joe Eszterhas and Adrian Lyne had helped popularize in the ‘80s and ‘90s.
Are you a fan of Wild Things? What do you think its legacy is 25+ years later?
