Joker director’s documentary was so “disturbing” it’s never been released

Early on in his career, Joker 2 director Todd Phillips made a documentary centering on fraternity hazing that was so hardcore it never got an official release.

Before the world knew him as the man who turned Joaquin Phoenix into the clown prince in Joker, Phillips worked on several documentary films.

One in particular — Frat House — saw the director and his partner Andrew Gurland trolling the underground and dangerous scene of hazing with a college fraternity.

Phillips and Gurland not only captured many horrifying acts committed by college-aged men on camera but were also put into the situations themselves. Phillips, in particular, recounted being locked in a dog crate while having beer and spit poured on during an interview with Variety on August 20, 2024.

“I’m not pro hazing, but I do understand why, in their teenage brains, this kind of experience causes these young men to bond so intensely,” the director explained. “I don’t really want to equate it with being in the military, but there is a sense of ‘We went through this shit together’ that links you to each other for life.”

Phillips and Gurland’s risky film managed to pay off as it made it into 1998 Sundance Film Festival and won the Grand Jury Prize for Documentary.

However, before HBO, who acquired the rights to the doc, could air it for the world to see, many parents, fraternity brothers from the movie, and national fraternity groups voiced their disapproval about Phillips’ work being shown.

Muhlenberg College, the school the pair filmed at, went so far as to claim Phillips and Gurland staged the majority of scenes shown in the doc, telling The Morning Call, “This was promoted as a documentary. Clearly, it is fiction. The scenes were staged, and people were paid to act out scenes.”

Collider writer Jonathan Norcross highlighted another reason why the public may not be okay with seeing the final cut of the movie, writing, “The degree of depravity here is pretty extreme and much more likely to disturb the audience. When Blossom [a fraternity brother] later says that being in charge of hazing is ‘like having the power of a god,’ the weird sadistic elements of fraternity life begin to emerge.”

Because of the backlash on all sides, Phillip and Gurland’s Frat House has never been shown to a general audience, with the exception of a special screening at the Alamo Drafthouse in September 2000.

For more, check out our list of the best-reviewed movies of the year so far here and keep up with all the new movies releasing this month.