When you think of Todd Phillips, you probably picture The Hangover’s rooftop chaos or Joaquin Phoenix’s unnerving transformation in Joker. But here’s a fact most moviegoers don’t know: before he was raking in box office billions, Phillips was a scrappy film student pointing his camera at punk’s most dangerous outlaw… GG Allin.
Yes, that GG Allin. The man who lived and died by his own twisted rock and roll code. And Phillips’ debut documentary, Hated: GG Allin & The Murder Junkies, wasn’t just a film. It was a Molotov cocktail of blood, chaos, and unfiltered truth that cemented both men’s legacies in very different ways.
Todd Phillips Before Hollywood Stardom
Before his Hollywood rise, Todd Phillips was still just a film student at NYU when he first stumbled into GG Allin’s world. A couple of years before filming Hated, Phillips attended one of GG’s notoriously unpredictable shows. That night, Allin had taken so much heroin that he couldn’t even continue performing. But in true GG fashion, the chaos didn’t stop there.
The fans took over. Instead of walking out, they “got their money’s worth” by smashing beer bottles over his head and physically beating him in a bizarre punk rock spectacle. It was less of a concert and more of a piece of violent performance art, something straight out of a nightmare and a manifesto rolled into one.
For Todd Phillips, standing in the crowd as a young NYU film student, it likely lit the spark that would later push him to document GG Allin’s chaos in Hated.
Who Was GG Allin? Punk’s Final Frontier of Chaos
For the uninitiated, GG Allin wasn’t your average punk singer. He was a nuclear bomb in human form. On stage, Allin would strip naked, bleed, physically attack his fans, and that’s only the tip of the spear. Many believed they were going to a rock show to have a good time, and maybe a laugh. Unbenounced to them, they were stepping into a warzone.
His philosophy was simple: rock and roll wasn’t about entertainment… it was about destruction, danger, and living on the edge until the bitter end. To his followers, he was a prophet. To everyone else, he was a nightmare you couldn’t look away from.
Hated: GG Allin & The Murder Junkies
Released in 1993, Phillips’ Hated pulled back the curtain on Allin’s world. The documentary is a 60-minute descent into madness: interviews with his band The Murder Junkies, jailhouse conversations, and live footage so shocking it still makes people flinch.
The film captured everything—the broken glass, the confrontations, the bloodied bodies, and the fans who worshipped him like a punk rock messiah. It was raw, ugly, and unforgettable.
What makes Hated so powerful is its refusal to sanitize the truth. Phillips didn’t try to explain away GG’s behavior. He didn’t romanticize it either. He simply turned on the camera and let the chaos speak for itself.
GG Allin’s Death: The Documentary as Final Testament
Just days after a raucous show in New York City, GG Allin died of a heroin overdose in June 1993. He was 36. For Phillips, it meant Hated went from being a portrait of a living punk anarchist to an unintentional eulogy.
Watching it now, the documentary feels like a prophecy. GG had always promised to die for rock and roll, and Phillips just happened to capture the final days of the frontman. It gave the film an eerie finality.
From Punk Rock Carnage to Oscar Gold
Here’s where the story gets surreal. The same director who documented GG Allin’s onstage bowel movements would go on to direct Old School, The Hangover, and eventually Joker.
It sounds insane until you realize Phillips has always been obsessed with the dark side of human nature. Whether it was GG Allin smashing microphones into his head or Arthur Fleck spiraling into madness, Phillips’ camera has always been drawn to chaos, spectacle, and the fragile line between genius and insanity.
GG Allin and Todd Phillips’ Shared Infamy
GG Allin didn’t live long enough to see how Hated would cement his cult legend. But in a strange twist of fate, his madness launched the career of one of Hollywood’s most bankable directors.
It’s not just coincidence. Both men, though worlds apart shared an obsession with going too far. GG with his music. Phillips with his storytelling. Together, they created one of rock and roll’s strangest footnotes.
The next time you watch Joker or laugh at The Hangover, remember this: the man behind the camera started his career filming the most dangerous man in rock and roll.
Sources for Article Content
Hated: GG Allin and the Murder Junkies. Directed by Todd Phillips, performance by GG Allin and The Murder Junkies, Polar Leopard Productions, 1993.
Joker. Directed by Todd Phillips, performance by Joaquin Phoenix, Warner Bros. Pictures, 2019.
The Hangover. Directed by Todd Phillips, performance by Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, and Zach Galifianakis, Warner Bros. Pictures, 2009.
“Hated: GG Allin and the Murder Junkies.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, last edited 12 Aug. 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hated%3A_GG_Allin_and_the_Murder_Junkies.
“Todd Phillips.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, last edited 14 Aug. 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Todd_Phillips.
“The Murder Junkies.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, last edited 11 July 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Murder_Junkies.
“Hated: GG Allin and the Murder Junkies (1993) – IMDb.” IMDb, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107086/.
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