37 Fascinating Horror Movie Facts That You Probably Didn't Know

Evil Dead II is often mistaken as a remake of Evil Dead (1981). After all, why would Bruce Campbell’s character, Ash, visit an obviously haunted cabin in the woods twice? In reality, it’s a mix of sequel and remake, as the creators of the second movie wanted to recap the story elements of the first, but didn’t have the rights to use clips from the original. 

The high school in Carrie had its name changed from Ewen High School in the original Stephen King novel to Bates High School. This was a reference to Norman Bates from the movie Psycho, unsurprising as Brian De Palma claims to have included several nods to the film. 

Speaking of Psycho, there’s a surprising amount of plumbing trivia tied to the movie. Not only was it the first film to feature a flushing toilet on screen, but the multitude of facts around the prominent shower scene, including removable walls and camera innovations to get the shots right, helped cement one of the most referenced clips in American cinema.

In Let the Right One In (originally Låt den Rätte Komma in), the two main characters learn to communicate through the walls of their apartment complex via morse code. At the end of the film, the vampire Eli taps “K-i-s-s” to Oskar, who responds with “P-u-s-s,” meaning “small kiss” in Swedish. 

The Blair Witch Project was one of the most efficiently filmed blockbusters in film history. With principal photography taking eight days, collecting just 20 hours of footage to be edited down to 82 minutes in eight months. x

Related: 19 Horror Movies Set in the Woods That Will Keep You Out of the Forest Forever 

Along with other key facts about the roller coaster scene in Final Destination 3, the cast needed to hop on the ride a total of 26 times for filming the shots of the premonition scene.

Jack Nicholson had worked as a volunteer firefighter earlier in life, so when it came to breaking down a door with an ax in the iconic The Shining scene, he actually broke the prop doors too easily. Dozens of doors later, and you have one of the most terrifying moments in horror.

Speaking of The Shining, the film's iconic scene of the elevator doors opening to unleash a wave of blood was actually filmed without Kubrick in attendance. It's not that Kubrick was squeamish. He was instead overwhelmed with worry. The famed director, and well-known perfectionist, was so concerned about the stunt not working out to his liking, that he evacuated the set just before the cameras rolled. Kubrick was certainly justified in his concern; the scene took weeks of preparation and required hundreds of gallons of fake blood. Needless to say, things went swimmingly; the shot was captured on the first take.  

While Nightmare on Elm Street is known to be inspired by a series of unexplained real-life deaths, Wes Craven, equipped with a philosophy degree, used the concept of dreams to explore the epistemological question of what we can truly know. 

Speaking of Freddy Krueger, Wes Craven had many reasons behind the design choices of the character. Craven cites practical reasons behind the now-iconic glove, being easy to make and transport, but also to mix the bestial threat of claws with a very human appendage, the hand.

The third most profitable movie, based on return on investment, is the original Paranormal Activity. The film's production budget was $450,000; the film's approximate profit was well over $89,000,000. That works out to about a 19,885% ROI. 

The practical effects in The Thing’s (1982) much loved ‘chest chomp’ scene, where a doctor attempts to deregulate a patient before having his forearms eaten, were pulled off by a double amputee stand-in wearing false arms made of Jell-O.

While it seems impossible to imagine a happy finale to the film, The Thing had an alternate ending prepared that would be easier for audiences to appreciate. MacReady could have ended up rescued and his blood test would prove he wasn’t assimilated.

The cast of Alien shows genuine shock and horror during the well-known ‘chest-burster’ scene, where John Hurt’s character is host to the title creature. This is because the details of the scene were ultimately a surprise to the rest of the actors, with Ridley Scott citing a desire for a genuine reaction. He definitely got it.

Another practical effect from Alien, the blue laser-light in the egg chamber was actually borrowed from the band The Who.

The sci-fi horror classic wouldn’t be nearly as impactful if not for the artistic creativity of H.R. Giger. Using a real human skull in the initial xenomorph cranium and condoms for the lips, Giger’s style in Alien defined the neo-gothic style now referred to as Gigeresque.

Following trends of real human bones and shocking performers for genuine reactions, actress JoBeth Williams had no idea that the huge tank of mud she slid into in Poltergeist contained actual human skeletons instead of props. The sequence was shot over multiple takes, taking four or five days, and Williams didn’t find out the human remains were real until after she finished. The filmmakers claimed that making replicas out of plastic and rubber was too expensive.

The first horror movie to be nominated for an Oscar, The Exorcist tips its hat to one of the oldest entities in the history of humankind: Pazuzu. A king of demons in Assyrian and Babylonian mythology, the name is never explicitly stated in the original film, but Father Merrin finds a ruined statue of the demon at the start during a dig in Iraq.

While the effects and themes of vampire movies may come off as tired now, Nosferatu still remains fresh before the bloodsucker was buried in cliche and staked with parody. Adding to the eeriness, Count Orlock, adapted from Dracula, is only seen blinking once in the film at the end of part 1.

The Satanic Temple’s endorsement would make many people wary, but it only served to bolster the appeal of Robert Egger’s The Witch. As their spokesperson, Jex Blackmore, said, “It’s a criticism of a theocratic patriarchal society and a fair representation of the stresses that puts on a community.”

Related: 16 Bone-Chilling Witch Movies That'll Put a Spell on You 

Eggers also announced in 2015 that he planned to remake Nosferatu, although the project is currently on hold. While the film and story have been a lifelong obsession for the writer/director/production designer, Eggers says that the opportunity came as a shock due to his smaller filmography, “It feels ugly and blasphemous and egomaniacal and disgusting for a filmmaker in my place to do ‘Nosferatu’ next.

With no adequate CGI available at the time of filming, the lovable/terrifying little critters in Gremlins were all animatronic puppets. But with an astounding average cost per gremlin of $30,000 to $40,000, it’s surprising they had the puppets perform so many stunts in the movie. It's also understandable why the filmmakers hired security to guard the ghoulish figurines after hours.

While colorful and often comedic, Edward Scissorhands undoubtedly carries horror themes. The movie is supposed to be seen from Edward’s eyes, which is why the neighborhood comes off as so fantastical and distorted, leading to the character feeling even more estranged from the sunny attitudes of the rest of the cast.

An anomaly where film adaptations of video games are concerned, the first Silent Hill movie is considered faithful and frighteningly good. The macabre dance of the nurses in the film looks too freakish to be real but hiring professional dancers to contort and twist their limbs created an effect that feels grossly inhuman (in a good way).

It’s not surprising that Silent Hill turned out better than most game-movies do, being a passion project for director Christopher Gans. The filmmaker spent five years in pursuit of the right to make a movie adaptation of the game. When he did, he ensured the movie felt like the video game he so adored. Music from the video game's score appears in the movie and many of the video game's characters are present. Gans even kept the original game running on set as a point of reference, regularly returning to the live game to ensure he was capturing the right mood and angles. 

It Follows terrified viewers and sparked serious discussion among its fans when it hit theaters in 2014. Director David Robert Mitchell recognizes that the interpretation of the movie's malevolent force as a kind of contagious sexual disease is valid. That said, the filmmaker cites troubling dreams from his childhood as the movie's original inspiration.

The character of Lawrence Gordon in the Saw series is supposed to be a surgical doctor. And yet, he never mentions the body in the middle of the room hasn't turned yellow, and its blood never turned black, calling his competency and intentions into question early on.

Ari Aster’s feature film debut, Hereditary, had an extreme amount of detail put into the set to create a “dollhouse aesthetic” for the family’s home. Not only handy for filming in cramped spaces, this dedication also conveyed the sense that the cast was being maneuvered and toyed with.

Related: Every A24 Horror Movie, Ranked 

While not as thoroughly explained in the film adaptation as the book, the phrase “beep beep, Richie” is often used as a stand-in for “shut up, Richie.”

While the Jaws theme feels essential to the film today, Spielberg initially though that composer John Williams was playing a joke on him. “At first I began to laugh, he had a great sense of humor so I thought he was putting me on,’’ he once said about the track. 

Like most of horror’s most striking visuals, the mask of Michael Myers in Halloween has a frugal origin. The Shape's haunting visage was originally a Captain Kirk mask purchased at a magic shop, which the crew then spray-painted and distorted to create Mikey's iconic look. Seeing this mask in the middle of the night will make you want to set phasers to something a bit stronger than stun.

Horror-comedy American Werewolf in London is a unique entry in Jewish cinema, with the witty but socially misunderstood David Kessler portraying, well, an American werewolf on the loose in England. The famous transformation scene, already famous for its innovative effects, was planned to have full-frontal nudity of star David Naughton, intended to show that the character was circumcised to bolster the Jewish themes of the film. Naughton wanted the role so badly that he apparently lied about being circumcised in his audition for John Landis. The full-frontal shot was, err, cut when they finally got to filming the scene.

Ringu, the original Japanese version of The Ring, contains some of the most unsettling imagery in the history of horror. To capture the disjointed and janky movements of the character of Sadako Yamamura’s ghost, actress Rie Inō walked backward in an exaggerated motion, later reversed to achieve the bizarre steps she takes towards the camera.

Ok, it’s more comedy than horror, but Young Frankenstein deserves to be in any list it can squeeze itself into. Star Gene Wilder reportedly held up takes of multiple scenes by breaking into fits of laughter over the content. Director Mel Brooks even claims to have spent $1,000 on handkerchiefs for the crew to laugh into to dampen their laughter during filming.

References and nods galore, George Romero’s Land of the Dead, the fourth installment of his Dead series, includes cameos from fans of his zombie flicks. Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright appeared as the photo-booth zombies in the carnival and barroom sequence, a casting choice made after their movie Shaun of the Dead paid tribute to previous undead films by Romero.

The 1992 slasher Candyman is set to receive a spiritual sequel in late September, directed by Nia DaCosta and written by Jordan Peele, Win Rosenfeld, and DaCosta. For the disturbing scene where bees engulf Candyman and pour from his mouth, original Star Tony Todd used queen-bee pheromones to pacify the bees. That didn't stop him from getting stung over 20 times, something he's actually grateful for in the long run as he was compensated $1,000 for each sting.