Interesting Facts About Your Favorite Horror Films (Part 2)

There are a lot of interesting things that happen on the sets and behind-the-scenes of horror films that many fans never know about. We aim to fix that. Here are some interesting facts about our favorite horror films.
 
Bloody Bed
During the filming of Carrie Sissy Spacek did not want to break character so she lived, ate, and slept in her blood-drenched prom dress for three days straight.

 
An Homage To Psycho
John Carpenter is a huge fan Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. In fact, Halloween is filled with homages to the black and white movie. Carpenter even cast Jamie Lee Curtis as the lead who is the daughter of Psycho star Janet Leigh.

 
Buzz
Tony Todd stared as Candyman in Bernard Rose’s 1992 film. There were no special FX in the scene where Candyman has a mouth full of bees. That was all real.

 
An X-Files Destination
Before Final Destination became a film it was originally an idea for an episode of ‘The X-Files’.

 
 
Walk This Way
To make Samara in The Ring even creepier, The Ring director had her filmed walking backward then reversed it in editing.

 
 
The Exorcist Earns Some Respect
While the horror genre is usually overlooked by the major awards, The Exorcist racked up 10 Oscar nominations in 1974. Linda Blair, who was 15 at the time, was nominated for Best Supporting Actress. The film went on to take home 3 Oscars that year.
 

 
He Couldn’t “Hack” It
Following his dark role in Mississippi burning Gene Hackman was set to star in Silence of the Lambs. After seeing a clip of himself at the 1989 Oscars for his role as FBI Agent Parker in Mississippi Burning, Hackman backed out of Silence of the Lambs. He was worried it would hurt his career to play such dark roles back to back.

 
Witch Please!
To make sure that The Craft was as authentic as possible, the filmmakers hire a real witch, a Wiccan to be exact, by the name of Pat Devlin. Pat was a member of the Covenant of the Goddess, the largest Wiccan organization in the world.

 
Do A Little Dance
Ted Lavine who played the role of Buffalo Bill in Silence of the Lambs insisted on doing the dance scene that was in the book, but not the script. He thought it would help the audience better understand just how twisted his character was.

 
Fainting Pays
Warner Bros. got sued by a man who fainted at the screening of The Exorcist, hit a chair and broke his jaw. The studio and the man settled out of court.
 

 
Sometimes Second Choice Is The Best Choice
Anthony Hopkins who ended playing the role of Hannibal Lecter was the second choice to play the cannibal, Jack Nicolson almost got the part. To increase the creepiness of Hopkins’ character he studied several serial killers, including Charles Manson. If you watch carefully you will notice that Hopkins never blinks on screen.

 
 
Quick
The original Saw was filmed in just 18 days and was made for a total of $1.2 million. Saw brought in $103.9 million.

 
That’s Hairraising
Pennywise’s iconic red afro was no wig. It was actually Tim Curry’s hair dyed red and styled.

 
 
Freddy Krueger Was Almost British
Here’s a shocking fact, Robert Englund was not the first choice to play the iconic role of Freddy Krueger, British actor David Warner (Titanic) was.

 
 
It Took Seven Years For Alien To Hatch
Between disputes, legal and budget issues, it took seven years to get the original Alien made.

 
 
Ed Gein Inspired Three Films
Serial killer Ed Gein inspired parts of Psycho, Silence of the Lambs, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. He admitted to committing two murders and many grave robberies where he would take parts of bodies for his DIY crafts which included lampshades, a belt of nipples, a bodysuit, masks and other creepy things. You can learn more Gein here.

 
 
The Blair Witch Made Serious Bank
The found footage film The Blair Witch is one of the most profitable films of all time. It only cost about $60,000 to make but brought in $248,600,000, talk about a serious payday.

 
Yummy
Have you ever wondered how the blood was made in Night of the Living Dead? I’m sure the zombies didn’t complain much, it was just Bosco chocolate syrup. As for the guts they ate on set, they were meat from the local butcher shop, cooked with BBQ sauce.
 

 
What’s In A Name
The original name for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was Head Cheese.
Chucky’s full name, Charles Lee Ray, is made from the names of three notorious real-life killers, Charles Manson, Lee Harvey Oswald and James Earl Ray.
Jason Voorhees was originally known as Josh Voorhees, named after Victor Miller’s son (read more about that here).

 
A Bone To Pick
Poltergeist is believed to be cursed by many because Stephen Spielberg used real human remains in several of the scenes. The reason, human remains were cheaper than the plastic versions.

 
Aliens Can Be Messy
In the scene where the alien bursts out of the actor’s chest, director Ridley Scott unexpectedly sprayed the actors with real entails that were bought that day from a local butcher shop, with the hopes of making their screams of horror more authentic. One of the actresses fainted during the scene.

 
 
The Coen Brothers Found Inspiration In The Evil Dead
Joel Coen, along with his brother Ethan, are known as the “Coen brothers”. Joel got his start as the assistant editor of  Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead. The movie inspired Joel and his brother to make their own movie Blood Simple and the rest is history. The Coen brothers are behind films like True Grit, Fargo, Raising Arizona, Bad Santa, The Big Lebowski, and No Country for Old Men, just to name a few.

 
Chucky Based On True Events?
The possessed doll franchise was inspired by a supposedly based true story of a haunted doll named Robert.

 
 
Call A Priest!
During the filming of The Exorcist, several actors were injured, the set burned down, an actor died, and other strange events happened. A priest was called in several times to bless the set.