Inside the Making of Horror Movies - Facts You Never Knew

Most people would never guess I'm horror movie freak. Not only am I a horror movie freak I also love finding out inside stories about the making of the movie itself.

I recently watched a documentary on Encore called "Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film". The show takes you through the history of horror movies from 70's to 2000's. I loved the show with its clips and interviews from stars and directors. Plus I heard of movies I never even knew about and can't wait to watch them!

So I would like to share with you some funny, interesting and useless facts from our favorite and maybe not so favorite horror movies!

Warning - There could be possible plot spoilers below if you haven't seen the movie! Read at your own risk! The movies are: Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween - 1978, The Exorcist, Stephen King's IT, Poltergeist, Amityville Horror, Psycho - 1960 & Final Destination 3.

Nightmare on Elm Street - 1984

When Johnny Depp's character is lying in bed listening the radio listen to the DJ. The DJ announces that it is station KRGR. KRGR is Krueger without the vowels.

One of the deleted scenes explained that Nancy and her friends were not only children. Their brother or sister had been killed by Freddy. This scene is from the basement scene before Nancy's mom shows her Freddy's glove. - featured on Laser Disc or VHS from Anchor Bay.

Johnny Depp's first film. He came to the audition with his friend Jackie Earle Haley where he was spotted by director Wes Craven, who asked him if he'd like to read for the part. Later when Wes Craven was at home his 14yr old daughter spotted Johnny Depp's head shot. She asked her father about him and when he asked why she replied as a 14yr old would "Dad, Johnny Depp? That's COOL!" Just think with out a 14yr's input he may never have appeared in the film! - As Wes Craven described in "Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film".

At the hospital where Nancy's dreams are "examined" (the part where her hair turns white) the nurse is played by Wes Craven's wife, Mimi Craven.

The only times you see the words "Elm Street" are during the opening and closing credits. The word "Elm Street" is not mentioned at all during the movie.

Halloween - 1978

The movie had such a small budget that the prop department had to use the cheapest mask they could find. It just happened to be: a Captain Kirk (William Shatner) mask. They painted it white, made the hair stick up and made the eye holes larger.

Due to the small budget and no money for the costumes all the actors wore their own clothes. Jamie Lee Curtis went to J.C. Penny and spent less than $100 for her wardrobe.

John Carpenter was the voice of Annie's boyfriend who you hear on the phone talking to Annie.

The "Myers" house is found in South Pasadena. Through out most of the film the place had to look abandoned. But during the early scenes with a young Michael Myers the house needed to look like a normal home. The whole cast and crew worked together to get the place cleaned up, move in furniture and put up wall paper. They also had to set up running water and electricity only to have it taken out when they were through.

The Exorcist - 1974

The director 'Friedkin William' went to some bizarre lengths to abuse the cast. He'd fire guns off behind the actors to make them jump. During the scene where Father Dyer (played by Reverend William O'Malley) tries to give last rites to Father Karris the director wasn't happy even after several takes. He took Fr. Omalley to the side and asked him if he trusted him. Fr. O'malley answered yes then got slapped across the face. The director then shouted "Action". The director also went as far as putting Linda Blair and Ellen Burstyn into harnesses and made the crew members yank them around fiercely. Both Linda Blair and Ellen Burstyn were injured during the filming of the movie.

Reverend William O'Malley who played Father Dyer is a real priest. As of 2004 he teaches theology and English at Fordham Preparatory School, Bronx, New York. He has told his students that the movie is 80% true. The main differences between the true story and the movie are that it was a boy who was possessed and it happened is MD. He says most everything else in the movie really did happen.

The sound you heard of the demon leaving Linda's body was the real sound of pigs being herded for slaughter.

A guy who saw the movie back in 1974 during the original release fainted and broke his jaw on the seat in front of him. He sued Warner Brothers and the filmmakers stating that subliminal imagery in the movie caused him to faint. The law suit was settled out of court for an undisclosed sum of money.

Stephen King's IT - 1990

My ALL TIME FAVORITE HORROR. (I couldn't leave out that USELESS fact.)

The scene when Beverly is hearing voices in the drain a boy says his name is Matthew O'Conner which is the name of the Supervising Producer of the movie. A girl says she is Vicky Burrows. Victoria Burrow did the casting for the movie.

Pennywise was inspired by John Wayne Gacy a real serial killer who would dress up as a clown when entertaining children.

Through out the movie we heard "Beep beep, Richie". The book explains this is a way of telling Richie to shut up.

A night guard at the asylum is called Koontz, named after Stephen King's rival author Dean Koontz.

Poltergeist - 1982

Amazingly with all the horror during the making of the movie just one scene really frightened Heather O'Rourke(she played Carol Anne) : the one where she holds onto the headboard while a wind machine blows toys into the closet. She broke down during the filming and Steven Spielberg stopped the scene and held her. He told her she didn't have to do it again.

JoBeth Williams (she played the mother) was worried about filming the pool scene. There was a lot of electrical equipment over and around the pool. Steven Spielberg got into the pool with her to do the scene again. He told her "Now if a light falls in, we will both fry." This worked perfectly and JoBeth got into the pool.

While filming the scene where Oliver Robins (he played Robbie) is chocked by the clown the arms got really tight and Oliver started to choke for real! He screamed out, "I can't breathe!" Steven Spielberg thought he was improvising and reminded him to look at the camera. But when Steven Spielberg saw Oliver's face turning purple he ran over and took the arms from his neck.

Both Heather O'Rourke(she played Carol Anne) and Dominique Dunne (she played the teenage daughter) are buried in the same cemetery: Westwood Memorial Park in Los Angeles. Dominique Dunne was murdered by her boyfriend in 1982 (the same year the movie was released). Heather O'Rourke died of cardiopulmonary arrest and intestinal stenosis in 1988.

Amityville Horror - 1979

James Brolin was undecided when he was first offered the role of George Lutz because he was told he must get a copy of Jay Anson's novel since there was no script. When he started reading the book around 7pm and was still reading at 2am! Earlier he had hung up a pair of pants and when he was at a really creepy part of the book the pants suddenly fell down. He was so startled that he jumped out his chair. He then decided that "There's something to this story." So he agreed to do the movie.

For the outdoor scenes of the movie they were filmed in Toms River, New Jersey instead of Amityville, Long Island. Local police and ambulance workers played extras. A fire truck was used to be the rain during on scene. If you look closely you can see that it is a sunny day and not really "raining" in the background of the street over.

Psycho - 1960

This was the first American movie to show a toilet flushing.

The book which the movie was based off was inspired by the true story of Ed Gein, a serial killer. He also became the idea for the movies Deranged, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and The Silence of the Lambs.

If you look carefully you see that almost every time a driver gets out of his car he will get out through the passenger side. This is because of the bench seating found in older cars. Plus Hitchcock wanted to continue the shot without moving the camera to follow the actor or having the actor walk between the car and the camera.

Final Destination 3 - 2006

The move renamed as "Final Deadcoaster" in Japan.

The part in the home improvement store was filmed in a real store. The crew could only film after the store closed plus they had to leave it how they found it. When different parts were being filmed, other crew members were cleaning up and putting stuff back on shelves. They also had to turn objects around so brand names wouldn't show, bring in other brand names and use things to block a brand name. This was because the store didn't want their name or products being associated with a "teen death movie."

The actors on the roller coaster at the start of the movie had to ride it 26 times the same night in order to shoot the premonition scene. The on-ride footage was filmed on the "Corkscrew" at Playland which is part of the Pacific National Exhibition in Vancouver, Canada.

I hope you enjoyed learning these facts from some great horror movies as I did. If you really enjoyed them I strongly recommend you see the documentary on Encore called "Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film". The documentary was based off the book "Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film, 1978 to 1986" written by Adam Rockoff .