April 9, 2019 | Miles Brucker

42 Blood-Curdling Facts About Horror Movies


Horror movies are films that use violence, scary imagery, and supernatural elements to scare or horrify the viewer. The horror film has evolved over the years, spawning many sub-genres and die-hard followings.

Here are 42 terrifying horror movie facts.


42. Slasher

The director of Scream, Wes Craven, would hide the voice actor who voiced Ghostface, Roger L. Jackson, on set during shoots. When the actors would get taunting calls from the killer, they were actually hearing Roger, hidden somewhere on set. Are we hearing voices?

Horror Movies facts Scream (1996), Dimension Films

41. Nightmarish

In Evil Dead II, you can see Freddy Krueger’s glove above the door in the tool shed. Gotta hand it to the director, we missed this the first time.

Horror Movies facts Evil Dead II (1987), De Laurentiis Entertainment Group

40. Bloody Hell

It took about a year of technical work to get the blood pouring out of the elevator just right for the iconic scene in The Shining; but it only took three days to film once they were able to consistently achieve the desired effect.

Horror Movies facts The Shining, Warner Bros.

39. Bloody Hell Part II

To avoid breaking continuity, Sissy Spacek decided to sleep in bloody clothes for three days while filming the prom scene in Carrie. Looks like she’s willing to bleed for her art.

Horror Movies facts Getty Images

38. Homage

John Carpenter hid many homages to Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho in Halloween. He even cast Jamie Lee Curtis, the daughter of Psycho star Janet Leigh, as the lead in Halloween. Like mother, like daughter.

Horror Movies facts Halloween (1978), Compass International Pictures

37. Mouthful

Tony Todd, the actor who played the titular character in Candyman, had to put real bees into his mouth to film the movie’s climax. It’s a good thing he wasn’t allergic, because the show must go on.

Horror Movies factsPixabay

36. Pants On Fire

Danny Lloyd, the actor who played Danny in The Shining, wasn’t told the film that he was shooting was a horror. Danny believed he was going to film a drama.

Horror Movies factsThe Shining, Warner Bros.

35. Nightmarish Part II

The high school janitor in Scream is named Fred, and wears a green and red sweater as a nod to Freddy Krueger from A Nightmare On Elm Street, which Wes Craven also directed. The janitor was played by Craven himself.

Horror Movies factsGetty Images

34. Too Real

Heather Donahue, one of the actors from The Blair Witch Project, was worried that the director was making a snuff film, and had taken her and the other two cast members out to the woods to kill them. Luckily for her, and all of us, she was wrong. The film only took 8 days to shoot.

Horror Movies factsGetty Images

33. Final Destination(s)

To film the premonition scene in Final Destination 3, the actors had to ride the roller coaster 26 times. It must have been emotional roller coaster having to ride that roller coaster over and over again.

Horror Movies factsPixabay

32. Not So Final Destination

Final Destination was originally an idea for an episode of The X-Files that never got written.

Horror Movies factsFinal Destination (2000), New line cinema

31. Bullocks

Virginia Madsen, the lead actor in Candyman, wasn’t sure if she should take the role. If she passed, the producers were considering giving the role to Sandra Bullock, who was relatively unknown at the time.

Horror Movies factsGetty Images

30. Potty Break

Psycho was the first time a flushing toilet was shown on screen. Countless poop jokes have followedthanks, Alfred.

Horror Movies factsFlickr, Marco Ooi

29. Turn Back Time

In order to make Samara’s walk even creepier, The Ring filmmakers shot the actor walking backward, and then reversed the shot.

Horror Movies factsThe Ring, DreamWorks

28. Count It

In Nosferatu, Max Schrek ,the actor who plays Count Orlock, only blinked once. That’s once in a 1 hour and 34-minute long film. His eyes must have been dry when the filming was a wrap.

Horror Movies factsFlickr, FICG

27. Exercise Your Right

The Exorcist was the first horror film to be nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars. The movie would go on to rack up a total of 10 nominations and would win 3.

Horror Movies factsGetty Images

26. Shy Guy

The shark in Jaws doesn’t appear in the film until an hour and 21 minutes into the film. While part of the reason behind this is to build suspense, the biggest reason behind it was that the mechanical shark built for the film rarely worked as intended. The end result is a truly terrifying entrance.

Movie Industry factsWikipedia

25. Alienated

It took over 7 years for Aliens to get made. Talk of a sequel began shortly after the success of the first film, but disputes over money from the producers delayed the project.

Horror Movies factsAlien (1979) , Twentieth Century-Fox Productions

24. Beam Me Up

The mask Michael Myers wears in Halloween is a stretched out, whitewashed Captain Kirk mask from Star Trek. Set your phasers to creepy.

Horror's Scariest Monsters factsShutterstock

23. Double Whammy

For the scene in The Thing where Dr. Copper has his arms chomped off by Norris’ chest-cavity-jaw, a double amputee was used. The special effects designer found a double amputee to participate and made prosthetics with wax bones and jelly veins. Once the mechanical jaws closed down, the actor pulled his arms back, causing them to sever and produce horrific visuals.

Horror Movies factsThe Thing (1982), Universal Pictures

22. GPS

The production team of The Blair Witch Project used pre-programmed GPS trackers to lead the actors to plastic canisters hidden in the woods. The canisters contained the direction their character was going in on that day, but they were told not share their directions with each other. Everything else was improvised by the actors.

Horror Movies factsPixabay

21. Paranormal Bank Activity

Paranormal Activity is the most profitable movie of all time. With an initial budget of $15,000, the movie went on to gross $193 million with worldwide. That’s over 1 million percent return on investment!

Horror Movies factsPixabay

20. Scary Movie

Scream was originally titled Scary Movie, but the Weinstein brothers changed the name after hearing Michael Jackson’s song “Scream” in their car. Good thing they weren’t listening to “Beat It.”

Horror Movies factsPixabay

19. Edits

Before Joel and his brother Ethan Coen were a famous writer-director duo, Joel was an assistant editor on Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead. He was inspired by Sam’s pitch trailer, eventually making one for his own movie Blood Simple.

Horror Movies factsGetty Images

18. Hack It

Gene Hackman was slated to star in The Silence Of The Lambs, but decided to pull out of the project after he saw a clip of himself at the 1989 Oscars as FBI agent Alan Parker from Mississippi Burning. He didn’t want to follow up such a dark character with an even darker one.

Horror Movies factsGetty Images

17. Modeling Career

The creature from The Creature From The Black Lagoon was modeled after the Oscars statue given to winners of the award.

Horror Movies factsWikimedia Commons, Greg Willis

16. Crafty

The Craft wanted to ensure all the witchcraft they were portraying was authentic, so they hired Pat Devlin as a consultant. Pat is a member of a large Wiccan religious organization, known as the Covenant of the Goddess, and was the organization’s first officer for their Southern California Local Council.

Horror Movies factsThe Craft (1996), Columbia Pictures Corporation

15. All Work

Stanley Kubrick is thought to have typed out all 500 pages of “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” that was used in The Shining, but it’s not known for sure whether that's true. Kubrick never addressed the rumors before his death.

Horror Movies factsWikimedia Commons, Matthew J. Cotter

14. Spoiler Alert

Both The Hollywood Reporter and Variety published spoilers of the film Psycho months before it was released, despite Hitchcock’s best efforts to the keep the ending a secret. Mum’s the word, Alfie.

Horror Movies factsFlickr, Insomnia Cured Here

13. Dance For Me

Buffalo Bill’s famous dance scene in The Silence Of The Lambs wasn’t in the script of the film, though it was in the book. Ted Levine, the actor who played Bill, was insistent that the scene be included to help the audience understand the demented character better. Thanks Ted, we’ll never hear "Goodbye Horses" by Q Lazzarus the same again.

Horror Movies factsThe Silence of the Lambs (1991), Orion Pictures

12. Too Scary

A man sued Warner Brothers for injuries he obtained from fainting after attending a screening of The Exorcist. Warner Brothers settled the deal out of court, which usually means big bucks. What’s the next big horror film that’s coming out?

Horror Movies factsGetty Images

11. Too Sane

Stanley Kubrick thought Robert DeNiro wasn’t psychotic enough for the role of Jack in The Shining. This decision was made after Kubrick watched Taxi Driver. Sure, Kubrick, not psychotic enough.

Horror Movies factsTaxi Driver (1976), Columbia Pictures Corporation

10. Too On The Nose

The original title for Halloween was The Babysitter Murders. Way to not beat around the bush with that title, guys.

Horror Movies factsPixabay

9. Tastes Like Barf

The vomit used in The Exorcist was Andersen’s Pea Soup. The special effects team tried using Campbell’s Pea Soup, but they weren’t happy with the way it looked.

Horror Movies factsPixabay

8. Jacked Up

Jack Nicholson was once considered for the role of Hannibal Lecter in Silence Of The Lambs. The role would eventually go to Anthony Hopkins, who was perfect for the part.

Horror Movies factsThe Silence of the Lambs (1991), Orion Pictures

7. Stunt Doubles

Church, the cat in Pet Sematary, was actually played by seven different cats. Must have been just as confusing for the cats as it was for the cast.

Horror Movies factsPixabay

6. Whites Only

The robe Ghostface wears in Scream was originally supposed to be white, to better show the blood and gore once he got busy. Wes Craven had it changed because he feared it would look too much like the robes of the KKK. Good choice Wes.

Horror Movies factsFlickr, Miguel Castaneda

5. Saw That Coming

The original Saw film only took 18 days to film due to its limited use of sets. That’s smart, no matter how you cut it.

Jason Bourne Movies factsShutterstock

4. Bugs Me

The cocoons used in SIlence Of The Lambs were made of gummy bears and tootsie rolls. Still looks gross, if you ask us.

Horror Movies factsPixabay

3. Nice Do

Pennywise’s hair was actor Tim Curry’s actual hair in the film It. The only thing production did to it was dye it red and style it to give it that crazy look.

Horror Movies factsGetty Images

2. Sweety

Bosco chocolate syrup was used as blood in the original Night of the Living Dead. The film was shot in black and white, and chocolate syrup had a similar appearance to blood on black and white screens.

Horror Movies factsShutterstock

1. Gein Momentum

Serial killer Ed Gein has inspired 3 major films, Psycho, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Silence Of The Lambsnot to mention a whole lot of cheesy straight to video movies. When police raided his farm, they discovered masks, bowls and lampshades made of skin, decapitated heads, and even a belt made of nipples.

Horror Movies factsPixabay

Sources: 1, 2, 3


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