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did u know that john carpenter came up with the idea for 'The Fog' when he was in england with his girlfriend...and they was at stonehenge...john saw the misty fog and he joked to his girlfriend and said 'i wonder what is lurking in the fog'
then he made a film about it............

thats a bit crap i know..sorry...

now its your turn
tell us a interesting fact about a horror movie

Did you know that the ending to A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddys' Revenge was a big mistake?
The writers didn't know that Freddys' powers were only effective in the Dream World.

Looks like those jackasses should have done their research.

Did you know Wes Craven considers ANOES 2 the homosexual ANOES because it's one of the few horrors starring a guy. He thinks that's the reason ANOES 2 did badly. Not that they messed up the concept of Freddy.

did u know that in the film halloween:

The mask of Michael Myers worn in the ist halloween, is a mold of William Shatner's face which he was going to use as a prop in a TV show but never did.

and....

John Carpenter and Debra Hill got the idea of Michael Myers from a serial killer in America Suburbia who watched people sleep until they would wake to see him, he would then kill them with a wrench.

That's nasty!

just a little

Found theses for the wonderful Freaks (one of my all time favourites)

The seal man with no arms or legs, developed a habit of lurking in dark corners and frightening passers-by with a blood-curdling yell.

The electrical equipment on the set was so badly grounded that crew members were frequently shocked.

did you know Sam Raimi uses the same type '68 Oldsmobile in all his movies, except for The Quick and The dead (obviously)?

yes.......he refers to it as "the classic".........it's not just the same "type" car. Raimi uses the EXACT same car. He keeps it in storage and uses the exact same car in his films. Since the classic no longer runs, Raimi uses other Oldsmobile's as "stunt cars" when the car needs to move in a scene.

Did you know that Bruce Campbell has tried several times to destroy that Oldsmobile to prevent Raimi from using it in future films?

Could the Oldsmobile be found in all his films? Even the Spider-Mans?

It is in Spiderman, can't remember in the sequel.

did u know that

John Carpenter approached Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee to play the Sam Loomis role but both turned him down.

Yes........the classic is in Spider-man. It's Uncle Ben's car.........I can't recall for sure if it's in the sequel........perhaps it's sitting in the drive way when Peter goes to visit his aunt.

Oh yeah! There was a scene in Spider-Man 2 when he's talking to Uncle Ben in a dream inside the car. I don't remember if we see the outside or not.

Did u know ....

Wes Craven claims to have named Freddy Krueger after a kid who bullied him in school and based freddys appearance on a disfigured person who scared him as a child.

Originally posted by Evil Dead
Yes........the classic is in Spider-man. It's Uncle Ben's car.........I can't recall for sure if it's in the sequel........perhaps it's sitting in the drive way when Peter goes to visit his aunt.

Correct! Although the car got rather messed up in Spider-Man 1 so it doesn't make that much sense. Still it keeps Raimi car-gag alive.

There wasn't too much damage if memory serves me right. Nothing a repair shop couldn't fix.

did you know that the name for Michael Myers in Halloween came from the british distributor of Assault on precint 13, he did such a good job of promoting and getting people to take the film seriously, that Carpenter had a great affection for him, his name was of course Michael Myers

did u during the making of the shining

Stephen King tried to talk Stanley Kubrick out of casting Jack Nicholson in the lead suggesting, instead, either Michael Moriarty or Jon Voight. King had felt that watching either of these normal-looking men gradually descend into madness, would have immensely improved the dramatic thrust of the storyline. Indeed, many fans of the book agreed with King, adding that Nicholson appeared fairly crazy from the very start, thus there was little or no surprise when Jack ultimately went totally overboard.

Pffft! everybody knows about Sam Raimis' classic.

Originally posted by Deano
did u know that in the film halloween:

The mask of Michael Myers worn in the ist halloween, is a mold of William Shatner's face which he was going to use as a prop in a TV show but never did.

and....

John Carpenter and Debra Hill got the idea of Michael Myers from a serial killer in America Suburbia who watched people sleep until they would wake to see him, he would then kill them with a wrench.

This may of been said but your mask facts are a little off.

The prop people went ot a store and got 2 masks. One was of a clown and one was of William Shatner ( Kirk mask ). They choose the latter.

The reseeded the hair line, cut out the eyes, made it white, and ****ed up the hair abit.

Did you know that the incantation "Klaatu, barada,....necktie!" from Army of Darkness, when Ash is trying to retrieve The Necronomicon is a reference to 1951 sci-fi classic "The Day the Earth Stood Still".

In it original context, the phrase "Klaatu Baranda Nikto" was an order given by hero Klaatu to the robot gort in order to prevent the automaton from embarking on a killing spree.

George Lucas also used this, 3 of Jabba the Hutt's skiff guards in Return of the Jedi are named Klaatu, Baranda and Nikto.

This line also makes an appearance in the film "Toys", when it is used as a spell to stop a rampaging sea monster.

papabeard............true...........but Bruce Mis-pronounces Barada in AOD.......he say's Veratta.........with a "V"..........but that's his bad, it is written as Barada.

Did you know that in Scream

The hanging body of Casey Becker (Drew Barrimore) is actually a dummy and not Drew harnest up.

Wes Craven didn't let Drew Barrimore and the guy who played the voice of the killer meet until after the shot, to keep tension between them.

Drew is a huge animal lover and when she heard once that a boy had set his dog alight with a lighter she burst into tears. Whenever Wes Craven wanted her to cry he'd say the boys got the lighter and she'd burst into tears.

Did you know these facts about HALLOWEEN :

Donald Pleasence's role as Sam Loomis is named after a character of the same name in Psycho (1960).

Director John Carpenter was raised in Bowling Green, Kentucky. In one scene, the subtitle on the screen depicts the location as "Smiths Grove, Illinois." Smiths Grove, Kentucky, is a small town of about 600 people 15 miles from Bowling Green. There are many other references to other local towns and landmarks.

Since the movie was actually shot in spring, the crew had to buy paper leaves from a decorator and paint them in the desired autumn colors, then scatter them in the filming locations. To save money, after a scene was filmed, the leaves were collected and reused.

Due to its shoestring budget, the prop department had to use the cheapest mask that they could find in the costume store: a William Shatner mask, from The Devil's Rain (1975). They later spray-painted the face white, teased out the hair, and reshaped the eyeholes.

The kids watch the opening of The Thing From Another World (1951) on TV. Carpenter would later re-make this film himself in 1982 as The Thing (1982).

Halloween was shot in 21 days in the spring of 1978. Made on a budget of $300,000, it became the highest-grossing independent movie ever made at that time.

According to screenwriter/producer Debra Hill, the character of Laurie Strode was named after John Carpenter's first girlfriend.

Tommy Doyle's name was from Rear Window (1954) and Sam Loomis' name is from Psycho (1960).

Inside Laurie's bedroom there is a poster of a painting by James Ensor (1860-1949). Ensor was a Belgian expressionist painter who used to portray human figures wearing grotesque masks.

Halloween takes place primarily in fictional Haddonfield, Illinois. Haddonfield, NJ is the home town of screenwriter Debra Hill.

The performance of Halloween's musical score is credited to "The Bowling Green Philharmonic". There is no Philharmonic in Bowling Green. The "orchestra" is actually John Carpenter and assorted musical friends.

All of the actors wore their own clothes, since there was no money for a costume department. Jamie Lee Curtis went to J.C. Penney for Laurie Strode's wardrobe. She spent less than a hundred dollars for the entire set.

The character of Michael Myers was named after the European distributor of Carpenter's previous film, Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) as a kind of weird "thank you" for the film's overseas success.

Tommy's Halloween costume is an Alphan uniform from "Space: 1999" (1975).

The opening shot appears to be a single, tracking, point of view shot, but there are actually three cuts. The first when the mask goes on, the second and third after the murder has taken place and the shape is exiting the room, this was done to make the point of view appear to move faster.

The name of the sheriff is "Leigh Brackett". Leigh Brackett was also the name of the screenwriter of Howard Hawks' classic Rio Bravo (1959), which was the inspiration for John Carpenter's previous film, Assault on Precinct 13 (1976).

One of the characters is named "Marion Chambers". Marion was the first name of the female protagonist of _Psycho_(1960), and Chambers was the last name of the sheriff in that movie.

Kyle Richards, who plays Lindsey Wallace, is the sister of 'Kim Richards' , who appeared in John Carpenter's previous film, Assault on Precinct 13 (1976).

Half of the $300,000 budget was spent on the Panavison cameras so the film would have a 2:35:1 scope.

Carpenter approached Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee to play the Sam Loomis role (that was eventually played by Donald Pleasence) but both turned him down.

Morgan Strode's black Fleetwood (seen in the driveway when he is talking to Laurie early in the movie) belonged to director John Carpenter, while the Phelps Garage truck was owned by the company that catered for the film.

Anne Lockhart was John Carpenter's first choice for the role of Laurie Strode.

None of the big studios at the time was interested in distributing the movie, so executive producer Irwin Yablans decided to distribute the film via his own company (Compass International). MCA/Universal produced and distributed the next two sequels in the early '80s.

Aside from dialogue, the script cites Michael Myers by name only twice. In the opening scene, he is called a POV until he is revealed at age 6. From the rest of the script on out he is referred to as a "shape" until Laurie rips his mask off in the final scene (which he never reapplies in the script). "The Shape", as credited in the film, refers to when his face is masked or obscured.

P.J. Soles was dating Dennis Quaid at the time of filming, so John Carpenter and Debra Hill wanted to cast him in the role of Bob. Unfortunately, Quaid was busy working on another project and John Michael Graham was cast in the role instead.

John Carpenter provides the voice of Annie's boyfriend, Paul, whom we hear on the phone talking to Annie.

When the script was being written, the original title was "The Babysitter Murders".

When they were shooting the scenes for the start of the film (all the ones seen from Michael's P.O.V.) they couldn't get the 6-year old child actor until the last day, so the movie's producer, Debra Hill, volunteered to be Michael for any scenes where his hands come into view. This is why the nails on young Michael's hands look so well manicured and varnished.

The cinematography for the Halloween sequence in Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) was the inspiration for the look of Carpenter's color scheme.

The initial murder was also an homage to Psycho (1960) in which the viewer never actually sees the knife penetrate skin.

When Dr. Loomis is talking to the doctors in the empty classroom, Dr. Loomis is sitting in seat #31.

Sheriff Brackett was named after film-noir writer Leigh Brackett.

According to Don Post, Jr., President of Don Post Studios, the famous California mask making company, the filmmakers originally approached his firm about custom making an original mask for use in the film. The filmmakers explained that they could not afford the numerous costs involved in creating a mask from scratch, but would offer Post points in the movie as payment for his services. Post declined their offer, as he received many such proposals from numerous unknown filmmakers all the time, but suggested that they repaint/refurbish the "Captain Kirk" masks eventually used in the film, which eventually was done, and which netted Mr. Post a profit of less than $100. Post later estimated, after the film became a hit, that if he had accepted the original offer for points in the film in exchange for his creation of an original mask, his profit would have run well over $100,000.

Yul Brynner's robot character from Westworld (1973) was the inspiration for the character of Michael Myers.

The song that is playing on the radio when Laurie and Annie are in the car is "Don't Fear The Reaper" by Blue Oyster Cult.

and a new version of Dont fear the Reaper is playing in Sidneys room in Scream when billy climbs thru her window. The same song is also the subject of the hilarious "We Need More Cowbell" skit on SNL, with Christopher Walken and Will Ferrall

i love that song!

that song is also on halloween on the radio where laurie and her friend are driving along

thats where i pulled it from, read the last line of the post above mine

its also on the end credits of ''the frighteners''

I think it was used in The Stand also.

During the first few weekends of the film's release, makeup/effects artist Tom Savini would go into theaters for the last five minutes of the show to see the audience react to Jason emerging from the lake and grabbing Alice.

Cameo: makeup man is a body being thrown through a window.

The first counselor killed in the 1958 prologue is named "Barry" in the credits. The captions identify him as "Gary".

The fake ending scene in which Alice is attacked by Jason, was shot three times. Once in September, then October and finally in November; when the temperature was 28 degrees outside.

Adrienne King got the role of Alice only after the original filmmakers gave up trying to land Sally Field.

Steve Christy is named after Steve Miner, Associate Producer for the film.

The film has been spoofed a number of times, most notably in Saturday the 14th (1981)

Makeup designer Tom Savini thought up the idea of Jason's surprise appearance at the end of the movie.

Sean Cunningham has been quoted as saying that the type of actors that he sought for the film were "good-looking kids who you might see in a Pepsi commercial"

Estelle Parsons was originally signed on to play Mrs. Voorhees.

In the scene where Bill is found impaled to a door with arrows his eye twitches continually because the eye effect that Savini applied was actually burning his eye and causing him excruciating pain.

Adrienne King at first did not want to be in the film because of the graphic violence in it, but she changed her mind.

There is rumored to be a deleted scene featuring the murder of Claudette. The crew of the film dismissed this, including Tom Savini who said he never even worked on the opening scene. There is however a still of Claudette with a machete in her throat, although that may have been shot purely for promotional material.

Kevin Bacon's character, lying in bed with his throat cut, has the blood in his neck making little bubbles. Originally, it was just meant to seep out, but the arrangement of the tube with blood didn't work, and the special effects artist ended up blowing into the tube to make it flow, causing an unintended (but ultimately used) bubbling effect.

Camp Crystal Lake, Jason's birthplace, is in New Jersey.

NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (B/W)

The original titles for Night of the Living Dead was "Night of the Flesh Eaters", but they changed it at the threat of a producer who already made a film by that name. Actually, the movie disturber gave the film its' final name.

The film also carried the title of "Night of Anubis" during filming only to be changed as referenced above.

In the original treatment of the script, Barbara (Judith O'Dea) was to have survived the night.

Black & White film stock was not used to add atmosphere, but for economic reasons. Color was used in the beginning, but later dropped for the aforementioned reason.

Romero has stated that the "initial" idea for Night of the Living Dead was inspired by Richard Matheson's book, "I am Legend".

The "goodies" (i.e. entrails, meat, etc) were supplied by a butcher who was an investor in the film.

"Night of the Living Dead" is directly responsible for the ad vocation of the "Midnight Movie".

In the original script, the character of Ben (Duane Jones), was a much harsher man. He was your stereotypical "truck driver". The character was changed for Duane Jones.

The budget for this film was $114,000.

If you look carefully you will notice numbers on the boards Ben is using to board up the house. This was done to help with continually, so that when the boards were taken down at the end of shooting they would go back in the same place the next day. Unfortunately, sometime the boards were put on backwards and that is when the numbers are evident.

DAWN OF THE DEAD

Dawn of the Dead was shot on a budget of $1.5 million, ten times the budget of the original "Night of the Living Dead.

The mall used for the film is in Monroeville, PA. George Romero personally knew the people who owned it.

The mall music was written into the script, because the crew didn't know how to turn it off when it came on early in the morning

This was Tom Savini's major breakout effort, establishing him as a master in the makeup field and it lead directly to his getting the job for Friday the 13th.

George and his wife, Christine, appear in the opening scenes of the movie.

There were two scores for this movie, one by Romero (which was taken mostly from library stock music), and another by the Italian group, Goblin. The Goblin soundtrack is the one I remember. I only recently heard Romero's score on Elite's laserdisc. I personally prefer Goblin's score. It sticks in my mind as strongly as the visual imagery of this film.

Dario Argento was one of the main driving forces in getting this movie made. He approached Romero about making a sequel to "Night of the Living Dead," which was a huge hit in Europe. In return, Argento would have the right to re-cut the film for European release. In his cut, Argento took out some of the gore and added dialog. "Dawn" was then released with Argento's name attached and called "Zombie."

The helicopter blades that decapitated the zombie were animated.

There was an alternate "suicide" ending for "Dawn of the Dead" and it goes like this: After the bikers let all the zombies in, Peter and Fran escape to their apartment in the mall. Peter tells Fran to go on without him, because he doesn't want to go. This is the same as the regular ending. Peter then decides to kill himself instead of fighting off the zombies. Fran goes up to the helicopter and decides she doesn't want to go on alone, so she sticks her head up into the blades and gets decapitated. The credits role showing the helicopter still running and at the end, sputtering and running out of fuel. I would like to have seen Romero use this alternative ending as it is much more original.

"Dawn" is heavily censored in Germany

DAY OF THE DEAD

Real pig intestines were used for the scene where Rhodes gets ripped apart in the hallway. Unfortunately, someone had left the guts out of the freezer over the weekend, and after the scene was shot the cast and crew ran away gagging.

The zombies all received the following for their time and effort: a cool hat that said "I was a zombie in Day of the Dead", an autograph copy (by George) of "The Dead Walk" newspaper featured in the opening, and one dollar.

Joe Pilato also appeared in "Dawn". He played an officer at the police docks.

The film was shot in a limestone mine in near Pittsburgh, Pa.

This is the first of Romero's "Living Dead" movies that had any shooting done outside of the state of Pennsylvania. The opening sequence was shot in Florida.

Romero originally was budgeted $7 million for his zombie epic, but he had to deliver a R-rated feature. He knew his original script would never be a R-rated and wanted to produce an un-rated version to preserve the horror aspects of the previous films. He was forced to cut the budget down to $3.5 million.

Banned in Finland, Germany, and Norway.

Peter Jackson was one of the first people approached to script the Jason vs Freddy movie, but had to decline due to other commitments.

Just some all around horror movie facts and such:

"Ghost Face" from the popular Wes Craven movie Scream was based on a real life murderer known as The Gainsville Ripper.

Bruce Campbell of Evil Dead fame used to babysit Sam Raimi's younger brother Ted Raimi.

David Hess, star of Last House on the Left, directed the holiday horror movie To All a Good Night

The shock jock from Halloween 6 also starred in the holiday horror movie Silent Night Deadly Night

Silent Night Deadly Night is said to be inspired by another movie called Silent Night Bloody Night

Wes Craven has a cameo in Scream as the Freddy Krueger dressed "Freddy the Janitor".

Billy Bob Thornton had a role in the Troma movie Chopper Chicks in Zombietown

Clive Barker wrought his own script for the 1998 U.S. Godzilla remake but it was turned down by the studio making the film.

In the 80s director Sam Raimi had two major roles in the movie Intruder and Thou Shall Not Kill... Except

Doug Bradley originally turned down the role of Pinhead in Hellraiser

The original Texas Chainsaw Massacre had hints of black comedy in it that have gone relatively unnoticed until today

Cannibal Holocaust (1980)

The special effects in the film were so realistic that director Ruggero Deodato reportedly had to go to court and prove that it was just make-up and fake blood and guts.

The animal slaughterings in the movie were real, which resulted in the movie's being banned in its native Italy.

The film is one of the top ten highest grossing films of all time in Japan.

The film caused some scandal in Italy at the time, and had trouble with the censorship board. There was a rumor that the performers had really been slain, so director R'uggero Deodato' had to take the actors with him to the set of an Italian TV show in order to prove that they hadn't been eaten alive.

The in-film-documentary "The Last Road To Hell", which features several executions, consists of authentic footage. Supposedly from Uganda. "The Last Road To Hell"-footage can only be seen completely uncut in the EC-UltraBit DVD (which includes executions of children).

Deodato was inspired to make the movie after seeing his son watching the violent news on TV, and thinking about how the journalists focus on the violence.

Did U NO Dat The texis Chaynsaw Masssacree is a Troo Storee

Drink less beer

awesome stuff guys, one question, what were the hints of black comedy in TCM?

Originally posted by SlipknoT
Did U NO Dat The texis Chaynsaw Masssacree is a Troo Storee

did you know you are wrong!!!!!!

whats he wrong about? the spelling.....the syntax.......the story being true?........oh wait ALL OF IT

Hmm, some really cool facts in here beside slippy's TMC thoughts anyway!
All I can come up with now (but I'm wasted) is that there is a 'The hills have eyes' poster in the cabin basement in Evil Dead 2, as well as a Freddy glove at a doorpost.
And in Shaun of the Dead, shaun tries to get a table for two at a restaurant named 'Fulci's'
Old news...

Originally posted by SlipknoT
Did U NO Dat The texis Chaynsaw Masssacree is a Troo Storee

TCM is loosely based on real life serial killer Ed Gein, as in he did make a full body suit made from human flesh and that he eats people.

Is chosen weapon of death was not a chainsaw but a rifle and he did not live in Texas but lived in Wisconson. He wasn't fat either, or I don't think he was.

Guinea Pig Trivia : ( The Devils Experiment)

A rumor has sprung up around this movie, that this was a film that Charlie Sheen called the FBI on. In 1991 he had wondered if it might actually contain real snuff footage, unable to convincingly explain away the atrocities as special effects work. The FBI then tracked down the makers of the film, who convinced them that the onscreen deaths were indeed only just special effects, much like Ruggero Deodato reportedly had to do in court for his Cannibal Holocaust (1980

Nah he wasnt fat, actually Gein was quite skinny, he was thought of in his town as the village idiot, a simpleton, and actually told ppl what he was doing (robbing graves, etc.) only everyone thought he was just being "lil eddie gein" and telling crazy stories. all in all he only really killed 2 ppl, may have been a rifle, as he was a hunter, but i think it was a revolver. He did however rob hundreds of graves, and make masks of ffaces and body suits of womens skins (he wanted to be a woman, and was obbsesed with his mother)

Trivia for
A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984)
Director Wes Craven claims to have named Freddy Krueger after a kid who bullied him in school and to have based his appearance on a disfigured hobo who scared him as a youth.


When Freddy Krueger is chasing Nancy and she runs up the stairs only to find that its all gross "muck", what she steps in is pancake mix.


The movie that Nancy watches to stay awake is The Evil Dead (1981).


There is a ripped poster of The Evil Dead (1981).


Wes Craven's original concept for Freddy Krueger was considerably more gruesome, with teeth showing through the flesh over the jaw, puss running from the sores, and a part of the skull showing through the head. Make-up artist David B. Miller argued that an actor couldn't be convincingly made up that way and a puppet would be hard to film and wouldn't blend well with live actors, so these ideas were eventually abandoned.


In the scene where Nancy is sleeping at Tina's house and Freddy comes through the wall over the bed, Jason's hockey mask (from the Friday the 13th films) can be seen. Incidentally, Freddy is being played at this point by special effects man Jim Doyle wearing Freddy's stunt mask.


The poster above Johnny Depp's bed in the scene where he is killed is the Grace Under Pressure album cover by Canadian rock trio Rush.


Johnny Depp accompanied friend Jackie Earle Haley to the auditions, where he was spotted by director Wes Craven, who asked him if he'd like to read for the part.


Wes Craven cast Joseph Whipp, who plays the inept sidekick of John Saxon's Lt. Thompson in this film, as the sheriff who endures David Arquette's inept Deputy Dewey in Scream (1996)


With one exception (Freddy walking through jail-cell bars), all of the F/X in Nightmare were done using physical F/X rather than trick photography.


In the end scene, the top to the convertible came down faster and harder than expected. The expression from the actors is real.


Nancy's bathtub was constructed over a tank built into the floor of the set with a cutout bathtub sealed down to it. Actress Heather Langenkamp spent 12 hours in it during filming, accompanied at least some of the time by special effects man Jim Doyle who was wearing the Freddy glove.


Wes Craven wrote the script and presented it in 1981, but no one wanted it. He said that "It just flew around" until New Line Cinema picked it up.


In "Just the Ten of Us" (1988), Heather Langenkamp makes reference to a rusty knife stuck in a cutting board "looking like something from A Nightmare on Elm Street".


This was the first real movie by New Line Cinema. Before that, they were just a distribution company for college campuses.


This movie was almost never made. About halfway through filming, New Line lost its deal with the distribution company. As a direct result, they couldn't pay the cast or crew for two whole weeks until they found another distribution company. They didn't lose one crew member.


Freddy Kruger was designed by Wes Craven to be the typical "silent" serial killer such as Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers. But in the sequels Freddy developed a cheeky persona that enabled him to be the black humored villain


The original glove was also used in A Nightmare On Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985) but then the glove went missing. The original glove was used in 1986 for Evil Dead II (1987) (according to the DVD)


New Line Cinema was saved from bankruptcy by the success of the film, and was jokingly nicknamed "the house that Freddy built".


In her room after almost getting killed in the tub, Nancy looks at herself in a mirror and says, "Oh God, I look 20 years old." Heather Langenkamp was 20 years old at the time of the movie.


When Nancy's dreams are "examined", when her hair turns white, the nurse is played by Wes Craven's wife, Mimi.


Over 500 gallons of fake blood were used during the making of the film.


The only times you see or hear the words "Elm Street" are during the opening and closing credits.


When Freddy is chasing Tina, Freddy's long arms were marrionetted.


Wes Craven claimed to have drawn inspiration for this movie from a series of news stories that involved a group of young Samoans who died from a horrific nightmare. The story goes first these young, healthy people would have a nightmare refuse to sleep for as long as they could, then when they finally fell asleep from sheer exhaustion they awoke with a scream, and died from a heart failure

Did you know...... that and early version of Evil Dead used to raise funds was titled, "WITHIN THE WOODS"

Trivia for
Dawn of the Dead (1978)
Filmed in Monroeville Mall, Monroeville, PA.


The weapons store featured in the film was never a part of the Monroeville Mall. George A. Romero shot those scenes in a gun shop in downtown Pittsburgh and edited the footage in to make it look like it was a shop in the mall.


Director Cameo: the director in the television studio.


Cameo: (wife of George A. Romero) director's assistant in the television studio.


Director Cameo: Santa Claus biker (briefly visible in biker raid).


Dario Argento re-cut this film to fit the Italian audiences, taking out most of the humor, leaving in all the gore and titling it "Zombi" to make it more of a true Italian horror film. It was such a hit that it Italian horror master Lucio Fulci filmed a sequel, titled Zombi 2 (1979). It was released around the world as "Zombie". At the same time, director George Romero filmed his own sequel, Day of the Dead (1985), so, in a sense, there are two sequels to this film: an Italian version and an American version.


Cameo: Zombie who breaks window of truck then is shot by Roger with revolver.


Tom Savini chose a friend to play the helicopter zombie because he was notorious for having a low forehead.


The airstrip used in the film, the Harold W. Brown Memorial Field (aka Monroeville Municipal Airport), is still in operation as of 2002. The privately run airfield is approximately 10 miles from the Monroeville Mall, where the bulk of the film was shot.


The two zombie children who attack Peter in the airport chart house are played by Donna Savini and Mike Savini, the real-life niece and nephew of Tom Savini.


The voice of Christine Forrest ('George A. Romero' 's wife) can be heard on a pre-recorded announcement in the mall ("Attention all shoppers...".


The skating rink shown in the film was part of the Monroeville Mall. It has since been replaced by a food court.


Much of the fake blood used in the blood packets was a mixture of food coloring, peanut butter and cane sugar syrup.


When the film was first released, the shooting budget was reported to be $1.5 million. On his commentary track on the "Ultimate" DVD release, producer Richard P. Rubinstein admitted that amount was inflated for foreign buyers, and the actual budget was around $500,000 (including deferred lab fees and Rubenstein and director George A. Romero deferring much of their salaries).


Many effects were thought of on the spot. Tom Savini created many effects (such as the arm in the blood pressure tester) with no preparations whatsoever.


There was originally a scene during the biker raid involving a cross bow. It was shot but never featured in the final cut.


Tom Savini used the same dummy throughout the course of filming. During that time it was blown up, burnt, shot, and beaten, among other things.


In the Extended Edition (available on both laserdisc and Anchor Bay's "Ultimate Edition", the music that is heard when Peter and Stephen are closing the gates of the mall in an effort to keep the bikers out is taken directly from the opening credits of Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975).


Some of the zombies (notably one in the tenement scene) were actual amputees.


EASTER EGG: On disk 4 (Document of the Dead) of Anchor Bay's "Ultimate Edition" DVD set, there is a hidden menu (shape of one of corpse on screen) item which can only be selected after seeing all items.


Filming at the Monroeville Mall took place during the winter of 1976-77, with a three week reprieve during the Christmas shopping season (during which other footage, e.g. the TV studio, was shot). Filming at the mall began around 10 p.m., shortly after the mall closed, and finished at 6 a.m. The mall didn't open until 9, but at 6 the Muzak came on and no one knew how to turn it off.


Joseph Pilato, who played Captain Rhodes in Day of the Dead (1985), appears as a policeman at the boat dock.


Joseph Pilato auditioned for the role of Stephen.


The alarm company is named BIG BRUISER.


Tom Savini, head of makeup effects, was unhappy with how the blood mix (produced by 3M) photographed; it looked fluorescent. Director George A. Romero felt it was perfect for the film's comic book style.


Much of the stock music used in this film was licensed from the Music De Wolfe Library, a much-used resource of stock music for motion pictures.


Shooting at the mall was suspended over the Christmas season because it would have been too costly to nightly remove and then later re-hang all the seasonal decorations.


Extras who appeared in this film were reportedly given $20 in cash, a box lunch, and a Dawn of the Dead t-shirt.


In order to save on production costs, director/editor George A. Romero had all the 35mm film stock developed into 16mm, and used that as his work reel. After choosing the scenes and takes he wanted, he had those alone developed into 35mm prints for the master reels.


There is great dispute over the film's alternate ending, where Peter shoots himself in the head and Fran commits suicide by sticking her heads up into the blades of the copter. Some, such as makeup artists Tom Savini and Taso N. Stavrakis maintain that the scene was filmed, while director George A. Romero used to be adamant that it wasn't. However, in the documentary Document of the Dead by Roy Funkes that was filmed during the making of Dawn of the Dead (and is included on some DVD copies), George Romero clearly states to Roy Funkes, as they walk around the mall set, that they did indeed film the alternative ending, although he never filmed the effects shot. Gaylen Ross had had a head mold made for the effects scene, and Tom Savini did not want to see it go to waste, so he dressed the head up as a bearded African-American man, and that is the head that explodes from a shotgun blast at the beginning of the film. To create the exploding head effect, Tom Savini cleared the set and had the head shot at with an actual shotgun.


The MPAA had threatened to impose the X rating if George A. Romero didn't make cuts. Romero did not want to cut the film, and he was adamant against an X rating, due to its stigma of hard-core pornography. In the end, Romero was able to persuade his distributors to release the film with no rating, although on all advertising and trailers, there was a disclaimer that in effect read that while there was no explicit sex in the film, the movie was of such a violent nature that no one under 17 would be admitted.


The narration for the USA radio and TV commercials for this film was provided by Adolph Caesar.


While writing the script for Night of the Living Dead, George A. Romero and John A. Russo contemplated how they should have the zombies destroyed. Co-star and makeup artist Marilyn Eastman joked that they could throw pies into their faces. This is undoubtedly the basis for the pie fight scene in Dawn of the Dead.


Some of the actors playing zombies in the movie would frequently get drunk at a late-night bar called the Brown Derby, which was in the Monroeville Mall. One night they stole a golf cart and crashed into a marble pillar, causing $7,000 worth of damage.


Zombie actors took photographs of themselves dressed up in full zombie makeup inside a photo booth on the second floor. They then replaced the sample pictures on the front of the booth with the ghoulish ones.


Many of the extras cast in the film (especially the zombies in close-up shots) were friends and relatives of the production crew.


The outdoor scene where hunters, emergency crew and soldiers are shooting at zombies was done through local volunteers. Several local hunters arrived on-scene with their own weapons, the local National Guard division showed up in full gear, and local emergency crew (police, fire and ambulance) were present, all voluntarily.


Several members of the marauding band of bikers were played by members of the local chapter of the Pagans Motorcycle Club. The elaborate motorcycles they drove were their own.


The only movie in George A. Romero's DEAD series where the word "zombie" is used, and is only used once (Peter says, "With those bay doors open, there's gonna be a thousand zombies in here."


The scene between Roger and Peter in the trucks when they are kidding each other about their height was entirely improvised by the two actors.


The scenes between Stephen, Peter, Roger, and Frannie in the helicopter were filmed with the helicopter never running or leaving the ground. A shell was painted blue for the day scenes and black for the night scenes and interspersed with real helicopter footage.


In the original draft of the script, the TV station's call sign was WJAS, the call sign of an actual radio station in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where the film was shot. The call sign was replaced with WGON, which was not issued to any station at that time (it had been issued to an AM radio station in Munsing, Michigan, but the station had gone dark some time before). WGON has now been issued to a licensed low power FM radio station (WGON-LP, 103.7) in Slidell, Louisiana.


The scene where Roger slides down the space between the escalators was improvised. There are now metal pegs in the escalator to prevent anyone from repeating the stunt.


The bit in the movie where Roger slides down between the escalators was Scott H. Reiniger's idea.


The car driven in the mall is a 1977 Volkswagen Scirocco.


The helicopter used in the film was a Bell Jet Ranger II. The registration number was N90090.


Much of the fighting done by Fran was at the behest of Gaylen Ross, who refused to play a character who would not fight the zombies on her own.

Real cow intestines were used towards the end of the movie in the scene where Sledge (Taso) gets his guts ripped out. Tom Savini has stated that he lived near a slaughterhouse and that's how he got the idea to do the effect.

Both parents of Christine Forrest-Romero make cameo appearances as zombies in the film.

The living quarters where the four heroes shacked up in wasn't located in the mall. It was a set built at George A. Romero's then production company The Latent Image located in Pittsburgh. The elevator shaft was located there as well.

In the scene where Roger his the zombie (played by Tom Savini) with the truck and it leaves a bloody smear on his windshield, the effect was created by Savini throwing himself on the non-moving truck and spitting a mouthful of blood on the windshield.

With such a shoestring budget, the film couldn't afford professional stunt people outside of drivers, so makeup artist Tom Savini and assistant and friend Taso N. Stavrakis volunteered for the task. They are responsible for almost every stunt seen in the film, though not all went perfectly as planned. When filming a dive over the rail of the mall, Savini almost missed his pile of cardboard boxes, with his legs and back landing on the ground. He had to work from a golf cart for several days. The shot where Stavrakis swung down from a banner was poorly planned and he wound up continuing on and slamming into the ceiling.

Trivia for
House of 1000 Corpses (2003)

Universal pictures (original production company) refused to release the film, believing it would be given an "NC-17" rating by the MPAA.

Filmed in 2000, and not released until three years later.

Several characters are named directly after characters in five Marx Brothers films: Captain Jeffrey T. Spaulding from Animal Crackers (1930), Professor Quincy Adams Wagstaff from Horse Feathers (1932), Rufus T. Firefly from Duck Soup (1933), Otis B. Driftwood from A Night at the Opera (1935), and Dr. Hugo Z. Hackenbush from A Day at the Races (1937) (all portrayed by Groucho Marx); and, Signor Emanuel Ravelli from Animal Crackers (1930) (portrayed by Chico Marx).

The robber's line about 'grease paint' and 'brains' is a reference to the song "Grease Paint And Monkey Brains" by Rob's former band, White Zombie.

During its box office run, the movie encountered two instances of the number '666': At the beginning of its run, when its opening weekend was $3,460,666, and at the end of its run, when its per-theater-average (the weekend gross divided by the number of theaters) was $666 per theater. Coincidence or magic? You decide.

The actual house is the same used in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982), which can be viewed during Universal Studio's tram ride. However, during filming, Universal refused to cease the tram tours, which delayed filming during many scenes.

Most of the cutaway scenes (Otis torturing cheerleaders, Baby masturbating with the skeleton, etc). were filmed in Rob Zombie's basement after filming wrapped. He would invite cast members over to his house on the weekends and shoot the footage himself with a 16mm hand-held camera. With the exception of the shot of a setting sun, he created the opening credits the same way.

Director Cameo: Appears a few seconds into the film (for roughly two seconds) as Dr. Wolfenstein's assistant, hitting a pumpkin with a sledgehammer. Zombie was originally going to play Wolfenstein himself, but he didn't like the way the makeup turned out and opted to have a brief cameo instead.

When Officer Wydell is showing Mother Firefly the pictures of the missing kids, the picture of Jerry is a picture of Chris Hardwick, the actor that played Jerry, on the set of the movie.

Dedicated to Dennis Fimple, 1940-2002.

Inside Captain Spaulding's gas bar/fast food/museum of horror, behind the cash on the wall are reproductions of Aleister Crowley's paintings of demonic figures which were later discovered under whitewash in his former Abbey of Thelema, in Cefalu, Italy.

When Denise is lowered in Dr Satan's lair, a tape player is also sent down and it keeps repeating a slowed down version of Aleister Crowley's poem "The Poet", read by himself (found on CD called The Great Beast Speaks which is the only known recording of Crowley). The line from the poem that gets repeated over and over is: "Bury me in a nameless grave".

Harrison Young is wearing an almost identical outfit to the one he wore while playing older Ryan in Saving Private Ryan (1998)

In the DVD Commentary, Rob Zombie revealed that Jake McKinnon (The Professor) couldn't see very well in his costume. In the scene where he swings a real axe at Denise his vision was so bad he could have seriously injured Erin Daniels if she didn't move fast enough. Rob says in his commentary, "We just assumed she would get out of the way."

rather lame ANOES trivia related to Just the Ten of Us..........3 of the four teenage lubbock daughters in the show played in ANOES films, ANOES 1,2 and 3..............their younger brother J.R. used to wear Freddy Krueger shirts as a tongue in cheek wink to the audience. Yes, it's sad........I did use to watch Just the Ten of Us. TGIF was great back in the day.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986) :

A poster can be seen on the wall in the radio station for the band "Fine Young Cannibals."


The "family group shot," as seen in the advertisements, posters and video covers, uses the same positioning as the promotional group shot for the movie The Breakfast Club (1985).


When the BBFC notified Cannon that at least 20 minutes, and possibly 25, would have to be trimmed, Cannon aborted its plans for a planned U.K. release in 1990.





Director, Tobe Hooper and co-writer of the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Kim Henkel originally had an idea for a sequel that would feature an entire town of cannibals. The title of that sequel was to be Beyond The Valley Of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but it never came to fruition.


The controversial "butcher cover" of the Beatles album "Yesterday and Today" can be seen hanging in the radio station.


The chainsaw used in this movie can be found at Planet Hollywood in Dallas, TX.


Directors Cameo: (Tobe Hooper) Frolicking during a party scene


When originally submitted to the MPAA, it received an "X" certificate, prompting the filmmakers to release it as "unrated".


Jim Siedow is the only actor in this movie that was in the original

Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990)

The original script was much more brutal with explicit gore sequences. The producers objected to many of the scenes (one of which had a nude man being split down the middle while hung upside down) and demanded extensive changes to the script to reduce gore and violence. Further cuts had to be made to avoid an X-rating after the film was finished.


The only Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie not filmed in Texas.


Tobe Hooper, director of the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre was originally going to be involved in the film. He had submitted a treatment to New Line execs, but bowed out of the project due to scheduling conflicts concerning his film Spontaneous Combustion (1990).


The chainsaw in the film was designed by Robert "Bob" Shaye, the CEO of New Line Cinema.


The chainsaw in the movie weighed apporiximately 80 pounds.


There was also supposed to be a brutal "unmasking" scene, which would reveal Leatherface as horribly disfigured. That scene was scrapped (despite an obvious buildup) and saved because New Line wanted to use it in the next sequel. It was eventually used in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003).


Kane Hodder, who played 'Jason' in four 'Friday the 13th' films - was the stunt coordinator for this film.


Among others, one of New Line's first choices for director was Peter Jackson.


The ranch where most of the filming was done is so close to the Disney Ride "Space Mountain" that director Jeff Burr swears you can hear screams from the Roller Coaster during some takes.


Viggo Mortensen was not the studio's first choice top play Tex. He didn't do well in the audition, and New Line hired another actor who was later fired, and the role of Tex went to Mortensen.

SPOILER: It was decided that Ken Foree's character should live after he gained high favorability ratings during early test screenings. The new ending was subsequently shot, in which somehow Ken pops up in the final frame with a tiny flesh wound on his head (even though we all saw him get torn apart in the finale).

It sounds like Ed Gein could have also been the bases of both Hannibal Lecter and Jame Gumb in the great Thomas Harris novel.

Trivia for
Hellraiser (1987)
It took six hours to place Doug Bradley into the Pinhead makeup.


The budget of this movie was $1,000,000. It earned about $20,000,000. It was the directing debut of Clive Barker, who had made only two short films before this.


The film is based on the novel "The Hellbound Heart".


The film's original title was "Sadomasochists From Beyond The Grave".


Industrial band Coil originally did the soundtrack for this movie, but it was turned down by the film studio. Clive Barker said: "The only group I've heard on disc whose records I've taken off because they made my bowels churn."


The address for the house in this movie is 55 Ludovico place. The name of the institute in A Clockwork Orange (1971) where Alex is deprogrammed of violence was the Ludovico Institute.


The video release of Hellraiser (1987) had one of the most unusual pieces of bonus materials that has ever been offered: A Home Shopping show where merchandise from the movie could be purchased. The show was hosted by a giddy old lady claiming to be a hardcore fan of the movie.


At the time of the movie's release the MPAA had an agenda on "intensity of tone". As a result of this director Clive Barker had to make several cuts to his film: consecutive hammer blows, fingers entering flesh, S&M spanking between Julia and Frank, additional "thrusts" during the sex scene, all with the intention of watering down the overall impact of the piece.


Doug Bradley's character's name wasn't "Pinhead". He was just named "Lead Cenobite", but was given the name short after the film started.


Doug Bradley was originally offered a choice of roles between one of the mattress movers and the Lead Cenobite. He originally thought it important that, as a new film actor, the audience should be see his face, and nearly turned down the Lead Cenobite role.


Andrew Robinson improvised the line "Jesus wept".


In his DVD commentary, Clive Barker explains that filming the movie in an actual house forced him to be creative in his cinematography. There was often only room for a single camera and this explains why many of the shots are from only one angle. In particular, vertical movement was often the only movement available to the camera operators, which explains many of the overhead and zoom shots. Only one room in the house, the attic, was shot on a soundstage, but only the FX shots used this attic set.


Many viewers have commented about the poor quality of the FX at the end of the movie. Clive Barker has explained that, due to a very limited budget, there was no money left to have the FX done professionally after the primary filming. Instead, Barker and a "Greek guy" animated these scenes by hand over a single weekend. Barker has also commented that he thinks the FX turned out very well considering the amount of alcohol the two consumed that weekend.

THE THING (JOHN CARPENTER)

The film was originally banned when released in Finland.

The original movie, The Thing From Another World (1951), took place at the North Pole. This version takes place at the South Pole.

Donald Pleasence was the original choice for the character of Blair. Pleasence was unable to perform the role due to a scheduling conflict.

At the beginning of the film the Norwegian with the rifle is actually Kurt Russell's former brother-in-law, Larry Franco, who, needless to say, does not speak Norwegian. He spoke made-up gibberish instead of actual Norwegian. This is from John Carpenter himself in the film's commentary track.

The Norwegian dog in the film was named Jed. He was a half wolf/half husky breed. Jed was an excellent animal actor, never looking at the camera, the dolly or the crew members. Jed, however, is NOT the dog seen in the beginning chase scene, where the Norwegian is trying shoot him. Per Carpenter's commentary, this was another dog painted to look like Jed.

To give the illusion of icy Antarctic conditions, interior sets on the Los Angeles sound stages were refrigerated down to 40 F while it hovered around 90 F outside.

There are no female characters in the film. The only female presence in the movie is in the voice of MacReady's chess computer and the contestants seen on the game show that Palmer watches. A scene containing a blow-up doll was filmed and then left on the cutting room floor. According to John Carpenter, only one crew member was female but she was pregnant and this forced her to leave the shoot; she was replaced by a male.

Trivia for
The Omen (1976)

Charlton Heston, Roy Scheider and William Holden turned down the lead role. Gregory Peck, who hadn't worked for 5 years accepted the lead. William Holden did eventually accept a role in a sequel.

To make the baboons attack the car in the Windsor Zoo park scene, an official from the zoo was in the backseat of the car with the "leader" baboon, which made all the baboons outside go crazy. Lee Remick's terror as the baboons attack the car was real.

When the fishbowl falls to the ground, (dead) sardines painted orange were used in place of actual goldfish, which director Richard Donner refused to kill for the sake of making a movie.

The shot of Lee Remick falling to the floor was done by building the "floor" on a (vertical) wall and dollying an upright Remick backward towards it.


Having changed its title from "The Antichrist" to "The Birthmark," the film seemed to fall victim to a sinister curse. Star Gregory Peck and screenwriter David Seltzer took separate planes to the UK...yet BOTH planes were struck by lightning. While producer 'Harvey Bernard' was in Rome, lightning just missed him. Rottweilers hired for the film attacked their trainers. A hotel at which director Richard Donner was staying got bombed by the IRA; he was also struck by a car. After Peck canceled another flight, to Israel, the plane he would have chartered crashed...killing all on board. On day one of the shoot, several principal members of the crew survived a head-on car crash. The jinx appeared to persist well into post-production...when special effects artist John Richardson was injured, and his assistant killed, in an accident on the set of _Bridge Too Far, A (1977)_ .


In the closing scene, Richard Donner used reverse psychology on young Harvey Stephens telling him, "Don't you dare laugh. If you laugh, I won't be your friend." Naturally, Stephens wanted to laugh, and he instead smiled directly into the camera.


As part of its pre-release publicity campaign, and to point out the significance of "the three sixes" as The Sign of Satan, the movie was sneak-previewed nationwide in the USA on 6 June 1976. While audiences inside the theatres were being scared witless by the film, theatre employees were out front, busily putting up specially made posters declaring: "Today is the SIXTH day of the SIXTH month of Nineteen-Seventy-SIX!" Hokey though it was, the gimmick worked quite well, as many a theatre patron literally "freaked-out" upon seeing those posters as they left the previews.


According to at least one biography of Gregory Peck, he took this role at a huge cut in salary (a mere $250,000) but was also guaranteed 10% of the film's box office gross. When it went on to gross more than $60 million in the U.S. alone, The Omen (1976) became the highest-paid performance of Peck's career.


According to director Richard Donner, he talked the noted cinematographer Gilbert Taylor into coming out of retirement to shoot this film.


Mike Hodges was offered the chance to direct the movie. He refused, but actually went on to direct three weeks of Damien: Omen II (1978) before he was fired over creative differences.


Richard Donner credits the success of the film to composer Jerry Goldsmith, whose music made the film scarier than it would have been had he not be involved.


Richard Donner and Harvey Bernhard asked Alan Ladd Jr. then the head of Twentieth Century Fox for extra money during the film's post-production period to hire composer Jerry Goldsmith, whose music they strongly felt was right for the movie after seeing him perform a live concert at the Hollywood Bowl earlier that year. Ladd was finally talked into giving Donner and Bernhard around $250,000 to hire Goldsmith, who would deliver his first and only Academy Award win for his score in 1977.


Rottweilers experienced a surge in popularity in the US after the release of this film.


Richard Donner decided that Harvey Stephens' naturally blond hair should be died black to give him a more sinister look in his role as Damien.

Did you know that.....

the film "When A Stranger Calls" ( www.imdb.com/title/tt0080130/ )was originally planned as a sequel to Black Christmas (1974) when 'John Carpenter' 's film Halloween (1978), which had originally been planned as the sequel, became a stand-alone film in its own right. This movie enjoyed the same "promotion" and Black Christmas remained without a sequel.

Also its being remade :

www.imdb.com/title/tt0455857/

Originally posted by papabeard
Trivia for
The Omen (1976)

Charlton Heston, Roy Scheider and William Holden turned down the lead role. Gregory Peck, who hadn't worked for 5 years accepted the lead. William Holden did eventually accept a role in a sequel.

To make the baboons attack the car in the Windsor Zoo park scene, an official from the zoo was in the backseat of the car with the "leader" baboon, which made all the baboons outside go crazy. Lee Remick's terror as the baboons attack the car was real.

When the fishbowl falls to the ground, (dead) sardines painted orange were used in place of actual goldfish, which director Richard Donner refused to kill for the sake of making a movie.

The shot of Lee Remick falling to the floor was done by building the "floor" on a (vertical) wall and dollying an upright Remick backward towards it.


Having changed its title from "The Antichrist" to "The Birthmark," the film seemed to fall victim to a sinister curse. Star Gregory Peck and screenwriter David Seltzer took separate planes to the UK...yet BOTH planes were struck by lightning. While producer 'Harvey Bernard' was in Rome, lightning just missed him. Rottweilers hired for the film attacked their trainers. A hotel at which director Richard Donner was staying got bombed by the IRA; he was also struck by a car. After Peck canceled another flight, to Israel, the plane he would have chartered crashed...killing all on board. On day one of the shoot, several principal members of the crew survived a head-on car crash. The jinx appeared to persist well into post-production...when special effects artist John Richardson was injured, and his assistant killed, in an accident on the set of _Bridge Too Far, A (1977)_ .


In the closing scene, Richard Donner used reverse psychology on young Harvey Stephens telling him, "Don't you dare laugh. If you laugh, I won't be your friend." Naturally, Stephens wanted to laugh, and he instead smiled directly into the camera.


As part of its pre-release publicity campaign, and to point out the significance of "the three sixes" as The Sign of Satan, the movie was sneak-previewed nationwide in the USA on 6 June 1976. While audiences inside the theatres were being scared witless by the film, theatre employees were out front, busily putting up specially made posters declaring: "Today is the SIXTH day of the SIXTH month of Nineteen-Seventy-SIX!" Hokey though it was, the gimmick worked quite well, as many a theatre patron literally "freaked-out" upon seeing those posters as they left the previews.


According to at least one biography of Gregory Peck, he took this role at a huge cut in salary (a mere $250,000) but was also guaranteed 10% of the film's box office gross. When it went on to gross more than $60 million in the U.S. alone, The Omen (1976) became the highest-paid performance of Peck's career.


According to director Richard Donner, he talked the noted cinematographer Gilbert Taylor into coming out of retirement to shoot this film.


Mike Hodges was offered the chance to direct the movie. He refused, but actually went on to direct three weeks of Damien: Omen II (1978) before he was fired over creative differences.


Richard Donner credits the success of the film to composer Jerry Goldsmith, whose music made the film scarier than it would have been had he not be involved.


Richard Donner and Harvey Bernhard asked Alan Ladd Jr. then the head of Twentieth Century Fox for extra money during the film's post-production period to hire composer Jerry Goldsmith, whose music they strongly felt was right for the movie after seeing him perform a live concert at the Hollywood Bowl earlier that year. Ladd was finally talked into giving Donner and Bernhard around $250,000 to hire Goldsmith, who would deliver his first and only Academy Award win for his score in 1977.


Rottweilers experienced a surge in popularity in the US after the release of this film.


Richard Donner decided that Harvey Stephens' naturally blond hair should be died black to give him a more sinister look in his role as Damien.

That was some interesting trivia! I told my dad some of it, and he was kinda sorta impressed.

THE SHINING ............continued :


At the time of release, it was the policy of the MPAA to not allow the portrayal of blood in trailers that would be approved for all audiences. In order to overcome this, Kubrick convinced the board that was approving the trailer that the blood flooding out of the elevator was actually rusty water.


Because Danny Lloyd was so young and since it was his first acting job, Stanley Kubrick was highly protective of the child. Through clever and creative directing, Danny didn't know he was working on a horror movie until after it was released.


The former caretaker of the Overlook Hotel has two different names (Charles Grady and Delbert Grady) because he's supposed to be two different people. Charles is the caretaker who murdered his wife and daughters in the winter of 1970, and Delbert is the butler of the Overlook Hotel at the 4th of July party in 1921(which Jack was also at). This is a reference to the original book (the former caretaker's name didn't change like it did in the movie, but he was at the hotel in two different time periods- once at a masquerade ball in 1945 and again as the caretaker in 1970.). The use of two different names in the movie is simply to show that Grady has been at the Overlook Hotel twice, just like Jack.


The throwing around of the tennis ball inside the overlook hotel was Jack Nicholson's idea. The script originally only specified that, "Jack is not working".


Out-takes of the shots of the Volkswagen traveling towards the Overlook at the start of the film were plundered by Ridley Scott (with Kubrick's permission) for the 'happy ending' in the original release of _Blade Runner (1984)_ .


The "snowy" maze near the conclusion of the movie consisted of salt and crushed Styrofoam.


Stanley Kubrick's first choice to play Danny Torrence was Cary Guffey, the young boy from Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). Guffey's parents apparently turned down the offer due to the film's subject matter.


Billie Gibson, the old woman in the tub, has been falsely rumored to be Ann Gibson, Mel Gibson's late mother.


Cameo: The injured guest who frightens Wendy Torrance (Shelley Duvall) by saying "Great party, isn't it?" was played by film editor Norman Gay.


Neither Lia Beldam (Young woman in tub) nor Billie Gibson (Old woman in tub) appeared in another movie after this one.


There were so many changes to the script during shooting that Jack Nicholson claimed that he stopped reading it. He would read only the new pages that were given to him each day.


Stanley Kubrick composed and shot this film in the negative ratio (1.37:1) format so that in TV we see it in 1.33:1, but in the cinemas wee see it in 1.85:1 (aspect ratio). When a film is shot in 1.37:1, the top and the bottom of the frame are intended to be masked off in the cinemas to create a widescreen version, but are not masked off in the TV - VHS - DVD version.


Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind wrote and performed a full electronic score for the film, but Kubrick discarded most of it and used a soundtrack of mostly classical music. Only the adaptation of Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique during the opening credits, the music during the family's drive to the hotel, and a few other brief moments (such as Halloran's plane trip) survive in the final version. Wendy Carlos once noted that she'd like to see the original score released on CD, but there were too many legal snags at the time. As of 2005, Carlos' score for the film has been remastered, and is a part of Rediscovering Lost Scores volumes 1 and 2.


For the scene in which Jack breaks down the bathroom door, the props department built a door that could be easily broken. However, Jack Nicholson worked as a volunteer fire marshal and tore it apart easily. The props department were then forced to build a stronger door.


Anjelica Huston lived with Jack Nicholson during the time of the shooting. She recalled that, due to the long hours on the set and Stanley Kubrick's trademark style of repetitive takes, Nicholson would often return from a day's shooting, walk straight to the bed, collapse onto it and would immediately fall asleep.


Tony Burton, who had a brief role as Larry Durkin the garage owner, arrived on set one day carrying a chess set in hopes of getting in a game with someone during a break from filming. Stanley Kubrick, an avid chess player who had in his youth played for money, noticed the chess set. Despite production being behind schedule, Kubrick proceeded to call off filming for the day and engage in a set of games with Burton. Even though Kubrick won each game, Burton said the director thanked him since it had been some time that he'd played against a challenging opponent.


During the first steadicam tracking shot of Danny on his tricycle, a sign reading "Camera Walk" can be seen next to a staircase.


Kubrick wanted to shoot the film in script order. This meant having all the relevant sets standing by at all times. In order to achieve this every sound stage at Elstree was used, with all the sets built, pre-lit and ready to go during the entire shoot at the studios.


In the scene where Danny Lloyd rides his bike through the hall and encounters the Grady daughters, he never actually sees them. The scene was accomplished by Kubrick directing Lloyd to turn the corner into an empty hall. Kubrick then directed Danny to stop, look scared, cover his eyes, and so on. At a different time, Kubrick filmed the girls by themselves in the hall standing together. In post-production, he took the film from the two scenes and spliced them together to make it look like it was all happening at the same time - hence giving the illusion that Lloyd (who didn't realize until years later that The Shining (1980) was a scary movie) was actually seeing the two girls.

The design of the Overlook's Colorado Lounge and Lobby are based very closely on the beautiful Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite national park. The chandeliers, windows and fireplace are nearly identical, so much so that people entering the Ahwahnee often ask if it's "the Shining hotel".


Steadicam operator Garrett Brown accomplished many of the ultra-low tracking corridor sequences from a wheelchair on which his invention was mounted. Grips would either pull backward or push forward the wheelchair, depending on the requirement of the shot


Stephen King tried to talk Stanley Kubrick out of casting Jack Nicholson in the lead suggesting, instead, either Michael Moriarty or Jon Voight. King had felt that watching either of these normal-looking men gradually descend into madness, would have immensely improved the dramatic thrust of the storyline. Indeed, many fans of the book agreed with King, adding that Nicholson appeared fairly crazy from the very start, thus there was little or no surprise when Jack ultimately went totally overboard.


Vivian Kubrick makes a cameo in the party scene. She wears a black dress and sits on the right side of the sofa closest to the bar.


In the party scene, Stanley Kubrick told the extras to mouth their words and not to nod their heads.


One of the shots in the part where Danny is bouncing a ball against a wall took several days to film. This was because the shot entailed the ball bouncing from the wall onto the camera lens as it filmed. As Kubrick was so determined to get this precise shot, the camera kept rolling while the ball was continually hit against the wall in the hope of it bouncing back and hitting the lens. It took everyone on the entire unit having a go at it in between other shots before the shot was finally achieved after several days.

The Torrance's car is a Volkswagen Beetle.

The opening photo is looking west down Saint Mary's Lake, Glacier NP, on the Road to the Sun. There is an Ansel Adams photograph taken from exactly the same location.

>>> WARNING: Here Be Spoilers <<<
Trivia items below here contain information that may give away important plot points. You may not want to read any further if you've not already seen this title.

SPOILER: Danny croaks "Redrum" 43 times before his mother wakes up and Jack starts to break into the apartment.

SPOILER: There is only one on-screen murder in the film.

impressive! I wonder what kind of movie the character Danny was thinking he was in.

That's some really interesting info about The Shining. Very cool.

Did you know ...............that at the end of "TCM The Next Generation", Marylin Burns from the original film, goes by on a gurney when Zellwegger is in the hospital, and in the credits it says : Patient On Gurney = Unknown

lol, I didn't know that. I really didn't like that movie, it was all pretty lame and cheesy to me. I watched it on HBO once, and I don't really ever want to watch it again.

Did you know that...........George Romero has a cameo in Silence of the Lambs as an FBI Agent.

Did you know that.........

David Hess star of Last house on the Left, wrote and sang the songs on the soundtrack including "The Road Leads Nowhere", which is also played over the end credits of Cabin Fever and is sung by Hess's Son and Daughter.

Originally posted by papabeard
Did you know ...............that at the end of "TCM The Next Generation", Marylin Burns from the original film, goes by on a gurney when Zellwegger is in the hospital, and in the credits it says : Patient On Gurney = Unknown
That makes me want to watch that again.

I knew that when I was like, nine.