60 Fun Facts About 80s Horror Movie

Who directed The Shining (1980)?

Stanley Kubrick changed the novel so much that its unhappy author made his own TV miniseries of the story in 1997.

Which room in the Overlook Hotel is Danny warned to avoid?

Kubrick's film moved the novel's room number. The Overlook's earlier caretaker, Grady, had murdered his wife and daughters there.

The Shining got two nominations at the first Razzies: one for its director and what else?

Shelley Duvall as actress: the Razzies rescinded her Worst Actress nomination in 2022, citing the director's treatment of her during the shoot.

Where was The Shining almost entirely filmed?

EMI Elstree Studios in England held the Overlook's interiors and even its hedge maze; Oregon's Timberline Lodge supplied only the exterior shots.

Which future star appears in the original Friday the 13th (1980)?

Kevin Bacon plays Jack, one of the counselors who ignore the locals' warnings and are picked off one by one.

Which summer camp do the counselors reopen in the original Friday the 13th?

Camp Crystal Lake carries a history of murder, so locals warn the counselors to stay away, and they ignore the warning.

In which film did Jason Voorhees first wear his hockey mask?

Friday the 13th Part III gave Jason the mask; in Part 2 he had hidden his face under a sack.

Who was the killer in the original 1980 Friday the 13th?

Pamela Voorhees, Jason's mother, played by Betsy Palmer, kills to avenge her son's drowning; Jason himself turns up only in a closing nightmare.

Who played Freddy Krueger throughout the original Nightmare on Elm Street series?

Robert Englund was starring as a gentle alien in the TV hit V and auditioned for Freddy during a break in filming the show.

Whose film debut came in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)?

Johnny Depp was a musician, not an actor, when he auditioned to play Nancy's boyfriend Glen, and the part started his screen career.

Wes Craven loosely based Elm Street on news stories about which group dying in their sleep?

Southeast Asian refugees who had fled war were dying mid-nightmare; Craven recalled a newspaper story of a boy who fought sleep for days, then died screaming in the night.

Which studio earned the nickname 'The House that Freddy Built'?

New Line Cinema had mostly distributed other people's films until Elm Street, one of its first productions, became its first big hit and paid for everything after.

The Evil Dead (1981) was shot on location in a remote cabin in which state?

Tennessee hosted the main seven-week shoot in a cabin near Morristown, though the young crew came from Michigan and finished the film back home there.

Whose rave review helped The Evil Dead land a US distributor?

Stephen King's rave, written after he saw the film at Cannes, called it the most ferociously original horror film of the year, a line the film's ads then carried.

Which actor plays the chainsaw-wielding Ash in Evil Dead II?

Bruce Campbell met director Sam Raimi as a teenager, and the two friends were making Super 8 movies together long before the Evil Dead films.

The Thing (1982) is based on which science fiction story?

Who Goes There?, John W. Campbell Jr.'s 1938 novella, had already been filmed once, loosely, as 1951's The Thing from Another World.

Which 1982 hit did John Carpenter blame for The Thing's failure at the box office?

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial gave audiences a lovable alien two weeks before The Thing offered a monstrous one, and they chose the friendly visitor.

Who is credited as director of Poltergeist (1982), amid long-running debate over Steven Spielberg's role?

Tobe Hooper, who made The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, holds the credit; Spielberg wrote and produced, and his constant presence on set fed decades of argument.

What does five-year-old Carol Anne say after talking to the static on the TV in Poltergeist?

'They're here' comes as the bedroom shakes, and at breakfast the next morning a milk glass shatters and the silverware bends on its own.

Which director of An American Werewolf in London did Michael Jackson then hire to make Thriller?

John Landis was asleep in London when Michael Jackson phoned at 2am, praised the werewolf film and asked for a video in which he could turn into a monster.

In An American Werewolf in London, which pub's locals warn the two backpackers to stay off the moors?

The Slaughtered Lamb's regulars send David and Jack back into the night with that warning, and the pair wander off the road and onto the moors anyway.

The Howling was one of three high-profile lycanthrope films of 1981. What were the other two?

Its success got Joe Dante the Gremlins job. Rob Bottin did the makeup a year before The Thing.

In Gremlins, what happens when a Mogwai gets wet?

It multiplies: spilled water makes furry balls pop out of Gizmo's back and grow into new mogwai, and feeding those after midnight is what turns them into gremlins.

Gremlins helped prompt the creation of which movie rating?

PG-13 was Steven Spielberg's own suggestion after parents objected to the PG ratings on Gremlins and his Temple of Doom; Red Dawn was the first film released with it, that August.

The Return of the Living Dead introduced which now-standard zombie idea?

Zombies specifically eating brains came with a reason: one captured corpse explains that it eases the pain of being dead, and a shot to the head does not stop these zombies.

What is the name of the toxic gas that raises the dead in The Return of the Living Dead?

Trioxin sits in Army drums sent by mistake to a medical supply warehouse in Louisville, Kentucky, until a worker showing them off to a new hire lets the gas out.

Re-Animator is loosely based on a serial by which author?

H.P. Lovecraft wrote his 1922 serial 'Herbert West–Reanimator' partly as a send-up of Frankenstein; Jeffrey Combs plays West in the film.

In Fright Night, teenager Charley Brewster recruits which TV horror host to fight his vampire neighbor?

Peter Vincent, played by Roddy McDowall, takes his name from two horror stars, Peter Cushing and Vincent Price.

Cronenberg's The Fly (1986) won an Academy Award for what?

Best Makeup was the film's only nomination, so Jeff Goldblum's performance under that makeup went unrecognised by the Academy.

What is the name of Jeff Goldblum's scientist in The Fly?

Seth Brundle tests his teleporter on himself without noticing a housefly has slipped in, and the machine merges man and insect.

In Hellraiser (1987), what does Frank buy abroad that opens a doorway to hell?

A puzzle box does the same job in The Hellbound Heart, Clive Barker's own novella, which he chose for his first film because the story mostly needed one house.

By what nickname do fans know Doug Bradley's Hellraiser villain, credited only as Lead Cenobite?

Pinhead was the makeup crew's name for him, and it stuck; Clive Barker never liked it, and his later fiction calls the character the Hell Priest.

In Child's Play, what is the name of the serial killer whose soul ends up in a Good Guy doll?

Charles Lee Ray borrows his name from three notorious men: Charles Manson, Lee Harvey Oswald and James Earl Ray.

Who voices Chucky in the original 1988 Child's Play?

Brad Dourif also plays the dying killer on screen, and he stayed on as the doll's voice through the sequels; only the 2019 remake went elsewhere, to Mark Hamill.

The Lost Boys is set in which fictional California town, nicknamed the murder capital of the world?

Santa Carla was really Santa Cruz, whose famous beach boardwalk and amusement park became the vampires' hunting ground.

Near Dark (1987) was the solo directorial debut of which future Oscar winner?

Kathryn Bigelow made a vampire film in which nobody ever says the word vampire, and cast three actors from Aliens as her roaming clan.

In John Carpenter's They Live, what does drifter Nada put on to see the aliens hiding among humans?

A pair of sunglasses also turns billboards into blunt orders like OBEY and CONSUME, the director's swipe at Reagan-era greed.

Which former pro wrestler stars in They Live?

Roddy Piper and Keith David brawl down an alley for minutes on end, a fight John Carpenter modelled on John Wayne's long brawl in The Quiet Man.

In John Carpenter's The Fog, who wrecked the ghost crew's ship a century earlier?

The town's founders lured the Elizabeth Dane to its doom and used its gold to build Antonio Bay; the drowned crew return as the town turns 100.

Which Halloween sequel swaps Michael Myers for a mask maker's plot to kill children?

Halloween III was meant to turn the series into an anthology with a new story every year; audiences wanted Michael Myers, and he was back for Halloween 4.

Which 1983 film features a killer 1958 Plymouth Fury?

Christine is the car's own name: bullied teenager Arnie Cunningham buys the wreck, and it rebuilds itself and starts killing the boys who tormented him.

In Cujo, mother and son are trapped by a rabid St. Bernard inside what car?

A Ford Pinto in need of repair is why Donna drives out to the isolated garage at all; it breaks down in the yard, and dehydration sets in as the dog keeps watch.

Who directed the 1982 EC Comics-style anthology Creepshow?

George A. Romero directed from the first screenplay by the Carrie novelist, who also stars in one segment as a farmer undone by a meteorite.

Who directed the 1989 film Pet Sematary?

Mary Lambert was known for stylish music videos for Madonna and Janet Jackson; the novelist, who wrote the script himself, had to approve the director, and she won him over.

Which actor plays sleazy cable-TV boss Max Renn in David Cronenberg's Videodrome?

James Woods plays the president of a trashy Toronto station whose hunt for extreme shows leads him to a torture broadcast that starts warping his mind.

Sleepaway Camp (1983) is best remembered for what?

Its shocking twist ending lands in the final scene of what is otherwise a routine summer-camp slasher, and that one reveal is why the film still has a cult following.

Which 1958 drive-in hit starring a young Steve McQueen was remade as a gory horror film in 1988?

The Blob kept its small-town teens in 1988 but changed the monster: no longer a visitor from space, it is a government germ-warfare experiment that mutated in orbit.

Day of the Dead (1985) is set in an underground missile bunker in which state?

Florida is where the story's bunker sits, but the underground scenes were shot in a limestone mine near Wampum, Pennsylvania; only the surface scenes went to Fort Myers.

In The Changeling (1980), George C. Scott's grieving composer leaves New York for a haunted mansion in which city?

Seattle is only the film's setting: the story came from Denver, where co-writer Russell Hunter said he lived through a haunting near Cheesman Park in the late 1960s.

Which actress stars opposite Leslie Nielsen in the 1980 slasher Prom Night?

Jamie Lee Curtis followed Halloween with three horror films in 1980 alone, Prom Night, The Fog and Terror Train, a run that sealed her name as a scream queen.

In Cronenberg's Scanners (1981), which corporation hunts psychics to exploit their powers?

ConSec stages a public demonstration that gives the film its most infamous moment: renegade scanner Darryl Revok volunteers from the audience and makes the company telepath's head explode.

In Basket Case (1981), what does Duane Bradley carry around in his wicker basket?

His deformed conjoined twin, Belial, was cut away from him against their will, and the brothers have come to New York to kill the doctors who did it.

Which rock star plays a possessed homeless man in John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness (1987)?

Alice Cooper, credited only as Street Schizo, stands outside the church with the other possessed vagrants, menacing anyone who looks out.

In Wes Craven's The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988), a scientist hunts a zombie-making drug in which country?

Haiti is where ethnobotanist Wade Davis went to study Clairvius Narcisse, pronounced dead in 1962, after a man claiming to be him approached a relative 18 years later; the film is loosely based on Davis's book.

In Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988), the alien clowns store their human victims in cocoons of what?

Cotton candy cocoons are only one of the klowns' circus weapons: they also fire popcorn from guns, and one catches a whole crowd with a shadow-puppet show.

In Halloween II (1981), Laurie Strode is revealed to be Michael Myers's what?

Sister: the twist drove decades of sequels until the 2018 Halloween threw it out, with Laurie's granddaughter dismissing it as just something people made up.

Which future Seinfeld star made a film debut in the 1981 slasher The Burning?

Jason Alexander plays one of the campers stalked by Cropsy, a caretaker horribly burned when a prank misfired, who returns years later armed with shears.

In Motel Hell (1980), farmer Vincent Smith turns his trapped guests into what?

Sausages and other smoked meats are Farmer Vincent's roadside trade, and the secret is his hidden garden, where trapped travellers are planted up to their necks and fattened for harvest.

In Dead Ringers (1988), Jeremy Irons plays twin brothers in what profession?

Gynecologists Stewart and Cyril Marcus were the real model: the identical twins shared a New York practice and were found dead together in a Manhattan apartment in 1975.

Night of the Comet (1984) is credited with influencing the creation of which TV heroine?

Buffy Summers owes a debt to Kelli Maroney's Samantha, a Valley girl who shops and shoots her way through an emptied Los Angeles; Joss Whedon named the film as an inspiration.