78 Fun Facts About 90s Horror Movie

Who wrote the screenplay for Scream (1996)?

Kevin Williamson wrote the spec script, then titled Scary Movie, in three days, and it set off a bidding war among Hollywood studios.

Which actor provides the voice of Ghostface in Scream?

Roger L. Jackson won the part at an open casting, where he decided the caller should not sound like a new Freddy Krueger, and he kept voicing Ghostface in the sequels.

Casey Becker's death in the opening of Scream was inspired by a killing in which earlier film?

Psycho killed off its star Janet Leigh early, and Scream stretched Drew Barrymore's opening scene so viewers would believe she was the lead before she died.

Scream (1996) was expected to flop partly because it opened over which holiday?

Christmas seemed the wrong time for a slasher, and Scream lost its opening weekend to holiday films, yet word of mouth carried it to about $173 million worldwide.

In The Silence of the Lambs, what is found lodged in a victim's throat?

A death's-head moth is the killer's signature, and customs papers for live caterpillars shipped from Suriname help the FBI put a name to him.

The Silence of the Lambs was adapted from a 1988 novel by which author?

Thomas Harris has said Hannibal Lecter grew from a real encounter: a doctor he met in a Monterrey prison who turned out to be a murderer.

On which holiday was The Silence of the Lambs released in US cinemas in 1991?

Valentine's Day 1991 brought the film to cinemas, yet its studio, Orion Pictures, filed for bankruptcy that December.

The student filmmakers in The Blair Witch Project vanish in the woods near which town?

Burkittsville, Maryland is a real town, but the witch legend was invented by the filmmakers; the town's real past includes a Civil War battle fought nearby in 1862.

Which company bought The Blair Witch Project after its first Sundance screening?

Artisan Entertainment bought it at Sundance, and a film shot for tens of thousands of dollars went on to gross about $248 million worldwide.

How did The Blair Witch Project's marketing campaign describe its three lead actors?

The website and IMDb listings kept up the fiction so well that the actors' families reportedly received sympathy cards.

What is Bruce Willis's profession in The Sixth Sense?

Child psychologist Malcolm Crowe was one of three Disney roles Bruce Willis agreed to take after Disney shut down his troubled film Broadway Brawler.

Which colour is deliberately kept out of most scenes in The Sixth Sense, appearing only at key moments?

Red is saved for anything in the real world that the other world has tainted, and for the film's most explosively emotional moments.

Which 1999 film out-grossed The Sixth Sense?

The Phantom Menace was 1999's only bigger hit, and The Sixth Sense exists because a Disney executive bought its script without asking his bosses.

Candyman (1992) is set in which real housing project?

Cabrini-Green was so feared that the filmmakers first went in with a police escort.

Candyman is based on a Clive Barker short story with what title?

The Forbidden was set on a Liverpool housing estate, and the film relocated its legend to America and rebuilt the story around race.

Which minimalist composer wrote the score for Candyman?

He reportedly expected an art film and was unhappy to find he had scored a slasher, though the organ-and-choir theme is now beloved.

Candyman (1992) appears when someone says his name five times into what?

A mirror: Candyman is the ghost of a man whose hand a lynch mob sawed off before smearing him with honey so that bees stung him to death.

Who directed Misery (1990)?

Rob Reiner saw Michael Douglas, Robert Redford and a string of other stars turn down Paul Sheldon before James Caan took the part.

In Misery, what does Kathy Bates's character use to break Paul Sheldon's ankles?

A sledgehammer replaced the novel's axe: in the book she cuts off Paul's foot, and the film softened it to broken ankles.

Kathy Bates won the Best Actress Oscar for playing which character?

Annie Wilkes went to Kathy Bates, a stage actress little known to film audiences, because screenwriter William Goldman recommended her.

Who directed Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)?

Francis Ford Coppola refused modern digital effects, so his son Roman created the film's tricks in-camera with techniques from the early days of cinema.

Which role does Keanu Reeves play in Bram Stoker's Dracula?

Jonathan Harker was Keanu Reeves's part, and the whole project began when his co-star Winona Ryder brought the script to the director.

Eiko Ishioka won an Academy Award for Bram Stoker's Dracula in which category?

Best Costume Design went to Eiko Ishioka, and partly to save money the production let her costumes, not costly sets, carry the film's look.

Who replaced River Phoenix as the interviewer Daniel Molloy in Interview with the Vampire?

Christian Slater took the part after River Phoenix's death and gave his entire salary from the film to charities Phoenix had supported.

Which actor's casting as Lestat did Anne Rice publicly object to before praising the finished film?

Tom Cruise won Anne Rice over once she saw the film, and she personally apologised to him for having doubted the casting.

Which actor was kept out of Seven's opening credits so the killer's identity stayed secret?

Kevin Spacey's name would have tipped off audiences, since a star unseen until the last reel must be the killer.

In Seven, what is in the box delivered to Mills in the desert?

His wife's head: Brad Pitt was so set on that bleak ending that he made keeping it a condition of joining the film.

The 1998 Japanese film Ring was adapted from a 1991 novel by which writer?

Koji Suzuki's Ring missed out on the mystery prize it was entered for, then became the bestseller that made his name.

In Ring, where was the psychic Sadako Yamamura left to die?

In a well, where her father trapped her; finding her remains doesn't end the curse, and the heroine survives only because she copied the tape.

Who directed the 1999 Japanese horror film Audition?

Takashi Miike's Audition won the FIPRESCI critics' prize at Rotterdam and was among the festival hits that made him famous abroad.

In Audition, why does Aoyama hold fake auditions?

Find a wife: seven years a widower, he chooses Asami, who ends up paralysing and torturing him.

In Event Horizon, the missing ship reappears in orbit around which planet?

Neptune is where the lost ship resurfaces; the film was poorly received in 1997 but has since been reappraised as a cult classic.

Where did Event Horizon's lost ship go?

Another dimension: the drive opened a gateway to a realm of chaos, and much of the gore cut before release was later lost, so no full director's cut exists.

What is the name of the deity the four girls invoke in The Craft?

Manon is the earth deity the girls call on, and the production hired practising Wiccan Pat Devin as an adviser to keep its rituals accurate and respectful.

Which character does Fairuza Balk play in The Craft?

Nancy Downs is Fairuza Balk's role, and Balk bought an occult shop in Los Angeles while she was making the film.

Who directed From Dusk till Dawn (1996)?

Robert Rodriguez directed Quentin Tarantino's script, and Ireland's film censor banned the film for its 'totally gratuitous violence'.

What is the name of Salma Hayek's vampire dancer in From Dusk till Dawn?

Santanico Pandemonium's snake dance had no choreographer: Salma Hayek, terrified of snakes, improvised it to the music.

In Army of Darkness, Ash works at which department store?

The S-Mart ending replaced the one Sam Raimi preferred, in which Ash swallows too much potion, oversleeps and wakes in a ruined future.

Cape Fear (1991) reworks which composer's original 1962 score?

Bernard Herrmann couldn't rework it himself, so Elmer Bernstein did: Herrmann had died in 1975, right after recording his final score, for Scorsese's Taxi Driver.

Which star of the original 1962 Cape Fear made a cameo in the remake in his final theatrical film role?

Gregory Peck, the hero of the 1962 film, plays Max Cady's lawyer this time, while Robert Mitchum, the original villain, plays a police lieutenant.

Jacob's Ladder (1990) is widely credited as a major inspiration for which video game series?

Silent Hill is often cited as drawing on the film, whose twitching figures were made by filming an actor shaking his head at a low frame rate.

Who directed Jacob's Ladder (1990)?

Adrian Lyne chose it over directing The Bonfire of the Vanities, then cut about 20 minutes of disturbing scenes after test screenings.

Tremors (1990) is set in which fictional desert town?

Perfection, Nevada is the fictional town, and the film did only modestly in cinemas before becoming a video-rental hit with a cult following.

Which country singer made her acting debut in Tremors?

Reba McEntire plays survivalist Heather Gummer, who with her husband Burt kills one of the giant worms in their basement armoury.

Which actress plays herself in Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994)?

Heather Langenkamp plays herself and Nancy Thompson; the film earned the least of the whole Nightmare series, but its self-aware idea fed into Wes Craven's Scream films.

In The Faculty (1998), the students' homemade drug that dehydrates the alien parasites is made from what?

Caffeine dries out the water-dependent parasites, and Zeke uses it on Jon Stewart's infected teacher by jabbing a pen full of the drug into his eye.

In Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow, Ichabod Crane is reimagined as what?

A New York constable replaces Washington Irving's schoolmaster, and he is sent upstate to investigate a string of beheadings.

Who plays the Headless Horseman, seen with his head in flashbacks, in Sleepy Hollow?

The film won the Oscar for Best Art Direction for its fog-bound, almost colourless village built in England.

Which actor plays the resurrected high priest Imhotep in The Mummy (1999)?

Arnold Vosloo plays Imhotep in a film Universal first planned as low-budget horror, before Stephen Sommers sold the studio on a big romantic adventure.

Which artist designed the alien Sil in Species (1995)?

H. R. Giger, the designer of Alien's creature, got the job after director Roger Donaldson read his art book Necronomicon.

Cube (1997) is a low-budget horror film from which country?

Canada's Cube was shot on a single 14-foot cube set, with coloured panels swapped so one room could stand in for the whole maze.

In Cube, Leaven eventually works out that the trapped rooms are marked by numbers that are what?

Powers of primes mark the trapped rooms, and Kazan, the savant who factorises numbers in his head, is the only one who walks out into the light.

In Deep Blue Sea, scientists enlarge shark brains while searching for a cure for which disease?

Alzheimer's research is the goal, and Samuel L. Jackson's character is snatched by a shark in the middle of his rousing speech to the survivors.

I Know What You Did Last Summer was adapted from a 1973 novel by which author?

Lois Duncan opposed the slasher adaptation because her youngest daughter had been murdered in 1989.

I Know What You Did Last Summer is set in a fishing town in which US state?

North Carolina's Southport is the setting, and the script made the killer a hook-wielding fisherman after the old urban legend of the Hook.

In Scream 2, what is the screen retelling of the Woodsboro murders called?

Stab premieres in the opening scene, and the sequel's own script leaked online, forcing rewrites that changed the killers' identities.

Which character is revealed as the killer in Urban Legend (1998)?

Brenda is avenging her boyfriend David, who died in the car crash that Natalie and her friend caused, and she stages each killing as an urban legend.

Who directed The Frighteners (1996), starring Michael J. Fox as a con-man who can see ghosts?

Peter Jackson got the job because executive producer Robert Zemeckis loved the script, and Jackson shot it in his native New Zealand.

In Leprechaun (1993), what is the only thing that can kill the title creature?

A four-leaf clover, stuck to chewing gum and shot into its mouth, stops it, and the film launched Jennifer Aniston's movie career.

In Arachnophobia (1990), the deadly spider arrives in California from which country?

Venezuela is where the spider bites and kills a man, and it reaches California hidden inside his coffin.

Under what title was the 1992 New Zealand splatter film Braindead released in the United States?

Dead Alive was its US title, and its finale has Lionel mowing down a houseful of zombies with a lawnmower.

Which director plays the masked killer psychotherapist Dr. Decker in Nightbreed (1990)?

David Cronenberg plays Decker; the studio sold the film as a slasher, and Clive Barker's own director's cut arrived years later.

The Exorcist III (1990) is based on which novel by William Peter Blatty?

Legion was William Peter Blatty's 1983 novel, and after shooting wrapped the studio made him film a new exorcism ending with an added character.

In the 1990 Chucky sequel, which corporation manufactures the Good Guy dolls?

Play Pals rebuilds Chucky to prove its dolls are safe, and a power surge during the rebuild brings him back to life.

Stir of Echoes (1999), starring Kevin Bacon, is adapted from a 1958 novel by which writer?

Richard Matheson's novel reached the screen because director David Koepp, a big fan of Matheson's Duel and Twilight Zone work, sought it out.

In Fallen (1998), Denzel Washington's detective hunts a demon with what name?

Azazel passes from body to body by touch and, in the final twist, survives by slipping into a stray cat after the detective thinks it is beaten.

In Wes Craven's The People Under the Stairs (1991), what do the intruders break in to steal?

A collection of gold coins is the target, and the house turns out to hide children locked away, echoing a late-1970s Los Angeles news story.

Who directed Wolf (1994), about a New York book editor who turns into a werewolf?

Mike Nichols's film was held back six to eight months so its poorly received ending could be reshot.

In the Mouth of Madness (1994) closes an informal three-film John Carpenter series known as what?

The Apocalypse Trilogy opened with The Thing, which critics savaged on release before it was reappraised as one of horror's best films.

Which actor plays occult detective Harry D'Amour in Clive Barker's Lord of Illusions (1995)?

Scott Bakula plays D'Amour in a film MGM trimmed by about 12 minutes; Clive Barker's longer director's cut came out later.

Mimic (1997) was the English-language directing debut of which filmmaker?

Guillermo del Toro clashed with the Weinstein brothers over creative differences, and he later reworked the film into his own director's cut.

Ravenous (1999) draws on the Donner Party and which real 'Colorado Cannibal'?

Alfred Packer confessed to eating members of his snowbound party and was eventually sentenced to 40 years in prison.

Anaconda (1997) follows a documentary crew led by a snake hunter on which river?

The Amazon adventure drew Razzie nominations, including one for Jon Voight, yet it earned about $137 million worldwide.

In Disturbing Behavior (1998), the mind-controlled model students are known as what?

Blue Ribbons are former troublemakers turned into model students by devices the school psychologist implanted in their brains.

Which actor plays Anton, the stoner whose hand turns murderous, in Idle Hands (1999)?

Devon Sawa plays Anton, and with its teen-killing premise landing right after the Columbine shooting, the film flopped with about $4 million.

Which actor made his feature-film debut in Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998)?

Josh Hartnett plays Laurie Strode's son in a sequel that brings back Jamie Lee Curtis and ignores every sequel after Halloween II.

Who plays Tiffany, Chucky's former lover whose soul ends up in a doll, in Bride of Chucky (1998)?

Jennifer Tilly's Tiffany arrived just as the series swung from straight horror toward comedy.

Which Witches of Eastwick co-star plays Jack Nicholson's love interest in Wolf (1994)?

Michelle Pfeiffer plays Laura Alden, and in the film's closing moments her eyes begin to change as she starts turning into a werewolf herself.