60 Fun Facts About Classic Horror Movie

Which 1922 silent film starred Max Schreck as the vampire Count Orlok?

Nosferatu was an unauthorised Dracula adaptation: Bram Stoker's widow sued and a court ordered every copy destroyed, yet a few prints survived.

Who directed the 1922 unauthorised Dracula adaptation with Max Schreck as Count Orlok?

F. W. Murnau filmed a Henrik Galeen script that changed the names but kept the story, so Stoker's widow sued for copyright and the studio, Prana-Film, went bankrupt.

Which 1920 German silent film features a murderous sleepwalker?

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari cast Conrad Veidt as the sleepwalker Cesare, and its twisted, distorted sets became the model for German Expressionist cinema.

Which 1925 silent film reveals a skull-like face that its star designed himself?

The Phantom of the Opera starred Lon Chaney, the 'Man of a Thousand Faces', who learned expressive pantomime as a child to communicate with his deaf parents.

Who played the Monster in Universal's 1931 Frankenstein?

Boris Karloff, born William Henry Pratt in London, was billed only as '?' in the opening credits; his name appeared in the cast list at the end.

Who created the flat-headed, bolt-necked make-up for the 1931 Frankenstein monster?

Jack Pierce designed the look, and the famous neck 'bolts' are really electrodes, the terminals for the current that brings the Monster to life.

Which actress played both Mary Shelley and the Bride in Bride of Frankenstein (1935)?

Elsa Lanchester was credited by name only for Mary Shelley in the prologue, while the Bride herself was billed as '?'.

The Universal Dracula (1931) shared its sets at night with a second version shot in which language?

Spanish: a separate cast and crew under director George Melford took over the same sets each night once Tod Browning's unit had gone home.

Bela Lugosi, the screen's first great Dracula, acted with which country's National Theatre?

Hungary: he acted with its National Theatre in Budapest from 1913 to 1919, though his birthplace, Lugos, now lies across the border in Romania.

In The Mummy (1932), what brings the mummy back to life?

A scroll read aloud by a young archaeologist, the Scroll of Thoth, wakes the mummy, and the sight of it walking off leaves him laughing insanely.

Which actor's face is hidden in bandages for almost all of The Invisible Man (1933)?

Claude Rains, in his first American screen role, had to act almost entirely with his voice, and the part made him a star.

In The Wolf Man (1941), a werewolf sees which symbol on the palm of his next victim?

A pentagram on Gwen's palm marks her as next; Larry's disbelieving father then ties him to a chair to prove the curse is all in his mind.

Who played Larry Talbot, the title character of The Wolf Man?

Lon Chaney Jr., born Creighton Chaney, took his late father's famous name only after years acting under his own, and this role made him a star in his own right.

The Gill-man's underwater scenes in Creature from the Black Lagoon were shot in the natural springs of which southern state?

Florida's Wakulla Springs hosted the underwater unit, where Ricou Browning swam the part; Ben Chapman wore a second suit for every scene on land, so one monster had two actors.

Which studio released King Kong in 1933?

RKO's 'Eighth Wonder of the World' was in fact an 18-inch puppet, moved a frame at a time by effects pioneer Willis O'Brien.

Which actress screamed her way through King Kong as Ann Darrow?

Fay Wray, feted for decades as the 'scream queen', titled her 1989 autobiography On the Other Hand in tribute to the giant model of Kong's hand.

Tod Browning's Freaks (1932), set in a circus sideshow, was banned in which country for over 30 years?

The United Kingdom's censors kept Freaks off screens until 1963, and the outcry at home was as costly: it effectively ended Tod Browning's directing career.

The jump-scare technique known as the 'Lewton Bus' comes from which 1942 film?

Cat People builds a night-time stalking scene to its peak, then a city bus hisses into frame, its air brakes timed to make audiences jump.

James Arness, later Marshal Dillon in Gunsmoke, played the monster in which 1951 film?

The Thing from Another World makes its thawed-out alien an advanced form of plant life, which one character sums up as an 'intellectual carrot'.

Them! (1954) unleashed giant irradiated versions of which creature on New Mexico?

Ants mutated by the first atomic bomb test grow to giant size in the desert, and two young queens escape to found new colonies, turning a local scare into a national one.

Vincent Price's House of Wax (1953) was the first major-studio colour film to use which gimmick?

3-D, ironically: director André de Toth was blind in one eye and could not see the effect himself.

The Fly (1958) ends with a tiny human-headed fly trapped in a spider's web crying what?

'Help me!' squeaks the fly with the scientist's head as a spider closes in, until a police inspector crushes both with a rock.

Fallout from a 1954 US hydrogen bomb test at which Pacific atoll hit a Japanese fishing boat, partly inspiring Godzilla?

Bikini Atoll hosted the Castle Bravo test, whose fallout sickened the crew of the Lucky Dragon No. 5; the film echoes it by making boats at sea the monster's first victims.

Godzilla's director, Ishirō Honda, later assisted which filmmaker?

Akira Kurosawa, a friend since their early days at the Toho studio, coaxed Honda out of retirement to assist on his last five films, including Ran.

Which 1957 film, with Christopher Lee as the Creature, was Hammer's first colour horror?

The Curse of Frankenstein cast Peter Cushing as the Baron opposite Lee's Creature, and the pair went on to become the faces of Hammer horror.

Christopher Lee played Lord Summerisle in which 1973 folk horror?

The Wicker Man has his pagan lord lure a devout policeman to a remote Scottish island, where the visitor himself becomes the May Day sacrifice.

Hammer's Van Helsing, Peter Cushing, is also known to Star Wars fans as which character?

Grand Moff Tarkin's boots pinched so badly that Cushing asked to be shot from the waist up and played many scenes in slippers.

Which director reportedly beat Hitchcock to the rights for the novel behind Les Diaboliques (1955)?

Henri-Georges Clouzot reportedly got there first, and filmed it as the tale of a wife and a mistress who drown a cruel headmaster, only for the body to vanish.

Psycho's shower scene was storyboarded by which famous title designer?

Saul Bass also made the film's jagged opening titles; he later claimed he had directed the scene too, but those on set credited Hitchcock.

Psycho was adapted from a 1959 novel by which author?

Robert Bloch's novel was scripted by Joseph Stefano, and the $40,000 Marion Crane steals is a decoy: it sinks unnoticed into a swamp along with her car.

Hitchcock's The Birds (1963) is set in which fishing town north of San Francisco?

Bodega Bay comes under attack with no musical score at all: Hitchcock used electronic bird cries and wing-flaps in its place.

Hitchcock cast which model in The Birds after seeing her TV commercial?

Tippi Hedren won a seven-year contract on the strength of a diet-drink advert, and later devoted herself to rescuing lions and tigers at her Shambala Preserve.

Robert Wise's The Haunting (1963) adapts which author's novel about Hill House?

Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House keeps its terror unseen on screen: the heroine grips a hand in the dark, then finds her friend asleep across the room.

What is hammered onto a condemned witch as Mario Bava's Black Sunday (1960) opens?

A spiked mask, the 'Mask of Satan', is hammered onto the witch, who returns two centuries later to prey on her look-alike descendant; Barbara Steele plays both.

Village of the Damned (1960), about alien children born to villagers, adapts which John Wyndham novel?

The Midwich Cuckoos is named for the bird that lays its eggs in other nests; in the film, the hero pictures a brick wall to hide a ticking bomb from the mind-reading children.

Why did Night of the Living Dead (1968) enter the public domain at once?

It was released without a copyright notice: the distributor swapped in a new title at the last minute and left the notice off, so anyone could copy or sell the film.

Before Night of the Living Dead, George Romero shot segments for Mister Rogers' Neighborhood in which city?

Pittsburgh: Romero stayed on after college there, and he and a group of friends pooled their own money to fund his first feature.

Which actress won an Oscar as the nosy neighbour in Rosemary's Baby (1968)?

Ruth Gordon won at 72, having already earned three Oscar nominations as a screenwriter for films including Adam's Rib.

The Exorcist (1973) was the first horror film to be nominated for which Academy Award?

Best Picture was one of its ten nominations, though its hospital scenes made some viewers physically ill; it won two Oscars, for screenplay and sound.

The Exorcist is set in which Washington, D.C. neighbourhood, home of its famous steps?

Georgetown and its university supply the film's doubting priest, and the story is loosely based on reports of a real 1949 exorcism of a teenage boy.

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) was loosely based on which 1950s Wisconsin killer, who also inspired Psycho?

Ed Gein robbed graves and made masks and household items from the remains, grisly details that fed Leatherface and, later, The Silence of the Lambs.

Michael Myers' mask in Halloween (1978) was modified from a mask of which TV character?

Captain Kirk's face became Michael Myers's when the crew bought a William Shatner mask from a costume shop and sprayed it white.

Which daughter of Psycho's Janet Leigh starred in Halloween (1978)?

Jamie Lee Curtis reportedly won the part partly because her mother had been the victim in Psycho's shower scene, a link the producer prized as publicity.

Why does the shark appear so little in Jaws (1975)?

The mechanical sharks kept malfunctioning at sea, so Spielberg suggested the monster instead of showing it; the crew nicknamed the prop Bruce, after his lawyer.

Which actor played the ambassador who unknowingly adopts the Antichrist in The Omen (1976)?

Gregory Peck's ambassador secretly takes in the orphan when his own son dies at birth and never tells his wife; Jerry Goldsmith's chanting score won an Oscar.

Carrie (1976), starring Sissy Spacek, holds what distinction among Stephen King adaptations?

The first one ever made, it came from King's first published novel, whose opening pages he threw in the bin until his wife fished them out.

Dario Argento's Suspiria (1977) is set in what kind of school?

A ballet academy in Freiburg, Germany, turns out to be the front for a coven of witches, and Argento floods its corridors with lurid reds and blues.

Don't Look Now (1973) follows a grieving couple to which city?

Venice is where John Baxter goes to restore a church after his young daughter drowns; Nicolas Roeg took the tale from a Daphne du Maurier short story.

Which then-new piece of camera equipment gave The Shining (1980) its gliding corridor shots?

The Steadicam was worked by its own inventor, Garrett Brown, fresh from Rocky's run up the museum steps; he trailed Danny's tricycle through the hotel from just above the floor.

The Alien (1979) cast had already seen the chestburster puppet, so what on-set surprise made their horror real?

Jets of fake blood from hidden pumps hit the actors without warning; one stream caught Veronica Cartwright head-on, and the shock on screen is her own.

Where do the survivors hide in George Romero's Dawn of the Dead (1978)?

A shopping mall, where the undead stumble about on the escalators; Romero's joke is that zombies and shoppers are hard to tell apart.

In Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), emotionless doubles of a town's residents grow from what?

Giant seed pods copy people as they sleep; the film has been read as a warning about both communism and McCarthyism, though its director played down any political message.

Which future superstar took his first leading role in The Blob (1958)?

Steve McQueen, billed as 'Steven', had played a bit part in Somebody Up There Likes Me two years earlier; the jokey title song, co-written by Burt Bacharach, became a nationwide hit.

In Carnival of Souls (1962), an abandoned Utah pavilion draws the heroine to which lake?

Great Salt Lake's derelict Saltair resort draws Mary to its dancing ghouls, and the ending explains why: her body is still in the car that sank in the opening scene.

The Innocents (1961), a ghost story about a governess, adapts which Henry James novella?

The Turn of the Screw was reworked for the screen by Truman Capote, who added Freudian undertones, so it is never clear whether the ghosts are real or in the governess's mind.

Where had Bela Lugosi already played Count Dracula before starring in Universal's 1931 film?

On Broadway: Lugosi took the title role in the 1927 stage hit and stayed with it on tour. Universal built its film chiefly on that play, not directly on Stoker's novel.

Who directed Poltergeist (1982), with Steven Spielberg writing and producing?

Tobe Hooper is the credited director: a clause in Spielberg's E.T. contract barred him from directing another film, and arguments over who really ran the set have never stopped.

Which make-up artist won the first-ever Academy Award for Best Makeup for An American Werewolf in London?

Rick Baker took the brand-new award: the Academy created the category after an outcry that The Elephant Man's make-up had gone unhonoured the year before.

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

Tennessee: cast and crew lived in the cabin near Morristown through a freezing shoot, and by the last days they were burning its furniture to keep warm.

Which 1979 short film did Sam Raimi's team make as a proof of concept to fund The Evil Dead?

Within the Woods cost about $1,600, with Bruce Campbell in the lead. Raimi screened it for would-be investors, and he and Campbell still ended up asking family and friends for money.