Editorials
7 Unbelievable Horror Movie Facts!
Movies are often full of changes and trivia, but these horror films truly have some remarkable tidbits attached to them!
Everybody loves trivia. Whether you’re using it to be a hero and win some contest at a pub or just annoying your friends with it mercilessly, trivia is great because it’s short, digestible bursts of “Did You Know?” What’s more fun than that? The horror community is also such a fervent, passionate group of people that their enthusiasm towards trivia perhaps goes unrivaled. They can tell you exactly who’s under Jason’s mask in Friday the 13th Part IV or how many deaths take place across the Halloween franchise. However, as fun as trivia is, it’s also everywhere. So you know Reagan’s vomit in The Exorcist is pea soup, so does everyone, buddy! Accordingly, we’ve gone the extra mile to find some especially poignant gems from your favorite horror films that you hopefully have never heard before. And if you have, well then your trivia team, “The Dream Warriors” is going to have a lot more competition next time.
1. Stephen’s King is Spelled Wrong in Carrie’s Trailer
At this point Stephen King might have over a hundred adaptations of his stories filling both your television screens and movie theaters, but there was also a more humble time when he wasn’t the mega-author that he is today. Brian DePalma’s excellent adaptation of Carrie is actually the first Stephen King story to undergo adaptation. While the process would open the floodgates for the author, it didn’t change the fact that he wasn’t a household name yet. As a result, the “burgeoning writer” sees his name misspelled in Carrie’s trailer, going the Steven route. With King arguably being the biggest horror writer that there is, it’s crazy to think of a time when he was putting up with people screwing up the spelling of his name.
2. Psycho Is the First US Film to Show a Flushing Toilet On Screen
A lot of people think of the shower when they think of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, and rightfully so. One of the most iconic murders in all of horror happens to take place in one. But while everyone is busy focusing on the shower’s importance in the movie, there’s an unsung hero in the bathroom that’s widely overlooked. That’s right, the toilet. Up until this point, a toilet flushing had never been shown in an American film (a terribly lewd, inappropriate act to depict, obviously). Psycho broke barriers by making toilet flushing possible, and cinema has never looked back since!
3. A Man Sued Warner Bros. For Fainting During The Exorcist …and Won!
We all want horror movies to be frightening. That’s their point. But it’s kind of bizarrely twisted that because a horror film does its job too well, it can actually be penalized for it, which is exactly what happened with William Friedkin’s The Exorcist. After an audience member fainted and broke their jaw from hitting it on the seat in front of them, they brought forth a lawsuit towards Warner Brothers. The victim claimed that due to the use of subliminal images (which the film does employ) he fainted. Warner Brothers settled out of court for an undisclosed amount, but awarded him something! A lot of theaters after the fact even had paramedics on hand to deal with the mass hysterics and fainting that was prone to happen, to avoid this from happening again! It all just sounds like a Nathan For You prank gone wrong to me.
4. The Gauntlet That Shelley Duvall Endured During The Shining
Shelley Duvall’s shriek heavy performance in Kubrick’s masterpiece, The Shining, is pretty apparent even if you’ve only seen a few minutes of the film’s second half. Duvall’s performance as Wendy Torrance is so shrill and fear-filled, it’s too much for a lot of people, going as far as reading as “annoying” amongst certain circles. Whether Duvall’s work rubs you the wrong way or not is irrelevant, the point is that she genuinely seems to be terrified, which is fundamental to the role. The only stipulation here is that apparently Duvall’s performance isn’t so much a wonderfully channeled piece of acting, but rather the result of the onslaught of torture that Kubrick put Duvall through, in order to get her performance to where he wanted it. Kubrick is known for being an eccentric and filmmaking using unconventional methods, but here Kubrick was constantly dismissive to the actress (going as far as telling her she was wasting everyone’s time), told crew to never show her sympathy, and would have her do hundreds of takes for scenes. By the end of the production Duvall was losing her hair and had to carry bottles of water around for how dehydrated she was from crying. That’s a lot of work to create the most terrified wife in horror.
5. Priests Were Present to Bless Moviegoers Seeing The Conjuring
Audiences were so shaken up after watching James Wan’s The Conjuring, that a special screening in Chicago had a priest present after the movie to cleanse any audience members who felt violated by evil spirits. Naturally, this was a whole lot of showmanship, but so much of horror is buying into an illusion that this gimmick actually worked and incited more fear and paranoia from moviegoers. A special piece of boilerplate was even present, warning that, “The film you are about to see is psychologically and emotionally disturbing.” Maybe for The Conjuring 2 they’ll even sprinkle brimstone around the theater.
6. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre’s Original Title Was Head Cheese
If you work your way through The Texas Chain Saw Massacre’s commentary track with director, Tobe Hooper, you’ll come across the interesting tidbit that the film’s to-the-point title went through a bit of a revision process. Hooper and the film’s co-writer, Kim Henkel, had originally given their film the unusual title, Head Cheese, of all things. From that point the title slowly morphed into Leatherface, before ultimately taking on the title that we’re all familiar with (which wasn’t too popular at first, either). It was likely the lack of impetus and rationale behind Head Cheese as a title that sort of explains why thing’s slowly evolved. But can you imagine if one of the most unnerving films of all time had this as its title instead!?
7. The Skeletons in Poltergeist Are Real Human Skeletons
How expensive would you think rubber prop skeletons are? Well, they’re a whole lot more expensive than the real thing, apparently! Makeup artist on the film Craig Reardon brought up that real skeletons would actually be cheaper than creating something, and so this macabre mix of fantasy and reality was incorporated into the picture to great effect (although the actors weren’t told originally, mind you). While not as prominent, Hooper would employ the same technique on Texas Chain Saw Massacre as well, with the skeletons present there, also being the real deal.
Now spread this knowledge and inform every horror fan you encounter! Perhaps they’ll even have something new and unbelievable to respond back with! But what about you? What do you think the crème de la crème of horror trivia is? Sound off in the comments below!
You know, I had heard that on the set for Oujia 2…
Auteur Filmmaking is a term that gets thrown around a lot these days in reference to big name directors like Quentin Tarantino and even Wes Anderson, but the truth is that film is a collective medium, and no one person can be responsible for every single aspect of a particular production. However, the smaller a film’s budget, the bigger the individual impact of every creative decision behind it – and the easier it becomes to identify a genuine auteur.
This isn’t necessarily a judgement of value, as blockbuster filmmaking comes with its own challenges and a good movie remains a miracle regardless of how big the crew is, but I’ve always been more interested in soulful b-movies produced by handfuls of passionate artists than blockbusters backed by creative armies.
That’s why I love exploring low-budget franchises that never left the hands of their original creators, as you really get to know the artists involved with these flicks and can accompany their evolution over a period of time. With that in mind, I’d like to invite readers to join me in this multi-part series as we look into a vampire saga helmed by one of the most fascinating auteurs of the 1990s. Naturally, I’m referring to Ted Nicolaou’s criminally underrated Subspecies!
The Birth of an Unlikely Horror Franchise
A proud graduate of the University of Texas’ Film program, Nicolaou got his start in the industry as a sound technician working on Tobe Hooper’s original Texas Chain Saw Massacre. From there, the filmmaker would go on to work for notorious indie producer Charles Band, the founder of both Empire Pictures and Full Moon Productions. According to Nicolaou, Band would usually contact him with an offer to direct a feature after more prominent filmmakers, such as the late, great Stuart Gordon, had already refused, meaning that his projects tended to have lower budgets and more inexperienced crew members.
The plans for Subspecies began almost immediately after the fall of Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu, with screenwriter David Pabian turning in an initial draft of the film after a Romanian producer contacted Band and explained that Romanian tax incentives could cover the cost of film production there so long as Full Moon took care of the post-production process. Since Stuart Gordon was unwilling to travel to Romania, Ted Nicolaou ended up taking over the picture.
However, while the financial incentives meant that this Romanian-American co-production could look and feel much more expensive than it really was, with Nicolaou scouting for locations in advance and selecting real castle ruins to be featured in the movie, the director was soon faced with an incredibly difficult shooting process. In interviews, Nicolaou would later describe the experience as something of a nightmare, with language barriers and the generalized distrust of capitalist outsiders sabotaging many of the team’s plans for the film.
In fact, the script, which had already been altered by Band, ultimately had portions of it rewritten by both Jack Canson and Nicolaou himself in an attempt to adapt the story to their unique limitations.
Radu Is One of Horror’s Greatest Underrated Villains
In the finished film, which was released directly to video in 1991, we follow a pair of American anthropology students, Michelle (Laura Mae Tate) and Lillian (Michelle McBride), as they reunite with their Romanian colleague Mara (Irina Movila) in her native land. The group intends to study the folklore surrounding the secluded town of Prejmer, but their research is cut short by the return of Radu Vladislas (Anders Hove) – the evil son of a vampire king (Angus Scrimm) who had previously established a truce with the region’s human residents. It’s now up to Radu’s human-loving half-brother Stefan (Michael Watson) to protect the girls from a fate worse than death as the power-hungry vampire seeks to control a magical artifact known as the Bloodstone.
Right off the bat, you may have noticed that the film’s premise sounds decidedly old-fashioned when compared to other vampire movies from around the same time. While the 1990s saw the rise of cool-looking bloodsuckers with badass elements borrowed from Westerns, as well as the sexy aristocrats of Anne Rice’s stories, Subspecies has a lot more in common with Nosferatu and the Hammer Horror series than any of its contemporaries.
This is both a blessing and a curse, as the film falls victim to overly familiar genre tropes while also standing out as a rare example of a ’90s vampire flick that isn’t afraid to flex its muscles as a Creature Feature. In fact, I’d argue that the presence of age-old clichés is a small price to pay when confronted with one of the most compelling vampire antagonists in all of cinema.
Named after Vlad the Impaler’s real-life brother, Anders Hove’s Radu is such a fascinating character and the main reason why Subspecies is still worth watching 35 years later. From his animalistic mannerisms to the joy he feels in simply existing as a chaotic creature of the night, and that’s not even mentioning the iconic makeup that almost certainly inspired the undead from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Radu is a hypnotic presence harkening back to a time when audiences didn’t mind purely evil villains that couldn’t be redeemed through tragic backstories or sex appeal.
Gothic Atmosphere on an Indie Budget
Of course, the film’s Romanian setting and authentic art direction do a lot of the heavy lifting whenever Radu isn’t around. From the masked festivals of the village to the visually interesting selection of local extras, Subspecies’ multicultural elements help it to stand out when compared to similar flicks from the ’90s.
That being said, Nicolaou’s unique eye for special effects and exciting action sequences – as well as Vlad Paunescu’s excellent cinematography – make the movie a delight for fans of expressionist cinema and old-timey gothic horror. While the crew is obviously dealing with limited resources, many of the flick’s blemishes (such as the odd stop-motion demons that serve Radu) end up feeling more like charming idiosyncrasies than actual flaws.
I’d argue that the only real issue here is pacing, as there are long stretches of film where the protagonists are simply bumbling around without realizing what’s really going on around them. Thankfully, the gorgeous visuals and surprisingly effective soundtrack usually make up for this. Besides, how can you dislike a movie where shotgun shells are loaded with rosary beads and our lead vampires duke it out in a dramatic swordfight that would feel out of place during the golden age of Hollywood?
Your overall enjoyment of Subspecies will mostly depend on whether or not you find low-budget corner-cutting and janky practical effects charming rather than distracting, but I know I’ll keep coming back to this Full Moon feature again and again in the future.
That being said, while this first movie is worth revisiting by its own merits as the birth of an indie horror icon, I’d like to invite you to join us as we look into the cult sequel Bloodstone: Subspecies II soon.
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