Horror Stories - MovieMaker Magazine

For
decades the horror genre has helped would-be cinematic masters
get their start in the movie business. Many have used horror just
to cut their teeth, but others have never strayed too far from their
roots. Here are a few facts about some of our favorite scary success
stories:

The Blair Witch
Project (1999)
Directed by: Daniel Myrick & Eduardo Sánchez
Budget: $35,000 Budget: $140,530,000
Shot on: 16mm and Hi 8
Did you know:

The film was marketed as a documentary
The three lead actors shot much of the film
Nearly all the dialogue was improvised
Before the film was released, the three
main actors were listed as “Missing—Presumed Dead” on
IMDB.com ?
The movie made the Guinness Book Of World Records for budget/box
office ratio

The Blob (1958)
Directed by: Irvin S. Yeaworth, Jr.
Budget: $240,000
Shot on: 35mm
Did you know:

In the script, the blob is called “the
mass”
This was the last film in which Steve McQueen was credited
as Steven McQueen
The blob was created with a weather balloon early on, and colored
silicone gel later
In some of the promotional materials, Aneta
Corsaut’s
character is referred to as “Judy,” though her name
in the film is “Jane”
During the drag race, exhaust can be seen
going back into the car’s exhaust pipe

Eraserhead (1977)
Directed by: David Lynch
Budget: $10,000 Budget: $7,000,000
Shot on: 35mm
Did you know:

The film took five years to complete
John Nance kept his hair in “Eraserhead” fashion
for the duration of the project
The original script was only 20 pages long, making financing
a difficult task
David Lynch still will not reveal how the baby was created
It was one of Stanley Kubrick favorite films
Lynch headed up nearly every department on the film, with credits
for the music, editing, art direction, sound and special effects

The Evil Dead (1981)
Directed by: Sam Raimi
Budget: $150,000 Budget: $2,400,000
Shot on: 16mm
Did you know:

The famous “eyeball-in-the-mouth” scene
was inspired by the Three Stooges?
Raimi and actor Bruce Campbell began their
collaboration in high school, where they made many Super8 films
with Sam’s
brother, Ted
The film’s title was changed from Book of the Dead,
as producers feared that kids wouldn’t see a movie with
the word “book” in the title
The Arabic passages read from The Book of the Dead translate
to: “Rob Tapert and Sam Raimi are the men on the side of
the road”
To film the opening sequence, Raimi shot from a dingy while
Campbell pushed him

The Exorcist (1973)
Directed by: William Friedkin
Budget: $12,000,000 Budget: $128,660,000
Did you know:

Friedkin was known to “scare” his actors into character,
firing a gun before saying “action”—and reportedly
even slapping someone across the face
Ellen Burstyn suffered a permanet spinal
injury when a harness pulled her away from Regan’s bed
too quickly, throwing her to the floor… The scene remains
intact.
The Exorcist crew was the only Amercan film
crew ever allowed to shoot in Iraq
In the original script, Burstyn’s character stated “I
believe in the devil.” She would only agree to make the
film if the line was removed.
Directorial duties for were first offered to John Boorman,
who declined because he thought the film was cruel to children…
Boorman later directed its sequel, The Exorcist II: The Heretic.

Friday the 13th (1980)
Directed by: Sean S. Cunningham
Budget: $700,000 Budget: $56,920,431
Shot on: 35mm
Did you know:
n The producers wanted Sally Field for the lead?
n Tom Savini came up with the idea for Jason’s “re-emergence” at
the end of the film, and would sneak into theaters during the last five minutes
to see how the audience reacted

Halloween (1978)
Directed by: John Carpenter
Budget: $325,000 Budget: $65,500,000
Shot on: 35mm
Did you know:

Because filming took place in the spring, set designers had
to purchase paper leaves and paint them… To save money, the
same leaves were used throughout the film.
The film is set in Haddonfield, Illinois, but all of the cars
have California license plates
Michael Myers wears a William Shatner mask
The entire film was shot in 21 days
Halloween is one of the most successful independent
films ever made

Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Directed by: George A. Romero
Budget: $114,000
Shot on: 35mm
Did you know:

Tom Savini was originally hired to do the make-up, but was
called for military duty in Vietnam
Duane Jones is the first African-American to play a lead role
in a horror film
Columbia Pictures passed on the film because it was in black
and white… In 1990, however, the studio released the colorized
version.
The zombies were paid $1 for their work—along with a
T-shirt that claimed “I was a zombie in Night of the
Living Dead”
One of the film’s investors was a
butcher, who paid Romero in blood and guts

Scream (1996)
Directed by: Wes Craven
Budget: $15,000 Budget: $140,000
Shot on: 35mm
Did you know:

Drew Barrymore was originally cast in the
lead… She dropped out because of scheduling conflicts, but
offered to play the
role of “Casey.”
When the MPAA asked Craven to cut the stabbing of Casey, he
claimed (falsely) that he had only shot it once? The scene remains
intact.
Approximately 50 gallons of fake blood were used during the
production?
In his role as Fred, the janitor, Craven wears the same outfit
as Freddy Krueger
The film’s original title was Scary Movie

The Sixth Sense (1999)
Directed by: M. Night Shyamalan
Budget: $55,000,000 Budget: $293,502,000
Shot on: 35mm
Did you know:

The movie was shot in sequence
Shyamalan pitched The Sixth Sense as “The
Exorcist meets Ordinary People”
The film was 2000’s top video and
DVD, with more than 80 million rentals

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
Directed by: Tobe Hooper
Budget: $140,000 Budget: $30,859,000
Shot on: 16mm
Did you know:

Leatherface is based on serial killer Ed Gein
The film was shot in chronological order
Hooper had intended to get a PG rating
Many of the actors claim that, because of
the shooting conditions, much of the blood in the film is real— their
own!

Information courtesy of the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com)