Here are some surprising facts about your favorite horror movies.
Ahead of Halloween, Mental Floss has compiled a list of 40 surprising facts about some of the biggest and scariest horror movies. Here are 10 of them (see full list at the link):- Count Orlock only blinks once in Nosferatu. In the nine minutes of screen time Max Schreck has as Count Orlock in F.W. Murnau’s classic Nosferatu, he blinks only one time.
- The Exorcist was the first horror movie to be nominated for an Oscar. The Exorcist earned 10 Oscar nominations in 1974, including a Best Supporting Actress nod for Linda Blair, who was just 15 years old at the time.
- Robert Englund was not the first choice to play Freddy Krueger. Wes Craven’s first choice was British actor David Warner, who has starred in Time Bandits, Titanic, and various incarnations of Star Trek.
- Psycho is the first American film to feature a tour. It's also the first American film in which we hear a toilet being flushed.
- Stephen King isn’t a fan of The Shining. In 1983, Stephen King told Playboy, “I was deeply disappointed in the end result.”
- Jaws doesn’t fully appear in a shot until one hour and 21 minutes into the film. The shark isn’t shown in full is because the mechanical shark that was built rarely worked during filming.
- Fay Wray thought she would be starring opposite Cary Grant in King Kong. Director Merian C. Cooper promised, “You're going to have the tallest, darkest leading man in Hollywood.” While Wray thought Cooper was talking about Grant, he was talking about the ape.
- It took seven years to get Aliens made. The Alien sequel was delayed because of a dispute between the film’s producers and 20th Century Fox over the distribution of the original movie’s profits.
- Brian De Palma didn’t see Sissy Spacek as Carrie. His decision to let Spacek audition at all was mostly out of courtesy to her husband, Jack Fisk, the film’s art director.
- Serial killer Ed Gein inspired three major horror movies. His crimes inspired some of the most iconic thrillers of all time: Psycho, The Silence of the Lambs andThe Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
40 Fascinating Facts About Your Favorite Horror Movies | Mental Floss