100 Fun Facts About Halloween Horror Movie

What is Michael Myers' weapon of choice in the Halloween films?

Michael Myers kills with an ordinary kitchen knife; the plain household blade, rather than a signature weapon, is part of why the silent, unhurried stalker unsettles audiences more than flashier slashers.

Who directed The Exorcist (1973)?

The studio only agreed to Friedkin because author William Peter Blatty insisted on him after seeing The French Connection; the film earned Friedkin a Best Director nomination.

Which summer camp is being readied to reopen when the killings start in Friday the 13th?

Camp Crystal Lake is the camp in the original Friday the 13th; locals nickname it 'Camp Blood' because of a boy's drowning and the murders there years earlier.

The knife-wielding killer of the Scream films wears a white, anguished mask and hooded black cloak and goes by what name?

Ghostface is a costume, not a person: a different killer or pair of killers wears it in every Scream film, which is why the mask never changes but the motive does.

Who directed the original Halloween film?

John Carpenter directed Halloween in a roughly 20-day shoot and composed its famous piano theme, written in 5/4 time.

Which doll from The Conjuring got her own spin-off film in 2014?

Annabelle, the doll kept in Ed and Lorraine Warren's artifact room in The Conjuring (2013), headlined the spin-off Annabelle in 2014, followed by Annabelle: Creation (2017) and Annabelle Comes Home (2019).

Which actress portrayed Laurie Strode in the original Halloween movie?

Jamie Lee Curtis made her film debut as Laurie Strode in *Halloween* (1978), establishing her as a prominent 'scream queen' in the horror genre.

In what fictional Illinois town does the original *Halloween* movie take place?

Haddonfield, Illinois is the town where Michael Myers grows up and returns to stalk Laurie Strode; the original film was actually shot in South Pasadena, California.

In which 1982 film does little Carol Anne announce 'They're here'?

Poltergeist (1982), produced and co-written by Steven Spielberg, has five-year-old Carol Anne Freeling (Heather O'Rourke) turn from the static-filled television and say 'They're here.'

Who directed the 1984 horror classic *A Nightmare on Elm Street*?

Wes Craven wrote and directed A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), then returned to Freddy Krueger in 1994 with the self-aware sequel Wes Craven's New Nightmare.

What is Freddy Krueger's signature weapon in *A Nightmare on Elm Street*?

Wes Craven got the idea for a bladed glove from watching his cat claw the side of his couch. Robert Englund held that arm low on set because the real prop was heavy.

Which horror movie character is famously recognized by his hockey mask?

Jason Voorhees is the Friday the 13th series' hulking killer; his goalie-style hockey mask, which he did not wear in the first two films, became the franchise's emblem.

In what year did the original Friday the 13th open?

The first Friday the 13th opened on May 9, 1980, and Paramount treated the low-budget slasher as a 'low-risk' release — it went on to gross $59.8 million worldwide.

Who plays Sidney Prescott, the Scream franchise's enduring final girl?

Neve Campbell played Sidney Prescott from Scream (1996) onward, surviving a different Ghostface in each of the first four films; she sat out only Scream VI (2023).

The original Halloween was shot on a budget of roughly how much?

Halloween was made for roughly $300,000 and grossed about $47 million in the United States, making it one of the most profitable independent films ever made.

Who co-wrote the original Halloween with its director and also produced it?

Hill went on to produce The Fog and Escape from New York with Carpenter as well.

In the original Halloween, how many years after killing his sister does the killer return?

He killed her on Halloween night 1963 and escapes the sanitarium in 1978.

How many Halloween films were released from the 1978 original through Halloween Ends (2022)?

Thirteen films were released from Halloween (1978) through Halloween Ends (2022), including Rob Zombie's two remakes; several sequels erased earlier entries from continuity, so the timelines do not fit together.

Which future star made his film debut in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)?

Johnny Depp made his film debut as Nancy's boyfriend Glen Lantz, who is sucked into his bed and spat back out as a geyser of blood.

A Nightmare on Elm Street was loosely based on news stories about which group dying in their sleep?

Hmong refugees: Wes Craven read Los Angeles Times reports of Hmong men from Laos who died in their sleep after nightmares, some having fought to stay awake.

A Nightmare on Elm Street's success earned which studio the nickname 'The House that Freddy Built'?

New Line Cinema, until then mostly a distributor of other people's films, earned the nickname 'The House that Freddy Built' because the Elm Street series bankrolled its growth into a major studio.

In A Nightmare on Elm Street, how many children had Krueger killed before his release on a technicality?

The parents of Elm Street then burned him alive, setting up his revenge from inside their children's dreams.

Which future star was among the cast of the original Friday the 13th?

Kevin Bacon played counselor Jack Burrell, who is killed by an arrow driven up through his throat from beneath the bunk he is lying on.

In the original Friday the 13th, in which year is the boy Jason said to have drowned?

The 1979 killings take place on what his mother reveals is his birthday.

The success of which film prompted Sean S. Cunningham to advertise Friday the 13th before its script was finished?

Halloween's 1978 box-office run convinced Sean S. Cunningham to take out a full-page Variety ad for 'Friday the 13th' in 1979 before a script existed; he had earlier produced Craven's The Last House on the Left.

The Exorcist was the first horror film ever nominated for which Academy Award?

The Exorcist was the first horror film nominated for Best Picture, at the 1974 Oscars, where it received ten nominations and won two.

The Exorcist is set in which Washington, D.C. neighbourhood?

Georgetown: the MacNeil house sits on Prospect Street beside the steep 'Exorcist steps' down toward M Street, where Father Karras dies at the end.

How old is Regan MacNeil, the possessed girl in The Exorcist?

Regan MacNeil is 12; Linda Blair, who played her, was 14 when the film opened in December 1973.

Scream (1996) is set in which fictional California town?

Woodsboro, California is the town where Sidney Prescott's mother Maureen was murdered a year before the film opens; the 1996 film was shot in Sonoma County.

Under what working title was the Scream screenplay developed before Miramax bought it?

Kevin Williamson wrote the script as 'Scary Movie'; Dimension Films retitled it Scream, and the Wayans brothers' 2000 parody then took Scary Movie as its own name.

Leatherface in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was inspired by the crimes of which real murderer?

Gein also inspired Norman Bates in Psycho and Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs.

Who directed and co-wrote The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)?

Tobe Hooper directed The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and co-wrote it with Kim Henkel; he also co-composed its score with Wayne Bell, and the film was banned in several countries.

In Hocus Pocus, in what year are the Sanderson sisters hanged in Salem before their 1993 return?

1693: the film opens in Salem in 1693, when the Sanderson sisters are hanged; Winifred's curse brings them back exactly 300 years later, on Halloween night 1993.

In the 1993 Disney film Hocus Pocus, the Sanderson sisters punish Thackery Binx for interfering by turning him into what?

Binx becomes an immortal black cat so he must live forever with the guilt of failing to save his sister Emily, a punishment crueller than simply killing him.

Hocus Pocus flopped in cinemas, reportedly losing Disney about how much?

Reportedly $16.5 million: Hocus Pocus opened in July 1993 and underperformed, but years of October airings on Disney Channel and Freeform made it a cult favourite that earned a 2022 sequel.

Why did Disney release The Nightmare Before Christmas under its Touchstone Pictures label?

The film grew out of a poem Burton wrote in 1982 while working as a Disney animator.

Who provided Jack Skellington's singing voice in The Nightmare Before Christmas?

Elfman also wrote the songs and score; Chris Sarandon supplied Jack's speaking voice.

Night of the Living Dead entered the public domain immediately on release for what reason?

The mistake spawned countless remakes and re-edits, and cost the filmmakers a fortune.

What are the flesh-eating creatures actually called in Night of the Living Dead?

They are called 'ghouls' — the word 'zombie' is never spoken in the 1968 film, yet it is credited with defining the modern flesh-eating zombie.

In Get Out, what everyday sound does Missy use as a hypnotic trigger to send Chris to the 'sunken place'?

Jordan Peele won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for his directing debut.

The Blair Witch Project's marketing famously listed its three actors as what?

Artisan bought the film after Sundance for $1.1 million; it had cost as little as $35,000 to shoot.

The Blair Witch Project's students hike into the woods near which Maryland town?

Burkittsville, Maryland, where the students interview locals before hiking in; the woods scenes were actually shot in Seneca Creek State Park in Montgomery County.

In the anthology film Trick 'r Treat, the small demon in orange pajamas who punishes broken Halloween traditions has what name?

Sam turns up in each of the film's four stories whenever someone breaks a Halloween tradition, making the little demon the holiday's own enforcer.

The 2018 Halloween sequel was directed by David Gordon Green and co-written with which comedy actor?

Danny McBride co-wrote the 2018 Halloween with David Gordon Green and Jeff Fradley; Blumhouse produced it with the original director's blessing and ignored every sequel after the 1978 original.

Michael Myers' mask in the original Halloween was made from a cheap mask of which actor?

William Shatner: production designer Tommy Lee Wallace bought a Captain Kirk mask for $1.98, widened the eye holes and spray-painted it bluish white.

How is the masked Michael Myers billed in the end credits of the 1978 Halloween?

'The Shape' is how the end credits bill the masked Michael Myers; the screenplay uses the same name, treating him less as a man than as a faceless presence.

What did Hitchcock use as blood in Psycho's black-and-white shower scene?

Chocolate syrup: Hitchcock used Bosco chocolate syrup as blood in Psycho's shower scene because it photographed with the right density in black and white; the 1960 scene took about a week to shoot.

How much cash does Marion Crane embezzle at the start of Psycho?

Marion steals $40,000 from her Phoenix employer and drives toward Fairvale, stopping at the Bates Motel in a rainstorm.

In Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, cook Dick Hallorann warns young Danny to keep out of which numbered room at the Overlook Hotel?

Room 237 is Kubrick's invention; Stephen King's novel put the horror in Room 217. Hallorann tells Danny the Overlook 'shines' with its ugly history before warning him off that door.

In Beetlejuice, the ghostly Maitlands must haunt their house for how many years before moving on?

Their caseworker Juno delivers the sentence: 125 years in the Winter River house before they can move on.

Halloween III: Season of the Witch swaps its slasher for a sinister mask firm called what?

Silver Shamrock Novelties, run by Conal Cochran, plans to kill children through a televised commercial countdown; the 1982 film flopped, and Michael Myers returned six years later in Halloween 4.

In Halloween III, each deadly mask hides a microchip containing a fragment of what?

A chip in each mask holds a sliver of a Stonehenge megalith Cochran stole to revive the Celtic festival of Samhain; a television jingle triggers the chips, unleashing insects and snakes on the wearer.

Halloween II (1981) added a twist revealing Laurie Strode to be the killer's what?

The twist was invented for the sequel and drove the series for decades, until the 2018 film wiped it from canon.

In Halloween H20 (1998), Laurie Strode has faked her death and now works as what?

She is headmistress of Hillcrest Academy, a California boarding school, living under the name Keri Tate; the film is set twenty years after the original.

Which singer-actress plays Winifred, leader of the Sanderson trio, in Hocus Pocus?

Bette Midler has called Winifred the most fun she had in her career, even though the 1993 film flopped on release. Kathy Najimy and Sarah Jessica Parker play her sisters.

In Hocus Pocus, who must light the Black Flame Candle to bring the Sanderson witches back?

A virgin: Winifred's curse says that on All Hallows' Eve, when the moon is round, a virgin will summon them; skeptical teen Max Dennison unwittingly fits the bill.

Hocus Pocus 2 (2022) skipped cinemas and premiered on which streaming service?

Disney+ premiered Hocus Pocus 2 on September 30, 2022, nearly three decades after the original, which had flopped in cinemas in July 1993.

After years on the shelf, cult anthology Trick 'r Treat finally reached fans in 2009 how?

It went straight to home video: after premiering at the Butt-Numb-A-Thon festival in December 2007 and touring festivals, Warner released it on DVD and Blu-ray in October 2009.

Which Hollywood legend played grandmother witch Aggie Cromwell in Halloweentown (1998)?

Debbie Reynolds, the Singin' in the Rain star, anchored Halloweentown, only the fourth Disney Channel Original Movie, which premiered on October 17, 1998.

Hubie Halloween (2020) is dedicated to which young actor who died before filming began?

Cameron Boyce, the Jessie and Descendants star cast to appear with Adam Sandler, died in July 2019 at age 20 from a seizure linked to epilepsy.

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown left broadcast TV in 2020 to stream only where?

Apple TV+ bought the Peanuts specials in 2020; the 1966 special, scored by Vince Guaraldi, had aired on network TV every autumn since its debut, and after a backlash Apple let PBS show it in 2020 and 2021.

In Donnie Darko, Frank the rabbit warns that the world will end in how many days?

28 days: Frank's countdown runs from October 2, 1988 to the Halloween-season climax on October 30; fittingly, Richard Kelly shot the film in exactly 28 days.

Before Terrifier, Art the Clown first appeared in features in which 2013 anthology film?

All Hallows' Eve (2013) stitched together Damien Leone's 2008 short The 9th Circle, which introduced Art, and his 2011 short Terrifier with a new wraparound story.

Night of the Demons (1988) stages its Halloween party at Hull House, an abandoned what?

Hull House is an abandoned mortuary; a séance there releases a demon from its basement crematorium that possesses the partygoers one by one. Scream queen Linnea Quigley is among the cast.

In Ernest Scared Stupid, the kids discover the trolls can be destroyed with what?

Milk: the children discover the trolls are vulnerable to milk and fight them with milk bottles and a milk truck, before Ernest finishes off troll king Trantor with an 'I love you' hug.

Halloween Kills (2021) hit theaters and which streaming service on the same day?

Peacock streamed Halloween Kills on its paid tiers from its October 15, 2021 theatrical opening, a 60-day hybrid run; the film brings back 1978 survivors Tommy Doyle, Lindsey Wallace and Marion Chambers.

Halloween Ends opens with babysitter Corey Cunningham accidentally killing a child how?

Corey kicks open the attic door the boy had locked him behind as a Halloween 2019 prank, knocking the child over the stair railing to his death and setting Corey on the path to killing.

Which actor called turning down Dr. Loomis in Halloween the biggest mistake of his career?

Christopher Lee said refusing Loomis was the biggest mistake of his career; Cushing's agent had rejected the part over the low salary, and Donald Pleasence said yes because his guitarist daughter loved the Assault on Precinct 13 score.

Halloween (1978) was shot in May, which forced the crew to do what?

The crew bought bags of artificial fall leaves, scattered them for each shot and swept them up to reuse; pumpkins were also scarce in spring. The whole film was shot in about 20 days around South Pasadena, California.

Who played the masked killer for most of the original Halloween (1978)?

Nick Castle wore the mask for nearly the whole shoot, with Tony Moran stepping in only for the brief unmasking; Castle later directed The Last Starfighter (1984).

Who played Dr. Loomis in Rob Zombie's 2007 Halloween remake?

Malcolm McDowell played Loomis as a doctor with a 'tremendous ego' angling for a book deal; Rob Zombie's remake grossed about $80 million on a $15 million budget.

In Halloween (2018), who shows Michael his old mask at the sanitarium, to no reaction?

The pair later become early victims. The film ignores every sequel and follows directly from 1978.

Who played a grown-up Tommy Doyle in Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995)?

Paul Rudd, in the same year as Clueless, played the grown Tommy Doyle, the boy Laurie babysat in the original; in The Curse of Michael Myers he rescues Jamie Lloyd's baby.

In the heavy-metal horror film Trick or Treat (1986), Ozzy Osbourne cameos as what?

Ozzy Osbourne plays a televangelist, Reverend Aaron Gilstrom, preaching against the evils of metal; Gene Simmons of Kiss plays DJ Nuke, and the plot hinges on a record played backwards.

The 2015 anthology Tales of Halloween packs how many interlocking segments into one film?

Ten segments, from directors including Neil Marshall and Darren Lynn Bousman, with Adrienne Barbeau's radio DJ linking the stories across one small town on Halloween night.

In The Houses October Built (2014), the friends hunt for an extreme haunt called what?

The Blue Skeleton is the secretive haunt that moves location every year and is rumored to use real torture; the found-footage film was Bobby Roe's directing debut.

Which star is killed off in the famous opening scene of Scream (1996)?

Drew Barrymore plays Casey Becker, quizzed on horror trivia over the phone before she is killed; casting a marquee name as the first victim was a deliberate fake-out.

The Ghostface mask in Scream was an off-the-shelf Halloween costume made by which company?

Fun World designer Brigitte Sleiertin created it around 1991 for novelty stores as 'The Peanut-Eyed Ghost'; Fun World owns the Ghostface design and trademark.

Which Friday the 13th sequel gave Jason his hockey mask and was released in 3-D?

Part III (1982): Jason swipes the hockey mask from prankster Shelly at Higgins Haven; it was the only film in the series shot in 3-D.

Which actress played Pamela Voorhees, the true killer of the original Friday the 13th?

Betsy Palmer, a Method-trained actress who took the role to pay for a new car, invented a backstory for the camp cook including a teenage pregnancy and disownment by her family.

Why did Freddy's sweater end up red and green in A Nightmare on Elm Street?

A 1982 Scientific American article on the human retina inspired the choice. In the first film the sleeves were solid red.

Freddy Krueger stalks the dreams of teenagers in which fictional Ohio town?

Springwood, Ohio is where the Elm Street parents burned Krueger alive in his boiler room; Wes Craven's New Nightmare later moved the terror to Los Angeles.

William Peter Blatty won an Oscar for The Exorcist in which category?

Best Adapted Screenplay: Blatty adapted his own 1971 novel, which sold poorly until a Dick Cavett Show appearance about whether the devil exists turned it into a bestseller.

The Exorcist's chilling theme comes from Tubular Bells, the debut album of which musician?

Mike Oldfield was 19 when he recorded Tubular Bells, playing almost every instrument himself; it was the first release on Virgin Records in 1973, and the film's use of its opening boosted it worldwide.

What is the name of the demon that possesses Regan in The Exorcist?

Pazuzu, the Assyrian-Babylonian demon whose statue Father Merrin unearths in Iraq in the prologue, first poses as Regan's invisible friend 'Captain Howdy' after she plays with a Ouija board; Mercedes McCambridge voiced it.

Who narrated the opening of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, reportedly paid in marijuana?

John Larroquette, later the Night Court star, read the grim 'true story' prologue that opens the film and has said his only payment was marijuana.

Who directed The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)?

Henry Selick directed the stop-motion film; Tim Burton produced and conceived the story, and Selick later made James and the Giant Peach and Coraline.

In The Nightmare Before Christmas, bogeyman Oogie Boogie has a passion for what vice?

Gambling: Oogie Boogie's lair is full of dice and roulette wheels, and he plays a game with Santa's life at stake; his singing voice belongs to Ken Page.

Casper (1995) was the first feature film to do what?

Industrial Light & Magic built the ghosts. The film is set at Whipstaff Manor in Friendship, Maine, with Christina Ricci as Kat.

Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow (1999) won an Academy Award in which category?

Best Art Direction went to Rick Heinrichs and Peter Young for the gloomy Dutch village built on English soundstages; Johnny Depp's Ichabod Crane is a squeamish New York constable rather than Irving's schoolteacher.

Whose Razzie nomination for The Shining was formally rescinded in 2022?

Shelley Duvall's Worst Actress nod from the very first Golden Raspberry Awards was withdrawn in 2022 amid renewed attention to Stanley Kubrick's treatment of her on set.

Beetlejuice's possessed dinner-party guests lip-sync "Day-O" by which calypso singer?

Harry Belafonte's 1956 'Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)' is what the guests lip-sync; his 'Jump in the Line' closes the film with Winona Ryder's Lydia floating up the stairs.

Who won the first-ever Academy Award for Best Makeup, for An American Werewolf in London?

Rick Baker won the inaugural Best Makeup Oscar for the agonizing on-camera werewolf transformation; he went on to win the makeup Oscar seven times in all.

In Child's Play (1988), Chucky is a doll from which toy line?

Good Guy: Chucky is a Good Guy doll possessed by the 'Lakeshore Strangler' Charles Lee Ray through a voodoo chant to Damballa; Brad Dourif plays both Ray and Chucky's voice.

In It (2017), Pennywise wakes to feed on the children of Derry every how many years?

Every 27 years: the Losers' Club traces the cycle to a well beneath the abandoned house on Neibolt Street. The 2017 film grossed over $700 million, a record for a horror film at the time.

Whose rave review helped the low-budget Evil Dead (1981) win a wide theatrical release?

The author's endorsement got the film picked up for a 1983 release. Sam Raimi shot it in a remote Tennessee cabin that left the cast miserable.

Which 1991 film became the first horror movie to win the Academy Award for Best Picture?

The Silence of the Lambs also swept the 'Big Five' — Picture, Director, Actor, Actress and Adapted Screenplay — a feat matched only by It Happened One Night and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

In The Witch (2015), what is the name of the Puritan family's sinister billy goat?

Black Phillip: the twins claim the goat talks to them, and the film ends with him offering Thomasin 'the taste of butter' and 'a pretty dress' in exchange for signing his book.

In Jordan Peele's Us (2019), what are the murderous scissor-wielding doppelgängers called?

The Tethered are the underground doubles; the story begins in 1986 at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, where young Adelaide wanders into a funhouse and meets hers.

Which 1922 silent vampire film was ordered destroyed after Bram Stoker's widow sued?

Nosferatu (1922): Prana Film renamed Dracula 'Count Orlok' yet credited Stoker in the intertitles; Florence Stoker won, a court ordered the prints destroyed, and surviving copies made it one of cinema's most influential horror films.