Blood-Curdling Facts About Horror Movies
Nothing beats a good horror flick—but the stories behind the scenes are sometimes even more chilling than what we see on screen. From Scream to Psycho, Jason to Jaws, we've collected these chilling facts about the most iconic horror movies in history. Read these with the lights on!
Horror Movie Facts
1. Kill Kill Kill...Ma Ma Ma...
The eerie “ch ch ch…ah ah ah” sound effect from the Friday the 13th franchise haunts many a horror fan's dreams, but it’s not just random noises. Harry Manfredini, the composer for the original film, took inspiration from the line where the killer, (Spoiler!) Pamela Voorhees, says “Kill her, mommy!” in her son Jason’s voice.
Manfredini reduced the words “kill” and “mommy” to “ki” and “ma,” spoke these sounds into a microphone, heavily distorted them, and voila!
2. Putting the Cart Before the Horse
In the post-Halloween world, Sean Cunningham desperately wanted to film the next big slasher flick, and he was going to do so by any means necessary. He actually took out an ad in Variety featuring Friday the 13th’s iconic logo smashing through glass and a release date: November 1979. Except he had one big problem: he hadn’t filmed anything yet—he didn’t even have funding!
He eventually got the money and made the film, but couldn’t quite get everything together by November: Friday the 13th came out in May of 1980.
3. How About "Scary Camp Kill Much"?
Friday the 13th is synonymous with horror today, but it almost had a completely different name. When the film was still just Cunningham’s distant pipe dream, he envisioned calling it Long Night at Camp Blood. Just as catchy?
