Imperial Toy made a lot of money off their licensed Jaws toys. So much so that they actually decided to snap up the license for the Jaws wannabe Grizzly.
Speaking of bizarre merchandising decisions, Ideal made a board game based on the film Alligator.
There’s a real human skeleton on display in Dawn of the Dead and there is quite the fascinating story behind it.
Francis Ford Coppola had briefly considered including a 3D sequence in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, which would have also seen an appearance by the author!
Contrary to popular belief, Manos: The Hands of Fate creator Harold P. Warren never sold fertilizer at any point during his life.
The script for Waxwork had featured a scene involving Jason Voorhees, but was eventually changed to use the Phantom of the Opera instead.
That reminds me, everyone’s favorite killer in a hockey mask has never used a chainsaw in any of his film appearances to date. So why is he constantly depicted as doing so? I suspect this is due to a combination of high profile parodies, such as the one seen in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, and haunted attractions. Putting together a Jason costume must have been much cheaper and easier than a more accurate Leatherface costume would have been for a chainsaw scare.
Ever wonder why the zombies shown in the title sequence for the Doctor Butcher, M.D. version of Zombie Holocaust look nothing like those seen in the film itself? That’s because they were taken from the unfinished anthology film Tales That’ll Tear Your Heart Out!
The mask used in the first Scream movie was discovered in an abandoned house during location scouting.
The cars seen falling into the water in The Giant Behemoth were actually store bought toys.
Ever wonder what the deal was with the sequence in Spookies with the farting mud men? That was not originally how it was supposed to go. The fart sounds were inserted into the film as a joke during the editing stage and the film’s backer loved it so much the scene was never changed back. UPDATE: Another person involved in the making of the film credits the film’s backer with coming up with the joke.
A golem was planned as one of the monsters to be featured in Assignment Terror, but budgetary issues kept this from happening.
Gorgo was originally supposed to be set in Japan but the location had to be changed when Japanese funding fell through. Now those old Kia commercials trying to pass off footage from Gorgo as a Japanese monster movie actually make sense!
The makers of The House of 1,000 Dolls were secretly filming sex scenes for a pornographic version of the film and were actually caught in the act by the film’s stars! Footage from this version has yet to surface.
