Have you ever wondered why the character design for the Crypt Keeper in Tales from the Cryptkeeper looks so different from his appearance in the live action Tales from the Crypt series? It’s because Nelvana felt using the mechanical puppet from the HBO series would be too scary for small children and thought a redesigned cartoon version would be more appropriate. The puppet was later used for Secrets of the Cryptkeeper’s Haunted House in 1996 and for “Kids’ WB” promotions in 2001 and 2002 without seeming to cause any major outcry.
Tobe Hooper’s idea for what eventually became The Texas Chain Saw Massacre originally involved trolls living under a bridge!
The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini was filmed under the title Bikini Party in a Haunted House. Why was the title changed? Well, the producers thought the film was unfit for release and had new material featuring Susan Heart and Boris Karloff filmed in order to justify what they thought would be a more marketable title. Sadly this title change also resulted in the film’s original opening musical number to be cut from the film.
Anyone who’s seen Godzilla’s Revenge should remember the monster Gabara. When the character returned for an appearance in the television series Go! Godman (complete with a newly constructed costume), it was quickly realized that his existing only in the imagination of a young boy wouldn’t be a good fit for the show. So he was given a new origin as a toad who was exposed to radiation (presumably to explain the monster’s warty skin). This Gabara costume was also used for an appearance on Go! Greenman.
Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster is often considered to be an unintentional comedy due to the movie’s sheer awfulness. But the thing is, it was originally written as an intentional comedy! Rather than have a damaged android “Frankenstein” like the film used, the script had an astronaut made from various corpse parts. For example, his legs would have come from a tap dancer and would uncontrollably dance whenever “Sweet Georgia Brown” was heard. But the producers were dead set against mixing humor with horror and had the script reworked.
Similarly, Count Yorga, Vampire originally started filming as a softcore porn movie called The Loves of Count Iorga but was became a horror movie after actor Robert Quarry appealed to the producer.
Chilling, Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted House was made as a lark after the recording of Learning to Tell Time is Fun had completed and all of its sound effects were taken from old Disney productions.
Lucio Fulci’s “Gates of Hell” film series includes City of the Living Dead, The Beyond and The House by the Cemetery and is often referred to as a trilogy. But there’s actually one other film of his which has a connection to this “trilogy,” Conquest. In it, the Mark of Eibon from The Beyond appears on a character’s forehead.
The script for The Terror is infamous for having been written over the course of filming. Naturally this resulted in a plot which is hard to follow and many viewers wonder whether or not the character Helene is supposed to be a supernatural being. According to the film’s pressbook, she is a will-of-the-wisp.
Tex Hex from the animated series BraveStarr was initially designed for use in Filmation’s Ghostbusters series. But after the head of the company became taken with the character, he ordered the development of a new show for Tex Hex to appear in.
A television station once accidentally aired Squirm in black and white. To their surprise, the film’s director contacted them about it to say how much he enjoyed seeing the film that way! He even prefers people to watch the film that way by turning down the color on their televisions. But that isn’t the only horror movie with fans who watch it that way! Some watch Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives in black and white because the director shot it like an old Universal horror movie and others watch Sleepy Hollow that way since Tim Burton had originally wanted to film it in black and white. The director of The Mist had similar plans, although he was able to get a black and white version included on the movie’s “Two Disc Collector’s Edition” DVD. Similarly, an official black and white version of Mad Max: Fury Road was prepared and screened theatrically in some countries as Mad Max: Fury Road. Black & Chrome.
