When preparing the series Night Gallery for syndication, the powers that be decided to merge the short-lived series The Sixth Sense into it in order to pad out the number of episodes. They even went as far as to shoot new scenes with Rod Serling to help with the illusion that these were merely more episodes of Night Gallery!
There is an opera version of The Fly. No, seriously.
Not only is Robert Bloch the man who wrote Psycho, but he also created the Cthulhu mythos tomes De Vermis Mysteriis and Cultes des Goules, in addition to the popular depiction of the Dark Young of Shub-Niggurath (although it was originally referred to as a Shoggoth in his story). Bloch is also the inspiration for “Robert Blake” in Lovecraft’s “The Haunter of the Dark.”
Boris Karloff’s 1944 film The Climax was originally intended to be a sequel to The Phantom of the Opera. In fact, the sets from that film were reused in it!
Do you love the theme from the Tales from the Crypt TV series? If so, you should be very interested to learn that it was given lyrics for the radio version of the show. You can read said lyrics here.
Back when a sequel to The Exorcist was first being planned, the original idea was for a priest to investigate the events from the first movie in order to use alternate versions of scenes from the original. That’s right, they were planning on foisting a Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2-style clip show movie on the general public!
Someone actually made a list of all the monsters in The Asylum’s films, mockbuster and otherwise.
Gimmick master William Castle originally wanted to have seatbelts installed in theaters showing I Saw What You Did for those who might get “scared out of their seats.” Although it was mentioned in a trailer for the film, the gimmick was ultimately abandoned.
The Mexican horror film The Curse of the Doll People is based on the Abraham Merrit novel Burn Witch Burn! You might remember Merrit as the author of the story that inspired Killdozer.
Have you ever wondered about the differences between the various versions of Romero’s Dawn of the Dead? Then you should find this list very handy.
The writings of H.P. Lovecraft have inspired many a video game, including a Japan-only pinball video game.
The Indian film Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi (English translation: “Player of Players”) features an appearance by the Undertaker, as played by Brain Lee (better known to wrestling fans as the “Underfaker”).
The War of the Worlds: Next Century is a truly bizarre Polish take on the H.G. Wells classic (and features NSFW poster art).
The death of Edgar Allan Poe is far more interesting and mysterious than one might think. Speaking of death and Poe, you should definitely read this article on the legendary “Poe Toaster.”
The Necronomicon prop from the Evil Dead series has a brief appearance in Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday. Similarly, a Xenomorph skull can be seen in Predator 2.
If you’re new to the “It Came From Wikipedia” series, please check out:
It Came From Wikipedia
It Came From Wikipedia II
It Came From Wikipedia III
