Category: Horror

9 Mournful Facts About Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven”

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Joy Lanzendorfer and Mental_Floss present 9 Mournful Facts About Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven.  Here are three of my favorites…

1. AS POE WAS WRITING THE POEM, HIS WIFE WAS DEATHLY ILL. 
When Poe was writing “The Raven,” his wife, Virginia, was suffering from tuberculosis. It was a weird marriage—Virginia was Poe’s first cousin and only 13 years old when they married—but there’s no doubt that Poe loved her deeply. Having lost his mother, brother, and foster mother to tuberculosis, he knew the toll the disease would take. “The Raven” is a poem written by a man who’d lost many loved ones, and was soon expecting to lose one more.

6. “THE RAVEN” WAS AN IMMEDIATE HIT.
After Graham’s Magazine rejected the poem, Poe published it in The American Review under the pseudonym “Quarles.” In January 1845, it came out in The New York Mirror under Poe’s real name. Around the country, it was reprinted, reviewed, and otherwise immortalized. It soon became so ubiquitous, it was used in advertising.

And then there were the parodies. Within a month after “The Raven” came out, there was a parody poem, “The Owl,” written by “Sarles.” Others soon followed, including “The Whippoorwill,” “The Turkey,” “The Gazelle,” and “The Parrot.” You can read many of themhere. Abraham Lincoln found one parody, “The Polecat,” so hilarious that he decided to look up “The Raven.” He ended up memorizing the poem.

7. “THE RAVEN” MADE POE INTO A CELEBRITY …
Poe was soon so recognizable that children followed him in the street, flapping their arms and cawing. Then he’d turn around and say, “nevermore!” and they would run away, shrieking. Trying to capitalize off this fame, he gave lectures that included dramatic readings of the poem. They were apparently something to see. His lecture was “a rhapsody of the most intense brilliancy … He kept us entranced for two hours and a half,” said one attendee. Yet another said that Poe would turn down the lamps and recite “those wonderful lines in the most melodious of voice.” Another said, “To hear him repeat ‘The Raven,’ which he does very quietly, is an event in one’s life.”

The 100 Greatest Horror Movies of All Time

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Hitfix polled more than 100 luminaries for the world of horror to come up with their list of The 100 Greatest Horror Movies of All Time. 

Here’s their top ten and my comments on each…

1. “The Exorcist” (1973; d. William Friedkin):  While it’s hard to argue with the popularity of The Exorcist as the greatest horror movie of all time – it is arguably the scariest – I’d put Romero’s Night of the Living Dead in the number one spot.

2. “The Shining” (1980; d. Stanley Kubrick): I like Kubrick’s take on Stephen King’s novel [even if King doesn’t] but it wouldn’t make my top ten.

3. “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” (1974; d. Tobe Hooper): Texas Chainsaw Massacre wouldn’t make my top ten… or top 50.

4. “Rosemary’s Baby” (1968; d. Roman Polanski): I’d like to see this one again.  I liked it when I saw it, but the last time was years ago.  I wonder if it would hold up.  The fact that it placed so high on the list indicates it would.

5. “Alien” (1979; d. Ridley Scott): I prefer Aliens.

6. “The Thing” (1982; d. John Carpenter): Yeah, I love that people are coming around to love this film.  It was ahead of its time.

7. “Halloween” (1978; d. John Carpenter): Love the love that John Carpenter received on this list!

8. “Psycho” (1960; d. Alfred Hitchcock): A classic!

9. “Night of the Living Dead” (1968; d. George A. Romero): You know I love this movie!

10. “Jaws” (1975; d. Steven Spielberg): Jaws is a great film but I always have a bit of trouble placing it in the horror category.

40 Fascinating Facts About Your Favorite Horror Movies

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Mental_Floss presents 40 Fascinating Facts About Your Favorite Horror Movies.  Here are three of my favorites…

5. STEPHEN KING WASN’T A FAN OF THE SHINING.
In 1983, Stephen King told Playboy, “I’d admired [Stanley] Kubrick for a long time and had great expectations for the project, but I was deeply disappointed in the end result. Parts of the film are chilling, charged with a relentlessly claustrophobic terror, but others fell flat.”

King didn’t like the casting of Jack Nicholson either, claiming, “Jack Nicholson, though a fine actor, was all wrong for the part. His last big role had been in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and between that and the manic grin, the audience automatically identified him as a loony from the first scene. But the book is about Jack Torrance’s gradual descent into madness through the malign influence of the Overlook—if the guy is nuts to begin with, then the entire tragedy of his downfall is wasted.”

24. GENE HACKMAN WAS SLATED TO STAR IN—AND DIRECT—THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS.
Gene Hackman and Orion Pictures split the $500,000 needed for the movie rights to the book. But Hackman dropped out days after he watched clips of himself at the 1989 Oscars as FBI Agent Alan Parker in the violent Mississippi Burning, deciding not to follow up a dark role with an even more unlikeable character.

38. SISSY SPACEK WAS ADAMANT THAT HER OWN HAND APPEAR INCARRIE’S FINAL SCENE.
Though Brian De Palma wanted to get a stunt person for the final scene, where Sue Snell visits Carrie’s grave, Spacek insisted that it needed to be her hand that was shown, which required her to be buried in the ground. “I laughed about that,” Spacek told NPR. “I do all my own foot and hand work, and always have.”

10 Aquatic Facts About “Creature from the Black Lagoon”

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Mark Mancini and Mental_Floss present 10 Aquatic Facts About Creature from the Black Lagoon.  Here are three of my favorites…

1. THE MOVIE’S CONCEPT WAS CONCEIVED AT A CITIZEN KANE DINNER PARTY.
One night during filming of Citizen Kane, Orson Welles invited one of the movie’s actors, William Alland, over for dinner along with a cinematographer named Gabriel Figueroa. While there, Figueroa shared a story he had heard during his travels of a race of amphibious beasts—half man, half reptile—that stalked the Amazon River. More than a decade later, still intrigued by the concept, Alland dramatized it by producing Creature from the Black Lagoon.

4. A FORMER FRANKENSTEIN ACTOR TURNED DOWN THE MAIN ROLE.
When Boris Karloff retired from playing Mary Shelley’s reanimated monster, Glenn Strange took over. From 1944 to 1948, Strange terrified audiences in Universal’s House of Frankenstein, House of Dracula, and Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein. Years later, the studio tapped him to play their web-footed “Gillman” in Creature from the Black Lagoon, but because swimming wasn’t his forte, Strange declined the part.

9. ITS 1955 SEQUEL WAS CLINT EASTWOOD’S FIRST MOVIE.  
Pleased by the box office success of the original film, Universal rushed a sequel production.  Revenge of the Creature premiered in Denver on March 23, 1955. At one point, audiences got to see future star Clint Eastwood portraying a lab assistant. Though his appearance was uncredited, it hardly went unnoticed when the cast of Mystery Science Theater 3000 riffed  Revenge of the Creature in a 1997 episode:

For Revenge of the Creature, Arnold resumed directing duties and he didn’t care for the young Eastwood’s bit, telling Alland, “I told you I don’t want to do that ******* scene!” Eventually, he relented and the footage stayed in. Eastwood never forgot the experience. As he told The Telegraph, “It was a hell of a way to start your acting career: walk on a set and you know that the director hates the scene. Therefore you know he hates you.”

31 Things You Didn’t Know About Your Favorite Horror Movies

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Jenna Mullins and E! present 31 Things You Didn’t Know About Your Favorite Horror Movies.  Here are three of my favorites…

1. The Exorcist is the first horror movie to be nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards.

9. The blood used in Night of the Living Dead is chocolate syrup.

21. Crewmembers were so creeped out by Tim Curry‘s performance as Pennywise in It that most people avoided him during filming.

15 Must-Watch Facts About “The Ring”

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Roger Cormier and Mental_Floss present 15 Must-Watch Facts About The Ring.  Here are three of my favorites…

2. THE DIRECTOR FIRST SAW RINGU ON A POOR QUALITY VHS TAPE, WHICH ADDED TO ITS CREEPINESS.
Gore Verbinski had previously directed MouseHunt. He said the first time he “watched the original Ringu was on a VHS tape that was probably seven generations down. It was really poor quality, but actually that added to the mystique, especially when I realized that this was a movie about a videotape.” Naomi Watts struggled to find a VHS copy of Ringu while shooting in the south of Wales. When she finally got a hold of one she watched it on a very small TV alone in her hotel room. “I remember being pretty freaked out,” Watts said. “I just saw it the once, and that was enough to get me excited about doing it.”

6. THE TWO WEREN’T SURE IF THE MOVIE WAS GOING TO BE SCARY ENOUGH.
After shooting some of the scenes, and not having the benefit of seeing what they’d look like once any special effects were added, Henderson and Watts worried that the final result would not be scary enough. “There were moments when Naomi and I would look at each other and say, ‘This is embarrassing, people are going to laugh,'” Henderson told the BBC.” You just hope that somebody makes it scary or you’re going to look like an idiot!”

11. CHRIS COOPER WAS CUT FROM THE MOVIE.
Cooper played a child murderer in two scenes which were initially meant to bookend the film. He unconvincingly claimed to Rachel that he found God in the beginning, and in the end she gave him the cursed tape. Audiences at test screenings were distracted that an actor they recognized disappears for most of the film, so he was cut out entirely.

10 Amorphous Facts About “The Blob”

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Mark Mancini and Mental_Floss present 10 Amorphous Facts About The Blob.  Here are three of my favorites…

6. ITS THEME SONG CRACKED THE BILLBOARD TOP 40.

Titled “Beware of the Blob,” this catchy anthem spent three weeks on the Billboard charts,peaking at #33. The song was co-written by Burt Bacharach, who also penned such hits as “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on my Head” and “What’s New Pussycat?” Thus far, Bacharach’s career has included six Grammy and three Oscar wins. Mack David—his partner on The Blob—was a seasoned vet, too (and eight-time Oscar nominee) who’d written lyrics for Disney’sCinderella (1950), among many other films.

7. ED MCMAHON CAN BE HEARD DURING THE MOVIE THEATER SCENE.

When the throbbing invertebrate descends upon an unsuspecting cinema, the audience is watching a genuine, real-life thriller flick. Daughter of Horror (a.k.a. Dementia) was released in 1955 and features narration from Johnny Carson’s future Tonight Show sidekick. Keep your ears open for McMahon’s familiar voice near the beginning of the clip above.

5. LEADING MAN STEVE MCQUEEN CHEATED HIMSELF OUT OF A HUGE PAYCHECK.
Despite a handful of television roles—including a guest appearance on the NBC series Tales of Wells Fargo—Steve McQueen (credited here as Steven McQueen) had yet to establish himself as Hollywood’s favorite bad boy. So Harris got him for a bargain price. After taking on the lead role (his first) in The Blob, McQueen was offered a choice: $3000 upfront or 10 percent of the film’s gross profits; he didn’t hesitate in opting for the former. At the time, McQueen was in dire financial straits and didn’t have much faith in The Blob’s box office prospects. He’d soon regret that call. Within a month of its release, The Blob had earned $1.5 million and went on to snag $12 million (nearly $97 million in today’s dollars) domestically.

10 Blood-Curdling Facts About Dracula

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Joy Lanzendorfer and Mental_Floss present 10 Blood-Curdling Facts About Dracula.  Here are three of my favorites…

2. VAMPIRES SHARE A HISTORY WITH FRANKENSTEIN.
In 1816, on a gloomy day in Lake Geneva, Lord Byron proposed a ghost story contest that led to Mary Shelley writing Frankenstein. It was also the birth of The Vampyre by John Polidori, he first-ever vampire story written in English. Polidori was Byron’s personal physician and he may have based his aristocratic bloodsucker on his patient—which would make Lord Byron the basis for the bulk of vampire depictions that followed. (Other accounts say that Polidori stole a fragment of fiction that Byron wrote and used it in his story.) In any case, The Vampyreinfluenced Varney the Vampire, a popular penny dreadful from the 1840s, and Carmilla, a novella about a lesbian vampire from the 1870s, and, of course, Stoker.

3. STOKER STARTED WRITING DRACULA RIGHT AFTER JACK THE RIPPER.
Stoker began Dracula in 1890, two years after Jack the Ripper terrorized London. The lurid atmosphere these crimes produced made their way into Stoker’s novel, which was confirmed in the 1901 preface to the Icelandic edition of Dracula. Stoker’s reference links the two frightening figures in such a way that raises more questions than provides answers, but no doubt confirms the terrifying real-life influence on his fictional world.

9. IT WAS ALMOST CALLED THE UNDEAD.

Amandajm, Wikimedia Commons // Public Domain

The working title of the novel was The Dead Un-Dead, which was later shortened to The Undead. Then, right before it was published, Stoker changed the title once more to Dracula. What’s in a name? Well, it’s tough to say. Upon release, Dracula got good reviews, but it was slow to sell, and by the end of his life, Stoker was so poor that he had to ask for a compassionate grant from the Royal Literary Fund. The Gothic tale didn’t become the legend it is today until film adaptations began popping up during the 20th century.

9 Celebrities Reading Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven”

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Today we have a trick and some treats thanks to Andrew LaShane and Mental_Floss who present 9 Celebrities Reading Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven.

The celebrities are Christopher Walken, James Earl Jones, Sir Christopher Lee, Vincent Price, Stan Lee, John Astin, Basil Rathbone, William Shatner and Tay Zonday.

What, what’s the trick you ask?  Well, the art above shows Sylvester Stallone as Poe, but Sly isn’t one of the celebs reading The Raven.  [No wisecracks about that’s a treat, please.]

The treat then?  Vincent Price’s reading embedded below!

The Top 32 Horror Comedies of All Time

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Den of Geek posted their choices for The Top 32 Horror Comedies of All Time.

Of the 32 films they selected, I’ve seen eighteen.  Here they are with my thoughts on each…

  1. Spook Busters (1946): The Bowery Boys always felt to me like they wanted to grow up and be Abbott and Costello.  Still, I enjoyed their films as a kid and this was a fun one… as Bowery Boys movies go.

  2. Fearless Vampire Killers or Pardon Me, But Your Teeth Are in My Neck (1967): I can’t tell you how many times over the years I’ve tried to watch this one all the way through.  I’ve never made it yet.

  3. Fright Night (1985): Now we’re cooking!  I liked the mix of comedy and horror in this one!

  4. Attack of the Killer Tomatoes (1978): I’ve always thought this was too stupid to be more than a Saturday Night Live skit.  Of course the cult popularity proves me wrong.

  5. Cabin in the Woods (2012): What an inventive, crazy movie!  I want to see it again!

  6. Scream (1996): I really got a kick at how it took all the horror cliches and winked at the audience as they played out.

  7. Phantom of the Paradise (1974): This is another one that I’ve never been able to get through.

  8. The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975): I saw this at a Midnight Showing with an audience armed with all the props.  A bit too kinky for me then and now.

  9. Shaun of the Dead (2004): I like my zombie stories serious but I really like Shaun of the Dead!

  10. Arachnophobia (1990): I’ve only seen this once but I really liked it much more than I thought I would.  I’d like to see it again to see if it holds up.

  11. Monsters Inc. (2001): This is a fun one.

  12. Beetlejuice (1988): Who doesn’t like Beetlejuice?

  13. The Lost Boys (1987): I liked The Lost Boys, but think it’s a bit over-rated.

  14. Ghostbusters (1984): This is one I don’t care for.

  15. Young Frankenstein (1974): Arguably the best film on the list.

  16. Zombieland (2009): Even better than Shaun of the Dead!

  17. Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948): Perhaps the best movie on the list!

  18. An American Werewolf in London (1981): I’m not a fan, but most folks are.