Orca is a 1977 horror film directed by Michael Anderson and produced by Dino De Laurentiis and starring Richard Harris, Will Sampson and Charlotte Rampling. Orca was poorly received by critics and audiences alike due in part to its similarities to the film Jaws released two years prior. Upon release the film received only minor theatrical success, but in recent years the film has achieved a cult following among fans of the eco-horror sub genre. Richard Harris enjoyed his experiences during filming, and took offence at any comparison between Orca and Jaws.

Trivia:

The killer whale was portrayed by a combination of stock footage taken at Marine World in Redwood City, California, and an animatronic whale which was filmed off the coasts of Malta and Newfoundland.

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In the mid-80s, Dino De Laurentiis considered a sequel to King Kong (1976) that would have had him going head-to-head with an Orca.

The Hills Have Eyes is a 1977 American horror film directed by Wes Craven and starring Susan Lanier, Michael Berryman, and Dee Wallace. It is about a family on a road trip who become stranded in the Nevada desert, and are hunted by a clan of deformed cannibals in the surrounding hills. The film was released in cinemas on July 22, 1977, and has since become a “cult classic”.

The film was remade in 2006 by French horror filmmaker Alexandre Aja.

Trivia:

Producer Peter Locke has a memorable cameo as Mercury, the imbecile-sounding gang member with the feathered head-dress who is only spotted twice throughout the film, firstly at Fred’s garage and secondly communicating with Mars and Pluto using a USAF radio.

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The dead dog used as a stand-in for the family’s slaughtered Alsatian ‘Beauty’, widely believed to be a dummy dog, was in fact a real (already dead) dog that director Wes Craven and producer Peter Locke had bought from the county sheriff’s department.

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When originally submitted to the MPAA, the film was given an X-rating which would have relegated it to the porno circuit and severely hurt the box-office returns. Wes Craven cut the film enough to secure an R rating, and the original director’s cut is thought to be no longer in existence.

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The movie is based on the legend of Sawney Beane and his family (a wife, eight sons and six daughters), a feral clan who inhabited and roamed the highlands of Scotland’s East Lothian County, near Edinburgh, in the early 1400s. They captured, tormented and ate several transients. They were eventually captured on the order of Scotland’s King James, were judged to be insane, and executed without trial.

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Many of the props in the feral family’s cave were from Robert A. Burns’s previous project, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974).

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There were two babies that were used in the film as the same character (Katy) though the baby is only credited as Brenda Marinoff.

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The desert locations for the film were extremely rough on the crew. Not only was the rocky terrain difficult to walk, let alone run through, but the temperature would reach up to 120 degrees during the day. After sunset though it would drop to a cold 30 degrees in a matter of minutes.

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According to star Robert Houston the audition process for the film depended a lot on whether or not an actor could cry on cue.

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In an interview with star Susan Lanier she said that her agent strongly opposed her taking a role in the film fearing that it could ruin her career opportunities. However Lanier, who was a fan of the horror genre, liked Wes Craven so much that she went ahead and took the role of Brenda Carter anyway.

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Janus Blythe, who plays Ruby in the film, was originally auditioned for the role of Lynne Wood. Blythe however wanted the role of Ruby instead.

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Robert Houston was actually the second choice for Bobby Carter and landed the role because the original actor left the production after reading the script.

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The locations for the film were 30 miles from civilization and the cast and crew had to cram themselves into a few Winnebagos to be driven to location.

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According to Wes Craven the film was shot on cameras rented from a famous California pornographer.

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Auditioning for the role of Ruby required the actresses to have a foot race. When Wes Craven shouted for the actresses to go, Janus Blythe stood behind for a moment. Then after a moment took off and beat all the other actresses to the finish line. She was given the role.

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Janus Blythe said Wes Craven kept insisting that she be covered in more dirt through out shooting because she looked too pretty to have been living in a desert all of her life.

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Dee Wallace said little acting was required in the scene where Lynne encounters the tarantula. Wallace said her fear of the spider was very much authentic.

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For the scene where the feral family is eating Bob, the actors were actually eating a leg of lamb roast.

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According to Susan Lanier the tension was at first quite high when the crew prepared to shoot the scene where Pluto rapes Brenda. As a gag to break the ice for everyone Lanier and Michael Berryman started making out during the first take. The whole crew laughed hysterically.

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According to Wes Craven the idea of actually having the baby killed in the film was considered. However the cast and crew strongly opposed the idea saying they would leave if the plot went that route.

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The rattlesnake used in the film actually escaped while preparing to shoot a scene in a narrow mountain crevasse. The entire crew fled at once from the narrow passage frightened. Minutes later the snake wrangler went in and recaptured the snake.

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Wes Craven’s original title for the film was ‘Blood Relations’. Producer Peter Locke however disliked the title. Numerous titles were then considered and the film tested best under the title ‘The Hills Have Eyes’, though Craven himself initially disliked the title.

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Virginia Vincent’s reaction to being shot was quite genuine as there was a mishap with the squib planted under her robe. The small explosion caused her a deal of pain and she was briefly taken to the hospital.

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Janus Blythe at first refused to pick up the rattlesnake in the film. Producer Peter Locke tried to convince her to pick it up, but Blythe said she would only do it if Locke would pick it up too. Peter Locke quickly touched the snake and Blythe complied by picking up the snake in the scene.

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Star Michael Berryman said he was once watching the film in a theater when a woman in front of him said aloud ‘this movie is sick and depraved!’ Berryman then thought it would be funny to lean over her and say ‘you’re damn right lady this movie is sick!’

I Saw What You Did (1965) is a Universal Pictures feature film starring Joan Crawford and John Ireland in a tale of murder. The screenplay by William P. McGivern was based upon the 1964 novel Out of the Dark by Ursula Curtiss. The film was directed and produced by William Castle, and co-produced by Dona Holloway. The 2002 widescreen DVD release used the film’s original 1965 poster title “I Saw What You Did” And I Know Who You Are!.

Trivia:

Joan Crawford was paid $50,000 for four days work.

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After Joan Crawford joined the cast her role was meant to be a cameo, although she was given top billing.

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Joan Crawford was approached for this film one month after she left Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964) due to an “ailment” that prevented her from working (which is believed to have actually been sick of working with her arch enemy Bette Davis). Therefore, William Castle requested that Crawford’s doctors sign a statement attesting that she was completely well before giving her the role.

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During its original theatrical release some theaters installed seat-belts so you couldn’t be “shocked out of your seat”.

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Joan Crawford’s role was originally offered to Grayson Hall, who would later join the cast of the enormously popular supernatural daytime soap opera “Dark Shadows” (1966) as Dr. Julia Hoffman, who tries to cure Barnabas Collins of being a vampire.

Dracula is a 1979 American/British horror film starring Frank Langella as Count Dracula. The film was directed by John Badham and the cinematography was by Gilbert Taylor. The original music score is composed by renowned composer John Williams.

The film also starred Laurence Olivier as Professor Abraham Van Helsing, Donald Pleasence as Dr. Jack Seward, Kate Nelligan as Lucy Seward, Trevor Eve as Jonathan Harker, Tony Haygarth as Milo Renfield, and Jan Francis as Mina Van Helsing. It won the 1979 Saturn Award for Best Horror Film.

Like Universal’s earlier 1931 version starring Bela Lugosi, the screenplay for this adaptation of Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula is based on the stage adaptation by Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston, which ran on Broadway and also starred Langella in a Tony Award-nominated performance. Notable for its Edwardian setting, and strikingly designed by Edward Gorey, the play ran for over 900 performances between October 1977 and January 1980. It is also notable for switching the character’s roles of Mina Harker and Lucy Westenra.

The film was shot on location in England: at Shepperton Studios and Black Park, Buckinghamshire. Cornwall doubled for the majority of the exterior Whitby scenes; Tintagel (for Seward’s Asylum), and St Michael’s Mount (for Carfax Abbey).

Trivia:

The car that Jonathan Harker drives is a Hispano-Suiza.

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Donald Pleasence was initially offered the role of vampire hunter Van Helsing, but rejected it, saying it was too similar to his role as Dr. Loomis in the “Halloween” films. He accepted the smaller role of Dr Seward instead.

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This is a film adapted from a hit Broadway play. Frank Langella was nominated for a Tony Award for his stage performance of the title character.

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Sylvester McCoy was interviewed for Renfield

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The part that Teddy Turner played was spilt into two because the production team wanted to cast Sylvester McCoy in a role.

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Most of Sylvester McCoy’s role was deleted from the final print.

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Frank Langella, like Bela Lugosi, never wore fangs for the role of Dracula. He has stated that he considered it a compliment when fans of the film would comment on them anyway.

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When Dracula hypnotizes Mina, he uses the line, “When I will something, it should be done.” A line once used by Bela Lugosi when he gave his “Great Vampire Bat Illusion” on an episode of “You Asked For It”.

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This movie was based upon the production of “Dracula” that opened at the Martin Beck Theater in New York on October 20, 1977 and ran for 925 performances.

Frankenstein 1970 is a 1958 science fiction horror film, starring Boris Karloff and Don ‘Red’ Barry. This independent film was directed by Howard W. Koch, and its alternative titles were Frankenstein 1960 and Frankenstein 1975. Released on a low budget, the film was originally intended to be named Frankenstein 1960 but it did not sound futuristic enough. In October 2009, Warner Brothers released the DVD “Karloff & Lugosi Horror Classics” which includes Frankenstein 1970 as one of the four films and features an audio commentary by co-star Charlotte Austin and historians Tom Weaver and Bob Burns.

Trivia:

This project was proposed because of the success of the “Shock Theatre” package of Universal horror films released to television. The other contributing factors were the recent successes of the British-made The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) and the low-budget American International release I Was a Teenage Frankenstein (1957). This low-budget film had the advantage of being shot in CinemaScope.

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This film was originally going to be entitled “Frankenstein 1960″ but it didn’t sound futuristic enough. It was also thought to be too far fetched that an independent researcher could obtain his own atomic reactor in 1960.

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Producer Aubrey Schenck had hoped to get the film released by Warner Brothers but had to settle for Allied Artists. Previously, movies produced by Schenck’s Bel-Air films, like “The Black Sleep,” had been released by United Artists.

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The interiors were part of a set on Warner’s Stage Three, which had been constructed for the Errol Flynn-Dorothy Malone film “Too Much, Too Soon.” In addition, the budget conscious Schenck used cinematographer Carl Guthrie from the earlier film because his experience with the set allowed him to light the scenes quickly.

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The film was scheduled for 8 shooting days and was completed on time. (1-9-58 to 1-20-58) Karloff worked all 8 days.

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It was originally planned to include a ceramic bust of Karloff in all scenes where he was working on the monster, but that ultimately did not work out.

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The black statuette from “The Maltese Falcon” was used by the Warner prop department to dress the set.

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Although her husband Douglas Row (Don Barry) has apparently lost interest in wife Judy Stevens (Charlotte Austin) in favor of actress Carolyn Hayes (Jana Lund), Lund was actually 3 months older than Austin.

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The original pitch for this production referred to it as “Frankenstein’s Castle.”

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Dr. Frankenstein’s ancestor, who originally began work on the monster in 1740 is referred to as Richard. Previous films usually called him Victor or Henry.

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Real life Chicago talk show host Tom Duggan played a role in the film and invited Charlotte Austin and Donald Barry on his show to give the film a publicity boost. Unfortunately both actors had a few drinks prior to going on camera and proceeded to belittle the film’s quality, much to Duggan’s chagrin.

Day of the Dead (also known as George A. Romero’s Day of the Dead) is a 1985 horror film by director George A. Romero, the third of Romero’s Dead Series of zombie horror films. It is preceded by Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead. Director George A. Romero describes the film as a “tragedy about how a lack of human communication causes chaos and collapse even in this small little pie slice of society”. This film features Sherman Howard in an early appearance as Bub and up and coming make-up artist Gregory Nicotero playing Pvt. Johnson and doing the make-up effects.

Trivia:

The book Dr. Logan gives to Bub is Stephen King’s “Salem’s Lot.” Romero and King have been friends for many years.

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George A. Romero had originally planned for all the zombies to perish in a massive explosion when they stumbled across explosive chemicals in the laboratory. Meanwhile, one of the crew members who had died during the attack was to have stayed dead and not come back as a zombie, thereby giving hope to the survivors.

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The original script, for which George A. Romero couldn’t get budget for, involved the scientists living above ground in a fortress protected by electrified fences and the military living safely underground. It also involved a small army of trained zombies, and the conclusion to the trilogy more brutal than the released version. This later became the basis of Land of the Dead (2005)

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All the extras who portrayed zombies in the climax received for their services: a cap that said “I Played A Zombie In ‘Day of the Dead’”, a copy of the newspaper from the beginning of the film (the one that says THE DEAD WALK!), and one dollar.

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Most of the zombie extras in this film were Pittsburgh residents who volunteered to help in the film.

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The first scene (abandoned city) of the movie was filmed in Fort Myers and Sanibel Island, Florida. The theatre shown in the opening is the Edison; Thomas Edison used to summer in Ft. Myers and his house there is a tourist attraction.

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The budget for George A. Romero’s original script was estimated at $7 million, but he would only be given the money if he could film an R-rated film. He was told that if he went ahead and shot an unrated film with no limits on gore, the budget would be split in half to $3.5 million.

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The lowest grossing film in George A. Romero’s “Dead” trilogy. Nonetheless, it’s gained a cult following over the last two decades, and the director himself has stated that he considers it his best film.

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The underground facility was not on a soundstage. It was shot in the Wampum mine, a former limestone mine near Pittsburgh, that was being used for a underground storage facility. The 2,500,000 square foot mine is now operated as the Gateway Commerce Center who now called it a “subsurface storage facility”.

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The only movie in George A. Romero’s “Dead” series where a zombie has a line of dialog (Bub says, “Hello Aunt Alicia.”).

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In the scene change right after Logan tells the zombie that it needs to sit in the dark and think about what it did, and punishes it by turning off the light, a little bit of the “The Gonk” music from Dawn of the Dead (1978) can be heard in the scene change.

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In the cafeteria scene, William McDermott (Jarlath Conroy) says that “All of the shopping malls are closed.” This is a clear reference to the film’s predecessor Dawn of the Dead (1978), which is set in a shopping mall.

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There is a debatable scene in the film where Bub the zombie may or may not have another line of dialogue. When Sarah enters Logan’s lab, she is startled when Bub emerges from the shadows behind her. After this, he moans something that some fans believe is, “I’m sorry.”

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During the scene of Miguel’s sedation, Lori Cardille told Anthony Dileo Jr. to actually slap her to make it look more authentic.

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Director Cameo: [George A. Romero] As a zombie pushing a cart in the foreground during the final zombie feast, seen from the waist down and identified by his trademark plaid scarf wrapped around his waist.

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During a holiday break in filming, makeup artist Gregory Nicotero used the realistic and gruesome model of his own head (as seen in a laboratory scene in the film) to play a practical joke on his mother.

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Joseph Pilato (Rhodes) line “Choke on them” as he’s being ripped apart by zombies was ad-libbed by the actor.

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The blood and entrails used in the disemboweling of Capt. Rhodes were real. Pig intestines and blood were procured form a nearby slaughterhouse and used to make the scene. During filming the refrigerator housing intestines and blood was unplugged by custodial staff, and the entrails started to spoil causing most of those involved to become physically sick.

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Gaylen Ross (“Francine”, Dawn of the Dead-1978) is credited as “NYC Casting” in the end credits.

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British band Gorillaz have sampled several audio clips from both Dawn of the Dead (1978) and Day of the Dead (1985): portions of the music and some dialogue (“Hello? Is there anyone there?”) from the latter feature in the track, “M1 A1″, on their 2001 debut album; and some of Bub the zombie’s grunts appear alongside sound-clips of the news reporters from Dawn of the Dead (1978) on one of their B-sides, “Hip Albatross”. Furthermore, part of the score from Dawn of the Dead (1978) is used in the intro track on the 2005 album, Demon Days. This album also features a track narrated by Dennis Hopper, who portrayed Kaufman in George A. Romero’s sequel that year, Land of the Dead (2005).

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The band NRBQ was cast and appeared as Zombies in the mine.

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Dr. Logan figures that the ratio of the undead to the human survivors is 400,000:1. When the film was made, in 1985, the population of the United States in our universe stood at about 240 million. If Dr. Logan is right, and the US population of this universe stood at roughly the same, and this film took place in 1985, there are 600 living human beings left in the USA. However, since the history of the universe in the “of the Dead” movies had radically diverged from real world history even before the ghouls emerged (notice the Venus probe in the first movie), the timeline of the “Dead” movies remains unclear (the Stephen King novel ‘Salem’s Lost appears in this film, even though in the real world it came out in 1975; note that the first film in this series came out in 1968; Diary of the Dead, set simultaneously with the events of Night of the Living Dead, features technology not available in 1968 in our world), and we do not know how long after the ghouls emerged that this film takes place, one cannot easily presume that this film takes place in 1985 or that the US population would have remained the same.

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Some of the headlines from the newspaper that says “The Dead Walk” appear to be: “Vice President Declares State of Emergency,” “Whereabouts of President Unknown,” “Food Supply Dwindles” and “Man Bites Man.”

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The first film in George A. Romero’s “Dead” series to begin a tradition of having a clown zombie, as also seen in Land of the Dead (2005) and Diary of the Dead (2007).

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Cameo: [Taso N. Stavrakis] In 2 roles: Appears as a Cave Zombie who gets bashed on the head with wood by Sarah. Referred to as Knock-On-Wood Zombie. He also appears as a Biker Zombie as the Zombie battle begins.

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Cameo: [Ed Lammi (Associate Producer)] A Zombie with a cast arm entering the room after Steel commits suicide.

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The Zombies who attack and feast on Captain Rhodes are played by Hermie Granati, David Granati, Joey Granati, and Rick Granati of the Pittsburgh rock band, The Granati Brothers (otherwise known as G-Force).

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Cameo: [Akram Midani] The former Dean of Fine Arts in Carnegie Mellon appears as a Fisherman Zombie pursuing Steel through the Mines. (You can see his wife Watfa Midani right next to him as another Zombie.)

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Cameo: [Annie Loeffler (Assistant Director)] Female Cave Zombie (shot by John).

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Pat Logan, who played Uncle Rege in Night of the Living Dead (1990) appears as a Bald Mustachioed Zombie shot by Steel in the mines.

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Paul Gagne (Sound Designer of Maurice Sendak’s ‘Where the Wild Things Are (1973)’ (1988 version)), Robert Martin, Mark Steensland, appear as Rickles’ Zombie attackers in the mine.

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Cameo: [Howard Berger (Assistant Makeup Artist)] Spinaround Cave Zombie (shot by John).

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Cameo: [Everett Burrell (Assistant Makeup Artist] A Surgeon Zombie in the Cave.

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Cameo: [John Vulich (Assistant Makeup Artist)] The last Zombie shot in the cave before our heroes enter the Silo.

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The “Day Of The Dead” love ballad song, “The World Inside Your Eyes” which appeared at the end credits of the movie was sung by Sputzy Sparacino (who was the lead singer and guitarist of the dance band Modern Man at that time) and 70s/80s disco/funk/soul singer Delilah.

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Sputzy Sparacino and his band Modern Man appear to be uncredited as the musicians of the movie soundtrack.

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Sarah, John, McDermott, Miguel, Dr. Logan, Bub, and of course Captain Rhodes were the only characters from George A. Romero’s original script that made it to the final version.

The Raven (1935) is a horror film starring Boris Karloff and Béla Lugosi, and directed by Lew Landers. It revolves around Edgar Allan Poe’s famous poem, featuring Lugosi as a Poe-obsessed mad surgeon with a torture chamber in his basement and Karloff as a fugitive murderer desperately on the run from the police. Lugosi had the larger role, but Karloff received top billing, using only his last name.

Almost three decades later, Karloff also appeared in another film with the same title, Roger Corman’s 1963 comedy The Raven with Vincent Price, Peter Lorre and Jack Nicholson. Aside from the title, the two films bear no resemblance to one another.

Trivia:

The on-screen billing switches the character names played by Spencer Charters and Ian Wolfe. Charters actually portrays Colonel Bertram Grant, while Wolfe appears as Geoffrey “Pinky” Burns.

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Shooting lasted from Mar. 20-Apr. 5, 1935, released July 4 in NYC, with Bela Lugosi in attendance, due to sail to England to begin “Mystery of the Marie Celeste. ”

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Part of the original SHOCK THEATER package of 52 Universal titles released to television in 1957, followed a year later with SON OF SHOCK, which added 21 more features.