This Island, Earth is a 1955 American science fiction film directed by Joseph M. Newman. It is based on the novel of the same name by Raymond F. Jones. The film stars Jeff Morrow as the alien Exeter, Faith Domergue as Dr. Ruth Adams, and Rex Reason as Dr. Cal Meacham. The film was one of the first major science fiction films to be made in Technicolor. In 1996, This Island Earth was also edited down and lampooned in the film Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie.
When initially released, the film was praised by most critics, manyciting the special effects, well-written script and eye-popping color (prints by Technicolor) as being its major assets.
Many criticscite the special effects as the strongest element in This Island Earth, which were ground breaking for their time and are considered by many film buffs to be comparable to modern special effects.
The film was one of the last films to use the three-strip Technicolor filming process. Even during production, the film’s special effects were shot on the more conventional Eastman color process, which most studios had already adopted.
King Kong is a film co-directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, and written by Ruth Rose and James Ashmore Creelman after a story by Cooper and Edgar Wallace. The film tells of a gigantic island-dwelling gorilla-like creature called Kong who dies in an attempt to possess a beautiful young woman. The film stars Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong and Bruce Cabot, and opened in New York City on March 2, 1933 to good reviews. Kong is distinguished for its stop-motion animation and its musical score. The film has been released to video and DVD, and has been computer colorized. In 1991, the film was deemed “culturally, historically and aesthetically significant” by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.
Trivia:
The models of King Kong built for the island scenes were only 18 inches high. When producer/director Merian C. Cooper decided Kong needed to look bigger while in New York, a new 24-inch armature was constructed, thus changing Kong’s film height from 18 feet on the island to 24 feet while in New York.
Body count: 40.
Special effects genius Willis H. O’Brien, who earlier used stop-motion animation of dinosaur models in The Lost World (1925), had created several dinosaur models for his unfinished production Creation (1931). Producer Merian C. Cooper sold the idea for King Kong (1933) to RKO executives in New York by showing them a test sequence using O’Brien’s models. The executives were stunned, never having seen anything like it, and green-lighted production of King Kong (1933) . O’Brien also used many of his “Creation” models in King Kong (1933) , including the T-Rex and the pteranodon (giant bird).
The project went through numerous title changes during production, including “The Beast” (original title of draft by Edgar Wallace in RKO files), “The Eighth Wonder”, “The Ape”, “King Ape” and “Kong”.
Both Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack had been wrestlers, and they acted out the fighting moves for the battle between the T-Rex and Kong in the effects studio, before the animators shot the scene.
This film was successfully reissued worldwide numerous times. In the 1938 reissue, several scenes of excessive violence and sex were cut to comply with the Production Code enforced in 1934. Though many of the censored scenes were restored by Janus Films in 1971 (including the censored sequence in which Kong peels off Fay Wray’s clothes), one deleted scene has never been found, shown publicly only once during a preview screening in San Bernardino, California in January 1933. It was a graphic scene following Kong shaking four sailors off the log bridge, causing them to fall into a ravine where they were eaten alive by giant spiders. At the preview screening, audience members screamed and either left the theatre or talked about the grisly sequence throughout the subsequent scenes, disrupting the film. Said the film’s producer, Merian C. Cooper, “It stopped the picture cold, so the next day back at the studio, I took it out myself.”
Originally, there was supposed to be an overhead shot of Kong falling from the Empire State Building. This was accomplished by adding Kong in post-production, falling towards the ground. Real footage of the building was used, but when the producers watched the scene they realized that viewers could see through Kong, especially as he passed the darker ledges, so it was cut. This clip has made its way into documentaries on the film but, more commonly, can be found in stills of the scene.
The trees and plants in the background on the stop-motion animation sets were a combination of metal models and real plants. One day during filming, a flower on the miniature set bloomed without anyone noticing. The error in continuity was not noticed until the film was developed and shown. While Kong moved, a time-lapse effect showed the flower coming into full bloom, and an entire day of animation was lost.
King Kong’s roar was a lion’s and a tiger’s roar combined and run backwards.
Close-ups of the pilots and gunners of the planes that attack Kong were shot in the studio with mock-up planes. The flight commander is director Merian C. Cooper and his observer is producer Ernest B. Schoedsack. They decided to play the parts after Cooper said that “we should kill the sonofabitch ourselves”.
Scenes cut over the years of release and re-release: Kong chewing on the natives of Skull Island; two scenes with Kong squashing one native each with his giant foot; the brontosaurus biting and throwing the men in the water; Kong putting a New Yorker in his mouth then throwing him down to the ground; a scene where Kong climbs a building, pulls out a sleeping woman with his giant hand, examines her, and when he finds it’s not Ann Darrow, tosses her down to the sidewalk below; and, of course, Fay Wray’s clothing being peeled off. The censor committee once stated that this was at least six minutes of editing. These scenes were all restored to the actual film in 1971. Of course, we still have yet to see the famous spider pit sequence, although in the 2005 remake, we get an idea of what it was like. Also, the 2005 DVD release of the 1933 film has Peter Jackson’s recreation of that scene.
Grossed $90,000 its opening weekend, the biggest opening ever at the time.
For the shots of the airplanes taking off from the strip, the pilots were paid US$10 each.
The native village huts were left over from RKO’s Bird of Paradise (1932). The Great Wall was part of the Temple of Jerusalem set for Cecil B. DeMille’s Biblical epic The King of Kings (1927). The Great Wall set was later reused in Selznick’s The Garden of Allah (1936) and finally redressed with Civil War era building fronts, burned and pulled down by a tractor to film the burning of Atlanta munitions warehouses in Gone with the Wind (1939).
The success of this film is often credited for saving RKO from bankruptcy.
Kong’s “official” height (from the posters) is 50 feet. He was closer to 19 feet tall in the jungle and close to 25 feet when in New York City.
The whole idea allegedly originated when co-director/co-producer Merian C. Cooper had a dream about a massive gorilla attacking New York City.
Was voted the 47th Greatest Film of all time by Entertainment Weekly.
Edgar Wallace died in Hollywood in February 1932 while working on the story for this film.
There was more than one model of Kong used in the film. There are considerable differences between the Kong on Skull Island and the Kong in New York. For instance, the Skull Island Kong has a longer face, which the filmmakers thought made the ape look “too human”.
In his review in The New York Times (3 March 1933), film critic Mordaunt Hall incorrectly refers to Fay Wray’s character as “Ann Redman”.
Jean Harlow refused the lead part.
The laserdisc edition of the film includes the first ever audio commentary.
Merian C. Cooper was partially inspired by W. Douglas Burden, who brought the world’s first captive Komodo dragons to the Bronx Zoo in 1926. Cooper was intrigued how the once mythic, massive predators quickly perished once caged and displayed for the public.
As a child, Merian C. Cooper lived close to an elevated train which kept him awake at night when it clattered across the tracks. This was the inspiration for the scene where Kong destroys an elevated train.
The two-legged lizard that attacks Jack Driscoll was actually meant to be an aetosaur, a reptile from the Triassic Period. However, because of the high price of armatures (the metal skeletons for the puppets), RKO cut costs by not having hind legs made for it. As a result, the aetosaur has two forearms, no hind legs and a snakelike appearance.
Fay Wray claimed that she personally insisted that her character be a blond, and personally chose her wig at the Max Factor shop in Los Angeles.
Sensing a huge hit from industry buzz, MGM offered to buy the film outright from RKO for $1.072m (some $400,000 over its negative cost), figuring the little studio was reeling from losing $10+m in 1932. RKO was smart to decline the offer. The film smashed attendance records nationwide and ended up grossing $1.761m during its initial release. RKO would periodically, and extremely profitably, re-release the movie through the 1950s.
Jungle scenes were filmed on the same set as the jungle scenes in The Most Dangerous Game (1932), which also happened to star Fay Wray and Robert Armstrong.
Art drawn for the press book associated for the original release of the film was contributed to by actor Keye Luke, who was a highly regarded illustrator before he became an actor and whose works have appeared in films themselves, such as The Shanghai Gesture (1941).
The 2005 DVD restoration further details the risqué liberties of a 1933 pre-code film release in two scenes. The first is when Ann is on the ship’s deck while Charlie is peeling potatoes, and the second is where Denham is shooting some test footage of Ann (“Scream for your life, Ann, Scream!”). The thin material used for Ann’s dress and gown in both scenes makes it obvious that Fay Wray is not wearing a bra; a wardrobe decision that may not have made it past the Breen Code the following year.
Executive Producer David O. Selznick left RKO midway through production of this film. But Selznick’s last act of business at RKO – and probably his biggest contribution to the film – was to write a memo changing the name of the production from ‘Kong’ to King Kong (1933).
According to the book “David O. Selznick’s Hollywood” by Ron Haver, costume designer Walter Plunkett (later noteworthy for Gone with the Wind (1939)) worked uncredited on this film. Specifically, he designed the “Beauty and the Beast” costume that Ann Darrow wears while Carl Denham is filming her screen test.
Ranked #4 on the American Film Institute’s list of the 10 greatest films in the genre “Fantasy” in June 2008.
To keep in line with the use of most of the cast from The Most Dangerous Game (1932) the role of Jack Driscoll was intended for Joel McCrea. According to Fay Wray however, McCrea’s agents demanded more money so the role was given to Bruce Cabot.
It has been said that King Kong (1933) was the first Hollywood film to use a fully symphonic musical score. As memorable and effective as the musical score was, some have made the same claim about RKO’s Bird of Paradise (1932), released earlier. (Perhaps that claim should be revised to “the first memorable film…”) Regardless, Max Steiner, composer for both films (and many later classics, including Gone with the Wind (1939) and Casablanca (1942)) was a visionary, forward thinking man.
The character of Carl Denham was inspired by the film’s director, Merian C. Cooper. They both died on the same day.
When describing Kong to Fay Wray, Merian C. Cooper said “you’ll have the tallest darkest leading man in Hollywood”. She thought it was Cary Grant.
Premiered at the famed Radio City Music Hall in New York City.
The 56-cm-high model of King Kong used in the film sold at auction in 2009 for about $203,000 (US). It was originally covered in cotton, rubber, liquid latex, and rabbit fur, but most of the covering has decomposed over the decades.
I Vampiri is a 1956 Italian horror film loosely based on the story of Elizabeth Báthory. Directed by Riccardo Freda and Mario Bava, the film stars Gianna Maria Canale as Giselle du Grand, Carlo D’Angelo as Inspector Chantal and Dario Michaelis as Pierre Lantin.
I Vampiri was the first sound era Italian horror film. Mid-way through production, director Riccardo Freda left the project, and was replaced by the films cinematographer Mario Bava.The film was released in the United States in 1963 under the title The Devil’s Commandment and has since been released under more titles including Lust of the Vampires and The Vampires.
Trivia:
This was the first Italian made horror film of the sound era.
Director Cameo: [Riccardo Freda] autopsy doctor
Italian censorship visa #23894, dated April 3rd 1957.
The Hound of the Baskervilles 1939 mystery film based on the novel of the same name by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and is directed by Sidney Lanfield and produced by 20th Century Fox.
It is the most well-known cinematic adaptation of the book, and is often regarded as one of the better, though very inaccurate, films.
The film stars Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes, Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson and Richard Greene as Henry Baskerville. Because the studio apparently had no idea that the film would be such a hit, and that Rathbone and Bruce would make many more Sherlock Holmes films and be forever linked with Holmes and Watson, top billing went to Richard Greene, who was the film’s romantic lead. Rathbone was billed second. Wendy Barrie, who played Beryl Stapleton, the woman with whom Greene falls in love, received third billing, and Nigel Bruce, the film’s Dr. Watson, was billed fourth. In all other Holmes films, Rathbone and Bruce would receive first and second billing.
The Hound of the Baskervilles also marks the first of the fourteen Sherlock Holmes movies starring Rathbone and Bruce as the detective duo.
Trivia:
In the original novel, and in all later film versions, the butler is named Barrymore. In the 1939 version, this had to be changed to Barryman because the famous Barrymore family was still acting in films.
Publicity materials referred to the dog who played the title character as “Chief”. The dog’s actual name was “Blitzen” but this was thought to sound too German.
The original title “The Hound of the Baskervilles” refers to a dog that terrorizes a family called “Baskerville”. The German title “Der Hund Von Baskerville”, a mistranslation, refers to a hound, which just lives in “Baskerville”, a town, that does not play a role in the story.
After being out of circulation for many years, partly because of the 1959 Hammer remake in Technicolor starring Peter Cushing, this film was restored and re-released to theaters in 1975 with great fanfare, to the point of having the national evening news do a story on it. The film was shown at its full 80-minute length, and newspaper and magazine articles commented on the fact that the line “Oh, Watson, the needle!”, referring to Holmes’ cocaine habit (and usually misquoted as “Quick, Watson, the needle!”) was put back in after having been cut by the censors. As an added attraction, the studio added a rare sound film featurette which showed Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes books, talking about his creation.
The first Sherlock Holmes film of Basil Rathbone.
The first of fourteen films based on Arthur Conan Doyle’s fictional consulting detective Sherlock Holmes starring Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Doctor Watson.
Beryl Mercer, who played the medium Jennifer Mortimer in the film, died less than three months after the film’s domestic release and before its international release.
Inferno is a 1980 Italian supernatural horror film written and directed by Dario Argento. The film stars Irene Miracle, Leigh McCloskey, Eleonora Giorgi, Daria Nicolodi, and Alida Valli. The cinematography was by Romano Albani, and Keith Emerson composed the film’s thunderous musical score. The story concerns a young man’s investigation into the disappearance of his sister, who had been living in a New York City apartment building that also served as a home for a powerful, centuries-old witch.
A thematic sequel to Suspiria (1977), the film is the second part of Argento’s “The Three Mothers Trilogy”. The long-delayed concluding entry, The Mother of Tears, was released in 2007. All three films are partially derived from the concept of “Our Ladies of Sorrow” (Mater Lachrymarum, Mater Suspiriorum, and Mater Tenebrarum) originally devised by Thomas de Quincey in his book Suspiria de Profundis (1845).
Unlike Suspiria, Inferno received a very limited theatrical release and the film was unable to match the box-office success of its predecessor. While the initial critical response to the film was mostly negative, its reputation has improved considerably over the years. Kim Newman has called it “…perhaps the most underrated horror movie of the 1980’s.”[2] In 2005, the magazine Total Film named Inferno one of the 50 greatest horror films of all time.
Trivia:
The second part (with Suspiria (1977) and La terza madre (2007)) of the “Three Mothers” trilogy.
James Woods was the original choice for the lead role but he was already committed to Videodrome (1983).
All of the murderer’s hands in the movie were Dario Argento’s.
Legendary Italian horror director Mario Bava assisted with the making of the special effects on this film. Bava passed away shortly before its release.
For some of the exterior location shoots in Italy footage of New York City skyscrapers were superimposed in the background to make it appear like the films NYC setting.
In an interview with assistant director Lamberto Bava, he said that he handled and wrangled so many cats during the shooting of this film that afterward he could no longer stand to be in the same room as a cat. He’s avoided them since then.
Argento said that the gentleman who provided the live ants used in the film collected them by walking around in the park with a vacuum and literally sucking them up from the ground. He would later retrieve them from the vacuum bag once on set.
Part of the reason Argento cast Irene Miracle as Rose Elliot was she had synchronize swimming skills, which came in quite handy for the shooting of the underwater ballroom scene.
The film was shot in three months.
According to co-writer and star Daria Nicolodi she didn’t fight for writing credits on this film as she had an ordeal just getting writing credit on Argento’s previous film Suspiria (1977). According to Nicolodi the basic plot of ‘Inferno’ was her creation.
When star ‘Leigh McCloskey”s stunt double broke his leg, McCloskey himself had to perform the stunt work for the films explosive finale. In interviews McCloskey said it was an intense experience as the rest of the crew and equipment were protected by multiple layers of Plexiglas while he had to run without protection through sets rigged to explode and burn. McCloskey said ‘when you feel glass flying by you like a Harrier jet, you never forget it!’
According to ‘Leigh McCloskey’, Dario Argento’s brother Claudio Argento spoke better English than Dario so often he would have to translate Dario’s direction to the cast.
Reportedly Dario Argento was ill with a serve case of hepatitis through out the production. At one point he had to be bed-ridden for a few days leaving the production to work on only second unit. Argento has since called ‘Inferno’ perhaps his most challenging film for this reason alone.
In 2005 Total Film magazine named ‘Inferno’ one of the 50 greatest horror films ever made.
English film critic Kim Newman once called ‘Inferno’ the most underrated horror film of the 1980′s.
Twentieth Century Fox co-financed the film because it’s predecessor Suspiria (1977) had been quite a successful film for their company.
For the scene where Kazanian carries the bag of ‘cats’ into Central Park a mechanical device was placed inside the bag to make it move, giving the impression that there were actually live animals inside.
Mario Bava is credited with creating the design of Rose Elliot’s unique apartment building. Bava also built the small-scale model that was burned in the films fiery climax.
The Raven is a 1963 horror film produced and directed by Roger Corman. The film stars Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, and Boris Karloff as a trio of rival sorcerers. Part of a series of Edgar Allan Poe adaptions produced by Corman through American International Pictures, the film was written by Richard Matheson based on references to Poe’s poem The Raven. Nominally in the horror genre, it is more appropriately classified as a B movie horror-comedy.
Three decades earlier, Karloff had appeared in another film with the same title, Lew Landers’ 1935 horror film The Raven with Bela Lugosi. Aside from the title, the two films bear no resemblance to one another.
Trivia:
Peter Lorre and Jack Nicholson were fond of ad-libbing their lines, much to the annoyance of Boris Karloff, who was working from the script.
In casting his spells, Dr. Bedlo uses several Latin phrases: Veni vidi vici: I came, I saw, I conquered. De mortuis nil nisi bonum: Do not speak ill of the dead. Cave canem: Beware of the dog. Si vis pacem parabellum: If you want peace, prepare for war. Ceterum censio Carthaginem esse delendam: Furthermore, I believe that Carthage must be destroyed.
Jack Nicholson always gave high praise to everyone he worked with on the set, except one – the Raven. He said the Raven pooped on everyone, but especially liked to poop on him; he later said: “I would look down when the Raven flew off my shoulder, and it would be covered in poop….I hated that bird.”
The events in the film take place circa 1506 based on two clues offered early on. Dr. Craven states that his father has been dead 20 years, and when they show the plate on the coffin the date of death is given as 1486. Therefore, 1486 + 20 = 1506.
Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers is a 1988 independently-released horror film and the fourth installment in the Halloween series. The film revolves around Michael Myers once more after his absence in Halloween III: Season of the Witch. Directed by Dwight H. Little, the film stars Ellie Cornell as Rachel Carruthers, Donald Pleasence as Dr. Loomis, Danielle Harris as Jamie Lloyd, and George P. Wilbur as Michael Myers. The central plot focuses on Michael Myers 10 years after his 1978 killing spree in Haddonfield, Illinois. It is revealed that he is comatose and barely alive at the Ridgemont Federal Sanitarium, and his sister Laurie Strode has been killed in a car accident. While Michael is being transferred to Smith’s Grove, he escapes and goes to Haddonfield, where he attempts to kill his niece Jamie Lloyd — revealed to be Laurie’s daughter.
As the title suggests, Halloween 4 marks the return of Michael Myers, the central villain of Halloween and Halloween II, due to his absence in Halloween III. Initially, John Carpenter and co-producer Debra Hill retired the Myers plot outline after the second installment of the series, intending to feature a new Halloween-related film every sequel, of which Halloween III would be the first. However, due to the lack of success of the third film, Halloween 4 re-introduced a Michael Myers related plot.
Tagline: Ten Years Ago HE Changed The Face Of Halloween. Tonight HE’S BACK!
Series creator John Carpenter wrote a treatment for this film, that was a more ghostly psychological approach to the Michael Myers mythos. It concerned the town of Haddonfield and what effect the events of the first two films have had on the it’s citizens. This concept was later rejected by the producers in favor of the typical slasher fare, at which point in time John Carpernter bailed out of the film, making this the first film in the series to have no participation from him.
The girl who drove Rachel and Jamie to the costume store was named Lindsey and is approximately 17 years old. In Halloween (1978), Jamie Lee Curtis babysat a seven year old named Lindsey.
After viewing a rough edit it was decided that the movie was too soft, so they brought in special effects wizard John Carl Buechler for one day of extra “blood” filming. The thumb in the forehead and the redneck’s head getting twisted were both done by him.
A construction paper cutout of Michael Myers can be seen on a door on the second floor of the school just as Jamie and Dr. Loomis climb the stairs.
Melissa Joan Hart auditioned for the role of Jamie.
Alan B. McElroy wrote the script in 11 days and beat the writer’s strike by mere hours.
Mike Lookinland (Bobby Brady) of “The Brady Bunch” (1969) was the production assistant. His wife, Kelly Lookinland, played the dead waitress.
The gaffer, Garlan Wilde, was seriously injured during the filming of the Michael and Brady confrontation. Garlan was putting up a light and fell and cut his wrists; he was quickly rushed to the hospital.
Leaves had to be imported and squash was painted to look like pumpkins.
Dwight H. Little did extensive research on the history of Halloween and many of its harvest images were put in the creepy opening sequence.
The shoot lasted about 41 days and Ellie Cornell and Danielle Harris were required to be on set for 36 of those days.
During production of the rooftop chase, Ellie Cornell was injured by a protruding nail as she slid down the roof. After a quick trip to the local hospital she finished the scene with her bandages in place. According to Danielle Harris, “It didn’t even faze her.”
The drugstore set was also used in Stephen King’s _”Stand, The” (1994) (mini)_.
Originally, when Jamie and Loomis were trapped in the school, Jamie hid in a classroom under a desk. Michael entered searching for her, throwing the desks over. Although they had no time to film this in Halloween 4, the sequence was remembered by Moustapha Akkad and later re-used in Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998).
In the schoolhouse, Michael’s mask appears to have blonde hair. This was actually the original Captain Kirk mask used in Halloween (1978) and over time the hair had changed gradually. The filmmakers had the intention of reusing the mask in this sequel but felt it had changed too much and decided to make their own. Several scenes were re-shot with the replacement mask.
In the original script, Sheriff Meeker was killed in a battle with Michael in the basement where the furnace was knocked over and caused the house to catch on fire. Originally, the house was supposed to be up in flames during the infamous rooftop sequence. This was eliminated due to budgetary constraints and Sheriff Meeker was kept alive.
In Jamie’s introduction, she’s sitting in the living room staring outside at the ambulance. Later, it shows the ambulance has disappeared. In the script, Jamie was staring outside at the rain, and the ambulance appeared after she had turned away. This was changed in editing for unknown reasons.
In the original script, Rachel hit Michael with the truck five times. While shooting they reduced it to three and in editing it came out as one.
In the original script the film opened with a shot of a long hospital corridor suddenly blowing up and throwing Loomis from the explosion, in a reference to the end of ‘Halloween II (1981)’ in order to show how Loomis survived. It was later decided the film should not have any connections to the predecessors and the explosive opening was never shot.
Jamie’s name was Brittany in the original script but was changed in homage to Jamie Lee Curtis.
Rebecca Schaeffer auditioned for the role of Rachel.
George P. Wilbur wore hockey pads under the jumpsuit to give Michael Myers a much more imposing figure. This is revealed in the documentary “Inside Halloween 5″, where it is revealed that Don Shanks, who played Michael Myers in Halloween 5 (1989), was big enough that this was not required.
At the bottom of the stairs where the TV is in Meeker’s home a pair of plastic hands are visible. This is possibly a direct reference to the silver hands seen in mother’s bedroom in Psycho (1960).
The Dead Zone is a 1983 science fiction-thriller film based on the Stephen King novel of the same name. Directed by David Cronenberg, the film stars Christopher Walken, Tom Skerritt, Martin Sheen, Herbert Lom, Brooke Adams, Anthony Zerbe, Ken Pogue, and Colleen Dewhurst. The plot revolves around a schoolteacher, Johnny Smith (Walken), who awakens from a coma to find he has psychic powers.
Tagline: In his mind, he has the power to see the future. In his hands, he has the power to change it.
Director David Cronenberg had to re-shoot the scene in which John Smith has his first premonition. It showed a little girl’s room burning and a small E.T. doll could be seen on one of the shelves. The scene had to be re-shot when Universal Pictures threatened to sue.
Cronenberg fired a .357 Magnum loaded with blanks just off camera to make Smith’s flinches seem more involuntary; this was Christopher Walken’s own idea.
Before the accident, Johnny instructs his class to read “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”. Christopher Walken would later go on to appear in Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow (1999).
Martin Sheen’s character says he has had a vision that he will be the President of the United States. Sheen went on to play the President of the United States in the mini series “Kennedy” (1983) and in “The West Wing” (1999).
Greg Stillson, played by Martin Sheen (né Ramon Estevez), has damning pictures taken of him by a photographer, played by Ramon Estevez, Sheen’s son.
A stuntman was severely burned around the legs and groin when a squib went off too near him during the shooting of the WWII flashback sequence.
The “sweat” on Christopher Walken’s face during the “burning bedroom” sequence was in fact a flame-retardant chemical that had been sprayed onto him. The resulting effect, which hadn’t been anticipated, looked surprisingly dramatic on film.
David Cronenberg wanted to change the name of Christopher Walken’s character: “I’d never name someone ‘Johnny Smith’”, he quipped, but in the end it was left as is.
One of only three David Cronenberg films that do not have a score by his friend, composer Howard Shore. This was due to studio politics in which Paramount wanted a more familiar composer to write the music for the film. Michael Kamen, who had written the music for the film Venom (1981) for the studio, was chosen instead.
During the time Michael Kamen was composing the music for the film in London, he would play the score on the piano in his home. He received several complaints by his neighbors who asked, “Can you please stop playing that music? I can’t sleep and it’s giving my family nightmares.”
This film (and Stephen King’s novel) are both loosely based upon the life of famous psychic Peter Hurkos. Hurkos claimed to have acquired his alleged powers after falling off a ladder and hitting his head.
The poem Johnny reads in the beginning of the film is the end of “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe.
There are several deleted scenes that were filmed and completed but have never been seen publicly and are thought to have been discarded prior to the films release. Among them: – A prologue showing John Smith as a boy (played by Stephen Flynn) who sustains a head injury during an ice hockey match. The scene features actor Sean Sullivan as John’s father. – An alternate scene of John Smith’s vision of the Camp David scene (featuring Martin Sheen) in which John himself appears in the vision as a helpless spectator. Photos of these scenes appeared in the December 1983 issue of Cinefantastique.
Hal Holbrook was Cronenberg’s original choice to play Sherrif Bannerman, but Dino De Laurentiis rejected this idea as he had never heard of Holbrook at the time.
In the WWII scene, civilians in the burning city are speaking Polish.
Three people were involved in the James Bond franchise. Anthony Zerbe (Roger Stuart) would later appear in Licence to Kill (1989), while Christopher Walken (Johnny Smith) would later appear in A View to a Kill (1985). Michael Kamen, who did the music for this film, would later do the music for Licence to Kill (1989).
Before his accident, Johnny Smith is an English teacher. Stephen King was also an English teacher before becoming a full-time writer.
The Dead Zone was the first of several Stephen King novels and short stories that took place in the small town of Castle Rock. Others include Stand by Me (1986), Cujo (1983), The Dark Half (1993), and Needful Things (1993).
Bride of Chucky (also known as Child’s Play 4: Bride of Chucky, Child’s Play 4 or BOC) is a 1998 American comedy horror film directed by Chinese director Ronny Yu, who also directed Freddy vs. Jason and The 51st State. It is the fourth entry in the Child’s Play series. The film stars Jennifer Tilly (who plays and voices the titular character the Bride of Chucky or Tiffany) and Brad Dourif (who voices Chucky). This movie co-stars John Ritter, Katherine Heigl and Nick Stabile. The music score is by Graeme Revell (who previously did the music for Child’s Play 2).
Bride of Chucky marks the point where the series takes a more humorous turn, often into self-referential parody. Thus the change from the Child’s Play in the title. Contrary to the previous three films, the violence in Bride of Chucky is punctuated by humor to deflate the macabre visuals. The film follows the events of the previous films continuity-wise, but not tonally or in a continuation of those film’s overall plot (where Chucky pursued the character Andy Barclay). This film also marks Chucky’s new permanent look, a more frightening appearance in which he was covered in scars.
Trivia:
In the opening shot, when the policeman is walking through the evidence locker room, several dolls appear. These resemble, or may actually be, from the movie series Puppet Master. They appear in the first storage case shown, on the left side of the screen.
Also in the evidence room in the beginning of the movie, there is “The Crate” from the movie “Creepshow”
The film’s promotional poster is a parody of the Scream 2 promo poster.
In the film’s opening scene, Michael Myers’ mask (from the Halloween films), Jason Voorhees’s mask (from the Friday the 13th films), Leatherface’s chainsaw (from the The Texas Chainsaw Massacre films), and Freddy Krueger’s glove (from the Nightmare on Elm Street films) are visible in the evidence locker.
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Andy Barclay is not mentioned, nor does he appear, in this film, except in the opening credits where a newspaper headline reads: Boy Claims Doll Possessed By Killer’s Soul. In a deleted scene, Chucky argues with Tiffany about getting his revenge on him for causing him trouble in the past.
In the scene before Tiffany is electrocuted and she was watching the 1935 movie Bride of Frankenstein (the movie that inspired Bride of Chucky), when Frankenstein says, “We belong dead.” In the scene at the cemetery, after Tiffany stabs Chucky in the back and he asks “Why?” and Tiffany says the exact same line, paying homage to the earlier film.
Chucky’s death scene at the end (when he was shot to death by Jade) was a 10-year anniversary homage to Chucky’s death at the end of Child’s Play.
The date on Tiffany’s newspaper clippings at the beginning of the movie and the date of death on Charles Lee Ray’s tombstone is 9 November 1988, the release date of the first Child’s Play movie.
There is a character in the film named Damien Baylock. In The Omen, the satanic child is named Damien, while his evil nanny is named Mrs. Baylock.
When John Ritter’s character is seemingly killed, his face looks much like Pinhead from Hellraiser. Chucky exclaims, “Why does that look so familiar?” Andrew Robinson, who played Sgt. Botnick in Child’s Play 3, played Larry Cotton in Hellraiser.
According to the DVD’s director commentary, Chucky was originally supposed to say to Chief Warren (John Ritter), “Sorry, Jack, but three’s a crowd,” after killing him – referring to Ritter’s starring role in the hit television sitcom Three’s Company. (At the last minute, the director deleted the line from the script because he found it too corny. The joke may have also referred to the series’ short-lived spinoff, Three’s a Crowd).
When Jesse (Nick Stabile) asks Chucky and Tiffany how they became dolls, Tiffany replies “it is a long story,”. and Chucky says “Let me put it this way,if this were a movie it would take 3 to 4 sequels to do it justice,”. (A humorous reference to the length of the “Child’s Play” series).
Police Officer Robert Bailey, who is killed in the opening sequence of Bride of Chucky, is referenced in the sequel Seed of Chucky. Tiffany is trying to end her killing fetish and decides to atone for her killings. She phones Bailey’s widow to apologize for slitting her husband’s throat, causing the woman to sob and Tiffany to feel a sense of closure.
When Chucky decides to kill Chief Kincaid, he first picks up a ball-peen hammer, only to put it down when Tiffany remarks, “Predictable.” In the original Child’s Play, Chucky kills his first victim by hitting her in the head with a ball-peen hammer and sending her flying out a window.
Tiffany asks Chucky if he was born with a knife superglued to hand. This is a reference to the second film when Chucky loses his hand in the climax and replaced it with a knife.
