YumpSvow

The 4^th Kind (2009)

• Directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi
  • Evidence
  • Tv Shows
    • Star Trek Discovery
    • Sleepy Hollow
  • Starring Mila Jovovich, Will Patton, and Elias Koteas
  • Budget of 10 million and Box Office of 47.7 million
  • Trivia
    • “The Fourth Kind” is a reference to scientist J. Allen Hyneks famous categories involving the sightings of UFOs. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) also referred to this scale.
    • The “real” Dr. Abigail Tyler was played by the actress Charlotte Milchard. In the end credits she appears credited as Dr. Abigail Tyler and in the final cast list with her real name but as one of the “Nome Resident”.
    • The movie’s hoaxed interviews have angered the families of real missing persons in and around Nome, Alaska, for trivializing their loss. Melanie Edwards, Vice President of Kawerak Inc. (an organization representing tribal peoples in Alaska), described the movie as “insensitive to family members of people who have gone missing in Nome over the years”. Universal has refused to discuss the movie with that organization or with local journalists.
    • Psychologist Chris French wrote on The Guardian:
    • “The reason he found this film so ‘disturbing’ was because experience shows that no matter how obvious a hoax may be to those capable of critical thinking, there will always be many who will accept at face value the film’s claim to be based on true events.”-None of these events actually occurred, none of the ‘archival footage’ was real, and Dr. Abigail Taylor has never existed, a piece on Overland reads.-
    • The screenplay for this film was featured in the 2008 Blacklist; a list of the “most liked” unmade scripts of the year.
    • The Fourth Kind is a pseudo documentary that re-enacts the true events that happened in a small town of Alaska. The film’s story revolves around the incident that occurred in 2005 in which some native men traveling from the smaller villages suddenly went missing. The FBI looked into about twenty cases through which they came to the conclusion that alcohol and frigid temperatures were the reasons for death. However, nine bodies were never found, the film is based on those disappearances and frames it as alien abduction to create a story that somehow fits the form of documentary realism.
    • Nome, Alaska, is no stranger to disappearances, but after investigations into two dozen disappearances, the FBI found no evidence of alien activity. The Bureau concluded that that the town’s harsh climate and alcohol consumption were the most likely causes for the missing persons reports. Therefore, most publications have concluded that Dr. Abigail Tyler is an imaginary character. In the film, Dr. Abigail Tyler suffered a neck injury that paralyzed her and confined her to a wheelchair. In the end, Dr. Tyler left Alaska for the East Coast to live out her days under hospice care.

Jennifer’s Body (2009)

• Directed by Karyn Kusama
  • Girl fight
  • Aeon Flux
  • The Invitation
• Starring Megan Fox, Amanda Seyfrie, J.K. Simmons, and Johnny Simmons.
• Box office of 31.6 millon on a budget of 16 million
• Trivia
  • In a February 2016 interview with The New York Times, while trying to illustrate how completely the studio’s (all-male) marketing department misunderstood the point of this movie, director Karyn Kusama recalled that one of their marketing ideas was for Megan Fox to do live chats with amateur porn sites. Kusama said that she begged them to not even mention the idea to Fox because “she will become so dispirited….It was crushing.”
  • Despite mixed critical reception, the film has gained a strong cult following over the years. It even garnered an unofficial musical in 2018.
  • Megan Fox has said this is her favorite movie of her respective filmographies.
  • The movie’s title is from the song “Jennifer’s Body” by Courtney Love’s band Hole.
  • Diablo Cody wrote the screenplay for the film in 2006, the same year she wrote Juno (2007).
  • Emma Stone was considered for the role of Anita “Needy” Lesnicki.
  • Blake Lively turned down the role of Jennifer Check, due to scheduling conflicts with Gossip Girl (2007). Megan Fox was later cast.
  • Anita Lesnicky’s nickname of Needy comes from writer Diablo Cody’s initial intention to have the character be of a ‘needy’ disposition. She later decided against this as she felt she had seen enough nerdy stereotypes in high school set movies.
  • The demon who possesses Jennifer Check (Megan Fox’s character) closely resembles a succubus (plural succubi), from Jewish, Christian, and Sumerian mythology/theology. It is said that succubi seduce men, and fornicate with them until they are “drained” (in the movie, getting “drained” could mean getting drained of blood instead of semen). Some possible examples of succubi are Lilitu (from Sumerian mythology), Lilin, and Lilith (both from Jewish theology).
  • Amanda Seyfried auditioned for the role of Mikaela Banes in Transformers (2007). The role went to Seyfried’s co-star Megan Fox.
  • According to the original script, Needy was not supposed to be seen killing the band members of Low Shoulder. The script ended with Needy retrieving the Bowie knife and riding away with the driver who picked her up. This leads to the speculation that the writer originally intended to allow viewers make predictions for themselves to what happened afterwards.
  • In the scene where Jennifer seduces Needy (before they kiss), Jennifer is wearing an “Evil Dead” T-shirt. Plus there is an “Evil Dead” poster on the wall of the bedroom which is center screen for part of the scene. Both movies have an evil force in the woods, that take possession of a young female, and that preys on school friends.
  • Lance Henriksen: The driver who picks up a hitchhiker in the film’s ending.

Session 9 (2001)

• Directed by Brad Anderson
  • The Machinist
  • Vanishing on 8^th Street
  • Fractured
• Starring David Caruso, Peter Mullan, Stephen Gevedon, Paul Guilfoyle and Josh Lucas
• Box Office of 1.6 million
• Trivia
  • Production took place on location at the Danvers State Mental Hospital in Danvers, Massachusetts.
  • Actor David Caruso reports in the official Production Notes that he saw “something pass my window” when shooting inside the Bonner Medical Building of Danvers State Hospital. “I didn’t want to tell anybody, because people would start looking at me strangely…” Actor Peter Mullan also reports strange happenings on the set. He claims that while filming on the roof, a voice in his head told him to jump off to see what would happen. Mullan said the building brought out a morbid kind of “overactive curiosity.”
  • Most of the film was shot in a small section of the Danvers Asylum according to actor David Caruso, the rest of the building was “unsafe” for shooting. Caruso also claims the sets did not need to be dressed as all the props featured in the film were already there inside the building.[9] Elaborating Caruso said:
  • It was a place you never got comfortable in. It wasn’t like day three and we were throwing water balloons because it was so much fun to be there. It was always scary. You can really feel the pain of the people that went through Danvers. It’s a rough environment. It’s not fun. It’s on the film. They didn’t have to dress any sets, or anything. All of that stuff was sitting there. The federal government walked away from it about thirty years ago. It was a terrifying location
  • Only 3 rooms had additions outside of the natural setting for atmosphere, the kitchen had meat hooks hung, the tunnel had plastic surgical gloves hung up, and the hydrotherapy room had a metal tub added. Almost everything else related to the asylum setting was found on site as the crew scoured the building for set dressing to keep things authentic. The filmmakers even reported finding old patient tissue and blood samples on the premises, which they did not film out of fear.
  • The fictional “Patricia Willard scandal” at Danvers State Hospital, cited by Mike at the film’s beginning, strongly appears to have been inspired by a real-life wave of problematic “Satanism and sex-abuse” allegations that swept the United States circa the 1980s, including (among others) one involving the Amirault family in nearby Malden, Massachusetts. Reporter Dorothy Rabinowitz won a Pulitzer Prize for her book chronicling that bizarre case, “No Crueler Tyrannies: Accusation, False Witness, and Other Terrors of Our Times,” in 2001.
  • Danvers State Hospital was built in 1874 on a 257-foot-high glacial drumlin named Hathorne Hill. The hill got its name from its original owner Judge John Hathorne. John Hathorne was appointed by Governor Sir William Phips to be a judge in the Salem Witch Trials. Judge John Hathorne was also the great-grandfather of American novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne. Note the spelling variation of the last name: In his early 20s, Nathaniel added the “w” to hide his relation to the only judge involved in the Salem Witch Trials to never repent his actions.
  • What Griggs says at the beginning of the film about homeless former patients trying to break back into Danvers has a ring of truth to it. It was a real problem for the town after the hospital’s closure, and police officers often had to be called to round up trespassers. The building also became a hot-spot for “urban explorers” looking to get some photos of everything. This was not a good idea. The building was sturdy on the outside, but the many papers and drywall panels left behind quickly went moldy, posing a health risk, and there really were asbestos in the building, too. Flooding, rats and mice, criminal activity, rotten food and other unpleasant things began to inhabit the building, to the point at which it simply wasn’t safe anymore.
  • The characters all say the words “Come Back” when they talk on the walkie-talkies. This is also a clue and in particularly Gordon’s case, to wake up and come back to reality from his sleepwalking state.
  • Before Hank’s attack by Gordon, he sees a jar of JIF Peanut Butter on the floor where he had collected all the coins and items found in the area he had worked on during the day. This very same jar of Peanut Butter was inside Gordon’t bag in the beginning of the movie along with the Oreo Cookies (which Jeff finds before he’s killed), the Champagne Bottle and the roses (found in the van by Mike covered in red glop).
  • Gordon tells Phil that he was staying in a Motel because he was kicked out of the house after the accident in his house which he hit his wife Wendy. We never see him going to, inside or coming from any hotel at any point in the movie. The hospital is where he appears to be staying in as evidenced by the attack on Hank, who had shown up Tuesday Night to get all the coins and valuables from the tunnel and leave the job behind.
  • The line from Simon, “I live in the weak and the wounded”, is a loose reference to the long held belief that mental illness was caused by a lack of moral character or emotional strength. It suggests that Simon could very well live in every single one of us.

Creep (2014)

• Directed by Patrick Brice
  • Creep 2
  • There’s someone in your house
  • The Overnight
• Starring Mark Duplass and Patrick Brice
• Trivia
  • Since the movie was based on a series of conversations between Patrick Brice and Mark Duplass, most of it was improvised. This led to a lot of scenes being shot, and as a result, the footage was screened in front of their peers. This eventually pushed the psychological black comedy into a psychological horror film after taking the advice of their friends. There is also footage of at least three other alternate endings.
  • The film is almost totally improvised. The film’s ‘bible’ was only ‘bare bones’ – i.e., driving a car, while videotaping a dialogue of the trip
  • Assuming that the videos visible in the closet at 1:14:45 are all of people that “Josef” has groomed and killed, he has murdered at least fifty-seven people prior to Aaron. The viewer sees the names of at least thirty-five victims (some with multiple tapes) and tapes for a further twenty-two where names are not visible

Pumpkinhead (1988)

• Directed by Stan Winston
  • Visual Effects and Makeup
    • Edward Scissorhands
    • Batman Begins
    • Terminator
    • Aliens
      • Won Oscar best visual effects
    • Terminator 2
      • Won 2 oscars best visual effects and best makeup
    • Predator 2
    • Jurrasic Park
      • Won Oscar best visual effects
    • Starring Lance Henriksen, Jeff East, John D’Aquino Florence Shauffer and Cynthia Bain
    • Box of 4.4 million on a 3.5 million budget
    • Trivia
      • Lance Henriksen gathered all of the silver dollars himself by visiting several pawn shops. He said that most of them fell through the floorboards of Haggis’ shack, where they may still lie.
      • ‘Fun’ was, in fact, the prevalent mood on the Pumpkinhead set. Despite many additional burdens and responsibilities, Winston brought the same sense of humor and lighthearted spirit to directing Pumpkinhead as he had to his creature effects assignments. “Stan was a blast as a director,” recalled Alec Gillis. “He was fun and completely relaxed on the set, as if he didn’t have a care in the world. I remember one day when we were in this cramped cabin set, and I was very tense and tired because Shane and I had just spent three hours applying makeup to the actress playing the witch. But then I looked over and saw Stan standing across the room, staring at me, with his glasses cocked at a weird angle on his head — just to make me laugh. There was my director, making an idiot of himself for nobody’s benefit but mine. That isn’t something most directors would do!”
      • Lance Henriksen had a set of dentures made to give him a more rural look. He also gathered all of his own props and wardrobe, including a WWII pump-action shotgun, his cap worn throughout the film and the silver dollars which he gives to Haggis.
      • The costume Florence Schauffler wore as Haggis weighed about 65 pounds.
      • Pumpkinhead has since been a cult classic ever since its release with a legion of fans – among them, novelist Anne Rice, and many of the Stan Winston Studio crewmembers that worked on the show. “When I revisit Pumpkinhead after all these years,” said Shane Mahan, “and I realize that it was done in 1987, all in-camera, and for only three million dollars, I’m amazed at how much movie is there. I think it is a really impressive example of a first-time director’s work, and it is still used as a model for low-budget films. People reference Pumpkinhead all the time when they are looking at how to make an effective low-budget movie.”
      • Because of Stan Winston’s request, the screenwriters made both Pumpkinhead and Haggis (the old woman), much darker than in the original script.
      • The origin of the story was a poem written by Ed Justin.
      • While Winston refined the narrative, artists at his studio — led by Alec Gillis, Shane Mahan, John Rosengrant & Tom Woodruff Jr. — designed Pumpkinhead as a humanoid demon with a very large, angular head, withered facial features, and long, clawed fingers. “Since Stan was directing the movie,” said Gillis, “he turned the creature work over to us. Stan said: ‘I’m the director on this. I’m the client — you guys are the effects guys.’ It was great to have Stan’s encouragement to just go with it, on our own. We sat down and started drawing, and then we presented those drawings to Stan, and he made suggestions. That’s how the character of Pumpkinhead developed. Then I sculpted the head, and Tom and John sculpted the body.”
      • Film debut of Mayim Bialik.
      • Pumpkinhead has pale skin and has a large head with multiple lumps and pale white eyes with reptilian-like pupils and no irises in the 1988 film. The large head and the fact that he is buried in a pumpkin patch give the creature its name. Rather than having a nose, the creature has nostrils which follow the wrinkled design skin design above its mouth. The creature is completely hairless and has a large mouth with varying pointed and human-like teeth. There are two small pointed teeth on either side of the creature’s lower jaw. The creature has a wrinkled neck with clearly visible blood veins and large bulbous objects that sprout from its shoulders. There are also bulbous objects that sprout from the creature’s elbows and extra joints on its legs. Pumpkinhead has long arms with four fingered clawed hands, which are its primary weapons. Pumpkinhead has a torso with a rib cage-like design and two muscles underneath its chest which replace its abs. There are two extremely small bulbous objects that sprout from the creature’s hips above its digitigrade legs. The creature’s legs are large and muscular with extra joints. Pumpkinhead has three-toed feet with thick dinosaur-like claws. The creature’s extra joints are larger than the other joints in its legs and sprout another pair of bulbous objects that actually resemble that of small pumpkins. Pumpkinhead has a long tail with a fin-like spike at the end. In the 1994 sequel, the creature’s eyes are changed to completely pale bloodshot eyes with no pupils and all of its teeth are sharp. In the last two sequels, Pumpkinhead’s design is changed because there is a different costume used for the films. The creature’s head is smaller and its teeth are yellow. The creature apprears more muscular and has a more human-like posture. The creature’s upper body is notably more muscular and the creature is larger, although seems to shrink as its conjurers are killed. The creature’s skin is a rotten green color and its bulbous objects that sprout from its shoulders, elbows, hips, and extra joints are replaced with sharp spikes. The creature’s hands are smaller with black claws and the fin-like spike on the creature’s tail is changed to resemble its spikes, making it more resemble a devil or demon. This could be related to it having more summoners (though this is unconfirmed).
      • Horror folk punk band Harley Poe draws part of their name from Ed Harley, they also have a song on their Pagan Holiday album called “Vengeance the Demon / Close the Door” based upon Pumpkinhead.
      • The one scene that made Lance Henriksen most want to take the role was where the deceased Billy sits up and asks his father what he’s done.

The People Under The Stairs  (1991)

• Directed by Wes Craven
  • Nightmare on Elm Street Series
  • Scream Series
• Starring Brandon Quinton Adams, Everett McGill, Wendy Robie, A J Langer and Sean Whalen
• Box of 31.3 million on a 6 million budget
• Trivia
  • Wes Craven was inspired to write this film after reading a real-life news story about burglars breaking into a house. When authorities arrived, the burglars had disappeared but they discovered locked doors with noises coming from behind. Children had been locked up inside the rooms by their parents, never allowed to go outside.
  • Wes Craven chose Wendy Robie and Everett McGill to play the parts of Mommy and Daddy after seeing them play husband and wife on the TV series Twin Peaks (1990).
  • The coin Fool pulls out of Spenser’s hand is real. It is known as an American Gold Eagle and contains 1oz of 22 karat gold. It would have been worth approximately $708 in 1991.
  • Hilary Swank auditioned for the role of Roach. Roach was originally written to be either a male or female.
  • Shortly before his death, Wes Craven was developing a television show version of this film on the SyFy Channel.
  • Wendy Robie (Woman) credits this movie as the most fun she’s ever had on a film set and one of her favorite projects she’s ever done.
  • During the scene in which Wendy Robie (Woman) feeds Spencer’s sliced hand to her Rottweiler dog Prince, a fake edible hand covered in a red sauce was used. While the dog was chewing and eating up the hand, Robie noticed a wire in the dog’s mouth, and then reached into the dog’s mouth with her bare fingers, and managed to pull out the wire, much to the crew’s (including the director) shock.
  • There is a “Criminal Minds” episode Mosley Lane (2010) that is very similar to this film, portraying a husband & wife who own a funeral home and abduct children. Even the wives’ hairstyles are identical.
  • The house is located just ¼ mile (½Km) from the dinner break scene at the beginning of National Security (2003)
  • The house is only .9 miles (1½Km) from a house in one of the segments in E-Mail II/Blood Donor/Epitaph/Stiches in Time/Soldier (1999)
  • The house is located just 1 mile (1.6Km) (a 20 minute walk) from the Eppes family home in Numb3rs (2005)
  • The “House” interiors were also used for filming Rob Zombie’s Halloween (2007)
  • The house of “mommy & daddy” which had a sign that read “Robeson Funeral Home” out front, was filmed only 3½ miles (5½Km) from the body shop in Mr. Monk and the Paperboy (2004)(#2.10)
  • There was a February 4, 1999 Los Angeles Times Article about the house entitled “Points Of Pride” about how Butterfly McQueen (the maid from Gone with the Wind (1939)) owned and lived in the house where this was filmed. She was still alive at the time of this film’s release.

In The Mouth of Madness (1994)

• Directed by John Carpenter
  • Halloween and Halloween 2
  • Big Trouble in Little China
  • The Thing
  • The Fog
  • Escape from New York
• Starring Sam Niel, Jurgen Prochnow, Julie Carmen, and David Warner
• Budget of 8 million with 8.9 million at Box
• Trivia
  • In the film, the works of Sutter Cane are occasionally quoted. Most if not all of these quotes are actually taken directly from several H.P. Lovecraft short stories with some adaptations to fit them into the film story. Most notably, in the scene where Styles reads to Trent as he gazes into the abyss–her speech lifts much of its description, including such elements as “the illimitable gulf of the unknown” from the last few paragraphs of Lovecraft’s “The Rats in the Walls.” In an earlier scene as well, Trent reads a line verbatim from Lovecraft’s “The Haunter of the Dark,” in reference to the black church being “the seat of an evil older than mankind and wider than the known universe.”
  • Hobb is an old word which was used to refer to the devil.
  • Hayden Christensen’s feature film debut. He’s the Paper Boy met by Trent on the road.
  • Robot Monster (1953), which Sam Neill is watching at the end of the movie, is one of director John Carpenter’s favorite monster movies as a kid.
  • Sam Neill, who was originally a director himself, suggested to director John Carpenter that he shoot some of the scenes in the hotel from above.
  • The six Sutter Cane novels which Trent uses to track down the town of Hobb’s End are the following: “The Hobb’s End Horror”, “The Feeding”, “The Whisperer in the Dark”, “Something in the Cellar”, “The Breathing Tunnel” and “Haunter Out of Time”. Also, these titles are direct references to H.P. Lovecraft’s works, a direct inspiration for the movie. These are “The Dunwich Horror” “The Whisperer in Darkness”, “The Rats in the Walls”, “The Thing in the Doorstep”, “The Shadow Out of Time” and “the Haunter of the Dark”. Also, the title of the movie refers to “At the Mountains of Madness”, yet another work from Lovecraft’s.
  • The rubber ball that bounces against Styles’ leg during the second encounter with the children has a pattern reminiscent of the “beach ball alien” from Carpenter’s Darkstar
  • When Jürgen Prochnow lets the monsters from the other side into our world, originally in the script the entire town was sucked into the other side. When this proved to be too costly, an effects artist over at Industrial Light and Magic recommended that instead he “tears” himself apart like paper.
  • At the end of the film, when Sam Neill approaches the movie theater showing the meta-film, the following credits can be seen (though some names are slightly blurred) on the movie poster outside the theater: “New Line Cinema Presents a John Carpenter Film ‘In the Mouth of Madness’ Starring John Trent, Linda Styles, Jackson Harglow, Written by Michael De Luca, Associate Producer Artist W. Robinson, Director of Photography Gary B. Kibbe, Production Designer Jeff Ginn, Produced by Sandy King, Director John Carpenter.” Except for the three lead character names, all the other credits are for the real film’s actual crew.
  • After Sutter Cane says “Did I ever tell you my favorite color is blue?” It is realized that throughout the entire movie, whenever an actor has a close up, their eyes are blue, proving Sutter Cane’s power.

Sinister (2012)

• Directed by Scott Derrickson
  • The Exorcism of Emily Rose
  • Doctor Strange
  • The Black Phone
• Staring Ethan Hawke, Juliet Rylance, Fred Tompson, and James Ransone
• Budget of 3 million and Box office of 87.7 million
• Trivia
  • Writer C. Robert Cargill got the idea for the script from a nightmare he had after watching The Ring (2002).
  • The family that was hanged on a tree were all played by stuntmen, however when the scene was first done the stunt coordinator botched the preparations for the scene resulting in the actors being legitimately hanged and choked. Fortunately they survived, and the coordinator was fired soon after.
  • at around 27 mins) The ‘Pool Party ’66’ snuff film in Sinister was extremely difficult to film according to C. Robert Cargill. The actors/actresses who played the doomed family were tied down to lawn chairs and pulled underwater in reality, and the filmmakers had to be extremely careful that nobody was harmed while filming the scene took place. Further complications occurred while filming the killer underwater; Nicholas King (Bughuul) had to wear weights and stay underwater for several seconds while he was filmed. Since the scene was filmed entirely on super 8 film, care had to be taken to ensure that the camera was properly rolling and that the cartridge and light meter were working, otherwise the scene would have to be re-shot numerous times.
  • There is very little blood, almost no cursing, and no sex in this movie because the filmmakers were hoping for a PG-13 rating. However, they still got an R based on content alone
  • Ethan Hawke had never seen the super 8 snuff films prior to the date of recording Sinister. When the scene where his character watches the snuff films was ready to be recorded, the soundtrack was matched up with the films and Hawke played out his role. His reactions to the films were recorded for Sinister and used in the final film
  • According to co-writer C. Robert Cargill, Bughuul “Mr. Boogie” was originally intended to look more like the Johnny Depp (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)) version of Willy Wonka. After going over this idea, it was decided that the deity looking like Willy Wonka would be “too silly for the film and not scary or mysterious enough”. Finally a photo was found on Google Images that Cargill bought the rights to, and this was the basis for the final Bughuul as seen in the finished film.
  • Ethan Hawke plays a writer, which he is in real life, having written two novels: “The Hottest State” (1996) and “Ash Wednesday” (2002).
  • In the scenes where a scorpion and snake are shown in the attic, these are two of Bughuul’s forms, as depicted in the ancient drawings given to Ellison by Professor Jonas in the movie.
  • The ‘missing’ children were all dressed with fashions and hairstyles popular in the era that their families’ murders took place. Lawn Work Girl’s yellow rain slicker was popular for children in the era of her murder, BBQ Boy’s t-shirt was popular in the era of his murder and so-on.

Frailty (2001)

• Directed by Bill Paxton in his directorial debut
  • Acted as
    • Predator 2
    • Alien 2
    • Terminator
    • Apollo 13
    • Twister
    • Tombstone
  • Starring Bill Paxton, Matthew McConaughey, Powers Boothe, and Matt O’Leary.
  • Budget 11 million and box office of 17 million
  • Trivia
    • When asked why the axe used by his character has the name “OTIS” carved into the handle, Paxton stated that he wanted the axe to have its own personality and to be unique. He found the name in Pasadena when he was there scouting for locations to film. Paxton met a homeless man and offered to give him some money. The homeless man did not want charity, so Paxton instead offered to buy the use of the man’s name for his movie. The homeless man’s name was Otis.
    • Bill Paxton used the same beer can the entire filming of the movie because they could only find one Hamm’s beer can like that from 1979. The can was “opened” off-camera and a sound effect added for popping its top (explained in the director commentary at around 52 mins).
    • Directors James Cameron, Sam Raimi and author Stephen King all singled out Frailty (2001) for high praise. King considered it one of the best horror movies of its year.
    • Loosely based on the case of American serial killer Joseph Kallinger who murdered three people and tortured four families. He committed these crimes with his 13-year-old son Michael between 1974-1975 in New Jersey. Kallinger pleaded insanity, claiming God had told him to kill.
    • Bill Paxton made the film for multiple viewings. “The first time you sit through Frailty you get pulled into the story kind of subjectively, and there’s this whole kind of creep factor. But on your second viewing there’s a lot of satisfaction as there are a lot of clues laid out in front of the viewer.”
    • The soundstage work here was filmed opposite the production of Legally Blonde. “I would come out all covered with blood, and I’d see Reese Witherspoon in her pink Chanel outfits holding her poodle and just say ‘Hey, how’s work going today?'”
    • Bill Paxton’s directorial debut. Allegedly, the title Frailty (which is never spoken in the film) refers not to the slow disintegration of the family, but to the very low budget for the movie. Lion’s Gate considered changing the title to “God’s Hands” (which is a phrase spoken in the film) but Paxton and writer Brent Hanley insisted against this. Ironically, the Brazilian title is ‘A Mão do Diabo’ (The Devil’s Hand’).
    • Bill Paxton thinks his own acting is a bit over the top in the scene where they’re burying the sheriff and dad almost attacks Fenton with the shovel.
    • Powers Boothe is one of Bill Paxton’s favorite actors. They met on Tombstone and became friends, “and when I read this script I immediately thought of him as kind of the iconic FBI guy.”
    • Bill Paxton planned to have the demons’ crimes shown when Dad first touched them. At James Cameron’s suggestion, he changed this so the information is a surprise that comes at the end, Cameron said to him, ‘You gotta remember film is so literal that you’re going to split the audience, and a lot of them are gonna believe that dad really is seeing all this stuff, and you don’t want that to happen because you want them to go with Fenton.'”
    • The bespectacled man (and soon-to-be victim) in the car is played by Paxton’s long-time acting coach, Vincent Chase.

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019)

• Directed by Andre Overdal
  • Troll Hunger
  • Mortal
  • Autopsy of Jan Doe
• Story by Guillermo Del Toro, Patrick Melton, and Marcus Dunstan
• Starring Zoe Collieti, Michael Garza, Gabriel Rush, and Austin Zajur
• Trivia
  • Contortionist Troy James, who appeared on America’s Got Talent, portrayed the Jangly Man. CGI enhanced the movements of his face, but he performed the movements of walking backward, and crawling upside down himself.
  • While Stella is first going through the book of stories, several stories from the Scary Stories book series can be seen such as The Cat’s Paw, The Attic, and The Wendigo.
  • Auggie’s costume, as continually explained by him, is not a clown, but a pierrot. Pierrot is a stock character of mime and the comedia dell artes. Pierrot is a white faced character played without a mask, who is usually cast as a servant with unrequited love for a character named Columbine. Pierrot is usually the butt of jokes, who plays pranks on main characters, and is often called the sorrowful jokester. In addition, the white makeup of Pierrot is the inspiration, in part, for the modern white-faced clown.
  • The film is based on the “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark” book series published in the 1980s, written by Alvin Schwartz and illustrated by Stephen Gammell.
  • In almost every frame of the film the colour orange and/or yellow is visible.
  • The Pale Lady character presented a few challenges as well, but it was a fun build for the team overall. This suit would also be worn by Mark Steger, a veteran monster suit actor known for bringing many characters to life with Spectral Motion in the past, including the Demogorgon from the first season of Stranger Things. Mike Elizalde explained one of the performance problems created by the character design, “there was the issue of where the eyes were. They’re too far apart for a human. So we had to create little peepholes for Mark to be able to see where he was going.” There was also a lot of discussion about how to execute The Pale Lady’s outfit, which resulted in an unsettling solution. “We decided that we don’t know what it is. We don’t know if it’s skin or if it’s nightgown fabric that’s fused on which makes it even creepier,” explained Elizalde. “In the paint job, there are these stains that have dried, and it’s terrifying. You don’t want to get nEvery character’s “scary story” is directly related to their own fears. Tommy hates the scarecrow, Harold, and it ends up killing him. Auggie frequently expresses concern about what’s in the food we eat and he ends up eating the toe. Ruth panics when the spiderweb touches her and she is driven mad by spiders. Chuck specifically mentioned his nightmare about the red room and it came true in the hospital. Ramon feels like a coward for avoiding Vietnam and the monster that comes after him calls him “coward” when he attacks. As for Stella, she seems to relate to Sarah as she too feels like she doesn’t belong, and in her story she literally takes Sarah’s place.ear this thing!”
  • Some of the monsters seen in the film are actually from different stories. The drawing the corpse looking for her toe is actually from a story about a haunted house, while the jangly man seems to be a mix of his own story titled “Footsteps” and from “me tie do ti ty walker,” as he is initially a head that falls down the chimney and speaks the phrase, before attaching other limbs. The only monsters who are from their own stories are the spiders, the pale lady, and Harold.