22 Facts About Horror Movies You'll Want To Tell All Of Your Friends

    Possible spoilers ahead!

    1. The Exorcist was the first horror movie to be nominated for an Oscar.

    2. In Friday the 13th, Jason Voorhees' name was orginally going to be "Josh." The name quickly changed because it needed to be "scarier" and to because Josh is screenwriter Victor Miller's son's name.

    3. Psycho is the first American movie to feature a toilet on-screen.

    4. The Blair Witch Project was filmed in just eight days.

    5. In Candyman, actress Virgina Madsen was actually hypnotized during certain scenes in an effort to get a more "authentic" reaction.

    6. Serial killer Ed Gein is the inspiration of three horror movies: The Silence of the Lambs, Psycho, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

    7. Shelley Duvall suffered from severe stress while filming The Shining, which caused some of her hair to fall out.

    8. British actor David Warner was originally going to play Freddy Krueger in A Nightmare on Elm Street.

    9. Paranormal Activty is the most profitable movie of all time. It cost $450,000 to make and grossed nearly $90 million.

    10. The school in The Birds is said to be a haunted house.

    11. According to Eli Roth, the idea for Hostel came about after a friend of his showed him a Thai website where people can pay $10,000 to "walk into a room and shoot somebody in the head."

    12. The cast and crew of The Amityville Horror remake kept waking up around 3 a.m., which is around the time the original murders took place.

    13. As if that wasn't terrifying enough, a dead body was found floating near the set.

    14. Final Destination is based on a rejected X-Files episode.

    15. Scream was originally titled "Scary Movie."

    16. Child's Play was inspired by real-life haunted doll "Robert."

    17. Michael Cera auditioned for the role of Cole in The Sixth Sense.

    18. The creature in Creature from the Black Lagoon is modeled after the Oscars statuette.

    19. The demon in The Exorcist is named Pazuzu.

    20. The set of Poltergeist featured actual skeletons because, at the time, real skeletons were cheaper than props.

    21. During the filming of The Conjuring, Vera Farmiga experienced several instances of paranormal activity, including finding claw marks on her thigh.

    22. Scream is loosely based on actual murders that took place in Florida.