10 Facts About Your Favorite Horror Movies

Halloween means horror movie marathons all month long! Whether it be an old school classic or a more recent pick, they're essential for getting into the spooky spirit. Here are some interesting facts about some of the best horror movies out there.

Gene Hackman was initially going to star and direct in Silence of the Lambs. Hackman and Orion Pictures split the $500,000 that was needed to get the movie rights to the book, but he ended up dropping out after he watched clips of himself at the 1989 Oscars. He played FBI Agent Alan Parker in Mississippi Burning and didn't want to follow up a dark role with an even more unlikeable character.

Robert Englund is iconic for his role as Freddy Krueger in Nightmare on Elm Street, but he wasn't the first choice for the role. Wes Craven initially wanted to use a stuntman for the role instead of an actor. After he realized this was a poor choice, his original pick was David Warner, who you'd know from Titanic, but Warner had to pass on the role. This left a door open for Englund who ended up being a great choice.

The Exorcist is one of the most legendary horror films ever made. It was also the first horror movie to be nominated for a Best Picture Academy Award. The film earned a total of 10 Oscar nominations in 1974. Linda Blair was nominated for Best Supporting Actress when she was just 15 years old at the time.

One of the biggest unanswered questions from The Shining is who typed the 500 pages of "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" for the famous scene? Director Stanley Kubrick has been rumored to have typed all 500 pages individually. He didn't go to the prop department with the task and used his personal typewriter. The typewriter had a built-in memory so it might have turned out the pages without an actual person typing. However, the individual pages in the movie had different layouts and mistakes, which some claim could have been characteristic of Kubrick to do this. We'll never know the answer since he never addressed it before his death.

Child's Play was based on a true story of a family who had a "Robert the Doll" toy who they believed had a voodoo curse placed on it. Supposedly, the doll would move from room to room, knock over furniture, and conduct conversations with the owner.

For The Craft, an actual witch associated with the Wiccan organization Covenant of the Goddess was hired as a consultant for the film. She played a big role in the production process and at times worked directly with the actresses.

Three of the biggest horror movies of all time were all inspired by the same serial killer. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Silence of the Lambs and Psycho were all based around Ed Gein.

One of the most profitable horror films of all time is Paranormal Activity. The film had a budget of only $15,000 and grossed $193 million after its released.

Scream's first title was Scary Movie. Its name changed in the middle of production after the Harvey Weinstein was listening to the Michael Jackson song "Scream" in his car with his brother Bob and thought it was a better name for the film.

The original ending of Steven Spielberg's Jaws was a lot more "Moby Dick" than the ending we got. He initially planned on killing the shark with a harpoon but wanted it to be more a crowdpleaser. That's how we ended up with the iconic tank explosion for the finale of the film.