Over the last few decades, horror movies have become increasingly more popular as Americans love a good scare now and then. Nothing beats turning down the lights, curling up on the couch (or hiding behind it) and settling in for a scary movie fright-fest.
With a real horror show going on outside due to the continuing coronavirus pandemic, we’ve compiled a list of these must-see horror movie classics to help you enjoy some fictional fears and some behind the scenes facts that you can impress your friends and family with. So, here are fun facts about these horror classics.
Halloween (1978)
This wouldn’t be a list of classic horror movies without first starting with John Carpenter’s seminal horror classic. Although 1974s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Black Christmas had already done the psychotic killer picking off teenagers one by one, many film scholars argue that it was John Carpenter’s film that really gave birth to the ‘slasher’ movie craze that saturated our screens throughout the 80s.
One person who definitely wasn’t terrified of the knife wielding Michael Myers was financier Moustapha Akkad. From a script originally titled “The Babysitter Murders” (which took just ten days to write) and a budget of $300,000, Halloween would go on to be one of the most financially successful independent movies ever made as it would gross a staggering $47 million at the US box office, which would be around $195 million in 2020.
The Amityville Horror (1979)
Another independent movie that went on to make big bucks, $86.4 million from a budget of $4.7 million, was Stuart Rosenberg’s The Amityville Horror. Based on Jay Anson’s 1977 book of the same name, the story follows the alleged experiences of the Lutz family who claimed there were supernatural forces torturing and tormenting them in the house Ronald DeFeo Jr. had murdered his entire family in back in 1974.
Although lead actor James Brolin became friendly with the real Lutz family during filming he found their story to be highly dubious. However unbelievable Brolin thought their story was, what was even more unbelievable was just how much money Brolin made from starring in this horror classic.
Because the film had a modest budget, Brolin took less money upfront and instead agreed to 10% of the gross sales. That would eventually personally net him $17 million. Adjusted for inflation, in 2020 that would be about $64 million.
