Category: horror comedy
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Horror Comedy Trivia: High Spirits
I am a long-time devoted fan of High Spirits. I can’t count the times I have watched it throughout my life. It is one of those movies I go to when I need cheering up, and it stands up as a great and perfectly silly movie each time I watch it every decade I grow older.
I learned from IMDb Trivia that writer and director Neil Jordan maintained that the released version of the film was very different from the one that he shot. He was more or less excluded from the editing process of the final cut. He insists that his version is still locked away in a vault.
I am not sure how I would react to seeing the director’s cut of High Spirits, but I would be curious to find out! I hope that version still exists somewhere to be shared one day.
Image from Film on Paper -
Happy Horrordays, Fiends!
Alternative Gremlins movie poster by Kevin Wilson, from alternativemovieposters.com -
Horror Comedy Trivia: Beetlejuice
The studio originally wanted to call Beetlejuice “House Ghosts.” As a joke, Tim Burton suggested the name “Scared Sheetless” and was horrified when the studio actually considered using it.
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Horror Comedy Trivia: Gremlins (1984)
Did you know that there are many connections to executive producer Steven Spielberg’s popular movie, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) in Gremlins?
One of the Gremlins says “phone home,” there is a stuffed E.T., and, at the beginning, one of the movies on the marquee is “A Boy’s Life,” which was the fake name under which E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial was shipped to theaters.
More facts about Gremlins at IMDb Trivia: Gremlins (1984).
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The Addams Family Mansion
A 19th century Victorian home in Los Angeles’ West Adams District provided the basis for the Addams Family Mansion. The Addams house, located at 21 Chester Place, was built in 1888. Oddly enough, the actual house is only shown in the first episode of the first season and is visible during an opening exterior shot, and during the show’s intro reel. Unlike the Addams Mansion, the real house at 21 Chester Place only had two floors! To add the third floor and the gothic tower, the show’s production crew took a 30 x 40 inch photo of the house and had a painter create the missing details.
During its existence, the Victorian house went through a number of ownership changes, eventually winding up in the hands of Mount St. Mary’s College. The house has subsequently been demolished to make way for a recreational track.
Learn about more the real landmarks behind recognizable houses from pop culture at 5 Fictional Homes That Exist in Real Life.
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Horror Comedy Trivia: Young Frankenstein
When Mel Brooks was preparing for this film, he discovered that Ken Strickfaden, who had made the elaborate electrical machinery for the lab sequences in the Universal Frankenstein films, was still alive and living in the Los Angeles area. Brooks visited Strickfaden and found that he had stored all the equipment in his garage. Brooks made a deal to rent the equipment and gave Strickfaden the screen credit he did not receive for the original films.
Frankenstein, 1931 
Young Frankenstein, 1974 Find more behind-the-scenes facts at IMDb Trivia: Young Frankenstein (1974).
The Devil's Muse 