Burglars, vampires, and sex games gone wrong!
Cannibals and werewolves collide in a dark cave! And all the slashers from
the 80s come in for a huge party. Did you notice these creepy connections?
Throughout all three films that make up the "Evil Dead" trilogy and the TV series,
"Ash vs. Evil Dead," creator Sam Raimi weaves in a number of references to iconic horror movies.
The most notable being a direct tie-in to Wes Craven's "A Nightmare on Elm Street."
In a brief blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment, eagle-eyed fans can spot the iconic bladed glove
of Freddy Krueger in the work shed sequence in "Evil Dead II." If that weren't enough,
Freddy's glove also appears in a similarly small capacity in "Ash vs. Evil Dead," still hanging in
the work shed when Ash returns to the cabin decades after the events of "Evil Dead II."
According to Esquire, the explanation behind the appearances of Freddy's glove in the film
and Raimi's TV series dates back to a friendly game of one-upmanship between Raimi and Craven.
Noticing a torn poster for "Jaws" in the background of Craven's "The Hills Have
Eyes," Raimi decided to include a poster for "The Hills Have Eyes" in his first "Evil Dead" movie,
as if to hint that Raimi's film was scarier than Craven's. In turn,
Craven included a scene from "The Evil Dead" in "A Nightmare on Elm Street,"
prompting Raimi to include Freddy's famous glove in "Evil Dead II." Now, this is the
sort of friendly banter and competition that fans love to see between filmmakers.
"Groovy"
"A Nightmare on Elm Street" isn't the only horror franchise that "The Evil Dead" series ties into.
In the ninth entry of the "Friday the 13th" series, "Jason Goes to Hell:
The Final Friday," the movie's director included several props from the "Evil
Dead" films that seemed to connect his film with Raimi's horror series.
In "Jason Goes to Hell," items like the Kandarian Dagger and the Necronomicon
Ex-Mortis from "The Evil Dead" are prominently shown, with one character even momentarily
flipping the pages of the Necronomicon. Rather than it being a simple tribute like
the inclusion of Freddy's glove in "Evil Dead II," the director of "Jason Goes to
Hell" made it very clear that the link runs much deeper than a mere visual reference. In fact,
it was his attempt at ensuring these two franchises would be linked forever.
In an interview with Horror Geek Life, director Adam Marcus said the appearance
of the Necronomicon is meant to non-verbally establish that Jason Voorhees' mother, Pamela,
read from the book in order to raise her son from the dead. As Marcus sees it, such an explanation
helps provide a feasible reason as to why Jason goes from a young boy to an unstoppable killing
machine by the second "Friday the 13th" film. In other words, he simply has to be a Deadite.
Marcus fully supports his self-created fan theory, telling naysayers it's now canon and that's final.
Taking a more comedic approach to the slasher genre, "Bride of Chucky" is known for acting
almost as an outright spoof of slashers than anything else,
poking fun at numerous horror movies of its day. Slasher fans can spot any one
of the large number of references the movie makes to well-known horror films. However,
the most straightforward example of this being in the movie's opening moments.
The scene in question finds Tiffany Valentine hiring a corrupt police officer to retrieve
Chucky's remains from police custody. Venturing into the department's evidence locker room, the
police officer passes several artifacts of slasher fame. These include Michael Myers' white mask from
"Halloween," Jason's hockey mask from "Friday the 13th," and Freddy Krueger's blade-fingered glove
from "A Nightmare on Elm Street." There's also a chainsaw that may be the property of either Ash
from "Evil Dead" or Leatherface from the "Texas Chain Saw Massacre" series.
"I think I prefer you like this. You're kinda cute."
"Sharknado" is a horror series that falls under the umbrella term "so bad, it's actually kind
of good." Consisting of sequels, prequels, spin-offs, and even video games and comics,
the "Sharknado" franchise is known for its laughably poor effects,
its over-the-top acting, and its endless supply of celebrity cameos.
Like every entry in the franchise, "Sharknado: The 4th Awakens" is no exception to this latter rule.
One of the minor characters to appear in the film is taken straight out of "Texas Chainsaw Massacre
2": the radio DJ best known as Stretch. Surviving her run-in with the cannibalistic Sawyer family,
Stretch goes on to appear in "Sharknado," once again played by Caroline Williams
in a small but entertaining cameo appearance.
By the events of "Sharknado," Stretch has settled down, fittingly opening a chainsaw store with
her friend, Chop Top, played by Dog the Bounty Hunter. The concept of a chainsaw store is an
obvious reference to Williams' starring role in "Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2." However,
the name of Dog's character also serves as a clever nod to the film,
sharing his name with the member of the villainous Sawyer clan who menaces Stretch.
Since his debut film "Reservoir Dogs," Quentin Tarantino has created one of the most layered
filmographies of any director working today, mastering a range of diverse styles and genres.
As drastically different as each of his movies are, almost all of Tarantino's films
have been revealed to exist within one massive shared universe known as the Tarantinoverse.
In certain cases, the connections between Tarantino's films may be something as small,
or they could be larger, such as a character who crosses over into
other films. One great example of this is his Southern lawman, Sheriff Earl McGraw,
played by regular collaborator Michael Parks, who appeared in several Tarantino-related films.
Introduced in the Tarantino-penned "From Dusk Till Dawn," McGraw seemingly meets his end at the hands
of the fugitive Gecko brothers at the start of the film. However, the character went on to appear
in a handful of other Tarantino films, including "Kill Bill" and "Death Proof," as well as Robert
Rodriguez's "Planet Terror," meaning that each one of these films exist within the same universe.
"Does anybody know what's going on here?"
There is a major connection that places Joe Dante's "The Howling" and the iconic
slasher franchise in the same universe. This connection can be spotted in Walter
Paisley's occult bookstore, with the mummified remains of a woman spotted in the background.
A more careful look at the body reveals that this is actually
the corpse of Great-Grandma Sawyer from the "Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2."
As the mummy is spotted in a bookstore primarily dealing with the occult, it shouldn't
be surprising that a notorious figure like the Sawyers' matriarch found its way into Paisley's
macabre collection. More than likely, Grandma Sawyer's appearance in the film can be explained
by the fact that "The Howling" production designer Bob Burns also worked on "The Texas Chainsaw
Massacre," likely using props he already had on hand from that film to stock Paisley's bookstore.
Still, it's interesting to wonder what a universe where Leatherface battles werewolves,
and what the resultant carnage that would ensue from such an epic encounter, would look like.
In addition to its connection with Tobe Hooper's "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre,"
"The Howling" also happens to tie into another of director Joe Dante's works.
In the werewolf film, a news anchor named Lew Landers appears briefly,
seemingly named in part for the director of the Bela Lugosi-starring "The Return of the Vampire."
In Dante's follow-up movie, "Gremlins," Lew Landers reappears in a minor capacity.
This time reporting on the Mogwai invasion of Kingston Falls.
The connection is a small one, but it's still interesting to see Landers appear
in a manner that ties the two Dante-directed films together.
Aside from Landers' appearance in both films, there is a small visual connection that further
links Dante's two movies. In a small scene in "Gremlins," a yellow smiley face sticker appears
on the Peltzer family's refrigerator. This can be seen as a reference to the calling card of
Eddie Quist, a serial killer in "The Howling," who leaves behind smiley face stickers at the
locations of his past murders. It's subtle, but it's easily noticeable to fans of both films.
"Having fun?"
“Fun!” In the decades following the release of "Jaws,"
dozens of films have tried to cash in on that landmark movie's success
by depicting everyday animals as uncharacteristically aggressive maneaters.
The most notable of these "Jaws" rip-offs is Joe Dante's "Piranha,"
the movie that led to the director's meteoric rise in Hollywood. Receiving mixed reviews at
the time of its release, the film went on to achieve cult status in the years that followed.
It led to a sequel and two remakes, one of which was released in 2010 as "Piranha 3D."
Coming full circle with the undeniable influence of "Jaws" on the film,
"Piranha 3D" opens with an elderly fisherman being devoured by a school
of ravenous piranhas emerging from an underwater cave. Played by Richard Dreyfuss,
the fisherman appears to be wearing an identical outfit to the one worn by his character,
Matt Hooper, in "Jaws." As it turns out, this was not an accident, but an intentional
effort to establish the fact that Dreyfuss is playing the same character in both films.
As Dreyfuss told Hollywood News:
"I play the older Matt Hooper, who escaped being eaten by the shark
and is now eaten by a bunch of piranha fish."
"Haha, they're all gonna die"
Filmmaker Mike Flanagan has cultivated quite an impressive reputation as a modern horror director,
tackling several ambitious adaptations of Stephen King's work and helming some of his
own equally entertaining original projects. A link between two of the director's best projects can be
found in his 2017 Netflix thriller, "Gerald's Game," based on King's novel of the same name.
In the film, the main character, Jessie, is left chained to a bed
while getting intimate with her husband, who suddenly passes away from a heart attack.
As Jessie searches for ways to free herself from her handcuffs, viewers can see a book
on a shelf above Jessie's bed in several scenes. The book, titled "Midnight Mass," is written by
Maddie Young. Maddie is also the name of the main character of Flanagan's previous film, "Hush."
As if that weren't a powerful enough connection,
the title of Maddie's book would even serve as a premonition for Flanagan's later effort,
"Midnight Mass," which is an excellent horror miniseries in its own right.
"You're so much smaller than I remember."
Director Neil Marshall is responsible for delivering some of the most vastly
underrated horror movies of the past few decades. Two of which include his wonderful werewolf film,
"Dog Soldiers," and his claustrophobic horror shocker, "The Descent." As vastly different as the
two movies are, they do share common threads that place them within the same nightmarish universe.
The connection between the two films can be seen in "The Descent," when the film's main character,
Sarah, looks over the various skeletal remains of past meals devoured by the carnivorous creatures
living in the underground cave system. In the scene, Sarah briefly scans over
what looks like the head of a giant werewolf from Marshall's previous film, "Dog Soldiers."
In another minor scene in the film, Sarah picks up an old helmet with the name "Oswald" written
across it that she finds in the underground cave. This serves as another tie-in to "Dog Soldiers,"
referencing a close friend of that film's chief protagonist, Harry G. Wells, whom he reminisces
about in the film. While Wells reveals that Oswald met his end via a landmine in the Iraq War, it's
worth wondering if he'd maybe ventured into the same cave system shown in "The Descent" sometime
before his gruesome demise. Perhaps that could be a prequel film idea for Marshall to consider.