Want to see something really scary?
The horror genre is especially fertile ground for Easter eggs, because it's always unnerving
to discover something hiding in plain sight.
Here are a few particularly ominous Easter eggs hidden in some of your favorite horror
films.
Potential spoilers ahead!
Many people consider 1973's The Exorcist to be one of the finest horror films ever made.
Sure, some of the scares and effects might not pack the same punch they once did…particularly
after decades of parody and imitations.
Nevertheless, The Exorcist still manages to unnerve audiences all these years later.
To add to the unease, director William Friedkin included all sorts of subliminal sounds and
images.
Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, he discussed layering sounds deep into the film's mix,
like the buzzing of bees.
Friedkin hoped such these effects would trigger an unconscious fight-or-flight response in
the viewer.
To that end, Friedkin also inserted a frightening face into a few shots, and they're just fast
enough for you to register that something freaky is afoot.
Sure, the face looks a lot less impressive once you get a close look at it…but thanks
to some stealth editing, it's an admittedly creepy effect.
John Carpenter's The Thing features some impressive practical creature effects and a slow burn
plot that still has people questioning the ending.
This '80s cult classic stars Kurt Russell as a helicopter pilot fighting against a shapeshifting
alien on a remote base camp in Antarctica.
Yes, it's as awesome as it sounds.
The thrills come from watching the dwindling research team try to determine which of their
supposed peers is actually the creature.
That's no small feat, considering the alien can mimic anything it touches.
Here's the thing, though: If they'd known how to speak Norweigan, the team could've
avoided their predicament altogether.
At the beginning of the film, a dog runs towards the team, and a clearly traumatized man is
trying to shoot the creature.
He's passionately shouting something, but it's not in a language that any of the researchers
understand.
[speaking Norwegian]
According to some translations, the man is shouting something along the lines of:
"Get the hell outta there.
That's not a dog, it's some sort of thing!
It's imitating a dog, it isn't real!
Get away, you idiots!"
They probably wouldn't have believed him anyway...but it's still rather chilling to know the plot
is all laid out in the film's opening moments.
The 2004 horror film Saw totally cleaned up at the box office, earning almost 100 times
its $1.2 million budget.
The reveal of Jigsaw's identity is a real shocker, but eagle-eyed fans could've figured
it out much sooner if they noticed one subtle detail.
Early on in the film, we meet one of Dr. Gordon's cancer patients, a fellow by the name of John
Kramer.
At one point, we see Kramer resting in his hospital bed, and savvy viewers might have
noticed an intriguing drawing on a page of his sketchbook.
Yes, it's a drawing of the infamous "reverse bear trap"…you know the one.
The sketch is a nice touch that's sure to appeal to obsessive horror fans.
Life is all about enjoying the little things...isn't it?
"Most people are so ungrateful to be alive."
Pennywise the Dancing Clown is creepy no matter how you slice it, both in Stephen King's gargantuan
horror novel It, and in the stellar two-part film adaptation.
In fact, the movie includes one particularly chilling detail from King's novel: Pennywise
can change the color of his eyes at will.
Considering all the other things he's capable of, like, you know, transforming into a physical
manifestation of your greatest fear, this might not seem like such a big deal.
It's why he does it that really makes your skin crawl.
At the beginning of It: Chapter One, Georgie has a famously ill-fated encounter with Pennywise…and
you might have noticed that the clown's eyes suddenly change from yellow to blue.
That comes directly from a passage of King's novel:
"There were yellow eyes in there: the sort of eyes he had always imagined but never actually
seen down in the basement."
A few paragraphs later, King writes,
"How, George wondered, could I have thought his eyes were yellow?
They were a bright, dancing blue, the color of his mom's eyes."
Pennywise realizes Georgie is about to run away, so he changes the color of his eyes
to mirror Georgie's loved ones, therefore putting the boy at ease.
How insidious of him.
"Popcorn!
Is that your favorite?"
"Uh huh."
"Mine too.
Because they pop."
The Conjuring 2 plays a fun game of peek-a-boo throughout the film: the demon's name Valak
is subtly sprinkled throughout various scenes, always hidden somewhere in the background.
For instance, it's written here on the kitchen wall.
The 'V' comes from the "Love" knickknack sitting on top.
It's also here, on the bookshelf, there are five wooden letters spread out across the
shelves.
The next time you check out The Conjuring 2, you're cordially invited to play a game
we like to call "Where's Valak?"
For instance, you can also see the name spelled out in the beaded necklace Lorraine's daughter
is making.
Let's see if you can spot it.
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