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The pause button is every horror hound's best friend.
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00:00Every film director ever must have grown up with a copy of Where's Wally in their house,
00:04because they love to hide tiny details in the background of shots for their audience to try
00:08and track down. The horror genre is no exception to this, as some of the most famous frightening
00:13films of all time are littered with secrets and easter eggs. Some are pretty obvious,
00:18but others require a much keener eye, or if you feel like cheating, a little help from
00:22the trusty TV remote. Do TVs even have remotes anymore? Who knows?
00:26The following 10 details all happen so quickly that you'd need to be John Wayne on the pause
00:31button to actually capture them. However, some people out there were fast enough to do so,
00:35and we have all those people to thank for this list. And so, with that in mind,
00:39I'm Ellie with WhatCulture, here with 10 Horror Movie Secrets Never Meant To Be Found.
00:45Number 10. Freddy's Glove in Evil Dead 2
00:48The follow-up to Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead holds a special place in many a horror fan's heart.
00:54A much more comedic visit to the land of the Deadites, Evil Dead 2 is considered by many as
00:59one of the greatest horror sequels ever made. One blink and you'll miss it cameo in the movie
01:03comes when Ash is rooting through a tool shed in order to find weapons. He misses a really famous
01:08one as the iconic bladed glove of Freddy Krueger is hanging on the wall right behind him. And this
01:14isn't the first time Raimi has referenced the work of Wes Craven in his output. The glove's
01:19appearance was actually the result of a long-standing contest between the two filmmakers,
01:23as they each tried to cram in bits of each other's canon into their own films.
01:28The first Evil Dead film contained a ripped-up poster for Craven's The Hills Have Eyes,
01:32which led to Wes including footage from that movie in A Nightmare on Elm Street.
01:36Thankfully, this practice seemingly stopped after Evil Dead 2, because otherwise,
01:41we'd be here for a while.
01:42Number 9. The Xenomorph Skull in Predator 2
01:46Another sequel now, although one that was viewed much more negatively than Evil Dead's second go
01:51around. Predator 2 followed on from the events of the first movie, transposing the action from
01:56the jungle to the streets of Los Angeles. Suppose those are jungles in their own way.
02:00There comes a scene in the movie where we get a look at the Predator's trophy room,
02:04a temple to the various kills the titular alien has scored over the years. Alien is the operative
02:09word in that sentence, as one of the mementos was extremely familiar. In amongst the various
02:14skulls mounted on the walls was a long cylindrical one that bore a striking resemblance to the
02:20Xenomorphs from the Alien series of film. That's because, well, it was a Xenomorph.
02:25Both film series were owned by Fox, and both featured design work from special effects legend
02:29Stan Winston. So as a little treat for keen viewers, the crew decided to place the skull
02:34in the trophy room. Unfortunately, by doing this, they did manifest into existence the Alien
02:38vs Predator film several years later. Big mistake, guys. Big mistake.
02:44Number 8. Pennywise's eyes in IT. Try saying Pennywise's eyes five times fast. Bet you can't.
02:50You might think that we're referring to the moment right at the start of IT Chapter 1,
02:54where Pennywise's bright yellow eyes can be seen in the darkness behind Georgie Denbrough whilst he's
03:00walking down to the basement. Whilst this is a very subtle hint, and one that you would definitely
03:04need the pause button to notice, it's not what we're on about here. When Georgie is confronted
03:08by the dancing clown in the infamous storm drain scene, his eyes are still that same piercing yellow
03:14colour. However, as the dialogue between the two progresses, they change to blue. Why? Does he have
03:19some sort of magic contact lenses in? Is this some secret clown thing that we don't know about?
03:24Actually, it's way worse than that. Pennywise changes the colour of his irises to the same colour
03:29as Georgie's mother and brothers. This is done to make the boy feel more safe before his inevitable
03:34demise. This is outlined in Stephen King's original novel, but those who have just seen the film now
03:39know the true horrifying cause of the clown's transforming features.
03:43Number 7. Matching shoes in Scream. It's another Wes Craven film, although this one doesn't have any
03:50Sam Raimi references in it that we know of. Scream from 1996 changed the game when it came to slasher
03:56Not only did it revitalise the genre by taking several loving jabs at its cliches, but it also
04:02completely flipped the script when it revealed that the main killer wasn't one person, but two.
04:07The Ghostface mask and costume were worn by both Billy Loomis and Stu Marker as the two teens sought
04:12their revenge on Sidney Prescott. At the time, this was considered a huge twist, but you would have seen
04:18it coming were you keeping an eye on the boys' footwear choices. Early in the movie, Billy, Stu and their
04:24friends are all sat by a fountain. If you look closely, you can see that the two secret killers
04:29are wearing matching boots, hinting that they are somehow linked. These are also the same shoes we
04:34see Ghostface wear later in the picture. If only they'd splashed out for something a bit more exciting.
04:39Maybe they'd have gotten away with it. Number 6. The Dancing Boy in Insidious.
04:45To call Insidious creepy would be to do it a massive disservice. The film is full of moments that put
04:50viewers teeth on edge, and the dancing boy scene is no exception. The Lambert family has just moved
04:55into a new house, hoping to escape the supposed hauntings of their previous abode. Sadly for them,
05:00they brought the ghoulies with them. Always check your pockets for spirits, people.
05:04One of the earliest signs that their new home is just as weird as their last one is when Mother
05:08Renee comes across the vision of a young boy dancing in her living room. The child is wearing what
05:13appears to be Victorian-era clothing, getting his groove on to Tiptoe Through the Tulips by Tiny Tim.
05:19To be fair, a banger. However, with the aid of the pause button, viewers can catch a glimpse of
05:24the young lad before Renee does. Whilst putting away some laundry, Renee walks past a coat hook.
05:29Standing just to the left of it, cleverly disguised as more clothing, is the dancing boy.
05:34Children are creepy at the best of times, but this was just freaky.
05:38Number 5. The Babadook's face in The Babadook.
05:42Home to the most annoying child in cinema history, The Babadook came out in 2014 and made everyone
05:47absolutely petrified to go to sleep. Jennifer Kent's first feature-length film told the story
05:52of the titular being, a horrifying monster that haunts the home of Amelia, a single mother to a
05:57young son. The film is symbolic of the struggles of parenthood and the perils of being a woman in
06:02the modern age, but it's also just straight-up frightening at times, as Mr Babadook goes to town
06:07on his poor victims. Like all good horror monsters, The Babadook is mostly kept in the shadows.
06:12We never really catch a glimpse of what it looks like outside of drawings in the pop-up book.
06:17However, during a scene where the fiend crawls across Amelia's bedroom ceiling, we spy the briefest
06:22of looks at Mr B's grisly face. Pale white skin, large black circles round the eyes, jet black teeth.
06:29Jesus, this guy never heard of Colgate?
06:31Whilst keeping it out of sight was a great way of maintaining the creature's mystique,
06:35this fleeting glance at its horrifying visage actually makes things even worse.
06:39Number 4. Monster cameos in Cloverfield
06:43Big monsters smashing up the place were nothing new when Cloverfield first premiered in 2008,
06:49but this Matt Reeves-directed flick did something really interesting with the genre.
06:53A found-footage-style film, Cloverfield put viewers right in the action as they witnessed
06:58New York fall from the perspective of those on the ground. Whilst helping to move the genre forward,
07:03the movie also pays homage to those films that came before it.
07:06Spliced in throughout the picture are several single frames from classic monster movies.
07:11Normal folk would miss something like this, but luckily for you, we have superhuman vision.
07:15And access to the internet.
07:17At different points, you can catch sightings of the giant ants from 1954's Them,
07:21the titular beast from 20,000 Fathoms from 1953,
07:25and the mac daddy of movie monsters himself, King Kong, turns up in all his original black and white glory.
07:31Sorry Godzilla, we're just huge fans of the huge ape.
07:33Not only is this a sweet tribute to some vintage cinema, it also adds to the overwhelming nature of the film.
07:39As if it needed to be any more intense, just reading the title is enough to make some people want to puke.
07:45Number 3. Hidden Cult Members in Hereditary
07:48If you ever feel like your family is messed up, just watch Hereditary and you'll feel a whole lot better.
07:53A series of deaths leads the Graham family to become entangled with a demon-worshipping cult.
07:58Multiple creepy things happen as the film speeds towards its horrific climax,
08:02but one spooky occurrence was so subtle that most viewers missed it the first time around.
08:07Right before Peter wakes up to see his mother Annie hanging from his ceiling,
08:11you know, just normal family stuff,
08:12there's a fantastic wide shot of the Graham's home that quickly transitions from daytime to night.
08:17In Amongst the Darkness, the very, very eagle-eyed Amongst Hereditary's audience
08:22can make out the silhouettes of about a dozen cult members scattered around the property.
08:26A few minutes later, those same cult members storm the house, and they're all naked.
08:31Seriously, this film has got a lot going on.
08:33Not only does this secret give away what's coming next,
08:36but it also serves as a metaphor for the Graham situation in the film.
08:40They're completely surrounded by this cult, but they don't realise until it's too late.
08:45Number 2. Mother's Skull in Psycho
08:48Is Norman Bates really a psycho?
08:50Well, yeah, he killed two people dressed up as his dead mother.
08:53Also, he agreed to appear in the Psycho sequel movies.
08:56Those are both instances of severely unhinged behaviour.
08:59The point we're trying to make is how much of that is Norman's fault,
09:03and on a wider scale, how responsible individuals are for their own actions.
09:07Bates' twisted relationship with his deceased mother
09:09is perfectly exemplified during the film's closing sequence.
09:13As Norman is being taken away by the police,
09:15he stares directly down the lens and smiles.
09:18As the scene fades into the next one,
09:20we can spot a brief overlay of his mother's skull on top of Norman's face.
09:25It's incredibly brief, even when slowed down,
09:27but it's just enough of a flicker to drive the point home.
09:30Considering that this would have been much harder to edit together in the early 1960s,
09:34this scene shows just how dedicated Alfred Hitchcock was to his craft,
09:39and how layered his films actually were.
09:41Or it was a stray piece of film left him by accident.
09:44Just kidding, this was 100% on purpose.
09:47Or was it?
09:48Yeah, it was.
09:48Number 1. William Friedkin relentlessly messing with us in The Exorcist.
09:54The Exorcist remains one of the easiest ways to lose three nights of sleep to this very day.
09:59Released in 1973, this adaptation of William Peter Blarty's novel
10:03is still utterly chilling for a number of reasons.
10:06Some obvious, some less so.
10:08Director William Friedkin made it his personal mission
10:11to scare the living bejesus out of every single one of his viewers
10:14in ways they couldn't even comprehend.
10:16He would lay the movie's score with deeply unsettling noises like bees buzzing
10:21or heavy machinery going off
10:23in an attempt to trigger audiences' fight-or-flight responses.
10:27Flight. Always flight.
10:28And then there are the faces.
10:30So many faces!
10:33The movie is peppered with subliminal frames of the demon Pazuzu's face
10:37that crop up out of nowhere.
10:38Exorcist fansite Captain Howdy has an incredibly detailed catalogue of all of them,
10:43if you fancy freaking yourself out for half an hour.
10:46So much work went into making The Exorcist what it is, and it all paid off.
10:50It still stands head and shoulders above 90% of the horror genre,
10:54and we'll still find new ways to make you scream even after so many years.
10:58And that concludes our list.
11:00If you think we missed any, then do let us know in the comments below,
11:02and while you're there, don't forget to like and subscribe and tap that notification bell.
11:07Also head over to Twitter and follow us there,
11:09and I can be found across various social medias just by searching Ellie Littlechild.
11:13I've been Ellie with WhatCulture,
11:14I hope you have a magical day,
11:16and I'll see you real soon.
11:18I'll see you real soon.
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