Here are a handful of entertaining behind-the-scenes horror film stories:

-The cast and crew of Frankenstein are gathering to drive to location. It’s the day they film the (in)famous scene where the monster encounters little Maria, and the crew are nervous. Boris Karloff is in full makeup and costume, and 7-year old Marilyn Harris has never seen the monster before. How’s the little girl going to react to her first encounter with the Frankenstein Monster?

It’s time to go, and little Marilyn comes out to join the others. She looks around, spots Karloff, and makes a bee-line for him. Taking his hand she asks if she can ride with him. Karloff – who loves kids – says “Oh, would you darling?” And Maria happily rides alongside the monster to the location.

-Poor Claire Bloom doesn’t know what she did wrong. The small cast of Robert Wise’s adaptation of The Haunting has been filming together for weeks and she’s gotten along well with all of them…except for star Julie Harris, who seems to have been deliberately avoiding her the whole time. After shooting has finally wrapped, Miss Bloom still isn’t sure what she did to offend her co-star. Then, while she’s sitting at home one day, there’s a knock at the door. She answers it to find Miss Harris on the porch with a present and an explanation: because her character was supposed to be isolated and friendless, she thought that it would be best to keep herself aloof from her co-stars during the shoot. Miss Bloom is greatly relieved and a long friendship blossoms.

-It’s 2am and Kane Hodder’s had a hard night’s shooting on Friday the 13th Part 7. He’s in no mood for any more problems as he trumps through the woods to his dressing room, a quarter mile down the road from set, where he’ll finally be able to take off his heavy makeup and hockey mask. Another late night walker happens by him, takes a good look at his full Jason regalia, and asks if he’s part of the shoot that’s going on. What a stupid question, Hodder thinks. Why else would he be out in the middle of the night dressed like this? So he keeps walking. The guy, not quite getting the hint, keeps pestering him. Finally having had enough, Hodder feints a lunge at him, and the guy takes off at record speed through the woods.

The next day the director informs Hodder that the police might be by to have a word with him regarding a masked lunatic on the loose in the woods, but they never show up.