I have been listening to an old podcast called 13 Nightmares, created by three childhood friends who talk about behind-the-scenes details and lesser-known facts about horror movies like Night of the Living Dead, Alien, and Scream. It’s quite interesting.

I started listening to my old podcasts and radio shows because my TV is acting up; the screen goes black during shows, but I can still hear the sound. I’ve checked the connections like Google suggested, but it stays black. The only way to get the picture back is to unplug it for at least 20 minutes, which sometimes works. It’s frustrating. I also noticed how much time I spend watching TV. And it’s a lot.

So I will tell some secrets of some of the horror movies the 13 NIGHTMARES podcast detailed, along with some of my own research while my t.v. has been out.

NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD

Night of the Living Dead, directed by George Romero in 1968. was originally supposed to be called “Night of the Flesh Eaters”, but there had been another movie in 1954 called “FLESH EATERS”, so Romero’s distributors settled on “Night of the Living Dead” at the last minute, causing him to lose copyright and a lot of money on the franchise “Night of the Living Dead“, leaving it to public domain. However, the movie was made with a little over $100,000, and netted in 12 million dollars back in 1968. That’s $111,715,862.07, today in 2025.

The movie is about 7 people being trapped in a rural farmhouse that is under attack by flesh eating “zombies”.

However, the term “zombie” was never mentioned in the script. The “zombies” were called ghouls.

The movie was made with 9 friends who each pitched in about $600 of their own money to rent the old abandoned farmhouse that’s in the movie because studio sites were too expensive. They also filmed in black and white to reduce costs, and to make it more dramatic.

How is it possible a slow moving ghoul is able to attack a moving human?

One problem Romero faced was how a slow-moving ghoul could catch up to a running human. When they started filming, they had borrowed a car. It got into an accident off set, and they decided not to fix it, but write it into the script. The car is shown on film as running into a tree, halting the vehicle and scraping the side, with a girl in the driver’s seat. She escapes and runs up to the farmhouse, and the ghouls are able to take their victim (s) down. (https://theconversation.com/3-things-i-learned-from-teaching-students-about-horror-pioneer-george-romeros-movies-during-these-scary-times-148614)

Body Parts

The body parts that the ghouls were shown to be eating was really roast ham covered with chocolate sauce to show the cannibalism of the ghouls, and the sauce to look like blood.

They used morticians wax on the actor’s faces to make it look like decaying flesh.

Real animal organs and entrails were also used; sourced from a local butcher shop for free. The intestines were filled with water to make them larger and have more of a drastic effect.

CASTING

Friends, relatives, business associates all played the ghouls for free. They were not professional actors.

The African American man played in the movie was Duane Jones (1937-1988). The script did not call for any particular person; Romero basically said that Duane Jones was “the best actor we met to play Ben.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duane_Jones It was the first time an African American man was cast as a hero in a horror film. In the Zombie comic book series The Walking Dead, there is a character named after him as an honor.

ALIEN

Alien is a 1979 movie directed by Ridley Scott about a commercial starship crew that explores a derelict space vessel. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_(film) There, they encounter an Alien that starts hunting them, along with egg pods, and face-huggers.

I always wondered how one alien could produce eggs and how the process from egg to face hugger, to alien actually occurs.

Alien Reproduction

Turns out the process is called “ovomorphing”. An adult Xenomorph (the Alien) then finds a dead or a live host in where it cocoons them into a hard resin that exposes them to enzymes and growth hormones. This transforms the victims biologically into an egg. That egg produces the “face-hugger”. The face-hugger will attach itself to a live victim and impregnate it. The victim may feel fine until their insides burst open with the final alien.

Chest Burst

In the famous scene, John Hurt’s character, Kane, is eating at a table when he suddenly becomes ill and an alien bursts out of his chest.

The director Ridley Scott, and actor John Hurt were the only 2 people on the set that knew the alien would pop out of his chest. All the reactions from the crew’s actors are 100% genuine. The cast did know what the baseline of the action was going to be, but did not know they would be sprayed with real pig’s blood. A mechanical torso was filled with real animal guts and a compressed air cannon was used to create the scene. Their horror is real.

Other random facts

A German Shepard was brought in to make Jonesy, the cat, hiss and growl. His annoyance is real.

A 7’1″ Nigerian graphic artist by the name of Bolaji Badejo, was cast as the man underneath the alien suit. He was discovered at a pub in London by Peter Adram, a casting agent. They were looking for somebody incredibly tall and thin to fit into their alien costume. Bolaji Badejo;

To heighten the claustrophobia of the actors, Ridley Scott had the set walls pushed together ever so slightly every day but did not tell the crew he was doing it.

For the scenes with the lights and mist, Ridley Scott borrowed lights from the band The Who, who were testing their lights for a show next door. The band agreed to his request. The effects are amazing.

The Alien make-up

K-Y jelly was used for the saliva of the alien, and the jaws were made out of shredded condoms.

The Alien was originally supposed to have eyes, but H.R. Giger, the creature’s maker, decided it would look scarier without the eyes.

The front of the alien’s head was made from a cast of a real human skull.

Different names

Alien was not the first choice for the name of the movie. Memory, They Bite, and Star Beast were considered until they realized how many times the word “alien” was used in the film. They settled on “Alien”.

Alien was one of the first movies with a female action hero as the lead.

I ended up breaking down and buying a new t.v. I got an Amazon Fire TV for a good price. I’m pretty sure they don’t last too long, but we will see. Then, after I bought it, I realized that this is the first BRAND NEW t.v. I have ever bought. All my t.v.’s had been my friends who had upgraded, or a used one from marketplace. That’s a cool thing. Very grateful. I just hope I don’t lose the remote, which happens occasionally. Then my t.v. will cease to work.

First thing I did was watch Alien and Night of the Living Dead. So good!

I’m going to be more mindful of how long I watch TV. So much time!!!!

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Additional source: https://alltherightmovies.com/feature/30-interesting-facts-about-alien/