Horror Movie Firsts - Halloween Theme

Andi 0:01

yeah, their Frog Hos essentially. So he specifically said flesh eating zombies. Yeah. Are there other kinds of

Tanner 0:11

a speaker Yes.

Andi 0:14

I learned of this movie as a child from an episode of SpongeBob

Tanner 0:19

it was awarded two Razi awards when it came out. What? Yeah. Worst director and worst actress

Andi 0:27

Hello, and welcome to this episode of the I Should Have Known podcast, the trivia podcast that can't be trusted. Each week our Quizmaster presents you with four big facts on a topic, but one of those facts is a lie, and we are finishing up our Halloween themed month with one last spooky episode. Run by our quizmaster tanner. He's going to be presenting us with four facts about horror movie firsts. So the first time certain things happened in horror movies but one of his facts that he'll be telling us is a lie. So join me, Andy, and our other host soups in trying to figure out which one it.

Tanner 1:04

Yeah. So last year we did an episode on horror movies. We discussed the first horror movie ever, and the first horror movie to be nominated for an Oscar.

Andi 1:13

I feel like horror movie is pretty generous for that first movie. mine It's like three

Sups 1:19

all are

Tanner 1:19

much longer than that.

Andi 1:20

Yeah. Yeah

Tanner 1:21

I'm not counting shorts.

Andi 1:23

Yeah. Okay.

Tanner 1:24

I would consider that a short,

Andi 1:26

it was long at the time.

Sups 1:28

It's

Tanner 1:29

really funny to go back and watch it again. It's,

Andi 1:31

it's interesting. Yeah.

Tanner 1:32

yeah. So let's start off with our low hanging fruit. What Alfred Hitchcock horror film has the first appearance of a toilet in an American movie.

Andi 1:42

Oh, whoa. Weird. Not so low hanging, but a classic trivia question. I mean, I would have to just guess Psycho.

Tanner 1:49

That's right. The famous shower scene. They have a toilet in the bathroom and you can see the toilet. And is the first flush on screen too.

Andi 1:57

Oh, interesting. Okay.

Tanner 1:59

1960. they were very taboo about showing toilets in the fifties.

Andi 2:03

Yeah.

Sups 2:04

Yeah.

Andi 2:05

let's do it

Tanner 2:05

do it. All right. Fact number one. The first vampire horror movie was Nosferatu from 1922.

Andi 2:13

Oh, I know this movie.

Tanner 2:15

You will know most of the movies today. Yes.

Andi 2:17

Yes. Okay. That's exciting. I was gonna say though, I learned of this movie as a child from an episode of SpongeBob and you knew I was gonna bring it up.

Tanner 2:26

Yeah. I was waiting for you to bring up

Andi 2:28

SpongeBob, No. Spra to why are the lights licking?

Tanner 2:32

Yes No SRA has a cameo in an episode of SpongeBob

Andi 2:36

Yeah So, yeah. Anyway, that's how I learned of this movie. I've never watched it, but

Tanner 2:41

Yeah, it's a silent film. I don't really watch silent films.

Sups 2:43

Okay. Makes sense why I haven't watched it.

Tanner 2:47

It's from 1922 called Nosferatu, A Symphony of Horror by the director FW Meau. It was about 63 minutes, And it's an interesting example of a movie that is still intact from the twenties. So a lot of movies in that time. They either got destroyed or degraded, But this one we still have You can still watch it. It's from Germany. It was the first adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula. And it was illegal? it was using his adaptation without getting the rights to

Andi 3:20

Oh, that I was going to ask then, why is it called no sferra? Exactly. So they just called it that cuz it's not

Tanner 3:27

Yeah,

Sups 3:28

it's, inspired from not adapted

Andi 3:30

Yeah. Cuz I guess bra strokers copyright were still good in 1922. Yeah. Cause for me it's like, I think of that as like, that's obviously a public domain story now but in 1922, I guess it wouldn't have

Tanner 3:42

Yeah. And they straight up mention like, this is based on this book, but they didn't get the rights.

Sups 3:47

Ah

Andi 3:48

They just went ahead and made it. Yeah. Wow.

Tanner 3:50

Yeah. Count or lock. Instead of Dracula. And actually the actor who played him was so good at it. A rumor started that he maybe was a vampire himself.

Sups 4:00

course

Andi 4:01

Wow. He is, I mean, a very unique looking character. Yeah. Like, I can like picture him in the movie, like I know what he looks like with like the pointy teeth and bald head and pointy ears. Like he's very scary looking

Sups 4:13

Yeah.

Andi 4:13

I don't know what he looks like in normal life, but it's pretty scary looking. Yeah. in that first movie that we talked about, that's like the House of the Devil or something like that. That's like the first horror movie. That guy literally, they just put like plastic devil horns on. Yeah. Like, it's so lame. Like it doesn't look scary in the least. Yeah. But like, no, Noro do He looks scary. Yeah,

Tanner 4:33

It's meant to be

Andi 4:34

horror. I can imagine that like in 1920, if I think he looks scary in 2022, I can imagine that in 1922 people were like their

Tanner 4:43

Yeah. Yeah, so it count, Orach is a blood drinking vampire in the film and he's played by Max Shrek, but Shrek is German for fright or fear. So yeah, so this is a like a pseudonym.

Andi 4:59

That was like his stage name.

Tanner 5:01

Yeah. He knew how scary he wanted to be and how scary people thought of him.

Andi 5:05

So Well good for him for just kind of leaning into being weird looking and being like, Yeah, I'm a horror actor. I don't care. Yeah. I'm a vampire guy. this fact Yes. well this is definitely a real movie. Yeah. And I know he is a vampire in the movie. Is he the first vampire?

Sups 5:21

Yeah I mean, well, I'm trying to think of all the horror movie timelines. Right? If the first horror movie, came out

Tanner 5:29

I'm Same year as the first Olympics, right 1896.

Sups 5:32

Yeah.

Andi 5:33

So if this is the lie, I think the issue is that he thinks we should know what the first man pair movie is. If it's not this. So like, I know there's an old timey Dracula.

Sups 5:45

That's The other

Andi 5:45

one that like a straight up Dracula. I can picture his face. Mm-hmm. And so it's like is that one earlier? Earlier? Yeah So then it's like, no, it's not Nosferatu, it's straight up. Right. Dracula. I don't know.

Sups 5:57

Yeah. I have a feeling, I think the first Dracula movie was around late 1920s, early thirties. and could be totally wrong But um yeah, I wasn't into German movies

Andi 6:07

like right after World War I, I guess that makes sense. They were like culturally traumatized people. They're just like demons and devils and vampires. Yeah, because our entire world has been destroyed.

Sups 6:20

mm-hmm.

Andi 6:21

I guess. Yeah. so we'll put a pin in this one. Let's hear the second one.

Tanner 6:25

this. All right. Fact number two. The first animated horror movie was The Adventures of Ichiba and Mr. Toad from 1949.

Andi 6:36

I've seen this movie.

Tanner 6:38

It's a Disney double

Andi 6:39

Yeah I know I have seen this movie.

Tanner 6:42

It's 68 minutes long, so it's definitely long enough to be considered a movie by

Sups 6:47

right

Tanner 6:48

Me

Andi 6:52

so You're implying that there were like animated shorts?

Tanner 6:55

there's like a seven minute Mickey Mouse. Short The haunted house.

Andi 6:59

Yeah the haunted house. Anyway The Sleepy Hollow.

Tanner 7:01

Yes. So it's a double feature. The first half of the movie is an animation adaptation of the wind in the Willows. Yeah, so that's the Mr. Toad part.

Andi 7:11

the wind in the Willows, it's like a bunch of like shortish stories, like for children and it's like Mr. Toad is like this English Esca gentleman who like literally just throws garden parties for his friends and like floats down the river and like, you know Mr.

Tanner 7:25

Esquire and his buddy Mr. Frog, they go and have a picnic.

Andi 7:30

yeah, their Frog Hos essentially.

Tanner 7:33

Yes. But then the second half is based on the 1820 short story Legend of Sleepy Hollow. And it tells the whole story of this guy, iBod Crane, coming to this sleepy town in America. And. The headless horseman who goes around with a jacko lantern as a head, and he basically kills people looking for a new

Andi 7:55

Yeah And so

Tanner 7:56

scary It scares him so much. that he either leaves town or just disappears. Right. It's kind of not clear at the end of the movie.

Sups 8:04

Mm-hmm.

Andi 8:05

I remember being very scared of this

Tanner 8:07

It

Andi 8:07

as a child It's like very intense. And it has the music, like, it's kinda like Fantasia. Yeah. Mm-hmm. where it has like the really intense music and it's scary. Also, Fantasia is scary. when the dragon cub and the, the Demonn mountain. Yeah. Anyway, I feel like you know, in the early. Era of animation, like even the concept of like a movie for kids. Like we made it cartoons, but it's like absolutely terrifying. Like children can't see toilets, they'll be like ruined for life. But like you can psychologically scare them and that's fine. Yeah. That's socially acceptable. like, it's very odd. The priorities here, but, Okay. 1949.

Sups 8:47

mm-hmm.

Andi 8:47

So this is the first animated horror movie was your fact Yeah. Well I mean, Snow White was their first animated feature, right? And I'm trying to think if that was before or after this. it's right around the same time. So then I'm like, Is this Tanner's Lie? Mm-hmm. if Snow White is after, then this is a lie.

Sups 9:05

Yeah.

Andi 9:06

So I don't know. I'm thinking, I know it's right around that time. That's where I'm thinking like, is this a lie or not? I'm pretty sure Cinderella is 1950. I feel pretty good about that.

Sups 9:15

Okay.

Andi 9:16

I'll have to think about that.

Tanner 9:17

okay, using a lot of background knowledge here. This is very interesting.

Andi 9:21

You didn't know how much I like Disney. I don't know I dunno. What how do you not know this Tanner? Like I still as an adult only watch kids movies. Yeah. So like, what would make you think, I don't know about Disney's really Disney movies. I don't, you know. Yeah.

Tanner 9:37

it makes total sense. Your connection to the first one is SpongeBob. The second one is Snow

Andi 9:41

White Yeah Yeah. Don't analyze that too much.

Tanner 9:45

All right. Let's see where your connection to the third one is

Andi 9:47

is. Okay Oh boy.

Tanner 9:48

fact number three. The first horror film to include flesh eating zombies. Was Night of the Living Dead from 1968.

Andi 9:58

Okay. I think I've seen this.

Tanner 10:00

Classic horror

Sups 10:01

Classic Yeah. Yeah. I've seen I think a lot of the modern day horror films, it's actually a lot of this is inspired from this movie

Tanner 10:10

Yeah So this is from George A. Romero, and he had a whole Living Dead series. Like he had Donna, the dad, But he really reinvented what zombies were on

Andi 10:20

film. Yes That's why I was gonna ask about the whole, So he specifically said flesh eating zombies. Yeah. Are there other kinds of

Tanner 10:28

a speaker Yes. So I consulted who I consider an expert on this. Oh. his name is Steve Baldwin and he has a podcast called Aim for the Head. go download or wherever you listen to podcasts Okay. But his podcast is about the Walking Dead. Okay. And then the spinoff and mm-hmm. He does a lot of horror movie podcast episodes, so I consulted him. and. We talked about how before Romero's Night of the Living Dead, there was White Zombie back in the thirties starring Bella Lugo.

Andi 10:58

Okay.

Tanner 10:59

Who's more famous? Were playing Dracula. Yeah But that was very different. So in the thirties, zombies were very connected to Voodoo and Caribbean and Haitian folklore and traditions. So basically in that movie, it's, it's very thirties.

Andi 11:15

So this how problematic is it on a scale of one to

Tanner 11:18

Bella Lugosi's a white guy and he plays a sorc. From the Caribbean who like kills people, brings him back and they just do his duty basically.

Andi 11:28

Okay.

Tanner 11:29

all the white main characters are terrorized by these black zombies. Yeah, but fast forward to the sixties and Romero just turns it all in its head. There's no more voodoo. and it's more of a kind of commentary. Consumerism and the sixties

Andi 11:45

Yeah. I've heard a lot of theories about, especially like vampires and zombies and how like in a lot of ways they represent different fears to different groups of people. So yeah, consumer,

Tanner 11:57

consumerism But the night of the living dead Romero didn't call them zombies himself, he called them ghouls.

Sups 12:04

Rome Yeah.

Andi 12:05

Oh by the like in d and d there's a distinction.

Tanner 12:07

Yeah. So by this time his second movie came out, he was on board with the name Zombies, but they didn't actually eat Brains until Return of the Living Dead, which is not a Romero film, as confusing as

Andi 12:19

that is. Oh, great Okay.

Tanner 12:21

Yeah. but this is the first time they eat

Sups 12:23

Okay.

Andi 12:23

Okay. Interesting. Yeah, So specifically flesh eating zombies, that's and I mean, yeah. Playing off of like, the revulsion to like cannibalism. and just dead bodies in general. I feel like I've heard before that this is the first zombie movie, like modern idea of zombie movie, which is always bad reasoning. But at the same time, when it comes to first the lie would be, Okay, well then what else? Yeah, I don't know. So I would think it would have to be something that I would.

Sups 12:53

something super famous

Andi 12:55

So I don't know. I, I don't like zombies. They creep me out. Mm-hmm. They're much scarier than vampires. they're mindless. they're like a horde.

Tanner 13:03

Yeah.

Andi 13:04

and they're us. these are your friends and family. Mm-hmm. coming back from the dead to eat you, right? Mm-hmm

Sups 13:10

and there's always a scene like, you know, your best friend, your lover, or whatever it is, is suddenly a zombie and you have a face to face

Tanner 13:17

Yeah can you do what's necessary

Sups 13:18

Yeah Exactly.

Andi 13:20

Alright, so one more to hear. Yep.

Tanner 13:22

fact. Number four. The first film adaptation of a Stephen King novel was The Shining from 1980.

Andi 13:30

Okay. Yeah.

Sups 13:32

I think we talked about this in what our

Tanner 13:34

We did talk about The Shining. 144 minutes based on King's 1977 novel, has written 64 novels and a bunch of short stories

Sups 13:43

With this movie I remember there was an issue with the script that Stephen King wasn't a very big fan of the way it was adapted.

Tanner 13:52

Yeah, like you said, like King and Kubrick, who directed it, they did not feel the same way about the movie. Yeah. Yeah. King did not like it. he was not a fan.

Sups 14:01

he was not a fan. I know. And there was a lot of fights and creative

Tanner 14:06

Yeah

Andi 14:07

I've never read that book, so I don't know what's different. I've only seen the movie.

Tanner 14:10

Yeah. Well, one huge thing is Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance. because Jack Nicholson had just made one flu over the Cuckoo's Nest Mm-hmm And so Stephen King's, like the audience is gonna expect him to go insane because he was just insane in the last film. Yeah. But the whole point of the shining is this normal guy slowly descends into madness and then goes on a murder's rampage along with his son getting like psychic powers

Andi 14:34

Yeah. Right. Yeah. That's the whole thing. Yeah.

Tanner 14:37

it's also a different perspective. Yeah. It's the kid's perspective in the movie. It's the dad's perspective in the

Andi 14:42

book Oh, well that's definitely an improvement. Yeah. That's much scarier and creepier. cuz you get the lack of understanding from a child's perspective. and it's the dramatic irony of like, the kid doesn't get stuff that the adult audience does. That's way better. Yeah. I actually like that movie. Mm-hmm. because it's almost not a horror movie it feels very like, Intelligent.

Sups 15:04

Yeah Yeah It's

Andi 15:05

like a psych It's aready, you know? it's not hack and slash you know, it's not about gore, even though there is like a hallway full of blood. Yeah, yeah. It's more psychological. Mm-hmm

Tanner 15:15

Mm-hmm

Andi 15:15

it's kind of a really weirdly unique movie in that way. Yeah. Which I think is why it's such a great movie and such a classic cuz it really is something that kind of on its own

Tanner 15:23

it was awarded two Razi awards when it came out. What? Yeah. Worst director and worst actress Yeah.

Andi 15:30

The film. What? Those are both very bad takes. Yeah.

Tanner 15:34

since then, it's been inducted into the Library of Congress because it's culturally significant. It's at over 80% on rot tomatoes.

Sups 15:41

yeah, when the movie released It didn't have a great reception. Yeah,

Andi 15:45

Why didn't people like it?

Tanner 15:46

A lot of people didn't like the pacing. They didn't think it felt hoish They're

Andi 15:51

intelligent Thrills. Exactly. yeah. Like it doesn't feel like a horror if you go in as a horror fan.

Sups 15:57

Yeah,

Andi 15:58

But what other king novel could there be? Yeah. That was earlier. Just not if that's or not. Also like the argument like, okay, if this movie didn't do so hot, why did they keep making adaptations of King novels? Right. Or were they like, No, this is Kubrick's fault. We can still make king novels into movies. Right. You know what I'm saying? Like if this was the first one, as he's claiming. I would think that that would be an argument. Like, no, we're, we're not gonna adapt this guy's books. They don't do very well. Mm-hmm. right. But like, I don't know when Shahan came out, Yeah. Yeah. And like all of those, like the non Horror King movies, do they come out first? Because I feel like the, King Horror movies are so eighties. They're like campy and eighties and weird But so that would be later. So that tracks All right, So I have a lot to think about. Yeah.

Tanner 16:46

Yeah

Andi 16:46

But before we guess, which one of your facts is a lie, can you please repeat them for us?

Tanner 16:51

sure thing. Fact number one. The first Vampire horror movie was Novera from 1922. Fact number two, the first animated horror movie was The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad from 1949. Fact number three, the first horror film to include flesh eating zombies was Night of the Living Dead from 1960. In fact, number four, the first film adaptation of a Stephen King novel was The Shining from 1980. One of those is false.

Andi 17:39

Okay What are you thinking?

Sups 17:40

Maybe number four.

Andi 17:42

You're thinking four. I think the lie is definitely two or four. Yeah, I think one and three are good.

Sups 17:48

One and three. I actually, yeah, there's nothing but two. You know, when you talk about Snow White and the dates and everything. Sure. That sounds about right. And four, yeah,

Andi 17:57

Yeah Just I mean, four. It's like very much like, it's simply, it's a different king novel and it's a movie you've heard of, so he feels good about making it the lie. Yeah, that's definitely like very suspicious. And number four and number two, I'm suspicious of because of like the date he gave, which could check out, but it's just so like, so close to the beginning of all of the Disney animation So I think I'll, pick two if you're gonna take four Okay. So that's where we're at. Okay.

Tanner 18:23

One of you picked two, one of you picked four So one is

Sups 18:26

Mm-hmm

Andi 18:28

nasra.

Tanner 18:29

The. Animated one is true. 1949 is when Ibotta, Mr. Toad came out. one? Snow White came out in 1937 fantasy film, also like Fantasia considered fantasy, not horror.

Andi 18:42

Oh, Fantasia is horrifying. I, That's miscategorized Well, demons are coming out of a volcano I don't, I was considered Mr. Toe taking picnics is the first horror

Tanner 18:55

Yeah. Yeah I do

Andi 18:56

Yeah,

Tanner 18:57

Number three is the lie is number four. the first Stephen King novel to be turned into a film was Carrie,

Andi 19:04

Carrie. Yes.

Tanner 19:06

1976 based on the 74 novel,

Andi 19:08

Forgot about that one also

Tanner 19:09

also Stephen King's first novel.

Andi 19:11

Oh I didn't know

Tanner 19:13

It was nominated for two Oscars. So just like you were thinking this one did great,

Andi 19:18

Carrie Carrie is scary.

Tanner 19:22

definitely like seventies, eighties style horror.

Andi 19:25

All right, I should have known.

Sups 19:27

I should have

Andi 19:28

Thanks for listening to this episode of the I Should Have Known podcast. We're finishing up our Halloween theme. We hope you all have a happy Halloween, and as always, thanks for listening. Red RAs,