SHOCK looks at 10 ways that the STAR WARS saga ties in to horror.
It’s a safe bet that if you’re a horror hound like us you’re also a pretty big STAR WARS buff. The whole beauty of George Lucas’s expansive universe is that it contains thousands upon thousands of creatures that could each have a whole sci-fi horror movie built around them. Also, Darth Vader? A psychotic mass murderer who can choke people with his mind? Totally sounds like a David Cronenberg character!
While there are some spine-tingling aspects to the Star Wars universe, did you know there are actual hard and specific connections to the horror world in these movies? With STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS arriving digitally on April 1 and on Blu-ray Combo Pack and DVD on April 5, there’s no better time to make a closer examination (autopsy?) of these terrifying connections!
Whether it’s a tribute to a classic genre movie or actors and directors who have delved into the gore zone, we have compiled a list of the 10 Biggest Horror Movie Ties to Star Wars, which you can find in the gallery below!
Also, be sure to order your copy of Star Wars: The Force Awakens by clicking here!
10 Biggest Horror Movie Ties To Star Wars
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Phantasm (1979)
Gwendoline Christie's Captain Phasma was one of the most intriguing (if underutilized) aspects of the new film. Here's J.J. Abrams himself explaining the name's origin in the Blu-ray doc "Secrets Of The Force Awakens: A Cinematic Journey": "The name came because looking at the chrome design of Phasma's uniform it reminded me of the movie 'Phantasm.' There's this chrome ball in Don Coscarelli's film, this kind of devil ball with spikes on it. I always loved the design of that, so when we were looking at this I thought, 'Phantasm' and 'Phasma'. It's a weird name but it felt like a fun, Star Wars-y name." Abrams and his company Bad Robot later restored Coscarelli's original Phantasm for a new Blu-ray release.
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Hammer Films
In "The Art of Star Wars: The Force Awakens," sculptor Ivan Manzella said, "J.J. wanted to base Snoke on the Hammer Films horror movies, giving the design a ghoulish look." While Andy Serkis's Supreme Leader was meant to evoke a Hammer movie monster, this might also have been a tribute to Hammer staples Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing having both appeared in Star Wars films. An earlier concept painting of Snoke used a photo of Boris Karloff as Ardath Bey in 1932's The Mummy, which you can also see in the final character's emaciated face.
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John Carpenter
"If I were a Carpenter… " Luke Skywalker himself Mark Hamill starred in two John Carpenter movies, the TV anthology "Body Bags" and the unfairly maligned remake of Village of the Damned. Speaking of which, Luke's pop Anakin (a.k.a. Hayden Christensen) made his feature debut as a young kid in Carpenter's In the Mouth of Madness! As if that weren't enough, Irvin Kershner directed the film Eyes of Laura Mars, written by John Carpenter. And guess who was on the shortlist to direct Return of the Jedi in 1981? You guessed it, John Carpenter.
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The Shining (1980)
In J.W. Rinzler's "The Making of The Empire Strikes Back," makers of the first Star Wars sequel describe the catastrophic effect a stage fire at England's Elstree Studios had on the production. During shooting on Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, either an electrical short or a still-burning cigarette caused the entirety of Stage 3 to burn to cinders on January 24, 1979. This forced Kubrick to utilize another stage, denying the ready-to-shoot Empire two soundstages it desperately needed. "We knew the day it happened that it was going to screw up our schedule," said George Lucas. "We also knew that Stanley would use that as a way of further delaying things so he could think about his film."
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Hugh Quarshie
Classically trained British thesp Quarshie is well known for appearances on British TV and Shakespearian stage roles, though his film output has been few and far between. He famously vacated his principle role of Captain Panaka in the Star Wars prequels after only appearing in The Phantom Menace, most likely due to salary demands. Before he journeyed to a galaxy far far away he dabbled in two back-to-back cult horror favorites: Clive Barker's Nightbreed (playing a detective) and Michele Soavi's woefully underappreciated The Church (playing a priest).
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The Legacy (1979)
Before he was chosen to direct Return of the Jedi, Welsh filmmaker Richard Marquand made his feature debut on The Legacy, a fun-if-unexceptional gothic horror film starring Katherine Ross, Sam Elliot and The Who's Roger Daltry. Facing many obstacles from interfering producers, it was not a happy experience for him. "He did 'The Legacy' to get into features," said George Lucas in "The Making of Return of the Jedi." "He's not too proud of it. I saw it. I wanted to see him at his worst. Considering the fact that the cast, the script, and everything were handed to him, and that he came on the picture just a few weeks before they started shooting, directorially what he was trying to do actually came through."
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Drew Struzan
This brilliant artist has done posters for every single Star Wars movie, including The Force Awakens. When he wasn't making some of the most iconic posters of all-time Struzan did gorgeous hand-painted one-sheets for such cult horror flicks as Squirm, The Evictors, The Thing, The Outing, Empire of the Ants, Food of the Gods, Abominable and The Incubus. He also made two posters for Frank Darabont's The Mist, where the lead poster artist character was modeled after him!
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Max Von Sydow
Von Sydow first gained international notice playing chess with Death in Ingmar Bergman's classic The Seventh Seal, and continued to play games with death (metaphorically) throughout his career. His genre films include playing a mentally disturbed painter in Bergman's Hour of the Wolf, and as Satan himself in the 1993 Stephen King adaptation Needful Things. He'll best be remembered, though, for his timeless portrayal of the doomed Father Lankester Merrin in William Friedkin's The Exorcist.
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Equinox (1970)
Nine-time Oscar-winning Original Trilogy and Prequel effects maestro Dennis Muren co-directed this 1970 horror film with Mark Thomas McGee (who went on to write Jim Wynorski B-classics Hard to Die and Sorority House Massacre II). The two of them originally filmed it as a 1967 student short to flex their Ray Harryhausen-inspired stop-motion animation muscles, and then Jack H. Harris of The Blob and Dark Star fame expanded it into a feature. It has since been released as part of the Criterion Collection.
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Night Life (1989)
Not only was George Lucas's USC buddy David Acomba the first filmmaker besides Lucas to direct a Star Wars sequel ("The Star Wars Holiday Special") he was also the first director to quit one (sorry, Josh Trank), that very same special. Years after abandoning that Special to become one of the most reviled pop culture footnotes of all-time, he made the little-seen zombie flick Night Life, starring Scott Grimes of Critters and Critters 2 fame as well as John Astin, a.k.a. Gomez Addams.
