Easter eggs. You color them. You decorate them. You display them, and you eventually eat them. And wouldn't ya know it; they're also hidden in some of our favorite horror films!
In the world of entertainment, 'Easter egg' is a term given to any hidden message or piece of imagery thrown into a movie, which is usually seen in the background of a frame for a split second. If you blink, you miss it. But if you've got a keen eye, and you're paying close attention, you're rewarded with a fun little treat that's sure to make you smile.
This Sunday being Easter and all, it seems only right that we take a look back on some fun Easter eggs that we've found in horror movies over the years. So let's do a little hunting, shall we?!
One of the more well-known horror movie Easter eggs can be found in Predator 2, which teased a battle that wouldn't be brought to the big screen until 14 years later. Though Aliens and Predators duked it out in the world of comics back in the 90s, it wasn't until 2004 that the bridge was gapped between the two movie franchises, and 1990's Predator sequel featured the first little taste of that action. When Danny Glover's character boards the Predator ship in the film, he pauses to look over a trophy collection mounted on a wall, which includes the skull of a Xenomorph. I guess the two monsters were doing battle long before we ever got to actually see them go toe-to-toe!
It was in 1986 that Fred Dekker made his feature debut with the cult classic Night of the Creeps, which he followed up the next year with The Monster Squad. In the scene in Creeps where J.C. is dodging slugs in a public restroom, graffiti briefly seen on one of the walls reads 'Go Monster Squad!' - a foreshadowing of things to come!
It's pretty much common knowledge that Wes Craven and Sam Raimi have homaged each other's work several times over the years, which began when Raimi placed a ripped up Hills Have Eyes poster in Evil Dead's fruit cellar. In Evil Dead 2, Raimi continued the fun by hiding Freddy Krueger's iconic glove in the film, which can be seen on a wall in the work shed. How awesome would it have been to see Ash try it on, and use it to kick some undead ass?!
Freddy's glove also makes a quick appearance in Jason Goes to Hell, along with a handful of other familiar looking horror movie props. Seen in the Voorhees house towards the end of the film are the Kandarian dagger and Book of the Dead from the Evil Dead films, as is a crate that reads 'Arctic Expedition - Julia Carpenter - Horlicks University,' which is the very same crate that housed Fluffy in Creepshow!
Quentin Tarantino's Grindhouse segment, Death Proof, features a cleverly inserted homage to another beloved Kurt Russell movie, which can be seen up on the wall at the bar the first group of characters are hanging out in. Do ya see it? Yup, that's Jack Burton's tanktop from Big Trouble in Little China, which hangs directly behind the spot where Stuntman Mike is seated. From what I've heard, it's one of the actual shirts Russell wore in the film!
Alfred Hitchcock was known for his many cameos in his own films, and he popped up for brief appearances in movies like Psycho, The Birds and Vertigo. Though he passed away a few years before it was made, Hitchcock even managed to make a quick cameo in the decades-later sequel Psycho 2, which was directed by his longtime friend Richard Franklin. At one point in the film Mary Samuels and Norman Bates enter Mother's room at night, and a shadow in the shape of Hitch's iconic silhouette is seen on the wall!
While it's likely that you noticed the chalkboard drawing of the Billy puppet from Saw in James Wan's Insidious, you might have missed another Easter egg in the film, which is the most downright chilling and nightmare-inducing Easter egg of all time. Remember the super creepy scene where a young ghost boy dances to the tune of Tiny Tim's 'Tiptoe Through the Tulips'? Well, the dancing boy is actually glimpsed shortly before the scene, in a brief moment that's hard to unsee, once you've seen it. Check out the video above and don't blame me if you can't sleep tonight!
And finally, we wrap up the Easter fun with one of my favorite eggs, which is so hard to spot that's it's almost subliminal. After the monster attacks the helicopter towards the end of Cloverfield, the camera cuts out and the footage distorts. When watched frame-by-frame, you'll notice that a single frame from the original King Kong is spliced in at this moment, showing Kong swatting a plane from the sky. Images from Them! and The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms are also spliced in, earlier on in the film.
Have you spotted any other fun horror movie Easter eggs? Comment below and let us know!