Horror Films You Didn't Know Were Connected

Throughout all three films that make up the "Evil Dead" trilogy and his later TV series, "Ash vs. Evil Dead," creator Sam Raimi weaves in a number of references to iconic horror movies, the most notable of these being a direct tie-in to Wes Craven's "A Nightmare on Elm Street."

In a brief blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment, eagle-eyed fans can spot the iconic bladed glove of Freddy Krueger in the work shed sequence in "Evil Dead II." If that weren't enough, Freddy's glove also appears in a similarly small capacity in "Ash vs. Evil Dead," still hanging in the same spot in the work shed when Ash returns to the cabin decades after the events of "Evil Dead II." According to Esquire (via Bloody Disgusting), the explanation behind the appearances of Freddy's glove in the film and Raimi's TV series dates back to a friendly game of one-upmanship between Raimi and Craven.

Noticing a torn poster for "Jaws" in the background of Craven's "The Hills Have Eyes," Raimi decided to include a poster for "The Hill Have Eyes" in his first "Evil Dead" movie, as if to hint that Raimi's film was scarier than Craven's. In turn, Craven included a scene from "The Evil Dead" in "A Nightmare on Elm Street," prompting Raimi to include Freddy's famous glove in "Evil Dead II."

Along with the appearance of the Necronomicon from "The Evil Dead," another prop from a vastly different horror movie is seen in "Jason Goes to Hell" in the form of a large wooden crate labeled "Arctic Expedition Julia Carpenter Horlicks University." To most fans, this might just seem like a meaningless artifact kept in storage by Pamela Voorhees for some unknown reason. But for hardcore fans of director George A. Romero or Stephen King, the crate is a direct tie-in to Romero and King's 1982 horror anthology film, "Creepshow." The box seen in the Voorhees' basement is the same one in the segment of "Creepshow" titled "The Crate," right down to the identical exterior label.

In King and Romero's film, the crate houses a strange, man-eating, ape-like creature that devours several unlucky individuals. At the end of the segment, the survivors of the creature's rampage once again confine the creature to the crate, throwing it into a nearby lake where it will hopefully drown (although the creature's later seen chewing through the wooden planks of the box in a bid to escape). Is this the same lake where Jason drowned as a child? It's difficult to say for certain, but it seems like that may be the case. Perhaps Pamela stumbled upon the crate while looking for her son's body — though it seems by this time, the creature inside has long since broken free.

Like "Bride of Chucky," the mockumentary "Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon" offers a more satirical take on slasher movies, containing dozens of references to some of the genre's most famous films. Some of these are overt — such as the appearance of Robert Englund, the original actor behind Freddy Krueger — while others are more subtle, such as a reference to the film often credited with pioneering the genre in the first place: 1974's "Black Christmas."

Widely seen as one of the most influential horror movies ever made, "Black Christmas" isn't altogether as instantly recognized as later horror entries like "A Nightmare on Elm Street" or "Friday the 13th." However, it remains an important enough film to warrant a key reference in "Behind the Mask." In the film, aspiring serial killer Leslie (Nathan Baesel) eagerly tries to cement himself in the annals of iconic slasher villains under the guidance of his mentor, Eugene (Scott Wilson).

While it's never directly stated, "Behind the Mask" screenwriter David J. Stieve told Bloody Disgusting that Eugene was originally meant to actually be the main villain of "Black Christmas," an unseen killer known only as Billy. Despite the lack of confirmation in the finished film, there are still several references hinting that Eugene and Billy are one and the same: at one point Eugene gripes that he never got the same recognition as other famous killers like Michael Myers or Freddy Krueger, even though he was active long before them.

Since his debut with 1992's "Reservoir Dogs," filmmaker Quentin Tarantino has created one of the most layered filmographies of any director working today, mastering such diverse genres as Westerns, crime films, kung fu movies, and horror films. As drastically different as each of his movies are, almost all of Tarantino's films have been revealed to exist within one massive shared universe known as the Tarantinoverse.

In certain cases, the connections between Tarantino's films may be something as small as a fictional product (like his signature Red Apple Cigarettes). Other times, it'll be larger, such as a character who crosses over into other Tarantino films. One great example of this is his Southern lawman, Sheriff Earl McGraw, played by regular collaborator Michael Parks, who's appeared in several Tarantino-related films.

Introduced in the Tarantino-penned "From Dusk Till Dawn," McGraw seemingly meets his end at the hands of the fugitive Gecko brothers at the start of the film. However, the character went on to appear in a handful of other Tarantino films, including "Kill Bill" and "Death Proof," as well as Robert Rodriguez's "Planet Terror," meaning that each one of these films exist within the same universe.

Aside from Walter Paisley serving as a link between several horror films, there is another major connection that places Joe Dante's "The Howling" and an iconic slasher franchise in the same universe. Ironically, this connection can be spotted in Paisley's occult bookstore, with the mummified remains of a woman spotted in the background. While the remains appear to be a random woman at first glance, a more careful look at the body reveals that this is actually the corpse of Grandma Sawyer from the original "Texas Chain Saw Massacre."

As the mummy is spotted in a bookstore primarily dealing with the occult, it shouldn't be surprising that a notorious figure like the Sawyers' matriarch found its way into Paisley's macabre collection. More than likely, Grandma Sawyer's appearance in the film can be explained by the fact that "The Howling" production designer Bob Burns also worked on "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre," likely using props he already had on hand from that film to stock Paisley's bookstore.

Still, it's interesting to wonder what a universe where Leatherface battles werewolves, and what the resultant carnage that would ensue from such an epic encounter, would look like.

In the decades following the release of "Jaws," dozens of films have tried to cash in on that landmark movie's success by depicting everyday animals as uncharacteristically aggressive maneaters, from alligators ("Alligator") and killer whales ("Orca") to bears ("Grizzly") and wild boars ("Razorback").

The most notable of these "Jaws" rip-offs is Joe Dante's 1978 film, "Piranha," the movie that led to Dante's rise in Hollywood. Receiving mixed reviews at the time of its release, the film went on to achieve cult status in the years that followed. It led to a sequel and two remakes, one of which was released in 2010 as "Piranha 3D."

Coming full circle with the undeniable influence of "Jaws" on the film, "Piranha 3D" opens with an elderly fisherman being devoured by a school of ravenous piranhas emerging from an underwater cave. The fisherman — played by Richard Dreyfuss — appears to be wearing an identical outfit to the one worn by his character, Matt Hooper, in "Jaws." As it turns out, this was not an accident, but an intentional effort to establish the fact that Dreyfuss is playing the same character in both films. As Dreyfuss told Hollywood News, "I play the older Matt Hooper, who escaped being eaten by the shark and is now eaten by a bunch of piranha fish."

Director Neil Marshall is responsible for delivering some of the most vastly underrated horror movies of the past few decades, two of which include his wonderful 2002 werewolf film, "Dog Soldiers," and his claustrophobic 2005 horror shocker, "The Descent." As vastly different as the two movies are, they do share common threads that place them within the same nightmarish universe.

The connection between the two films can be seen in "The Descent," when the film's main character, Sarah (Shauna Macdonald), looks over the various skeletal remains of past meals devoured by the carnivorous creatures living in the underground cave system. In the scene, Sarah briefly scans over what looks like the head of a giant werewolf from Marshall's previous film, "Dog Soldiers."

In another minor scene in the film, Sarah picks up an old helmet with the name "Oswald" written across it that she finds in the underground cave. This serves as another tie-in to "Dog Soldiers," referencing a close friend of that film's chief protagonist, Harry G. Wells (Sean Pertwee), who Wells reminiscences about in the film. While Wells reveals that Oswald met his end via a landmine in the Iraq War, it's worth wondering if he'd maybe ventured into the same cave system shown in "The Descent" sometime before his gruesome demise.