A ‘Simpsons’ Easter Egg May Have Spoiled the ‘White Lotus’ Finale

Fred Armisen Pranked Martin Short at ‘SNL50’

This Is Why Chelsea Handler Stopped Posting Topless Skiing Photos

40 Infectious Bits of Trivia That Include Nuggets About Taylor Swift From Music, Leo DiCaprio From Movies, And The Royal Family From History

Here’s What the Critics Are Saying About Bill Burr’s Broadway Debut

14 Movie Scary Tropes That Predate Movies

What scares you today already scared your ancestors.

14 Movie Scary Tropes That Predate Movies

October 21, 2020

Cinema is barely 100-odd years old -- but fear is much older. If there's a scary story around, you can bet it was told before -- or even that it happened, if it's realistically possible. History, mythology, folklore -- it's everything there already. You only need to reach out, and you'll fish out something scary, ready for the movie treatment. You don't need to take our word for it, though. Just take a look at these.

14

Cat scares are over 200 years old. - Yes, of course cats have been aggravating people since forever (that’s basically their function). But as a story — Source: University of Toronto Libraries

13

Giovanni Aldini was widely known for reanimating corpses. - Aldini, an Italian physicist, became notorious in the early 1800s for zapping animal and h — Source: 9 Real Life Mad Scientists

12

Ancient Rome

Haunted houses were already a thing in ancient Rome. - The house was suspiciously cheap --- and sure enough, a chain-rattling ghost showed up at night — Source: 5 Modern Horror Scenes Ripped Out of History Books

11

Mount Vesuvius caused heads to explode. - During the Vesuvius eruption in 79 CE, people in the nearby Herculaneum were hit by a super-hot gas cloud. T — Source: 6 True Stories From History Creepier Than Any Horror Movie

10

You can find evil entities unwittingly liberated in The Arabian Nights. - Not all genies are as friendly as Aladdin’s. The folk tale “The fisherman an — Source: Cornell University Library / Middle East & Islamic Studies Collection

9

Locusta was the first serial killer. - Locusta was busted in the mid first-century for poisoning people. That wasn’t the end of her career, though --- — Source: 6 True Stories From History Creepier Than Any Horror Movie

8

Zombies

Ancient Babylonians wrote about zombie apocalypses. - In the 4,000-year-old Epic of Gilgamesh, the goddess Ishtar threatens to “knock down the Gates o — Source: 5 Modern Horror Scenes Ripped Out of History Books

7

Haunting Paranormal Encounters

The nopperabō freaks people out with its lack of face. - The ghosts in The Haunting of Bly Manor are creepy, aren’t they? So is the nopperabo, a simil — Source: Yokai.com

6

Do you want to bind demons and spirits to do your bidding? Then this 13th-century grimoire is your basic how to book. It’s held to be the model for th — Sources: Occult World / Sworn Book of Honorius, Occult World / Grimoires

5

The Mary Russell was the Overlook Hotel on the sea. - In June 1828, when the brig Mary Russell arrived in Ireland, seven crew members were dead. They — Source: History Ireland

4

The Pale Man is part Greek, part Japanese. (Sort of.) - Who eats children and can remove their own eyes? The answer is Lamia, a monster from Greek myt — Sources: GreekMythology.com, Yokai.com

3

Robert the Doll

Robert the Doll was Chucky long before Chucky.- This cursed thing belonged to a child named Gene Otto in the early 1900s. It was claimed that both wer — Source: 5 Modern Horror Scenes Ripped Out of History Books

2

19th Century UFOs

UFOs were already crash-prone in the 19th century. - In 1897, a mysterious airship reportedly crashed down in Aurora, Texas --- and the pilot, (“not a — Source: 5 Modern Horror Scenes Ripped Out of History Books

1

Ghost Tropes

The Hitchhiking Dead were already vanishing from horse-drawn carriages in the 1870s. The car was just a technological upgrade to these old tales --- w — Source: The Vanishing Hitchhiker, by Jan Harold Brunvand

Scroll down for the next article

Must Read

Movies & TV

John Oliver Sued By Health Insurance Bigwig for Defamation

Science & History

20 Modern Artifacts Kids Won’t Recognize Soon

Comedy

Amber Ruffin Teaches White House Correspondents’ Association-Approved Comics How to Be Toothless Fence-Sitters

Movies & TV

Vince Gilligan on Finding the Funny in ‘The X-Files’

Movies & TV

Mike Drucker Was ‘SNL’s King of Nintendo Wii

Trivia & Jokes

30 Mortifying (But Funny) Things People Did to Their Spouse

VIRAL ON CRACKED

1

14 Bonkers Ways Famous Movies Affected The People Who Worked On Them

2

15 Celebrity Names Everyone Says Wrong

3

5 Celebs Whose Nonsense Drove Their Kids Away

4

36 Shocking Times People Accidentally Saw Way Too Much

5

Tell Us Now: 16 Remakes Better Than The Original