TedStixon

Deliberate mistake: When Dead Reckoning is firing the missiles at the end (towards the crowd that's being eaten by zombies), you can tell that they repeat the same shot of the missile firing three separate times, even though it's supposed to be three different missiles. (It's the shot of the exhaust coming out of the back of the launcher.) They try to mask it by cutting a little earlier or later each time... but it's obvious.

TedStixon

Trivia: Originally, there were going to be several scenes with graphic male nudity, including a scene that match-cut the lighthouse and the erect penis of one of the lead characters. The producers were able to use these as a bargaining chip... they would let Robert Eggers shoot the film in full-frame black-and-white as he envisioned... as long as he cut the nudity, since it would get them an NC-17 rating. Eggers has since admitted the scenes involving male nudity were misjudged and "juvenile."

TedStixon

Trivia: An alternate ending was written where, in the final moments of the movie, the scene would suddenly cut to the Silver Shamrock Factory from "Halloween III: Season of the Witch." You'd see the witch, pumpkin and skeleton masks being produced... then suddenly, you'd see dozens of Michael Myers masks on an assembly-line, implying some sort-of connection between Michael and Silver Shamrock. This ending was ultimately thrown out because it was deemed to be too weird and fan-servicey.

TedStixon

Trivia: The movie originally began as a modern day "reinterpretation" of an unfinished Edgar Allan Poe story called "The Light-House." The project stalled, and was eventually retooled as a stand-alone period film, with any references to Poe's work removed.

TedStixon

Trivia: Willem Dafoe originally was meant to be missing an eye and several fingers, and have an old-fashioned peg-leg. This was changed because director Robert Eggers worried people would assume he was a pirate giving the film's nautical themes.

TedStixon

Trivia: Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson had both reached out to director Robert Eggers after seeing his film "The Witch," wanting to work with him. Dafoe even saw "The Witch" two days in a row... going once by himself, then forcing his wife to come with him to see it the following day because he loved it so much. It just-so-happened that Eggers was a fan of both actors and wanted to work with them... and he realised they would be a perfect fit for the two lead characters in "The Lighthouse."

TedStixon

Trivia: Actress Anya Taylor-Joy had become good friends with director Robert Eggers after they made "The Witch" together. Taylor-Joy has said she begged Eggers to be in "The Lighthouse" so they could work together again, and wanted to play the mermaid. Eggers told her she wasn't right for the part. Taylor-Joy then jokingly exclaimed that she'd "play a seagull" if it meant she could be in the movie. Needless to say, that didn't happen. (Although she was in Eggers' next film, "The Northman.").

TedStixon

Trivia: The film was originally budgeted at $70 million, but this was lowered to $55 million because the studio got cold feet after one of Eddie Murphy's movies, "The Distinguished Gentleman," was a critical failure and performed below expectations. However, due to issues and delays during the filming, the budget ended up ballooning to well over the original $70 million budget.

TedStixon

Trivia: The film was originally meant to take place in England, with several co-stars such as Sean Connery or John Cleese being suggested for Axel's new partner. However, this idea was dropped since it was deemed too similar to the movie "Black Rain," about an American cop who goes to Japan. "Die Hard" writer Steven E. De Souza was then hired, based on an idea he had that was pitched as "'Die Hard' in an amusement park." This became the basis for the script.

TedStixon

Trivia: John Carpenter has said that the movie was meant to be silly and tongue-in-cheek, with a purposely ludicrous premise. He'd even come onto set every day and exclaim that the movie was "The biggest piece of s**t I've ever made!" He was reportedly incredibly annoyed that critics and audiences took it seriously, even remarking "It's called 'Ghosts Of Mars' for Christ's sake! Why would people take this movie seriously?" He's since said that he should have added more humor to clarify the the tone.

TedStixon

Trivia: Reportedly, the films uses of the f-word were added at the last minute because they didn't think the film would get an R-rating due to most of the violence being not very bloody. (Mostly just people getting hit by cars.) They were worried movie goers wouldn't go to see a Stephen King horror movie that was rated PG, so they peppered in several f-bombs to artificially drive it up to an R-rating.

TedStixon

Trivia: Much of the film was shot in the same neighborhood as John Carpenter's earlier film, "Halloween."

TedStixon

Trivia: Despite the film having a very mixed-to-negative reception from critics and audiences, especially in comparison to the well-received "Escape from New York," director John Carpenter has stated several times over the years that he considers "Escape from LA" to be the superior film, even going so far as to call it "ten times better." He has also stated that he was delighted when he found out it has attained a cult following over the years.

TedStixon

Trivia: John Carpenter's movie "Ghosts of Mars" originally began life as a third "Escape from..." movie, which would have involved Snake Plisskin being trapped on Mars on a mission. It was ultimately retooled into a stand-alone sci-fi/horror movie, and Plisskin was rewritten into the character "Desolation Williams," portrayed by actor/rapper Ice Cube.

TedStixon

Audio problem: When Trevor is explaining to Riley how he wants to rob the storage unit, at one point there's an over-the-shoulder shot where he says "Totally anonymous... nobody's ever seen any one in there... but, like the shit..." If you look closely, you can tell Trevor is saying something completely different. True, his mouth isn't on-screen the whole time, but his jaw movements and his mouth movements don't match the words at all when they are visible, revealing they altered the dialogue in post.

TedStixon

Trivia: The font in the opening credits is the exact same font (right down to the blue color) used in the opening credits from "Halloween III: Season of the Witch," which famously didn't feature the Michael Myers character and told an original story. Fairly appropriate, because (MINOR SPOILERS) Michael Myers plays a somewhat smaller role in much of this film, which primarily focuses on a new character who is driven mad and almost becomes a "New Michael/Boogeyman."

TedStixon

Continuity mistake: When Reiko picks up Tomoko's photos from the shop and is going through them, the way she's holding them changes subtly as it cuts back and forth from the over-the-shoulder shot to the low-angle-looking-up shot. (Most noticeably, in the over-the-shoulder shot, she has one photo pulled to the side but it's not pulled to the side in the low-angle shots).

TedStixon

Continuity mistake: During the funeral, Reiko goes outside and sees a condolence sign from Tomoko's school. In the first shot, she's not casting a shadow on it. The camera cuts to the opposite angle, and you can see for a second that she's suddenly partially casting a shadow on the edge of it. (Presumably because they adjusted the lighting in-between shots when they changed the camera angle).

TedStixon

Continuity mistake: When Corey is almost hit by a car in the beginning (after the credits roll), his bike is suddenly toppled much further over after the camera cuts to a wideshot.

TedStixon

Continuity mistake: When Yoichi is first introduced, he stands up from a chair. The camera cuts to the opposite angle, and suddenly his body has rotated about 90° towards his mom between cuts.

TedStixon