10 Horror Movie Props You Didn't Know Were Reused

Those movie props that forever seem familiar.

Child's Play Tales from the Crypt Chucky Crypt Keeper
MGM/HBO

The famed Golden Age of Hollywood memorably had movie studios using the same sets time and time again. Simply put, rather than splash out on creating a new batch of scenery for a picture, it was a far cheaper option to instead look at what existing sets you had at your fingertips.

It's not just sets that have been reused in the film industry, of course. As well as those buildings and backlots, the movie business has at times made sure to get the very most out of a prop - be that merely an individual item or instead several pieces of kit.

Circling in specifically on the horror genre here, many an item seen in a horror offering has later cropped up in an entirely different movie somewhere down the line. At times, that second use may take place in another horror effort, and there are even occasions when said prop turns up in a non-horror movie.

With all of that in mind, then, here are ten such examples of horror movie props that were reused - often more than just the once, too.

10. Little Shop Of Horrors' Dentist Tools Were Used In Batman

Child's Play Tales from the Crypt Chucky Crypt Keeper
Warner Bros.

What do Bill Murray's Arthur Denton and Jack Nicholson's Joker have in common? They were both 'operated' on using the exact same tools.

For Nicholson's Jack Napier in Batman, his transformation to become the Clown Prince of Crime sees his face fixed up by a shoddy doctor. And wouldn't you know it, but the instruments used to reconstruct the Joker's face after his initial run-in with the Dark Knight had been recycled from 1986's Little Shop of Horrors.

In Frank Oz's famed take on Little Shop of Horrors, we see Bill Murray's character paying a visit to sinister dentist Orin Scrivello (Steve Martin). During Arthur's time in the dentist's chair, several of the tools used by Martin's DDS are all present and accounted for by the time Tim Burton's first Batman picture rolled around three years later.

There's surely some sort of comparison to be made between a dentist and the Joker for those with a fear of getting their pearly whites checked out from time to time, although the main connection here is simply a smart case of reinvention that nicely ties Little Shop of Horrors to Batman.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.