1. There is a Guy Fawkes mask hanging next to Helen’s bathroom mirror.
2. Virginia Madsen claims that she was hypnotized for some of the film’s scenes.
3. Virginia Madsen is allergic to bees, so an ambulance was always on set while filming the bee sequence.
4. “Sweets to the Sweet,” which is written on the walls in two areas of Cabrini Green, is actually a line from Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
5. Eddie Murphy was considered for the title role.
6. Had Virginia Madsen been unavailable, the part of Helen would have gone to the then unknown Sandra Bullock.
7. Real bees were actually put into Tony Todd’s mouth while shooting the climax. His only protection was a mouth guard that kept him from having the bees go down his throat.
8. Exterior, hallway and stairway scenes were actually filmed for a few days in the infamous Cabrini-Green housing projects, though the producers had to make a deal with the ruling gang members to put them in the movie as extras to ensure the cast and crew’s safety during filming. Even with this arrangement, a sniper put a bullet through the production van on the last day of filming.
9. The bees were bred specifically for the movie. They needed to make sure that the bees were only 12 hours old so that they looked like mature bees, but their stinger wouldn’t be powerful enough to do any real damage.
10. Experimental composer Philip Glass wrote the score.
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