75 Horror Movie Trivia Questions That Will Make You Second-Guess Every Answer You Were Sure About

The person who searches for horror movie trivia already knows that Jack Nicholson ad-libbed “Here’s Johnny.” They know the name of the hotel in The Shining. They’ve seen the behind-the-scenes footage of the chestburster scene. What they don’t know is where their knowledge stops and their confidence keeps going. That’s the gap I’ve spent years exploiting at live trivia nights, and it’s the gap these 75 questions are designed to find.

Horror fans are a particular breed at a trivia table. They come in loud. They’ve seen everything. They can rank the Saw sequels by body count. And then you ask them something that sounds easy, something that feels like it should be obvious, and the whole table goes quiet. That silence is my favorite sound in any room.

This set of horror movie trivia covers everything from the golden age of Universal monsters to whatever A24 released last Tuesday. Some of these questions reward obsessive rewatching. Some reward knowing the stories behind the stories. And a few are designed to start the kind of argument that doesn’t end when the quiz does.

The Warm-Up That Isn’t

1. What 1996 horror film opens with a pop quiz about horror movies?

The meta-textual trick of Scream was that it assumed the audience had already seen every slasher film. It treated horror literacy as a survival skill. Drew Barrymore’s character fails the quiz and pays for it, which set the tone for a generation of self-aware horror.

 

2. In The Exorcist, what is the name of the possessed girl?

Everyone remembers the pea soup. Everyone remembers the head spin. But a surprising number of people blank on the name when they’re put on the spot. It’s one of those details that lives in the back of your brain until someone asks for it directly.

 

3. What is the name of the fictional town where Halloween (1978) takes place?

I’ve heard “Elm Street” shouted with total conviction at least a dozen times. The franchise crossover in people’s heads is real.

 

4. Which horror franchise’s villain is named Jigsaw?

 

5. What color is the iconic dress Carrie White wears to prom in Carrie (1976)?

Before the blood, I mean. Most people picture the scene drenched in red and forget what was underneath it. The dress is pink. Soft, almost innocent pink. That contrast is the whole point of the scene.

 

6. In A Nightmare on Elm Street, what is Freddy Krueger’s weapon of choice?

 

7. What 1999 found-footage horror film was marketed as real events, convincing some audiences the footage was genuine?

The website went up before the movie did. Missing persons posters were distributed. Some local news stations ran segments questioning whether it was real. The marketing budget was tiny. The cultural impact was enormous.

 

Where Confidence Goes to Die

8. What was the original working title of Halloween (1978)?

This is the question that separates the casual fans from the ones who’ve read the oral histories. The script existed under a different name before the holiday angle clicked into place.

 

9. Who directed The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)?

People know the movie. People know Leatherface. The director’s name slips away like it was never there.

 

10. In Psycho (1960), what is Norman Bates’s hobby?

The parlor scene where he discusses it is one of Hitchcock’s most deliberate moments of foreshadowing. The hobby tells you everything about the character if you’re paying attention.

 

11. What real-life serial killer inspired both Psycho and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre?

He also inspired The Silence of the Lambs. Three of the most important horror films in history, all tracing back to the same man from Plainfield, Wisconsin. He’s the common ancestor of American horror.

 

12. What instrument provides the famous shrieking score in Psycho‘s shower scene?

Bernard Herrmann’s score is all strings. No brass, no woodwinds, no percussion. Hitchcock originally wanted the scene to play without music. Herrmann recorded it anyway and played it for him. Hitchcock doubled Herrmann’s salary.

 

13. In The Shining, what is written over and over on Jack Torrance’s manuscript pages?

 

14. What is the name of the hotel in The Shining?

 

15. In Stephen King’s novel, the room number is 217. Stanley Kubrick changed it to what number for the film?

The Timberline Lodge in Oregon, which served as the exterior of the hotel, asked Kubrick to change it. They were worried no one would ever want to stay in Room 217 again. The replacement room didn’t exist in the real hotel. Smart move on the lodge’s part. People still ask for Room 237 anyway.

 

16. What year was the original Nosferatu released?

It’s older than most people guess. The silent era feels distant and vague, so people tend to anchor on the late 1920s or early 1930s. It’s earlier than that.

 

17. Nosferatu was an unauthorized adaptation of what novel?

 

18. Who played Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs?

 

19. Anthony Hopkins won the Best Actor Oscar for The Silence of the Lambs despite appearing on screen for approximately how many minutes: 16, 32, or 54?

This is the one that gets audible gasps. Sixteen minutes. One of the shortest screen times ever to win the award. He dominates the film from the margins, which might be the most Hannibal Lecter thing possible.

 

20. The Silence of the Lambs is one of only three films to win the “Big Five” at the Oscars. Name one of the other two.

Horror fans love this fact because it validates the genre. But when you ask them to name the other two, the room goes still.

 

The Decade That Bleeds

21. What 1973 film was banned in several countries and caused audience members to faint in theaters?

 

22. Who directed The Exorcist?

William Friedkin had just come off The French Connection, which won Best Picture. He brought a documentary filmmaker’s instinct to a possession story, and that tension between realism and the supernatural is what makes the film hold up fifty years later.

 

23. What actress played the mother of the possessed girl in The Exorcist?

 

24. In Jaws (1975), what is the name of the shark-hunting boat?

The boat’s name is a quiet bit of foreshadowing if you know your Biblical references, though Spielberg has been cagey about whether it was intentional.

 

25. The mechanical shark used in Jaws was nicknamed what by the crew?

Named after Spielberg’s lawyer. The shark barely worked, which is why Spielberg had to suggest the shark through music and camera angles rather than show it. The most famous creative constraint in film history.

 

26. What 1978 horror film was shot in just 20 days on a budget of approximately $300,000?

And it went on to gross $70 million. The return on investment is still one of the most absurd in film history. The mask cost about two dollars.

 

27. The Michael Myers mask in Halloween was famously a modified mask of what famous person?

They spray-painted it white, reshaped the eye holes, and teased out the hair. The result is uncanny in the truest sense of the word. Almost a face. Not quite.

 

28. Who composed the iconic Halloween theme music?

He also directed the film. He wrote the score in three days because they couldn’t afford to hire a composer. When people ask me for the best example of constraints breeding creativity, I point to this entire production.

 

29. In Alien (1979), what is the name of the ship’s cat?

This question sorts horror fans into two camps: the ones who paid attention to the quiet moments and the ones who only remember the screaming. The cat survives, by the way. Ridley Scott knew better than to kill the cat.

 

30. What tagline was used to market Alien?

 

Sequels, Reboots, and the Arguments They Start

31. How many official Friday the 13th films are there, including Freddy vs. Jason and the 2009 reboot?

I’ve seen people count on their fingers for a solid thirty seconds on this one. The franchise kept going long after most people stopped paying attention.

 

32. In the original Friday the 13th (1980), who is the killer?

This is the horror movie trivia question that catches more people than any other I’ve ever asked. It’s not who you think. Jason isn’t the killer in the first film. He doesn’t show up with the hockey mask until the third one.

 

33. In which Friday the 13th sequel does Jason first wear the hockey mask?

 

34. What is the subtitle of the third Alien film?

Trick question energy, but it’s straightforward. David Fincher’s feature directorial debut, and he’s disowned it. The studio interference was legendary.

 

35. What 2018 film ignores every Halloween sequel and serves as a direct follow-up to the 1978 original?

 

36. In Scream 2 (1997), what rule of horror sequels does Randy explain?

Randy’s rules became as much a part of horror culture as the kills themselves. The meta-commentary was the franchise’s skeleton.

 

37. Who took over the role of Leatherface creator when Tobe Hooper directed The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986), turning it into a dark comedy?

This is a trick question of sorts. Hooper directed both. But the tonal shift was so extreme that people assume someone else took over. The sequel is practically a satire of the first film, and Hooper did it on purpose.

 

The Ones That Haunt Different

38. What 2017 horror film, based on a Stephen King novel, became the highest-grossing horror film of all time at that point?

 

39. Who plays Pennywise in the 2017 version of It?

 

40. And who played Pennywise in the 1990 TV miniseries?

Tim Curry in a clown suit traumatized an entire generation through a television screen. No theatrical release, no R rating, just network TV doing irreversible damage to the psyche of every kid who stayed up past bedtime.

 

41. In Get Out (2017), what does the mother use to hypnotize people?

The sound of the spoon against the cup became one of those cultural shorthand moments. You could mime it at a party and half the room would shudder.

 

42. Who directed Get Out?

 

43. Jordan Peele’s follow-up to Get Out was what 2019 film about a family confronted by their doppelgängers?

 

44. In Hereditary (2018), what miniature structures does the mother build as part of her art?

Ari Aster used those miniatures to blur the line between the dollhouse and the real house throughout the film. Some shots transition seamlessly from the model to the actual set. It creates a feeling of being watched, of being arranged, long before the plot makes that feeling literal.

 

45. What does Toni Collette’s character discover on the telephone pole in Hereditary?

I won’t describe the scene in detail. If you’ve seen it, you already flinched reading this question. If you haven’t, I’m not going to be the one to ruin it.

 

46. In Midsommar (2019), what country do the characters travel to?

 

47. What is the name of the demon in The Conjuring films that terrorizes the Perron family?

 

48. The doll Annabelle, featured in The Conjuring universe, is based on a real doll. What kind of doll was the real Annabelle?

The movie version is a porcelain-faced Victorian nightmare. The real one is a Raggedy Ann doll. Somehow that’s worse. The idea that something that innocent-looking could be a vessel for something terrible is more unsettling than any gothic redesign.

 

Blood on the Page

49. Which Stephen King novel was the basis for The Shining?

 

50. Stephen King wrote and starred in a TV adaptation of The Shining in 1997 because he was so unhappy with Kubrick’s version. True or false?

He wrote the teleplay. He didn’t star in it. But he was heavily involved and considered it the more faithful version. Almost nobody remembers it exists.

 

51. What Shirley Jackson novel, published in 1959, is considered one of the greatest haunted house stories ever written and was adapted into film in 1963 and again in 1999?

 

52. What Clive Barker novella was the basis for Hellraiser (1987)?

Barker directed the film himself after being disappointed by previous adaptations of his work. The novella is short, brutal, and more explicitly about desire than the film ended up being.

 

53. In Hellraiser, what object summons the Cenobites?

 

54. What is the name of the lead Cenobite, though he’s never called this in the original film?

The credits list him as “Lead Cenobite.” The name everyone knows came from fans and was later adopted officially. Doug Bradley played him with such precise, quiet menace that the character transcended the franchise.

 

55. What 2022 film rebooted Hellraiser with a female actor playing the Lead Cenobite for the first time?

 

International Nightmares

56. What 1998 Japanese horror film about a cursed videotape launched the J-horror wave in the West?

 

57. The American remake of Ringu was released in 2002 and starred which actress?

 

58. What 2001 Spanish-language film directed by Guillermo del Toro is set during the Spanish Civil War and features the ghost of a young boy?

Del Toro considers it a sibling film to Pan’s Labyrinth. It’s quieter, sadder, and in some ways more effective. The ghost isn’t the thing to be afraid of.

 

59. What 2003 French film, often cited as one of the most disturbing horror films ever made, features a home invasion in its first act and a twist that recontextualizes everything?

 

60. What South Korean film directed by Bong Joon-ho won the Palme d’Or in 2019 and blends class satire with horror elements?

People argue about whether it’s a horror film. I’ve seen this debate go on for twenty minutes at a table. It has a genre-shifting moment that is pure horror by any definition, and the dread that builds throughout the second half is as effective as anything in the genre.

 

Behind the Curtain

61. What horror film was the first to show a flushing toilet on screen in a major American production?

This sounds like a joke question, but it’s real. The MPAA had standards about what domestic activities could be shown. The flush was considered more transgressive than the murder.

 

62. In the original Alien, the chestburster scene was kept secret from most of the cast. True or false?

The actors knew something was going to come out of John Hurt’s chest. They did not know it would spray them with real animal blood and organs. Veronica Cartwright’s reaction, where she staggers backward in genuine shock, is completely real.

 

63. What future Academy Award-winning director made his feature debut with Piranha II: The Spawning (1982)?

He was fired during production and reportedly broke into the editing room to cut the film himself. He went on to direct a couple of small indie films called The Terminator and Titanic.

 

64. What budget did Paranormal Activity (2007) reportedly have?

The answer is so low it sounds made up. Steven Spielberg saw an early cut and reportedly thought his DVD copy was haunted because the door to his bedroom locked on its own while he was watching it.

 

65. Sam Raimi directed which horror film in 1981 that launched his career and Bruce Campbell’s cult following?

 

66. What is the name of Bruce Campbell’s character in the Evil Dead franchise?

 

67. What horror film’s poster tagline reads: “Be afraid. Be very afraid”?

The line entered the language so completely that most people don’t even know it came from a movie. David Cronenberg’s body horror at its most unsettling.

 

The Quiet Ones Hit Harder

68. In The Babadook (2014), what is the name of the children’s book that appears in the house?

 

69. What 2014 Australian horror film follows a young woman pursued by a supernatural entity that is transmitted through sexual contact?

People say Australian because of The Babadook being fresh in their minds. This one is actually American, directed by David Robert Mitchell. The STI-as-monster metaphor was either brilliant social commentary or the most on-the-nose allegory in horror history, depending on who you ask.

 

70. In The Witch (2015), what animal does the family’s youngest child, Samuel, disappear near?

Robert Eggers built the film’s dread around absence rather than presence. The baby vanishes. You never see what takes him. The goat, Black Phillip, becomes the film’s most iconic figure, but the disappearance in the opening act is what sets the paranoia loose.

 

71. “Wouldst thou like to live deliciously?” is a line from what film?

 

72. In A Quiet Place (2018), what common object do the characters use to signal safety?

 

73. John Krasinski directed and starred in A Quiet Place alongside what actress, who is also his real-life wife?

 

The Last One Standing

74. What is the term for the character , typically a young woman , who survives to the end of a slasher film?

Carol Clover coined the term in her 1992 book Men, Women, and Chain Saws. It changed how people talked about horror and gender permanently. The concept existed before the name, but naming it made it visible.

 

75. In the original Night of the Living Dead (1968), George A. Romero never once uses what word to describe the creatures?

I save this one for last because it does something to a room. People are certain they know the answer before I finish the question. They mouth it. They write it down fast. And then the answer hits, and there’s this beautiful moment where everyone realizes the most iconic zombie movie ever made never calls them that. Romero called them ghouls. The word “zombie” doesn’t appear once in the film. The entire genre was named by the audience, not the creator. That’s horror in a nutshell, isn’t it? The thing that scares you most is the thing you named yourself.