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60 free 80s Horror Movie trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
One, two, Freddy's coming for you. These 80s horror movie trivia questions and answers cover the decade that gave us the modern slasher and the golden age of practical effects: The Shining and Friday the 13th in 1980, The Evil Dead, The Howling and An American Werewolf in London, The Thing and Poltergeist, Elm Street, Gremlins, Re-Animator, Return of the Living Dead, Fright Night, The Fly, Hellraiser, The Lost Boys, Near Dark, They Live, Child's Play and Pet Sematary. The 60 questions start with the ones any Halloween-party crowd can shout out, like who played Freddy and what Gremlins must never do, then dig into the makeup Oscars, the Razzies, the budgets, the box-office bombs that became classics, the sequels that reinvented their monsters and the directors, from Carpenter and Cronenberg to Raimi and Barker. Some are easy; the last third will test the people who own the Blu-rays. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on each film and character, and each question links to the page and sentence that supports it.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who directed The Shining (1980)?
Stanley Kubrick
The novel's author disliked the film's changes so much that he produced his own miniseries in 1997.
Q 02Which room in the Overlook Hotel is Danny warned to avoid?
237
Kubrick's film moved the novel's room number. The Overlook's earlier caretaker, Grady, had murdered his wife and daughters there.
Q 03The Shining got two nominations at the first Razzies: Kubrick as director and what else?
Shelley Duvall as actress
The Worst Actress nomination for Shelley Duvall was rescinded in 2022 over Kubrick's alleged treatment of her on set.
Q 04Where was The Shining almost entirely filmed?
EMI Elstree Studios in England
Sets were built based on real locations, and the then-new Steadicam gave the film its gliding look.
Q 05Which future star appears in the original Friday the 13th (1980)?
Kevin Bacon
Sean Cunningham advertised the film in Variety before the script was even finished, riding the success of Halloween.
Q 06What was the working title of the first Friday the 13th script?
A Long Night at Camp Blood
It was shot in New Jersey in the fall of 1979 for roughly $550,000 to $650,000.
Q 07In which film did Jason Voorhees first wear his hockey mask?
Friday the 13th Part III
Part III was also the only entry shot and released in 3-D. In Part 2 he hid his face under a sack.
Q 08Who was the killer in the original 1980 Friday the 13th?
Pamela Voorhees, Jason's mother
Betsy Palmer's camp cook took revenge for her son's drowning; Jason himself only appears in a nightmare.
Q 09Who played Freddy Krueger throughout the original Nightmare on Elm Street series?
Robert Englund
Freddy's burned face, striped sweater, fedora and self-welded bladed glove made him the decade's most recognizable villain.
Q 10Whose film debut came in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)?
Johnny Depp
He played Glen, boyfriend of Heather Langenkamp's Nancy. Wes Craven made the film for about $1.1 million.
Q 11Wes Craven loosely based Elm Street on news stories about which group dying in their sleep?
Hmong refugees
The success turned its small distributor-turned-studio into a mini-major.
Q 12Which studio earned the nickname 'The House that Freddy Built'?
New Line Cinema
Elm Street was one of its first productions, and its success made the company a mini-major.
Q 13The Evil Dead (1981) was shot on location in a remote cabin in which state?
Tennessee
The Morristown shoot was miserable for cast and crew. A 1979 short, Within the Woods, had raised the $90,000 seed money.
Q 21What is the name of the pub where the two American backpackers are warned to stay off the moors?
The Slaughtered Lamb
David Kessler and Jack Goodman ignore the advice, with predictable results under the next full moon.
Q 22The Howling was one of three high-profile lycanthrope films of 1981. What were the other two?
An American Werewolf in London and Wolfen
Its success got Joe Dante the Gremlins job. Rob Bottin did the makeup a year before The Thing.
Q 23What are the three rules for caring for a Mogwai in Gremlins?
Q 14Whose rave review helped The Evil Dead land a US distributor?
Stephen King's
After his review, the film got a wide US release in April 1983.
Q 15Which producer, introduced by the horror novelist who championed the first film, financed Evil Dead II?
Dino De Laurentiis
The author was making Maximum Overdrive for him at the time. Publicist Irvin Shapiro had pushed for the sequel after Crimewave flopped.
Q 16The Thing (1982) is based on which novella?
Who Goes There?
John W. Campbell Jr.'s story had already inspired 1951's The Thing from Another World. Kurt Russell plays helicopter pilot MacReady.
Q 17What share of The Thing's budget went to Rob Bottin's creature effects?
A tenth, about $1.5 million
The film flopped against E.T.'s sunnier aliens that summer, then was reappraised on home video as one of the genre's best.
Q 18Who is credited as director of Poltergeist (1982), amid long-running debate over Steven Spielberg's role?
Tobe Hooper
Spielberg wrote and produced it but was contractually barred from directing another film while making E.T.
Q 19What does five-year-old Carol Anne say after talking to the static on the TV in Poltergeist?
'They're here'
The Freelings live in the planned community of Cuesta Verde; Carol Anne is later pulled into a portal in her closet.
Q 20An American Werewolf in London won the inaugural Academy Award for what?
Best Makeup
Rick Baker's transformation sequence took the first-ever makeup Oscar. Landis had written the script in 1969 and shelved it for a decade.
No bright light, no water, no food after midnight
Complaints about Gremlins and Temple of Doom led Spielberg to suggest a new rating; the MPAA created PG-13 within two months.
Q 24Gremlins helped prompt the creation of which movie rating?
PG-13
Howie Mandel voiced Gizmo; Chris Columbus wrote the script and Joe Dante directed under Spielberg as executive producer.
Q 25The Return of the Living Dead introduced which now-standard zombie idea?
Zombies specifically eating brains
Dan O'Bannon's punk comedy also popularized the headshot as the way to stop them, and its soundtrack was full of LA deathrock bands.
Q 26What is the name of the toxic gas that raises the dead in The Return of the Living Dead?
Trioxin
The drums are stored at the Uneeda Medical Supply warehouse in Louisville, Kentucky.
Q 27Re-Animator is loosely based on a serial by which author?
H.P. Lovecraft
Jeffrey Combs plays Herbert West. Stuart Gordon first conceived it as a stage play, then a TV pilot; the unrated video cut found its biggest audience.
Q 28In Fright Night, teenager Charley Brewster recruits which TV horror host to fight his vampire neighbor?
Peter Vincent
Roddy McDowall played the washed-up host; Chris Sarandon was the vampire. Tom Holland made his directing debut.
Q 29Cronenberg's The Fly (1986) won an Academy Award for what?
Best Makeup
Chris Walas and Stephan Dupuis took the prize; Walas then directed the 1989 sequel. Mel Brooks's company produced the film.
Q 30What is the name of Jeff Goldblum's scientist in The Fly?
Seth Brundle
His telepods work fine until a fly joins him. Geena Davis plays journalist Veronica Quaife.