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This classic horror movie trivia quiz has 60 free questions with answers and runs from the silent era to 1980: the German Expressionists, the Universal monsters and the make-up men behind them, Val Lewton's shadows, the 1950s creature features, Hammer's Dracula and Frankenstein, Hitchcock's Psycho and The Birds, Romero's ghouls, and the 1970s wave from The Exorcist and Texas Chain Saw to Halloween, Suspiria and Alien. The questions cover the actors, directors and studios, but also the production stories worth retelling: why Nosferatu was ordered destroyed, what Michael Myers' mask started life as, why the Jaws shark stays hidden, and what the Alien cast were not warned about. It works for a Halloween party round, a film-club warm-up, or a solo test of how deep your horror knowledge goes. Every answer has been checked against a reference encyclopaedia entry on the film or the person, and each question shows its source once you have answered.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which 1922 silent film starred Max Schreck as the vampire Count Orlok?
Nosferatu
It was an unauthorised Dracula adaptation; Bram Stoker's widow sued and a court ordered every copy destroyed.
Q 02Who directed the 1922 unauthorised Dracula adaptation with Max Schreck as Count Orlok?
F. W. Murnau
He worked from a screenplay by Henrik Galeen that changed the names but not the story.
Q 03In The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), the hypnotist commits murders through a sleepwalker named what?
Cesare
Conrad Veidt played him; the sets had shadows and light painted directly onto them.
Q 04Which 1925 film's ghastly, self-devised make-up was kept a studio secret until the premiere?
The Phantom of the Opera
Lon Chaney's transformations earned him the nickname 'The Man of a Thousand Faces'.
Q 05Who played the Monster in Universal's 1931 Frankenstein?
Boris Karloff
He was born William Henry Pratt in London and was billed only as '?' in the opening credits.
Q 06Who created the flat-headed, bolt-necked make-up for the 1931 Frankenstein monster?
Jack Pierce
Colin Clive played Henry Frankenstein, the scientist who digs up the body parts.
Q 07Which actress played both Mary Shelley and the Bride in Bride of Frankenstein (1935)?
Elsa Lanchester
Like Karloff four years earlier, the Bride was credited only as '?'.
Q 08The Universal Dracula (1931) shared its sets at night with a second version shot in which language?
Spanish
Tod Browning also voiced the harbourmaster off-screen in the English version.
Q 09Bela Lugosi, the screen's first great Dracula, was born in which country?
Hungary
He acted in more than 170 Hungarian stage productions before fleeing to Vienna and Berlin.
Q 10Which 1932 film, directed by cinematographer Karl Freund, starred the Frankenstein actor as Imhotep?
The Mummy
Karloff later voiced and narrated the animated How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
Q 11Which actor's face is hidden in bandages for almost all of The Invisible Man (1933)?
Claude Rains
Director James Whale sent him to the studio labs for head casts before fully explaining the role.
Q 12Who wrote The Wolf Man (1941), the film that gave us the 'Even a man who is pure in heart' poem?
Curt Siodmak
The verse is repeated in every later Talbot film except House of Dracula and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.
Q 13Who played Larry Talbot, the title character of The Wolf Man?
Lon Chaney Jr.
He reprised the role in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein in 1948.
Q 21Vincent Price's House of Wax (1953) was the first major-studio colour film to use which gimmick?
3-D
It was also the first 3-D film with stereophonic sound shown in a regular cinema.
Q 22The Fly (1958) ends with a tiny fly-headed man in a web crying what?
'Help me!'
David Hedison, in his first leading role, played the scientist; Vincent Price was his brother.
Q 23Fallout from which March 1954 US test hit a Japanese fishing boat, partly inspiring Godzilla?
Castle Bravo
The Lucky Dragon No. 5 was showered with fallout from the 15-megaton hydrogen bomb at Bikini Atoll.
Q 14The Gill-man's underwater scenes in Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) were shot in which state?
Florida
Ricou Browning swam the part at Wakulla Springs while Ben Chapman wore the suit on land.
Q 15Which studio released King Kong in 1933?
RKO
Willis O'Brien's stop-motion ape was combined with live action using rear projection.
Q 16Which actress screamed her way through King Kong as Ann Darrow?
Fay Wray
Kong climbs the Empire State Building with her before the planes shoot him down.
Q 17Tod Browning's Freaks (1932), set in a circus sideshow, was banned in which country for over 30 years?
the United Kingdom
Canada labelled it 'brutal and grotesque'; its 'One of us' chant is still quoted on The Simpsons and South Park.
Q 18The jump-scare technique known as the 'Lewton Bus' comes from which 1942 film?
Cat People
Producer Val Lewton reused the trick, a sudden bus arriving just as tension peaks, in later films.
Q 19James Arness, later Marshal Dillon in Gunsmoke, played the monster in which 1951 film?
The Thing from Another World
It was based on John W. Campbell's novella Who Goes There?, later remade by John Carpenter.
Q 20Them! (1954) unleashed giant irradiated versions of which creature on New Mexico?
Ants
Two young queens escape to found new colonies and become a national threat.
Q 24Who directed the original Godzilla?
Ishirō Honda
Tsuburaya handled the special effects; Haruo Nakajima wore the suit.
Q 25Hammer's first colour horror film, released in 1957, was what?
The Curse of Frankenstein
It launched Hammer's Frankenstein series and its Peter Cushing-Christopher Lee partnership.
Q 26How many Hammer films did Christopher Lee play Count Dracula in?
Seven
He also played Scaramanga, Count Dooku and Saruman.
Q 27Hammer's Van Helsing, Peter Cushing, is also known to Star Wars fans as which character?
Grand Moff Tarkin
Terence Fisher directed him and Lee in the 1958 Dracula.
Q 28Which director beat Hitchcock to the rights of the novel behind Les Diaboliques (1955)?
Henri-Georges Clouzot
He optioned it right after The Wages of Fear, leaving Hitchcock to make Psycho a few years later.
Q 29Psycho's shower scene was storyboarded by which famous title designer?
Saul Bass
Bernard Herrmann's all-strings score and George Tomasini's editing completed Hitchcock's regular team.
Q 30Psycho was adapted from a 1959 novel by which author?
Robert Bloch
Joseph Stefano wrote the screenplay about embezzler Marion Crane and motel owner Norman Bates.