163 Fun Facts About Horror

In the 1960 film Psycho, where does Marion Crane stop for the night and meet her fate?

Bates Motel is where Psycho kills off its star well before the halfway mark; Hitchcock had cinemas turn away anyone who arrived after the film had started, an unusual rule at the time.

Which author wrote the 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus?

Mary Shelley began Frankenstein at 18, after Lord Byron challenged his guests at Lake Geneva in 1816 to each write a ghost story; the novel first appeared anonymously.

What is the name of the killer in the Friday the 13th franchise who wears a hockey mask?

Jason Voorhees is the iconic hockey-masked killer of the Friday the 13th series. Interestingly, he didn't get the hockey mask until Part III (1982) — in Part 2 he wore a burlap sack.

In The Shining, what has Wendy's husband typed endlessly in his manuscript?

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy fills the whole manuscript; for foreign prints Kubrick reshot the pages with local sayings, so the German Jack types a proverb about never putting things off until tomorrow.

Which 2017 Jordan Peele film follows a Black man visiting his white girlfriend's family?

Get Out was the directing debut of Jordan Peele, until then known for sketch comedy; he calls it a 'social thriller', a film in which society itself is the villain, and it won him a screenplay Oscar.

What is the name of the demonic entity terrorizing the Perron family in The Conjuring (2013)?

Bathsheba is, in the film, an accused witch who cursed everyone who would ever take her land, and she ends up possessing the mother, Carolyn; the story draws on the case files of Ed and Lorraine Warren.

In the Scream franchise, what is the name of the masked killer?

Ghostface is the identity adopted by different killers across the Scream series. The mask was an off-the-shelf Halloween costume made by the Fun World company before Wes Craven picked it for the film.

Which Stephen King novel features a telekinetic teenage girl who unleashes her powers at prom?

Carrie nearly ended in the trash: Stephen King threw away its first pages, and his wife Tabitha fished them out and urged him to finish what became his first published novel.

What type of creature is Count Orlok in the 1922 film Nosferatu?

Vampire Count Orlok is Dracula under another name: Murnau filmed Bram Stoker's novel without permission, Stoker's widow sued, and a court ordered every copy destroyed, though a few prints survived.

Who directed and starred in the 2018 horror film A Quiet Place?

John Krasinski directed A Quiet Place and played the father opposite his wife, Emily Blunt; he also pushed to cast a deaf actress, Millicent Simmonds, as the family's deaf daughter.

Which horror film features the line "They're here" spoken by a young girl watching television static?

Poltergeist's 'They're here' belongs to little Carol Anne Freeling; Tobe Hooper is the credited director because co-writer and producer Steven Spielberg was tied up with E.T., which opened a week later.

Edgar Allan Poe's poem "The Raven" features a bird that repeatedly says which word?

Nevermore needed a speaker without reason, Poe wrote: he first thought of a parrot, then chose a raven as equally able to talk and far better suited to the poem's gloom.

Which fictional Maine town is the setting of Stephen King's It and Insomnia?

Derry is Stephen King's portrait of Bangor, the Maine city where he has a home, as he told his biographer; the town turns up again when the hero of 11/22/63 passes through.

Which film was the first horror movie nominated for the Best Picture Oscar?

The Exorcist drew on a real case: the novel behind it was inspired by reports of a 1949 exorcism of a teenage boy, and the film earned ten Oscar nominations in all.

In the Saw films, which tricycle-riding puppet with spiral cheeks and red eyes delivers Jigsaw's recorded messages?

Billy was made by hand: director James Wan built the first puppet himself from papier-mâché and paper towel rolls, and the sequel upgraded it with remote-controlled eyes and jaw.

What is the name of the clown in Stephen King's novel It?

Pennywise began as a fairy-tale troll: King pictured one living in a city's sewers rather than under a bridge, then gave it a clown's shape because, he said, clowns scare children more than anything.

Which 2018 Ari Aster horror film follows a family unraveling after their grandmother's death?

Hereditary built nearly every room of the family home on a soundstage, so walls could be pulled away and scenes shot from far back, which makes the house look like a dollhouse.

Michael Myers's Halloween mask began as a mask of which actor?

William Shatner it was: the crew bought a Captain Kirk mask on Hollywood Boulevard, enlarged the eyeholes and painted the face white; Shatner said that when he first heard, he thought it was a joke.

Who played Wendy Torrance in Stanley Kubrick's 1980 film The Shining?

Shelley Duvall was nominated for a Worst Actress Razzie for the role in 1981; the awards withdrew it in 2022, citing Kubrick's alleged treatment of her on set.

In Bram Stoker's Dracula, which English solicitor travels to Transylvania to meet the Count?

Jonathan Harker opens Dracula (1897) with his journal of the journey to Castle Dracula, where he becomes the Count's prisoner before escaping.

Which Lovecraft entity is described as a giant octopus-dragon hybrid sleeping beneath the ocean?

Cthulhu almost stayed unpublished: Weird Tales first rejected the story, and its editor relented only after Lovecraft's friend Donald Wandrei bluffed that Lovecraft would take it elsewhere.

Which 1999 film follows three student filmmakers who vanish in the Maryland woods?

The Blair Witch Project grossed nearly $250 million after a marketing campaign that listed its three little-known actors as 'missing' or 'deceased'.

Which actor played Freddy Krueger in the original 1984 A Nightmare on Elm Street?

Robert Englund was until then best known as Willie, an alien who joins the human resistance in the miniseries V; he went on to play Freddy in eight films before Jackie Earle Haley took over for the 2010 remake.

Which Netflix series did the Duffer Brothers create as a love letter to Spielberg and Stephen King?

Stranger Things was turned down more than a dozen times by networks that wanted the Duffers to make it a kids' show or drop its child leads, before Netflix said yes.

In Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), Leatherface wears masks made from what?

Human skin makes up every one of Leatherface's masks; actor Gunnar Hansen recalled that his costume was never washed during the shoot, because the crew feared the laundry would lose it or change its colour.

What narrative format does the TV series American Horror Story use?

Anthology here means each season restarts with a new story and setting while a repertory cast returns as new characters, which let Jessica Lange win two Emmys across its seasons.

Which Spielberg thriller kept its monster mostly out of sight because the mechanical models kept breaking down?

Jaws had three mechanical sharks, all nicknamed Bruce after Spielberg's lawyer; salt water wrecked their pneumatics, so he mostly suggested the shark's presence with John Williams's ominous theme.

Which subgenre do The Haunting and Rosemary's Baby, both from the 1960s, exemplify?

Psychological horror keeps the threat in the mind: The Haunting's screenwriter read the novel it adapts as one woman's breakdown rather than a ghost story, and wrote her unravelling into the film.

Who won an Oscar for playing Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs (1991)?

Anthony Hopkins won Best Actor although Hannibal Lecter is on screen for well under half an hour of the film, a tally often given as about 16 minutes.

In Alien (1979), what is the name of the spaceship whose crew encounters the xenomorph?

Nostromo borrows its name from Joseph Conrad's 1904 novel, and the sequel kept the habit: the Marines' ship in Aliens, the Sulaco, is named from the same book.

Ari Aster's Midsommar (2019) follows visitors to a nine-day midsummer festival at a rural commune in which Nordic country?

Sweden's Hälsingland region hosts the Hårga commune's nine-day midsummer festival, and the film sets most of its terror in broad daylight.

Which American urban legend, dating to at least the 1950s, has a couple parked on Lovers Lane hear of an escaped killer?

The Hook ends with the couple racing home to find a bloody hook hanging from the car door handle; a reader's letter printed in the Dear Abby column in 1960 brought the tale wide attention.

In Child's Play (1988), dying killer Charles Lee Ray transfers his soul into which brand of doll?

Good Guy dolls give killer Charles Lee Ray his new body; his name splices three notorious ones, Charles Manson, Lee Harvey Oswald and James Earl Ray, and Brad Dourif voices Chucky throughout the original film series.

Who played sheriff's deputy Rick Grimes in The Walking Dead TV series?

Andrew Lincoln is a Londoner, familiar in Britain from Love Actually, who played the American lawman until 2018 and came back for the 2022 finale and a 2024 spin-off.

Which demon possesses 12-year-old Regan MacNeil in William Friedkin's 1973 film?

Pazuzu was a Mesopotamian wind demon whose image also worked as a charm: pregnant women wore amulets of his head to ward off the demoness Lamashtu.

Which Italian director, a giant of the giallo thriller, made Suspiria (1977) and Deep Red (1975)?

Dario Argento likes to do his own killing: the black-gloved murderer's hands seen in close-up in Deep Red are the director's own.

In the Conjuring universe, what is the name of the possessed doll that got her own spin-off films?

Annabelle is based on a Raggedy Ann doll investigated by Ed and Lorraine Warren; the films redesigned her as a porcelain doll, and Annabelle (2014) launched her own spin-off series.

Which Australian horror film turns a pop-up-book monster into a metaphor for grief?

The Babadook grew out of Monster, a 2005 short by its director, Jennifer Kent, who had learned the trade assisting Lars von Trier on the set of Dogville.

Which real killer inspired the villains of Psycho, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and The Silence of the Lambs?

Ed Gein was arrested in Plainfield, Wisconsin, in 1957 for murder and grave robbing; a novelist living 35 miles away published Psycho two years later, and the films followed.

Which term names H.P. Lovecraft's signature brand of horror?

Cosmic horror stayed on the shelves thanks to his friends: after Lovecraft died in 1937, two of them founded a publishing house to keep his stories in print.

In Midsommar (2019), what happens during the commune's ättestupa ritual?

Elders leap from a cliff in Midsommar's ättestupa rite, which ends Hårga life at 72; one survives the fall and the commune finishes him with a ceremonial mallet.

Which 1920 German Expressionist film features the sleepwalking murderer Cesare?

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari had its shadows and shafts of light painted straight onto the sets; Conrad Veidt, its sleepwalker, later played the Nazi major in Casablanca.

What is the name of the fictional New England university at the heart of many H.P. Lovecraft stories?

Miskatonic University, in Lovecraft's fictional Arkham, Massachusetts, sponsors the doomed Antarctic expedition of At the Mountains of Madness (1936).

In James Wan's Insidious (2010), what is the astral realm where young Dalton is trapped?

The Further is home to the film's Lipstick-Face Demon, who is played by Joseph Bishara, the composer who also wrote its score.

In Poe's 'The Cask of Amontillado', how does Montresor kill Fortunato?

Walls him up alive in the catacombs: Montresor lures Fortunato below with talk of a rare cask of sherry, and Poe never says what insult he is avenging.

Which term did film scholar Carol Clover coin for the lone woman who survives to confront the killer in films like Halloween?

Final girl dates from Clover's 1987 essay, expanded in her book Men, Women, and Chain Saws; she argued the audience starts out sharing the killer's view and switches sides to the survivor partway through.

Which fictional grimoire, credited to the 'Mad Arab', recurs in H.P. Lovecraft's stories?

The Necronomicon and its author were both made up: 'Abdul Alhazred' was the name Lovecraft gave himself as a five-year-old playing at the Arabian Nights, and he revived it for his imaginary book.

Which 1968 Romero film created the modern zombie genre without ever using the word 'zombie'?

Night of the Living Dead calls its creatures ghouls, and it belongs to everyone: the distributor dropped the copyright notice when the title changed, so the film slipped into the public domain.

Who directed the 1931 Universal film Frankenstein?

James Whale gave the Monster to Boris Karloff, a little-known actor with some eighty films behind him, and Jack Pierce's flat-headed make-up did the rest.

In Frankenstein (1931), whose brain does Fritz bring for the creature?

A criminal's brain goes into the creature because Fritz drops the jar holding the normal one; Mel Brooks spoofed the mix-up in Young Frankenstein, where the assistant says the brain belonged to 'Abby Normal'.

Where had Bela Lugosi already played Count Dracula before Universal's 1931 film?

On the Broadway stage: Lugosi opened in the play in 1927, yet Universal looked at other stars first, and he won the film role only by lobbying hard and accepting $500 a week.

In The Wolf Man (1941), who finally kills the werewolf Larry Talbot with a silver-headed cane?

His own father, Sir John, beats the wolf to death without knowing it is his son; the silver-headed stick was one Larry had bought only as an excuse to talk to a shopgirl.

Which alias does Karloff's Imhotep use in The Mummy (1932), a name the 1999 remake reused?

Ardath Bey is an anagram of 'Death by Ra'; the 1999 remake respelled it Ardeth Bay and gave it to the Medjai leader who guards Imhotep's tomb.

Which 1954 Universal monster movie features an amphibious Gill-man found up the Amazon?

Creature from the Black Lagoon, shot in 3D, needed two Gill-men: Ben Chapman on land and swimmer Ricou Browning underwater, who said he could hold his breath for two minutes at most while swimming hard.

Which actress played the title role in Bride of Frankenstein (1935)?

Elsa Lanchester played two parts: the Bride and, in the prologue, the novel's own author; she modelled the Bride's hiss on the hissing of swans.

Which British studio made The Curse of Frankenstein and other Gothic horrors?

Hammer Film Productions took its name from a founder's stage name: William Hinds, a London jeweller, performed in variety shows as Will Hammer.

Which two actors played the Baron and the Creature in The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)?

Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee: Lee's Creature needed a brand-new face, because the look of Boris Karloff's monster was Universal's copyright, so make-up man Phil Leakey had to invent another.

Which 1953 3D hit helped establish Vincent Price as a horror star?

House of Wax was the first colour 3D feature from a major American studio, yet its director, Andre de Toth, was blind in one eye and could not see the effect he was creating.

Which 1934 film with an Edgar Allan Poe title was the first to pair Boris Karloff with Bela Lugosi?

The Black Cat took only its title from Poe: the story was new, and it became Universal's biggest hit of 1934 and the first of eight films to feature both stars.

Which recurring role did Bela Lugosi play in Son of Frankenstein and its 1942 sequel?

Ygor, a blacksmith whose neck was broken when he was hanged, controls the Monster in Son of Frankenstein; in the 1942 sequel he schemes to have his own brain put in its skull.

Silent star Lon Chaney was nicknamed what for his makeup artistry?

The Man of a Thousand Faces learned his craft at home: Lon Chaney's parents were both deaf, so as a boy he talked to them through facial expression, pantomime and sign language.

Which author of The Stepford Wives wrote the 1967 novel that became Rosemary's Baby?

Ira Levin came to regret his own success: he said he felt guilty that the book had set off a run of devil films and left a generation with more belief in Satan.

In which 1976 film does an American ambassador learn that his adopted son Damien is the Antichrist?

The Omen stars Gregory Peck as the diplomat who secretly takes Damien in after his own baby dies at birth; the truth starts to surface when the boy's nanny hangs herself at his fifth birthday party.

Roughly what did Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chain Saw Massacre cost to make?

$140,000 is the figure usually given for The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, though accounts of its final cost run from $93,000 to $300,000; on any of them it was a bargain, grossing more than $25 million.

Which actress played Carrie White in Brian De Palma's 1976 film Carrie?

Sissy Spacek won the part of Carrie White by turning up to her screen test with Vaseline rubbed into her hair, wearing a sailor dress her mother had made her as a child; it brought her a first Best Actress Oscar nomination.

A visit to which Pennsylvania location inspired the setting of Dawn of the Dead?

Monroeville Mall, east of Pittsburgh, inspired Dawn of the Dead (1978) after a friend who helped run it showed Romero around; the crew shot there overnight after the stores closed.

John Carpenter's The Thing is based on which 1938 novella?

Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell Jr. was first filmed in 1951 as The Thing from Another World, which swapped its shape-shifter for a plant-based humanoid; Carpenter's version restored the alien that imitates its victims.

Which director drafted An American Werewolf in London in 1969, over a decade before filming it?

John Landis got the idea while working on Kelly's Heroes in Yugoslavia, where he says he saw a burial rite meant to stop the dead man rising; nobody would back the script until Animal House and The Blues Brothers gave him the clout.

Which short film served as Sam Raimi's proof of concept for The Evil Dead?

Within the Woods, a 32-minute short starring Bruce Campbell and set at a remote cabin, was made to show investors what Raimi could do; the backing it attracted let him start work on The Evil Dead.

Clive Barker directed his own 1987 film adaptation of which of his novellas?

The Hellbound Heart became Hellraiser, which Barker chose to direct himself because he was unhappy with how earlier films of his scripts had turned out; Doug Bradley played the lead Cenobite, later known as Pinhead.

Which Clive Barker short story was the basis for the 1992 film Candyman?

The Forbidden, a Clive Barker short story set on a Liverpool housing estate, moved to Chicago's Cabrini-Green for Candyman (1992); Tony Todd played the spirit summoned by saying his name five times.

Which Oscar did The Fly (1986) win?

Best Makeup went to Chris Walas and Stephan Dupuis, who turned Jeff Goldblum into the fly in seven stages; producer Mel Brooks kept his name off the film so that audiences would not expect a comedy.

Which actress played Thomasin in Robert Eggers' The Witch (2015)?

Anya Taylor-Joy made her film debut as Thomasin, the eldest daughter blamed when her baby brother vanishes from a 1630s New England farm; her younger siblings insist the family goat, Black Phillip, talks to them.

How long did Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon take to write The Cabin in the Woods?

Three days was all Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon needed to write The Cabin in the Woods, at 15 or more pages a day; MGM's bankruptcy then kept the finished film on the shelf until Lionsgate released it in 2012.

What are the doppelgängers called in Jordan Peele's Us?

The Tethered are doubles bred underground in a failed experiment to control the people above; in Us they climb out, kill their counterparts and join hands in a human chain like Hands Across America.

In Jordan Peele's Nope, which animal's rampage on a 1990s sitcom set still haunts former child star Jupe?

A chimpanzee playing the title role in the sitcom Gordy's Home turned on the cast when balloons popped; Jupe survived, and now sells the memory to visitors at his Western theme park.

In Talk to Me, teenagers contact spirits using what object?

An embalmed severed hand lets the teens in Talk to Me invite a spirit in; someone else must pull it away and blow out the candle within 90 seconds, or the spirit may stay for good.

Which 2022 horror film begins with a woman finding her Detroit rental house already occupied by a stranger?

Barbarian starts with Tess sharing a double-booked rental, then swerves to the house's owner, a disgraced actor played by Justin Long, who finds hidden tunnels and starts measuring them to raise the sale price.

Parker Finn expanded his short film Laura Hasn't Slept into which 2022 horror hit?

Smile picks up where the short stops: Caitlin Stasey returns as Laura, the patient whose death in front of her therapist passes the curse along; the film grossed about $217 million.

Which actress plays Gemma, the roboticist who builds the killer doll in M3GAN (2022)?

Allison Williams plays Gemma, who builds M3GAN as a companion for her orphaned niece; on set the doll was performed by Amie Donald, a child dancer from New Zealand, and voiced by Jenna Davis.

Art the Clown trades Halloween for which holiday in Terrifier 3 (2024)?

Christmas lets Art steal a Santa suit in Terrifier 3; made for about $2 million and released unrated, it still opened at No. 1 in the US, ahead of Joker: Folie à Deux.

Which Psycho star is the father of the writer-director of Longlegs?

Anthony Perkins, Norman Bates himself, was the father of Osgood 'Oz' Perkins, who wrote and directed Longlegs; as a boy, Oz played the young Norman in Psycho II.

Which 2024 film traps two Mormon missionaries in the house of a man played by Hugh Grant?

Heretic has Hugh Grant's Mr. Reed lure the pair inside with the promise that his wife is baking blueberry pie; the smell turns out to come from a scented candle, and the front door is locked.

In which region do twin brothers open their doomed juke joint in Ryan Coogler's Sinners (2025)?

The Mississippi Delta of 1932, around Clarksdale, is where twins Smoke and Stack, both played by Michael B. Jordan, spend stolen Chicago mob money on an old sawmill and turn it into a juke joint.

Which 2025 horror film opens with seventeen classmates vanishing at 2:17 a.m.?

Weapons was written by Zach Cregger in response to the death of his friend and comedy partner Trevor Moore; New Line won a bidding war for the script.

Who played Count Dracula in Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)?

Gary Oldman's Dracula ages from withered ancient to young prince with every effect done in camera: Coppola fired an effects team that insisted on digital tools and handed the job to his son Roman.

Which actress played Claudia beside Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt in Interview with the Vampire?

Kirsten Dunst broke through as Claudia; the film gave her a first screen kiss, with Brad Pitt, which she later said she had thought was gross because he had cooties.

Which M. Night Shyamalan film earned Haley Joel Osment a Best Supporting Actor nomination?

The Sixth Sense cost Disney executive David Vogel his post: he bought the script for $3 million without approval, and the studio then sold the production rights on, keeping only distribution and a slice of the box office.

The Others (2001) is set in 1945 on which island, newly freed from German occupation?

Jersey, in the Channel Islands, was under German occupation from 1940 until May 1945; in The Others, Grace waits there in a curtained house for a husband who has not come back from the war.

Which 1951 novel, whose hero wakes in hospital to a ruined world, inspired the opening of 28 Days Later?

The Day of the Triffids opens with Bill Masen waking in hospital, eyes bandaged, to find most of the world struck blind; Alex Garland named John Wyndham's novel as an influence on his script.

Which writer of Saw (2004) also starred in it, chained up opposite Cary Elwes?

Leigh Whannell wrote Saw and plays Adam, chained across the room from Cary Elwes; to sell the script, he and James Wan first shot its jaw-trap scene as a short film, with Whannell wearing the trap himself.

In which country are the tourists of Hostel (2005) tortured?

Slovakia is where Hostel (2005) sends its backpackers to be sold to torturers, though Eli Roth shot the film in the Czech Republic; Quentin Tarantino was an executive producer.

For how much was Paranormal Activity originally shot?

$15,000 was Oren Peli's budget for shooting Paranormal Activity; the studio later spent about $200,000 on a new ending, and the film went on to gross more than $190 million worldwide.

Which actor plays both Josh Lambert in Insidious and Ed Warren in The Conjuring?

Patrick Wilson led Insidious, which James Wan made independently for $1.5 million to keep creative control and get away from Saw's gore; it grossed about $100 million, and Wan cast him again in The Conjuring.

Which actress stars as the pursued young woman in It Follows?

Maika Monroe plays Jay, stalked by a slow-walking entity that is passed from person to person; writer-director David Robert Mitchell took the idea from recurring childhood dreams of being followed.

The Conjuring 2 dramatises which famous English haunting?

The Enfield poltergeist, reported at a council house in north London from 1977, drives The Conjuring 2, though the Warrens' real part was small: investigator Guy Lyon Playfair said they turned up once, uninvited.

Which 2002 film gave co-writer C. Robert Cargill the nightmare that inspired Sinister?

The Ring gave C. Robert Cargill the nightmare that became Sinister, in which Ethan Hawke's true-crime writer finds a box of home movies in his attic that show whole families being murdered.

Which actor, later the recruiter in Squid Game, plays the workaholic father in Train to Busan (2016)?

Gong Yoo plays Seok-woo, a divorced workaholic taking his daughter to Busan when the outbreak reaches their KTX train; bitten while saving her, he says goodbye and walks to the back of the train before he can turn.

Who starred in The Grudge (2004), Takashi Shimizu's remake of his own Ju-On?

Sarah Michelle Gellar led the remake, which Shimizu again set in Tokyo, with Takako Fuji back as the ghost Kayako; his 2002 original was itself the third Ju-On film, after two made straight for video.

Which Takashi Miike film, from a Ryu Murakami novel, follows a widower whose search for a new wife ends in torture?

Audition has the widower hold fake film auditions to meet women and choose Asami, who later drugs him and sets to work with acupuncture needles and a wire saw.

Which Spanish film traps a reporter and firefighters inside a quarantined Barcelona apartment block?

Rec is found footage: reporter Ángela Vidal and her cameraman follow Barcelona firefighters on a night shift that ends in a sealed building; Hollywood remade it within a year as Quarantine.

Where were The Descent's cave interiors filmed?

Sets at Pinewood Studios stood in for the caves because real ones were judged too dangerous and too slow to film in; the story's North Carolina mountains were shot in Britain as well.

Which Australian horror film, loosely inspired by real backpacker murders, features outback killer Mick Taylor?

Wolf Creek drew on Ivan Milat's backpacker murders and Bradley Murdoch's 2001 killing of Peter Falconio; a Northern Territory court blocked its release there while Murdoch's trial was under way.

Which 1980 Italian film looked so real that rumours spread its actors had been killed?

Cannibal Holocaust was seized by a magistrate ten days after its Milan premiere; Ruggero Deodato said its fake-documentary idea came from Italian news coverage of the Red Brigades, which he believed was staged.

Which studio distributed Hereditary, The Witch and Talk to Me?

A24 released all three; Hereditary drew a D+ CinemaScore from opening-night audiences and still became the company's highest-grossing title worldwide at the time, at about $80 million.

Which university did horror writer Shirley Jackson attend?

Syracuse University is where Shirley Jackson met her husband, critic Stanley Edgar Hyman, graduating in 1940; she wrote six novels including The Haunting of Hill House (1959).

Which 1980s short-story series established Clive Barker as a horror author?

Books of Blood, six volumes of stories published in 1984 and 1985, made Clive Barker's name; Stephen King called him the future of horror, a line printed on the covers of the first US editions.

Which bestselling horror novelist was born Howard Allen Frances O'Brien, named after her father?

Anne Rice picked the name herself: asked what she was called by a nun on her first day of school, she answered 'Anne', and her mother let it stand.

Which effects artist, a combat photographer in Vietnam, created the gore for Dawn of the Dead and Friday the 13th?

Tom Savini said he coped with what he photographed in Vietnam by thinking of it as special effects; his later work earned him the nickname 'The Sultan of Splatter'.

Which horror subgenre had its 'Golden Age' in the early 1980s, led by Friday the 13th and Prom Night?

Slasher films peaked between the late 1970s and 1984; Friday the 13th was so plainly built to ride the wave that its producer advertised the title in Variety while the script was still being drafted.

What does the Italian word 'giallo' literally mean?

Yellow is the literal meaning of giallo, after the yellow covers of Mondadori's crime paperbacks launched in 1929; the film genre peaked in the 1970s.

Witchfinder General, The Blood on Satan's Claw and The Wicker Man form the 'unholy trinity' of which horror subgenre?

Folk horror's 'unholy trinity' was named by writer Adam Scovell, who noted that the three British films share little beyond a bleak tone and countryside settings that cut their communities off.

Which 1967 novel inspired the screenplay of The Wicker Man?

Ritual by David Pinner, about a policeman probing a child's death in a Cornish village, was bought for the screen by Christopher Lee and Anthony Shaffer, who kept only its outline when he wrote The Wicker Man.

Which actor plays Count Orlok in Robert Eggers' Nosferatu (2024)?

Bill Skarsgård trained with an opera singer to lower his voice rather than have it altered digitally; Eggers gave Orlok a moustache because, he said, a Transylvanian nobleman of the time would have worn one.

Who played the title role in Universal's 1933 film The Invisible Man?

Claude Rains made his Hollywood debut as scientist Jack Griffin in The Invisible Man (1933), his face unseen until the final shot; his voice carried the performance.

Which psychiatrist, played by Donald Pleasence, hunts Michael Myers through the Halloween films?

Dr. Sam Loomis treated Michael after the six-year-old stabbed his sister Judith; his name comes from Marion Crane's boyfriend in Psycho, whose star Janet Leigh was Jamie Lee Curtis's mother.

Who wrote the original Friday the 13th screenplay?

Victor Miller wrote the original Friday the 13th (1980) screenplay for producer-director Sean S. Cunningham; Harry Manfredini composed its 'ki-ki-ki, ma-ma-ma' score.

Freddy Krueger haunts teenagers in which fictional Ohio town?

Springwood, Ohio is where Freddy Krueger stalks Elm Street's teenagers; Wes Craven built the premise on newspaper reports of refugees from Southeast Asia who died in their sleep after terrifying nightmares.

Which 1983 John Carpenter film, from a Stephen King novel, follows a bullied teenager and his sentient, self-repairing car?

Christine was played by more than twenty Plymouths bought through ads across Southern California, some of them Belvederes dressed as Furys; Carpenter said he took the film simply as a job.

Which 1985 film completed Romero's original zombie trilogy?

Day of the Dead shuts its survivors in an underground Florida bunker; Romero had planned a far bigger film, but took half the budget, $3.5 million, rather than tone down the gore for an R rating.

Whose body-horror films include Shivers, Rabid and The Brood?

David Cronenberg made Shivers partly with public money, which led critic Robert Fulford to tell Canadians how bad the film was and remind them that they had paid for it.

Which Spanish-language film was Guillermo del Toro's debut feature?

Cronos has an ageing antiques dealer stung by an ornate clockwork scarab that gives him back his youth at a price in blood; the film began del Toro's long partnership with Ron Perlman.

Which horror magazine, launched in 1979, made its name with gory photo spreads of make-up effects?

Fangoria began as a fantasy-film companion to Starlog and its first issues flopped; it turned to horror only after readers responded to a lavishly illustrated feature on a zombie film's make-up effects.

Which Halloween star is the daughter of Janet Leigh, the actress stabbed in the shower in Psycho?

Jamie Lee Curtis later acted alongside her mother in The Fog, two years after her film debut as Laurie Strode. Leigh reportedly avoided showers for the rest of her life after Psycho.

Which Goosebumps author has been called the Stephen King of children's literature?

R. L. Stine has sold over 400 million Goosebumps books in 35 languages. Before turning to scares he wrote dozens of humour books for children as Jovial Bob Stine.

Which fictional drug company's virus unleashes zombies on Raccoon City in the Resident Evil games?

Umbrella presents itself to the public as a medical and consumer-products giant, a front for secret research into viruses and biological weapons.

In the first Five Nights at Freddy's game, the player holds which job at a family pizzeria?

Security guard Mike Schmidt has to survive five night shifts as the animatronics roam. Scott Cawthon made the game after reviewers found the characters in his previous one unintentionally frightening.

In Netflix's Bird Box, what must Sandra Bullock's character wear whenever she ventures outdoors?

Blindfolds are the survivors' only defence, because the entities make anyone who looks at them kill themselves. Bird Box was Netflix's most-watched film at the time, within 28 days of release.

Which Scottish author wrote Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde after a dream supplied key scenes?

Robert Louis Stevenson is said to have burned his first draft after his wife criticised it, then rewritten the story from nothing as the allegory she had suggested.

Which 1950s EC Comics title became an HBO series hosted by a wisecracking corpse puppet?

Tales from the Crypt ran on HBO for seven seasons, and as premium cable it could show gore that network censors would have cut. John Kassir voiced its cackling host, the Cryptkeeper.

Which American author created the Headless Horseman in his 1820 story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow?

Washington Irving made the Headless Horseman the ghost of a soldier who lost his head in battle during the Revolutionary War. Irving is buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, near the people who inspired his characters.

Under which pen name did Stephen King publish Thinner, until a bookstore clerk exposed him?

Richard Bachman was King's way around publishers' belief that readers would accept only one book a year from an author. Thinner sold ten times as many copies once the secret was out.

Which real fungus genus, featured in the BBC's Planet Earth, creates the infected in The Last of Us?

Cordyceps is a real genus of more than 260 species, most of them parasites of insects. The game imagines a mutant strain that jumps to people.

Which 1967 Chevrolet do Sam and Dean Winchester drive across America in the series Supernatural?

Impala is the model the brothers treat as their real home, and across 15 seasons the car came to be seen as a character in its own right.

Which Shirley Jackson story about a village custom drew a flood of hate mail to The New Yorker?

The Lottery ends with the winner being stoned to death by neighbours, which prompted cancelled subscriptions and the most mail the magazine had ever received for a work of fiction.

Which actor, who later won a Best Actor Oscar, plays Josh in the PlayStation game Until Dawn?

Rami Malek lent Josh his voice and face through motion capture, in a cast that included Hayden Panettiere. Depending on the player's choices, all eight leads can survive the night or die.

Which poet's ghost-story challenge at a villa near Geneva led to the writing of Frankenstein?

Lord Byron proposed that each guest write a ghost story while cold, wet weather kept the party indoors. The gloom of 1816, the Year Without a Summer, followed the eruption of Mount Tambora.

In Bram Stoker's novel, at which Yorkshire seaside town does Dracula first land in England?

Whitby is where Stoker found the name Dracula, in the old public library, and the real beaching of a Russian ship there inspired the Count's arrival.

Which British novelist, already filmed twice by Alfred Hitchcock, wrote the story behind The Birds?

Daphne du Maurier also wrote the tale behind Don't Look Now. For The Birds, Hitchcock kept little beyond her title and the idea of unexplained bird attacks.

Which actress created the horror hostess Elvira while presenting B-movies on Los Angeles television?

Cassandra Peterson built Elvira partly on a Valley-girl character she had invented with the Groundlings comedy troupe. Her weekly showcase on station KHJ-TV was called Elvira's Movie Macabre.

Which 1992 game, set in a haunted Louisiana mansion, is often called the first 3D survival horror?

Alone in the Dark strongly influenced Capcom's Resident Evil four years later. Its story borrows from H. P. Lovecraft, down to the grimoires in the mansion's library.

Which Horace Walpole book, born of a nightmare at his villa, is regarded as the first Gothic novel?

The Castle of Otranto first appeared as a supposed translation of a rediscovered Italian book of 1529. Walpole owned up in the second edition, which added the subtitle A Gothic Story.

Which Paris theatre staged gory horror plays from 1897 to 1962, hiring doctors as a publicity stunt?

Grand Guignol judged a show by how many patrons passed out from shock, averaging two faintings a night. Its name became a byword for graphic horror entertainment.

Which monster, roused by hydrogen bomb testing, first rampaged through Tokyo in a 1954 Toho film?

Godzilla was conceived months after a US hydrogen bomb test showered the Japanese fishing boat Lucky Dragon No. 5 with fallout. The monster became a lasting metaphor for nuclear weapons.

Which New York landmark does King Kong climb, clutching Ann Darrow, in the 1933 original?

Empire State Building scenes blended live action with stop-motion animation and miniatures, groundbreaking effects for their day. The 1976 remake moved the climb to the newly built World Trade Center.

Which mogwai, voiced by Howie Mandel, is brought home as a pet in the 1984 film Gremlins?

Gizmo is gentle, but spilled water makes him spawn a mischievous brood led by Stripe. Complaints about the film's violence helped prompt the creation of the PG-13 rating.

Which actor plays handyman Val McKee, who fights giant underground worms called Graboids in Tremors?

Kevin Bacon stars beside Fred Ward as one of two handymen defending a Nevada desert town. Country singer Reba McEntire made her acting debut in the film as a survivalist.

Which tall, faceless figure in a black suit began as a 2009 post on the Something Awful forum?

Slender Man was added by Eric Knudsen to two old-looking photographs of children. When the game Slender: The Eight Pages appeared in 2012, its website crashed under the rush of downloads.

Which Caribbean country's folklore gave us the zombie, a corpse revived by a bokor sorcerer?

Haiti's zombies reached a wide readership through William Seabrook's 1929 book The Magic Island, which told of the dead being put to work on a sugar plantation.

Which winged creature was reportedly seen around Point Pleasant, West Virginia, in 1966 and 1967?

Mothman was later tied by legend to the collapse of the town's Silver Bridge, which killed 46 people. Point Pleasant holds an annual festival devoted to the creature.

In Jewish folklore, which clay figure did Rabbi Judah Loew bring to life to protect his community?

Golem tales sometimes have the figure animated by the Hebrew word for truth on its forehead. Erasing one letter leaves the word for dead and stops it.

Which man-eating spirit of Algonquian folklore is linked with the north, winter and famine?

Wendigo legends describe a being at once gluttonous and gaunt from starvation. Psychiatry borrowed the name for a disorder marked by a craving to eat people.

Which artist's biomechanical paintings gave Ridley Scott's Alien its creature and won him an Oscar?

H. R. Giger so disturbed writer Dan O'Bannon with his paintings that O'Bannon said he ended up writing a script about a Giger monster. Ron Cobb, Chris Foss and Jean Giraud also worked on the film's look.

In The Shining, Jack Torrance becomes winter caretaker of which remote Colorado mountain hotel?

The Overlook was inspired by the real Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, but Kubrick declined to shoot there because it lacked enough snow and electricity. Oregon's Timberline Lodge supplied the exterior.

Natalie Portman won an Oscar as an unravelling ballerina in which Darren Aronofsky film?

Black Swan follows a New York company staging Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, where one dancer must play both the innocent heroine and her dark rival. Aronofsky built it on the idea of being haunted by a double.

Which actor plays Patrick Bateman in American Psycho, a part its distributor briefly handed to Leonardo DiCaprio?

Christian Bale partly modelled Bateman's hollow friendliness on a Tom Cruise talk-show interview, his director recalled. Jared Leto is in the film too, as a rival banker.

In Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart, where is the body hidden when a thumping sound forces a confession?

Under the floorboards is where the narrator believes the dead man's heart is still beating, louder and louder. Poe gives no motive beyond the narrator's hatred of the old man's pale blue eye.

Which actress plays the pregnant newlywed who comes to fear her neighbours in Rosemary's Baby?

Mia Farrow was served divorce papers from Frank Sinatra in front of the cast and crew midway through filming. He had demanded she give up her career when they married.

Which Godfather star plays the novelist held captive by an obsessive fan in the 1990 film Misery?

James Caan spends nearly the whole film in bed or a wheelchair, his character's legs broken in a car crash. Several other actors were considered for the novelist before he was hired.

Which composer wrote the strings-only score for Hitchcock's Psycho, defying a request for jazz?

Bernard Herrmann wrote for strings alone partly because the music budget had been cut, and he felt a single tone colour suited the black-and-white photography.

In the game Silent Hill 2, the hero comes to the foggy town after receiving a letter from whom?

His dead wife Mary writes that she is waiting for him in the town where they once holidayed. The executioner figure Pyramid Head was created as a punisher, born of the hero's own need to be punished.

Which film about a killer cameraman drew a backlash that all but ended Michael Powell's British career?

Peeping Tom has its killer record his victims' dying expressions of terror on a portable film camera. A later Daily Telegraph assessment said the film effectively killed Powell's career.

Which Tim Robbins film about a hallucinating Vietnam veteran greatly inspired the Silent Hill games?

Jacob's Ladder lent the games its head-twitching figures, and the hero of the second game even wears a field jacket nearly identical to Jacob's.