148 Fun Facts About Scary Movies

Which 1984 film introduced Freddy Krueger, the scarred killer with a bladed glove?

A Nightmare on Elm Street's Freddy Krueger murders teenagers through their dreams as revenge on the parents who burned him alive; Wes Craven wrote and directed it, and Johnny Depp made his screen debut.

Which 1973 film, with 'Tubular Bells' as its eerie theme, was the first horror movie nominated for the Best Picture Oscar?

The Exorcist earned ten Oscar nominations and won two, for sound and adapted screenplay; William Peter Blatty based his novel on reports of a 1949 exorcism of a Maryland boy.

Which director made the 1960 thriller about the Bates Motel that is famous for its shower scene?

Alfred Hitchcock directed Psycho (1960) in black and white with his television crew on a small budget; the shower scene alone took about seven days to shoot.

Which 1975 film made a two-note theme scarier than its great white shark?

Jaws (1975) is Spielberg's great-white thriller; its mechanical sharks kept breaking, so he mostly hid the creature and let John Williams's two-note theme announce it.

Which 1974 horror film introduced Leatherface, who wears masks made of human skin?

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was sold as a true story but is fiction: Leatherface was only loosely inspired by Wisconsin killer Ed Gein, who also inspired Psycho's Norman Bates.

What horror franchise features a murderous doll named Chucky?

Child's Play (1988) opens with dying serial killer Charles Lee Ray casting a voodoo spell to move his soul into a Good Guy doll; Brad Dourif voices Chucky in every film but the 2019 remake.

Which 1991 film sends FBI trainee Clarice Starling to consult cannibal Hannibal Lecter?

The Silence of the Lambs swept the 'Big Five' Oscars, only the third film to do so, even though it had opened in early 1991, more than a year before the ceremony.

What famous author is known for horror novels such as 'It,' 'The Shining,' and 'Carrie'?

Stephen King threw away the first three pages of Carrie, his first published novel; his wife Tabitha fished them out of the trash and persuaded him to finish it.

Which horror subgenre links The Blair Witch Project, Paranormal Activity and Cloverfield?

Found footage passes a film off as its characters' own recordings; The Blair Witch Project's marketing even listed its actors as missing, and a shoot of at most $60,000 grossed nearly $250 million.

Which killer quizzes victims on horror films by phone in the Scream franchise?

Ghostface is a disguise, not one person: the mask and voice changer pass to a new culprit in each Scream film, so every entry is a whodunit; the mask was a shop-bought costume.

The 2008 vampire film Let the Right One In comes from which country?

Sweden's Let the Right One In is set in a Stockholm suburb in the early 1980s, adapted by John Ajvide Lindqvist from his own novel; an American remake, Let Me In, followed just two years later.

Which actress debuted on the big screen as babysitter Laurie Strode in John Carpenter's 1978 slasher?

Jamie Lee Curtis made her film debut as Laurie Strode; producer Debra Hill saw 'great publicity' in casting the daughter of Janet Leigh, the shower-scene victim of Psycho.

What is the name of the snowbound Colorado hotel where Jack Torrance unravels in the 1980 film 'The Shining'?

The Overlook Hotel's exteriors are Oregon's Timberline Lodge, whose owners asked Kubrick to swap the novel's Room 217 for a non-existent 237 so guests would not avoid a real room.

Which director created 'The Evil Dead' film series, featuring Ash Williams and Deadites?

Sam Raimi left Michigan State University after three semesters to make The Evil Dead, first shooting a short, Within the Woods, to win over investors.

Which 1968 George Romero film is widely credited with popularizing the modern zombie subgenre?

Romero never used the word 'zombie' in Night of the Living Dead or its script, calling his flesh-eaters ghouls because they were something new; the film redefined the zombie.

What murderous clown terrorizes the children of Derry, Maine, every 27 years?

Pennywise the Dancing Clown is the shape the creature It favours because a harmless-looking clown lures children; Tim Curry played him on television and Bill Skarsgård on film.

Who leads the Cenobites as the main antagonist of Clive Barker's Hellraiser franchise?

Pinhead has no name in the first film, whose credits call him only 'Lead Cenobite'; the make-up crew's nickname stuck with fans, though Clive Barker himself dislikes it.

Which 2015 horror film follows a Puritan family facing malevolent forces in 17th-century New England?

The Witch (2015) is Robert Eggers's debut, following a banished Puritan family in 1630s New England; its dialogue draws on period diaries and court records, and the goat Black Phillip became its breakout star.

What line does five-year-old Carol Anne deliver to the static-filled TV in 'Poltergeist'?

'They're here!' made a star of Heather O'Rourke, whom producer Steven Spielberg had spotted, aged five, eating lunch with her mother in the MGM commissary.

Which journalist investigates the cursed videotape in the American 'The Ring' films?

Rachel Keller, played by Naomi Watts, is the Seattle journalist whose sister asks her to look into her niece Katie's death; she watches the tape herself, leaving seven days to break the curse.

In Ridley Scott's Alien (1979), what is the name of the commercial space tug carrying the crew?

The Nostromo takes its name from Joseph Conrad's 1904 novel; its crew of seven is woken early from stasis, and only Ripley and the ship's cat, Jones, get away alive.

Most of 'The Descent' (2005) takes place in what kind of confined setting?

An uncharted cave system in the Appalachians traps the six women of The Descent; its caves were sets built at Pinewood Studios, because filming in a real cave was judged too dangerous and slow.

What 2018 film features a family who must stay silent to avoid creatures with heightened hearing?

A Quiet Place has its family talk in American Sign Language; director John Krasinski insisted on a deaf actress, Millicent Simmonds, as the daughter, saying she could teach him on set.

Which 2011 horror-comedy reveals college friends being manipulated by underground technicians?

The Cabin in the Woods, directed by Drew Goddard and produced by Joss Whedon, was shot in 2009 but sat on a shelf through MGM's bankruptcy and only reached cinemas in April 2012.

Which 1998 Hideo Nakata film did Gore Verbinski remake in America in 2002?

Ringu, Hideo Nakata's 1998 original, was based on Koji Suzuki's 1991 novel; the American remake's success triggered a wave of J-horror remakes.

Which 2006 horror-comedy, James Gunn's directing debut, infests a South Carolina town with alien parasites?

Slither fills a small town with slug-like parasites; James Gunn's first film as director earned back less than its $15 million budget, eight years before his Guardians of the Galaxy.

Which 1977 Dario Argento film is set at a German ballet academy run by a coven?

Suspiria follows American student Suzy Bannion into a Freiburg dance academy run by witches; Argento said he wanted its lurid colours to match those of Disney's Snow White.

What 1982 John Carpenter film has a shape-shifting alien terrorising an Antarctic research station?

The Thing opened in June 1982, two weeks after E.T., and took under $20 million; one reason often given is that audiences that summer preferred E.T.'s friendly visitor to a monster.

Which director's horror films 'Get Out' and 'Us' blend social commentary with psychological thrills?

Jordan Peele was known for the sketch show Key & Peele when he made Get Out, his first film as director, for $4.5 million; it grossed over $250 million and won him a screenplay Oscar.

Before Jason took over, who is revealed as the killer at the end of the original Friday the 13th (1980)?

Jason's mother, Pamela Voorhees, is the killer, avenging the son she believes drowned through the counselors' neglect; writer Victor Miller enjoyed turning motherhood 'on its head', and Jason only kills from the 1981 sequel.

In the original 'Scream' (1996), which two high school students are revealed as the killers?

Billy Loomis and Stu Macher, played by Skeet Ulrich and Matthew Lillard, turn out to share the costume; Billy's motive is revenge on Sidney's mother, whose affair with his father drove his own mother away.

Who wrote and directed the 1968 horror film Rosemary's Baby?

Roman Polanski had Tony Curtis secretly voice the actor on the phone without telling Mia Farrow who it was, so Rosemary's puzzled half-recognition of the voice is real.

Which 1978 horror film unleashed Michael Myers on Laurie Strode?

Halloween was shot in 20 days for about $300,000 and grossed some $70 million; that profit prompted imitators, among them Friday the 13th two years later.

Which 1978 remake ends with Donald Sutherland's character pointing and shrieking at a survivor?

Invasion of the Body Snatchers ends with Donald Sutherland's hero revealed as a pod person; Kevin McCarthy, star of the 1956 original, turns up early on as a man running through traffic shouting a warning.

Which hook-handed spirit from a Clive Barker story appears when his name is said five times into a mirror?

Candyman is the ghost summoned at the mirror; for the 1992 film, director Bernard Rose moved Clive Barker's story 'The Forbidden' from Liverpool to Chicago's Cabrini-Green housing project.

Who played Count Dracula for Universal in 1931, having first played him on Broadway?

Bela Lugosi played Dracula on Broadway from 1927 before Universal's 1931 film; his Hungarian accent typecast him for the rest of his career, and he was buried in a Dracula cape.

Which 2016 Mike Flanagan film follows a widow and her two daughters haunted in 1967 Los Angeles?

Ouija: Origin of Evil has widow Alice Zander add a Ouija board to her fake-seance act, and a spirit takes hold of her youngest daughter; it is a prequel to 2014's Ouija, set nearly half a century earlier.

Which 2016 Fede Alvarez film traps three burglars in a blind veteran's Detroit house?

Don't Breathe was Fede Alvarez's answer to his own gory Evil Dead remake: he set out to make an original story with less blood and nothing supernatural, and it grossed over $150 million.

In which 2006 animated film do three kids take on Mr. Nebbercracker, a neighbour voiced by Steve Buscemi?

Monster House turns on a surprise: the boys blame Mr. Nebbercracker for the hauntings, but the house is possessed by his late wife, Constance, who died in its unfinished basement; Dan Harmon co-wrote the script.

Which 1999 thriller stars Bruce Willis as a child psychologist and ends on one of cinema's most famous twists?

The Sixth Sense keeps the colour red out of most scenes and saves it for anything touched by the dead, a clue to the twist that director M. Night Shyamalan leaves in plain sight.

In The Babadook (2014), the monster first enters the family's life through what object?

A pop-up book called Mister Babadook turns up on the boy's shelf and brings the monster with it; Jennifer Kent's debut grew from her 2005 short Monster, and a Kickstarter of about $30,000 paid for its sets.

Which horror game and film series is known for desolate, foggy environments and psychological torment?

Silent Hill's fog began as a workaround: the 1999 game used fog and darkness to hide what the PlayStation could not draw in the distance, and the look became the series' signature.

In which 2014 horror film are friends haunted by a sexually transmitted demonic entity?

It Follows (2014) passes its shape-shifting stalker on through sex; director David Robert Mitchell said the idea grew from a recurring childhood nightmare of being slowly followed.

In which 2001 film do two photosensitive children live behind drawn curtains in a Jersey manor?

The Others won eight Goya Awards, Spain's top film prizes, without a word of Spanish dialogue; its twist is that Nicole Kidman's Grace and her children are themselves the ghosts.

Which Canadian director made the 'body horror' films 'The Fly' and 'Videodrome'?

David Cronenberg fuses Jeff Goldblum's scientist with a housefly in The Fly, and plays the gynecologist in its nightmare birth scene himself, because Geena Davis did not want a stranger in the part.

Which 2007 vampire film, adapted from a Steve Niles comic, is set in Barrow, Alaska?

30 Days of Night sends vampires to Barrow, Alaska for a month without sunrise; the real town, now called Utqiagvik, goes even longer, with a polar night of about 66 days.

Which 2019 Robert Eggers film stars Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson as two men going mad on a New England rock?

The Lighthouse grew out of Max Eggers's attempt to adapt Poe's unfinished story 'The Light-House'; his brother Robert shot it in black and white in a nearly square frame to box its two keepers in.

In which 2017 horror film does a Chinese music box grant Joey King's teenager seven wishes at a deadly price?

Wish Upon makes Clare pay for every wish: her first, an absent-minded one that a school bully would 'rot', gives the girl necrotizing fasciitis, and Clare's dog dies the same day.

In which 2018 horror film does a grieving family learn their grandmother led a demon cult?

Hereditary (2018) was Ari Aster's feature debut; the Graham family discovers that grandmother Ellen led a cult serving the demon king Paimon, who demands a male host.

Who played the Monster in Universal's 1931 Frankenstein?

Boris Karloff was a jobbing actor in his forties, with about 80 films behind him, when the Monster made him a star; the flat-headed look was the work of makeup artist Jack Pierce.

In Carrie (1976), what do bullies Chris and Billy tip over the new prom queen from a bucket?

Pigs' blood, drained by Chris and Billy from slaughtered farm pigs, soaks Carrie on stage; Sissy Spacek won the part by turning up to her screen test with Vaseline in her hair and an old sailor dress.

Which 2016 South Korean zombie hit from animator Yeon Sang-ho was followed by the standalone sequel Peninsula?

Train to Busan was the first Korean film of 2016 to draw 10 million cinemagoers at home; Yeon Sang-ho, known until then for adult animation, released an animated prequel, Seoul Station, the same year.

Which Harry Potter star leads the 2012 ghost story The Woman in Black?

Daniel Radcliffe saw a psychologist before filming to understand his grieving lawyer, Arthur Kipps; his real-life godson, Misha Handley, plays Kipps's young son.

The 2023 film Five Nights at Freddy's takes place at an abandoned what?

Pizzeria mascots at Freddy Fazbear's turn out to be possessed by the spirits of murdered children; the film had Jim Henson's Creature Shop build its animatronics for real.

Which star is killed off in the first scene of Scream (1996)?

Drew Barrymore was signed for the lead, Sidney, but asked for the smaller part of Casey Becker; the marketing still sold her as the star, so her early death would shock the audience.

What breed of dog is the rabid title character of the 1983 film Cujo?

Cujo is a St. Bernard who turns after a rabid bat bites his nose; several real dogs, mechanical stand-ins and even a stuntman in a dog costume shared the part.

Who plays fading star Elisabeth Sparkle in the 2024 body horror The Substance?

Demi Moore plays Elisabeth Sparkle, a star fired for her age who takes a black-market drug that creates a younger woman, Sue; the role won her a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild Award.

Which 2017 film broke the record for the highest-grossing horror movie, unadjusted for inflation?

It grossed over $700 million worldwide on a budget of at most $40 million, more than any horror film before it; a sequel picking up its characters as adults followed in 2019.

Which actor played dream-stalker Freddy Krueger from 1984 until 2003's Freddy vs. Jason?

Robert Englund played Freddy Krueger in eight consecutive films; he has said he enjoyed the role as a break from always playing the nice guy.

Survivors in Dawn of the Dead (1978) barricade themselves inside what?

A shopping mall gave the film its story: George Romero toured Pennsylvania's Monroeville Mall with a friend whose company managed it, set his zombie siege there and made it a satire of consumerism.

Which actor plays the Satanic serial killer of the title in the 2024 film Longlegs?

Nicolas Cage plays Longlegs, and the marketing campaign kept his look concealed; director Osgood Perkins is the son of Anthony Perkins, Psycho's Norman Bates.

What is the vampire called in the 1922 silent film Nosferatu?

Count Orlok, played by Max Schreck, was renamed from Dracula to dodge Bram Stoker's estate; Florence Stoker sued anyway and a court ordered every print of Nosferatu destroyed.

Michael Myers's white mask was made from a mould of which actor's face?

The mask is a Captain Kirk mask cast from William Shatner's face; the film's crew bought it for under two dollars, cut the eye holes wider and spray-painted it white.

Kathy Bates won an Oscar for playing which obsessive 'number one fan' in Misery?

Annie Wilkes, the nurse who holds novelist Paul Sheldon captive, won Kathy Bates the 1991 Best Actress Oscar; she was then a stage actress largely unknown to film audiences, and Rob Reiner directed.

For how many hours is all crime legal during the annual event in The Purge?

The Purge runs for 12 hours, from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., once a year; the first film (2013) cost about $3 million and was set in the then-future year 2022.

In 28 Days Later, the chimpanzees that start the outbreak are infected with what?

Rage is the virus carried by the lab chimpanzees; it gets out when animal-rights activists free one despite a scientist's warning, and the first of them is infected within seconds.

Ryan Coogler's 2025 vampire film Sinners is set in which state in 1932?

Sinners is set in Clarksdale, Mississippi, in the 1932 Delta; Michael B. Jordan plays twin brothers Smoke and Stack, who return from Chicago to open a juke joint.

Which future star had his first leading role in the 1958 sci-fi horror The Blob?

Steve McQueen took his first lead in The Blob (1958), playing a teenager the town refuses to believe; he works out that the creature cannot stand cold, and it is frozen and flown to the Arctic.

Who directed the 2000 horror spoof Scary Movie?

Keenen Ivory Wayans directed Scary Movie (2000) while brothers Marlon and Shawn co-wrote and starred; the title had been the working title of Scream, the film it mostly parodies.

What is the name of the tricycle-riding puppet in the Saw films?

Billy is never named on screen: the name comes from the films' makers. The puppet delivers Jigsaw's rules instead of killing, and Saw IV shows an early version made for John Kramer's unborn son.

What is the name of the demon that takes the form of a nun in the Conjuring films?

Valak was a late change of design: James Wan first conceived The Conjuring 2's demon as a winged figure, then made it a nun, played by Bonnie Aarons, to keep the film grounded.

Which 2001 horror film's winged monster wakes every 23rd spring to feed for 23 days?

Jeepers Creepers takes its name from the 1938 song heard in the film; its monster, the Creeper, eats human body parts and absorbs them into its own body.

In Talk to Me (2022), teens contact spirits by gripping what object?

An embalmed hand lets whoever grips it see a spirit and invite it in; the rule is that someone must break the contact within 90 seconds, before the spirit can bind itself to the holder.

Who plays the pagan island leader Lord Summerisle in The Wicker Man (1973)?

Christopher Lee called it his best film and worked on it without pay, hoping to break free of his image as Dracula.

In which film does Jason Voorhees first wear his hockey mask?

Jason first dons the hockey mask in Friday the 13th Part III (1982), taking it from prankster Shelly; he wore a sack over his head in Part 2, and Part III was shot in 3-D.

Which 2000 horror film, first written as a spec script for The X-Files, has death hunt the survivors of Flight 180?

Final Destination began as Jeffrey Reddick's spec script for an episode of The X-Files, written to land himself a TV agent; a colleague at New Line persuaded him to turn it into a feature.

Which Rhode Island family do the Warrens help in The Conjuring (2013)?

The Perrons' real farmhouse later paid for its fame: the owners who bought it in 1987 said they had lived there in peace for 25 years before the film brought trespassers and vandals, and sued the studio in 2015.

Which actor plays Kane, host of the chestburster, in Ridley Scott's 1979 Alien?

John Hurt plays Kane, the officer who hosts the chestburster; the cast knew the creature would emerge but not how violently, and Veronica Cartwright's horrified reaction to the blood spray is genuine.

Near which Maryland town do the students vanish in The Blair Witch Project?

Burkittsville is a real Maryland town, but the Blair Witch is not a real local legend: the film's directors invented the myth in 1993, six years before their film brought the town national attention.

Which 2009 horror film's twist is that nine-year-old Esther is really a 33-year-old woman?

Orphan's Esther is Leena Klammer, whose hormone disorder stunted her growth; Isabelle Fuhrman played her again as an adult in the 2022 prequel, using forced perspective and child doubles instead of CGI.

The Conjuring 2 is based on a 1977 poltergeist case in which part of London?

Enfield's poltergeist case, centred on two sisters in a council house, was studied from 1977 by the Society for Psychical Research; the film's heroes, the Warrens, by one account paid only a short visit.

Which 1986 charity event do the Tethered re-enact at the end of Us?

Hands Across America tried to link a human chain from coast to coast on 25 May 1986; millions joined in, but the line was broken in many places. A TV advert for it opens the film.

In Nope (2022), what do the Haywoods name the creature in the sky?

The Haywoods call the creature Jean Jacket, after a horse the family once owned; it turns out to be a predatory animal, not a ship, and it attacks those who look straight at it.

Which 2019 Ari Aster film takes grieving student Dani to a remote commune whose nine-day rites come round once every 90 years?

Midsommar was filmed near Budapest, in Hungary, far from its Nordic setting; Ari Aster wrote it after a painful breakup of his own and called it a breakup movie dressed in the clothes of a folk horror film.

Which demon possesses 12-year-old Regan MacNeil in The Exorcist?

Pazuzu, an Assyrian demon, possesses Regan, who first knows it as an imaginary friend called Captain Howdy; Mercedes McCambridge performed the demon's voice.

The Italian horror-thriller genre 'giallo' takes its name from which colour?

Giallo means yellow: Mondadori's pulp crime paperbacks carried yellow covers from 1929, decades before Bava and Argento put the style on screen.

Rick Baker won the first-ever Academy Award for Best Makeup for which 1981 film?

An American Werewolf in London won Rick Baker the first Best Makeup Oscar, a category created after complaints that The Elephant Man's makeup had gone unhonoured the year before.

A grieving couple keep glimpsing a red-coated figure in which city in Don't Look Now?

Venice is where John and Laura Baxter go after their daughter drowns; the film's frank love scene set off rumours, which lasted for years, that Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland were not acting.

What does the name of the killer doll M3GAN stand for?

M3GAN stands for Model 3 Generative Android; a clip of her dancing became a TikTok meme before release, and the film was partly reshot to tone down its violence for a PG-13.

The 1961 ghost film The Innocents adapts which Henry James novella?

The Innocents adapts The Turn of the Screw (1898), with Deborah Kerr as the governess Miss Giddens; Truman Capote co-wrote the screenplay, and the film never settles whether the ghosts are real.

Bob Clark made the 1974 sorority-house slasher and which 1983 holiday classic?

A Christmas Story (1983) came from Bob Clark, who had made Black Christmas in 1974: the same director gave horror its killer-in-the-attic phone calls and family TV its leg lamp.

In Phantasm (1979), the Tall Man's mausoleum is patrolled by flying silver what?

Spheres with drills came from a nightmare Don Coscarelli had as a teenager, of being chased down a long corridor by a flying chrome ball that would drill out his brain; he made the film for about $300,000.

Which child-eating pagan deity stalks the home-movie reels in Sinister (2012)?

Bughuul, who lures children away and consumes their souls, lurks in Super 8 reels a true-crime writer finds in his attic; a 2020 study that tracked viewers' heart rates named Sinister the scariest film ever made.

Which composer won his only Oscar for the 1976 film The Omen?

Jerry Goldsmith won his only Oscar, from 18 nominations, for The Omen; he wrote its chant 'Ave Satani' as a kind of Black Mass, turning phrases of the Latin Mass upside down, and it was nominated for Best Song.

Who directed the 1999 Japanese film Audition, infamous for its needles-and-wire finale?

Takashi Miike shot Audition in Tokyo in three weeks; its widower hero stages fake auditions to find a girlfriend and pays for it horribly, and the film won the critics' FIPRESCI Prize at Rotterdam in 2000.

In The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), what is the name of the murderous sleepwalker?

Cesare, played by Conrad Veidt, kills at Dr. Caligari's command, or so the narrator says: a twist in the framing story, which the writers said was forced on them, shows the teller to be an asylum inmate.

Whose blood, dripped on the attic floor, begins Frank Cotton's return from the dead in Hellraiser (1987)?

His brother Larry's blood, from a hand gashed on a nail while moving a bed, soaks into the attic floor and feeds what is left of Frank; Julia then lures men to the house so he can finish rebuilding himself.

The Evil Dead films' Book of the Dead, the Necronomicon, takes its name from a grimoire invented by which author?

H. P. Lovecraft first mentioned the Necronomicon in his story 'The Hound', published in 1924; the films' director had been studying Lovecraft at university, and the first film's working title was Book of the Dead.

Annabelle in the Conjuring films is porcelain, but the allegedly haunted original is which classic children's doll?

Raggedy Ann's likeness was avoided partly over possible trademark trouble and partly because a disfigured porcelain face looked more unsettling on screen.

Which future star, then a rock musician who had never acted, debuted on screen in 1984 as a Freddy Krueger victim?

Johnny Depp said he 'ended up acting by accident' after a friend arranged the audition, and he came back for a brief cameo in the sixth film of the series in 1991.

The therapist in Smile (2022) is played by the daughter of which Friday the 13th (1980) victim?

Kevin Bacon's death scene as counsellor Jack used a prosthetic neck with his real head poking up through the mattress; his daughter Sosie Bacon led Smile four decades later.

Which 1984 horror comedy, with Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, prompted the creation of the PG-13 rating?

Gremlins upset audiences who had expected a cuddly animal film for small children, and the MPAA revised its rating system within two months of the release.

In Coraline (2009), the Other Mother offers to let Coraline stay forever if what is sewn onto her eyes?

Buttons are the Other Mother's mark of ownership: three ghost children let her sew them over their eyes, and she then swallowed their lives.

Woody Harrelson's Tallahassee spends most of Zombieland (2009) searching for which snack?

A Twinkie is all Tallahassee wants from the apocalypse, on a road trip that detours to the Los Angeles home of Bill Murray, who plays a fictionalised version of himself.

Which Wisconsin grave robber inspired the fictional killers Norman Bates, Leatherface and Buffalo Bill?

Ed Gein was arrested in 1957, when police searching his Plainfield farm found keepsakes he had fashioned from the bones and skin of corpses stolen from local graveyards.

Which horror star of House of Wax (1953) performed the spoken-word section of Michael Jackson's Thriller?

Vincent Price recorded his part in just two takes, after producer Quincy Jones's wife Peggy Lipton suggested her friend for the job.

In Hocus Pocus (1993), a teenager accidentally resurrects the Sanderson sisters in which Massachusetts town?

Salem and Marblehead hosted just two weeks of daytime filming with the main cast, because most of the film was shot on sound stages in Burbank, California.

Jack Black plays a fictionalised version of which real children's horror author in Goosebumps (2015)?

R. L. Stine appears in person too, with a cameo as a drama teacher called Mr. Black, a play on the name of the actor portraying him.

Gizmo, the furry pet that must never get wet or eat after midnight, belongs to which fictional species?

Mogwai comes from a Cantonese word meaning monster, evil spirit or devil, a fair warning about a cuddly pet that spawns mischievous offspring when splashed.

In The Omen (1976), what is the name of the American ambassador's young son, revealed as the Antichrist?

Damien carries a 666 birthmark that confirms who he is, and the animals at a safari park are terrified whenever he comes near.

The teenage counsellors of the original Friday the 13th (1980) are murdered while reopening which summer camp?

Camp Crystal Lake already had a tragic past: the film's opening scene is set there in 1958, about two decades before the new counsellors arrive.

Which future Oppenheimer star wakes from a coma to find London deserted in 28 Days Later (2002)?

Cillian Murphy had worked mainly in small independent films before playing Jim, a bicycle courier hospitalised by a traffic accident just before the outbreak.

Which actress landed her breakout role as the heroine Cindy in the horror spoof Scary Movie (2000)?

Anna Faris won the lead shortly after her first small film parts, and the spoof topped the box office with a $42 million opening weekend.

Which actor plays the title ghost in Beetlejuice (1988), a part the producers also considered for Dudley Moore?

Michael Keaton was a stranger to the director until a producer suggested him, and critic Roger Ebert found him unrecognisable behind pounds of makeup.

Which Hunger Games actor plays night guard Mike Schmidt in Five Nights at Freddy's (2023)?

Josh Hutcherson joined the cast in December 2022 alongside Matthew Lillard, who plays the franchise's main villain, William Afton.

Which actress plays the possessed title character who preys on her male classmates in Jennifer's Body (2009)?

Megan Fox's Jennifer Check is a succubus who must feed on flesh and can only be killed while she is hungry and weak, as her bookish best friend learns in the school library.

In The Shining (1980), Jack Torrance freezes to death after chasing his son Danny into what?

A hedge maze was added for the film because the living topiary animals of the novel were beyond the special effects of the time.

Which actor plays Seth Brundle, the scientist whose teleporter splices him with an insect, in The Fly (1986)?

Jeff Goldblum's scientist nicknames his new self Brundlefly as he gains the ability to cling to walls and ceilings and starts dissolving his food with vomited enzymes.

Michael Myers kills his sister at the age of six, then returns 15 years later, in which fictional Illinois town?

Haddonfield is where he steals a white mask, a rope and two kitchen knives from a hardware store before stalking a teenage babysitter and her friends.

Scream (1996) is set in which fictional California town, terrorised on the anniversary of a local woman's murder?

Woodsboro's town square, fountain and police station exterior were all filmed in the real town square of Healdsburg, California.

Dream-stalker Freddy Krueger wears a brown fedora and a dirty striped sweater in which two colours?

Red and green stripes cover only the body of the sweater in the first film, where the sleeves are solid red; the fully striped look came with the sequels.

What is the real name of the Jigsaw Killer, the trap-builder played by Tobin Bell in the Saw films?

John Kramer spends the first film posing as a bloodied corpse on the floor of the very bathroom where his two captives are chained.

In Shaun of the Dead (2004), which pub do Shaun and his friends choose for waiting out the zombie outbreak?

The Winchester has a rifle mounted above the bar, and Shaun discovers that it really works while fighting the pub's zombified owner.

Which actor plays the chainsaw-wielding hero Ash Williams in the Evil Dead films?

Bruce Campbell returned in 2023 with an uncredited voice cameo in Evil Dead Rise, heard on a phonograph record made a century earlier.

Which actor played the hook-handed title killer of Candyman (1992), despite the bee stings the part involved?

Tony Todd's colleagues were sceptical about him taking the part because of the stings; the film's honeybees were managed by a handler who had also worked on My Girl.

Which actor plays the Grabber, a serial child abductor in 1978 Denver, in The Black Phone (2021)?

Ethan Hawke's kidnapper is undone by a disconnected rotary phone, which lets his latest captive plot an escape with the ghosts of the earlier victims.

In Get Out (2017), the sound of a spoon stirring a teacup sends Chris falling into which dark void?

The Sunken Place grew out of the sensation of falling as one drifts off to sleep, and the idea of being trapped as an observer behind one's own eyes.

Which 2007 horror film about a young couple haunted in their own home was shot for just $15,000 in San Diego?

Paranormal Activity was filmed in a private tract home in Rancho Peñasquitos and was first shown at film festivals as an independent feature.

In Tremors (1990), store owner Walter Chang coins which name for the giant worms besieging Perfection, Nevada?

Graboids kill the man who named them soon afterwards, driving the rest of the town onto the rooftops and out of reach of the underground hunters.

In Hostel (2005), American backpackers are persuaded to skip Barcelona for a deadly hostel in which country?

Slovakia made strong complaints about the film when it came out, as did the Czech Republic; the hostel of the story stands near the capital, Bratislava.

Which actress plays both the young Maxine and the elderly Pearl in the 2022 slasher X?

Mia Goth's double act launched a series: a prequel named after the older woman arrived months later, and a sequel named after the younger one followed.

In Netflix's Fear Street trilogy, which town, the rival of neighbouring Sunnyvale, is dubbed America's murder capital?

Shadyside's teenagers blame Sarah Fier, said to have laid a curse on the town before she was executed for witchcraft in 1666.

In Resident Evil (2002), which company owns the Hive, the underground lab where the T-virus escapes?

Umbrella hides the lab beneath Raccoon City and guards its secret entrance, under a mansion, with two employees posing as a married couple.

In Little Shop of Horrors (1986), what name does florist Seymour give the plant that thrives on human blood?

Audrey II was bought from a Chinese flower shop during a solar eclipse, and its taste for blood comes to light only when Seymour pricks his finger.

Which star played Lestat in Interview with the Vampire (1994), a casting author Anne Rice publicly opposed at first?

Tom Cruise got the part after Daniel Day-Lewis turned it down, unwilling to play a vampire, and after author Anne Rice's own favourite was judged too little known.

Which actress, Oscar-nominated as Carrie White in 1976, rubbed Vaseline into her hair for the screen test?

Sissy Spacek also backed out of a booked television commercial, left her face unwashed and wore a sailor dress her mother had made for her in seventh grade.

Which Irish author wrote the 1897 Gothic novel behind Count Dracula's many screen appearances?

Bram Stoker, born in the Dublin suburb of Clontarf, closes the novel with a note revealing that the Harkers have named their son Quincey after their friend.

Which actor co-wrote Young Frankenstein (1974) and starred as a descendant of the infamous Victor Frankenstein?

Gene Wilder pitched the idea over a cup of coffee during the last weeks of shooting Blazing Saddles, and the script went on to earn an Oscar nomination.

Which actress played both author Mary Shelley and the Monster's hissing mate in Bride of Frankenstein (1935)?

Elsa Lanchester modelled the hissing on that of swans, and the credits name her only for the author's part, listing the Monster's mate as a question mark.

Which silent star devised his own ghastly make-up, kept secret until the premiere, for The Phantom of the Opera (1925)?

Lon Chaney paid for the effect in pain: the film's cinematographer recalled that the wires in the make-up sometimes made him bleed badly.

Which Manhattan apartment building supplied the exteriors of the sinister Bramford in Rosemary's Baby (1968)?

The Dakota stands in for a Gothic block with a dark past of witchcraft and murder, which a friend warns the young couple about before they move in.

Which 1973 instrumental album found fame once its piano opening became the theme of Regan MacNeil's possession film?

Tubular Bells had sold slowly until the film arrived that December, and its theme later won composer Mike Oldfield a Grammy for Best Instrumental Composition.

Which composer scored Psycho (1960) for a string orchestra alone, against the request for a jazz score?

Bernard Herrmann had refused to cut his fee for the low-budget production, then turned the smaller music budget to his advantage by dropping the full symphonic ensemble.

Which 1954 monster film, shot in 3D, pits scientists on the Amazon against the amphibious Gill-man?

Creature from the Black Lagoon needed two performers for its monster, one on land and one underwater, and many cinemas showed it flat because the 3D fad was already fading.

The Birds (1963) depicts sudden, unexplained bird attacks on the people of which California coastal town?

Bodega Bay hosted many of the exterior scenes as well, for a film loosely based on a 1952 short story by Daphne du Maurier.

In Christine (1983), bullied teenager Arnie Cunningham buys a sentient red 1958 car of which make and model?

Plymouth Fury production for 1958 came to only 5,303 cars, so the film also dressed up Belvedere and Savoy models to play the malevolent automobile.

In Insidious (2010), young Dalton Lambert's spirit is captured in which purgatory realm of tortured spirits?

The Further is reached by astral projection, a gift the boy's father shares: put into a hypnotic trance, he projects himself in to bring his son back.

The vampire mockumentary What We Do in the Shadows (2014) centres on four housemates sharing a flat in which city?

Wellington's Te Aro suburb is home to the flat, and each night three of the vampires take the bus into town to prowl the streets and feed.