Halloween (1978)
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50 free Halloween (1978) trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
John Carpenter's Halloween was shot in a few weeks on a tiny budget with a mostly unknown cast, and it changed horror for good. A silent masked killer, a babysitter who fights back and a few notes of music were enough to launch a franchise and a decade of imitators. This quiz covers the film from every side: what happens to Laurie Strode and her friends on the night Michael Myers comes home, who played whom, how the mask, the music and the camerawork came together, and how critics and later film-makers responded. It is written for fans who have seen the original more than once, but most questions give a casual viewer a fair route to the answer. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you will leave knowing more about the film than when you started.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The white mask Michael Myers wears in Halloween (1978) began as a cheap mask of which Star Trek actor?
William Shatner
William Shatner's face, sold as a Captain Kirk mask for $1.98, was what the tiny budget allowed. The crew widened the eye holes and spray-painted it a bluish white.
Q 02Which actress made her film debut as teenage babysitter Laurie Strode in Halloween (1978), for a fee of $8,000?
Jamie Lee Curtis
Jamie Lee Curtis was 19 and unknown to John Carpenter, who had wanted a different actress. She worried she was wrong for quiet Laurie, having been a cheerleader at school.
Q 03What name does the boy Laurie Strode babysits give the masked figure he sees outside in Halloween (1978)?
The boogeyman
The boogeyman is his word for the figure he spots from the window, though Laurie looks, sees nothing and brushes it off. By the end of the night she believes him.
Q 04Which fictional Illinois town, named after a real one in New Jersey, does Michael Myers stalk in Halloween (1978)?
Haddonfield
Haddonfield takes its name from the New Jersey town where the film's co-writer was raised. Several of its street names were borrowed from John Carpenter's own Kentucky hometown.
Q 05Which Alfred Hitchcock star is the real-life mother of the actress who plays Laurie Strode in Halloween (1978)?
Janet Leigh
Janet Leigh's fame made her daughter's casting free publicity in the eyes of the film's producer. Mother and daughter later shared the screen in John Carpenter's The Fog.
Q 06What costume is six-year-old Michael Myers wearing when he kills his sister in the opening of Halloween (1978)?
A clown
A clown costume, whose mask the camera looks through for the whole murder. The view only pulls back once the boy is standing on the lawn between his stunned parents.
Q 07On which instrument did John Carpenter play the simple repeating melody of his famous theme for Halloween (1978)?
Piano
Piano carries the tune, which John Carpenter composed and performed himself. He set out to save the film with music after a studio executive watched a cut without any and was not scared at all.
Q 08In which U.S. state was Halloween (1978) actually filmed, with artificial autumn leaves reused from scene to scene?
California
California stood in for the Midwest during a 20-day spring shoot around South Pasadena and Hollywood. The crew picked streets with few palm trees, though some still sneak into shot.
Q 09What weapon does Michael Myers carry in Halloween (1978), after stealing a pair of them from a hardware store?
A kitchen knife
A kitchen knife is all he needs, in a film that shows remarkably little blood for a slasher. He takes two from the store along with a rope and his mask.
Q 10Which director remade Halloween (1978) in 2007 as part origin story, on John Carpenter's advice to make it his own?
Rob Zombie
Rob Zombie, already known for House of 1000 Corpses, felt obliged to tell Carpenter about the plan himself out of respect. His film is both a prequel and a remake.
Q 11What does Laurie Strode use to stab Michael Myers in the neck after he climbs in through a window in Halloween (1978)?
A knitting needle
A knitting needle drops him to the floor, and Laurie assumes he is dead. She is wrong: he rises and follows her upstairs.
Q 12What is the profession of Dr. Sam Loomis, the man who hunts the escaped Michael Myers through Halloween (1978)?
Psychiatrist
Psychiatrist to Michael Myers for fifteen years, Loomis is on his way to take his patient to a court hearing when the escape happens.
Q 13What is the first name of the teenage sister Michael Myers stabs on Halloween night 1963 in Halloween (1978)?
Judith
Q 21Which producer co-wrote Halloween (1978) with John Carpenter, using her babysitting years for the female dialogue?
Debra Hill
Debra Hill wrote most of the young women's lines, while John Carpenter handled the doctor's grim speeches. By her account the script took three weeks.
Q 22Which band's hit (Don't Fear) The Reaper plays on the car radio as Annie drives Laurie in Halloween (1978)?
Blue Öyster Cult
Blue Öyster Cult's song about death drifts from the radio while Michael Myers tails their car through town. It had been the band's biggest chart hit two years earlier.
Q 23Hiding in a closet in Halloween (1978), Laurie Strode jabs Michael Myers in the eye with which household object?
A coat hanger
Judith is killed at her dressing table moments after her boyfriend leaves the house. The whole scene plays as one gliding shot seen through her little brother's eyes.
Q 14Which object fills the opening credits of Halloween (1978) as the camera creeps toward its left eye?
A jack-o'-lantern
A jack-o'-lantern flickers against a dark screen until the camera reaches its eye and the light goes out. The crew struggled to find real ones during a spring shoot.
Q 15Which slasher did Sean S. Cunningham advertise in Variety, script unfinished, after the success of Halloween (1978)?
Friday the 13th
Friday the 13th was advertised while its screenplay was still being drafted. It moved the formula to an abandoned summer camp, where counselors are picked off one by one.
Q 16Which star of The Great Escape played Dr. Loomis in Halloween (1978) as the highest-paid member of its cast?
Donald Pleasence
Donald Pleasence, also the Bond villain Blofeld, earned $20,000 for the part. He agreed because his daughter had liked the music in an earlier John Carpenter film.
Q 17The 1981 sequel Halloween II opens at which point relative to the closing scene of Halloween (1978)?
The same night
The same night: the sequel opens straight after the cliffhanger and follows Laurie to the local hospital. John Carpenter co-wrote it but left the directing to someone else.
Q 18In which 1996 slasher does film buff Randy watch Halloween (1978) on TV, unaware a killer is right behind him?
Scream
Scream has Randy shouting at Laurie to look behind her while the killer creeps up on him. Its writer drafted the script while listening to the Halloween score.
Q 19Which costume does Michael Myers wear to pose as Lynda's boyfriend Bob just after killing him in Halloween (1978)?
A ghost
A ghost costume lets him stand in silence while Lynda teases the figure she takes for her boyfriend. Bob is already dead, pinned to a wall downstairs.
Q 20Made for about $300,000, John Carpenter's Halloween (1978) went on to gross roughly how much in cinemas worldwide?
$70 million
$70 million made it one of the most profitable independent films ever. John Carpenter took just $10,000 for writing, directing and scoring it, plus a share of the profits.
A coat hanger to the eye is followed by a stab to the chest with his own blade. Even that only keeps him down for a few moments.
Q 24Under which name do the end credits of Halloween (1978) bill the masked adult Michael Myers?
The Shape
The Shape is how the credits list him, a name that suits a villain designed to be a pale, faceless presence. The unmasked killer glimpsed at the end was a different actor.
Q 25Dr. Sam Loomis in Halloween (1978) takes his name from the boyfriend character in which Alfred Hitchcock thriller?
Psycho
Psycho gave him the name: its Sam Loomis is the boyfriend of the doomed Marion Crane. John Carpenter also named the sheriff after a Hollywood screenwriter.
Q 26Which term did Carol J. Clover coin for slasher survivors such as Laurie Strode in Halloween (1978)?
The final girl
The final girl is the one who outlives her friends and faces the killer at the end. Clover argued the role turned women in horror from helpless victims into heroines.
Q 27Which future Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star played little Lindsey Wallace in Halloween (1978)?
Kyle Richards
Kyle Richards was a child actress when she played the youngster Annie is meant to be minding. She returned to the role as an adult more than forty years later in Halloween Kills.
Q 28What does Michael Myers steal from the local cemetery and leave in an upstairs bedroom in Halloween (1978)?
A tombstone
A tombstone, taken from his sister's grave, is what Loomis finds missing. Laurie later discovers it laid out beside her friends' bodies.
Q 29Which Chicago critic gave Halloween (1978) four stars and put it among his ten best films of the year?
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert called it a visceral experience that happens to the viewer rather than one that is merely watched. His rival Gene Siskel at the Tribune gave it three and a half.
Q 30What does Michael Myers use to strangle Lynda in an upstairs bedroom of the Wallace house in Halloween (1978)?
A telephone cord
A telephone cord does it: Lynda is ringing Laurie, who listens on the other end without understanding what she is hearing.