Horror Game Trivia
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50 free Horror Game trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This horror game trivia quiz covers survival horror and its neighbours from the beginning: Capcom's 1989 Sweet Home and Alone in the Dark, the first Resident Evil and Silent Hill, Fatal Frame and Clock Tower, then Dead Space, Amnesia, Outlast, Alan Wake, Until Dawn, Alien: Isolation, P.T., Soma and Bloodborne, and the streaming-era hits Five Nights at Freddy's, Phasmophobia, Dead by Daylight, Lethal Company, Poppy Playtime and Doki Doki Literature Club. It finishes with the recent revivals: Resident Evil 7 and Village, the Silent Hill 2 remake and Silent Hill f. Expect questions on mechanics (ink ribbons, sanity meters, strategic dismemberment, tinderboxes, camcorder batteries), settings, creators, the origins of the term 'survival horror', and the films and books the designers were copying. About a third of the questions are easy for anyone who has played a few of these, a third are medium, and the rest are for people who finished Amnesia without watching a Let's Play. Every answer has been checked against an encyclopaedic source and each question links to the page that confirms it.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which year was 'survival horror' first used, for the Japanese release of Capcom's mansion game?
1996
The term 'survival horror' debuted with Resident Evil's 1996 Japanese release; it was later applied retroactively to 1989's Sweet Home and 1992's Alone in the Dark, which both influenced it.
Q 02Capcom's 1989 Famicom RPG Sweet Home, an ancestor of Resident Evil, was made alongside what?
A film of the same name
Director Tokuro Fujiwara toured the film set for inspiration; the film's director Kiyoshi Kurosawa let him take liberties with the script.
Q 03Alone in the Dark (1992) is set in a haunted mansion in which US state?
Louisiana
The game takes place in Derceto, a Louisiana mansion; designer Frédérick Raynal drew on Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos and the films of Argento and Romero.
Q 04Which two S.T.A.R.S. members can you play as in the original Resident Evil?
Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine
Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine are the two playable S.T.A.R.S. members; Chris gets six inventory slots and Jill eight, while Barry Burton and Rebecca Chambers appear as support characters.
Q 05In the original Resident Evil, what do you need to save your game at a typewriter?
An ink ribbon
Saving requires an ink ribbon, consumed at each typewriter; their scarcity was one of the ways the game kept you feeling less in control.
Q 06What is Resident Evil called in Japan?
Biohazard
With over 213 million copies sold it is Capcom's best-selling franchise and the best-selling horror series in gaming.
Q 07Who directed the original Resident Evil and later founded Tango Gameworks to make The Evil Within?
Shinji Mikami
Hideki Kamiya's discarded first draft of Resident Evil 4 turned into Devil May Cry instead.
Q 08Resident Evil 4 (2005) sends Leon Kennedy to rescue the president's daughter from a cult where?
Spain
Leon travels to a rural village in Spain, where the Los Illuminados cult holds Ashley Graham; it launched on GameCube under the 'Capcom Five' deal and popularised the over-the-shoulder camera.
Q 09Resident Evil 7 (2017) broke with series tradition by using which perspective?
First-person
Resident Evil 7 switched to a first-person view, taking cues from The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, The Evil Dead and Saw, and confined the action to the Baker family's Louisiana plantation.
Q 10Silent Hill, the town, is located in which US state?
Maine
Silent Hill is a resort town on Toluca Lake in Maine in Konami's lore, though the 2006 film moved it to West Virginia; Team Silent made the first four games between 1999 and 2004.
Q 11In the first Silent Hill (1999), Harry Mason is searching the town for whom?
His missing adopted daughter
Harry is hunting for his missing adopted daughter Cheryl after a car crash outside town; the developers used fog and darkness to hide the PlayStation's pop-in, which became the series' signature look.
Q 12Silent Hill 2's James Sunderland comes to town after receiving a letter from whom?
His dead wife
James receives a letter from his dead wife Mary, who says she is waiting in their 'special place'; the story drew on Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, and Bloober Team's remake arrived in October 2024.
Q 13Which seemingly unkillable Silent Hill 2 monster wears a huge helmet and drags a giant knife?
Q 21What is the name of the amnesiac protagonist of Amnesia: The Dark Descent?
Daniel
The protagonist is Daniel, an Englishman who wakes in Castle Brennenburg in 1839 having deliberately erased his own memory; Alexander of Brennenburg is the baron he has resolved to kill.
Q 22In Outlast (2013), the only way to see in the dark of Mount Massive Asylum is through what?
A camcorder's night vision
Miles Upshur's camcorder night vision is the only way to see in the dark; it drains batteries, so the journalist has to scavenge them constantly.
Q 23Who created Five Nights at Freddy's, largely single-handedly, in 2014?
Scott Cawthon
Pyramid Head
Pyramid Head, dragging his great knife, first appears in the Wood Side Apartments and later kills Maria in front of James; he embodies James's guilt and desire for punishment.
Q 14P.T. (2014) was a free 'playable teaser' for which cancelled game?
Silent Hills
P.T. teased Silent Hills, which Hideo Kojima and Guillermo del Toro were making with Norman Reedus under the fake '7780s Studio' name; Konami cancelled it in 2015 and pulled the demo from re-download.
Q 15Silent Hill f (2025) is set in the 1960s in a fictional town in which country?
Japan
Silent Hill f is set in 1960s Japan, in the fictional town of Ebisugaoka, where heroine Hinako Shimizu navigates the fog; it was the first main entry set outside the United States.
Q 16In Fatal Frame, what do the protagonists use to capture and pacify ghosts?
A camera
The Camera Obscura was invented in-universe by Dr. Kunihiko Asou; the series is known as Project Zero in Europe.
Q 17In Clock Tower (1995), Jennifer Simpson is stalked through the Barrows mansion by a killer known as what?
Scissorman
Scissorman, the shears-wielding Bobby Barrows, stalks Jennifer through the mansion; director Hifumi Kono modelled the look and heroine on Dario Argento's 1985 film Phenomena.
Q 18Dead Space (2008) built its combat around what 'founding principle'?
Strategic dismemberment
Dead Space's founding principle was strategic dismemberment, severing Necromorph limbs rather than going for headshots, which is why they have so many; creator Glen Schofield cited Resident Evil 4, Event Horizon and Solaris.
Q 19What is the profession of Dead Space's protagonist Isaac Clarke?
Engineer
Isaac Clarke is a ship systems engineer sent to repair the USG Ishimura, a planet-cracker mining ship overrun after the discovery of an artifact called the Marker.
Q 20Amnesia: The Dark Descent (2010) was made by Frictional Games, a studio from which country?
Sweden
Frictional Games is based in Helsingborg, Sweden; Amnesia is credited with helping launch the Let's Play boom on YouTube, and the studio later made Soma in 2015.
Scott Cawthon built Five Nights at Freddy's mostly alone after critics said the characters in his family game Chipper & Sons Lumber Co. looked like creepy animatronics.
Q 24In the first Five Nights at Freddy's, what does using the cameras and doors consume?
Electricity
Run out of power and both go dead; the night guard, Mike Schmidt, has to last from midnight to 6 a.m.
Q 25Who plays Mike Schmidt in the 2023 Five Nights at Freddy's film?
Josh Hutcherson
Josh Hutcherson plays night guard Mike Schmidt; Matthew Lillard plays William Afton, and the film was released simultaneously on Peacock and in cinemas in October 2023.
Q 26Alan Wake (2010) is set in which fictional small town in Washington state?
Bright Falls
Bright Falls, a Pacific Northwest town on Cauldron Lake, is the setting; Remedy structured the game like a TV thriller in six episodes, and a live-action web prequel was titled Bright Falls.
Q 27Until Dawn (2015) uses what mechanic to make players' choices reshape the story?
A butterfly effect
Until Dawn's 'butterfly effect' system tracks every choice, branching the story so all eight teens can live or die; Rami Malek, Hayden Panettiere and Peter Stormare performed in mocap.
Q 28Alien: Isolation (2014) follows which member of the Ripley family?
Amanda, Ellen's daughter
You play Amanda Ripley, Ellen's daughter, searching for the Nostromo's flight recorder 15 years after the 1979 film; the game copies that film's lo-fi 1970s future rather than the gung-ho Aliens.
Q 29Which studio, best known for the Total War strategy series, made Alien: Isolation?
Creative Assembly
Creative Assembly, the Total War studio, developed Alien: Isolation for Sega; they planned it as third-person before switching to first-person to make the alien scarier.
Q 30Dead by Daylight is an asymmetric multiplayer game with what player split?
One Killer versus four Survivors
Survivors must repair five generators to power the exit gates while the Killer feeds them to the Entity.