Scary Movies
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148 free Scary Movies trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
50 free Scary Movies trivia questions with answers. Scary Movies trivia lives in two places on BrainPickle. This page is the shorter set; the main quiz is Horror Movies trivia, with our deepest question pool on the topic and a source behind every answer.
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Q 01Which 1984 film introduced Freddy Krueger, the scarred killer with a bladed glove?
A Nightmare on Elm Street
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.
Q 02Which 1973 film, with 'Tubular Bells' as its eerie theme, was the first horror movie nominated for the Best Picture Oscar?
The Exorcist
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.
Q 03Which director made the 1960 thriller about the Bates Motel that is famous for its shower scene?
Alfred Hitchcock
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.
Q 04Which 1975 film made a two-note theme scarier than its great white shark?
Jaws
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.
Q 05Which 1974 horror film introduced Leatherface, who wears masks made of human skin?
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
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.
Q 06What horror franchise features a murderous doll named Chucky?
Child's Play
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.
Q 07Which 1991 film sends FBI trainee Clarice Starling to consult cannibal Hannibal Lecter?
The Silence of the Lambs
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.
Q 08What famous author is known for horror novels such as 'It,' 'The Shining,' and 'Carrie'?
Stephen King
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.
Q 09Which horror subgenre links The Blair Witch Project, Paranormal Activity and Cloverfield?
Found Footage
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.
Q 10Which killer quizzes victims on horror films by phone in the Scream franchise?
Ghostface
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.
Q 11The 2008 vampire film Let the Right One In comes from which country?
Sweden
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.
Q 12Which actress debuted on the big screen as babysitter Laurie Strode in John Carpenter's 1978 slasher?
Jamie Lee Curtis
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.
Q 13What is the name of the snowbound Colorado hotel where Jack Torrance unravels in the 1980 film 'The Shining'?
Overlook Hotel
Q 21In Ridley Scott's Alien (1979), what is the name of the commercial space tug carrying the crew?
Nostromo
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.
Q 22Most of 'The Descent' (2005) takes place in what kind of confined setting?
An uncharted cave system
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.
Q 23What 2018 film features a family who must stay silent to avoid creatures with heightened hearing?
A Quiet Place
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.
Q 14Which director created 'The Evil Dead' film series, featuring Ash Williams and Deadites?
Sam Raimi
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.
Q 15Which 1968 George Romero film is widely credited with popularizing the modern zombie subgenre?
Night of the Living Dead
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.
Q 16What murderous clown terrorizes the children of Derry, Maine, every 27 years?
Pennywise
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.
Q 17Who leads the Cenobites as the main antagonist of Clive Barker's Hellraiser franchise?
Pinhead
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.
Q 18Which 2015 horror film follows a Puritan family facing malevolent forces in 17th-century New England?
The Witch
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.
Q 19What line does five-year-old Carol Anne deliver to the static-filled TV in 'Poltergeist'?
'They're here!'
'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.
Q 20Which journalist investigates the cursed videotape in the American 'The Ring' films?
Rachel Keller
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.
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.
Q 24Which 2011 horror-comedy reveals college friends being manipulated by underground technicians?
The Cabin in the Woods
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.
Q 25Which 1998 Hideo Nakata film did Gore Verbinski remake in America in 2002?
Ringu
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.
Q 26Which 2006 horror-comedy, James Gunn's directing debut, infests a South Carolina town with alien parasites?
Slither
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.
Q 27Which 1977 Dario Argento film is set at a German ballet academy run by a coven?
Suspiria
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.
Q 28What 1982 John Carpenter film has a shape-shifting alien terrorising an Antarctic research station?
The Thing
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.
Q 29Which director's horror films 'Get Out' and 'Us' blend social commentary with psychological thrills?
Jordan Peele
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.
Q 30Before Jason took over, who is revealed as the killer at the end of the original Friday the 13th (1980)?
Jason's mother
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.