It’s the time of year when we think about things that go bump in the night. Test your A-lister aptitude by identifying the most notorious dramatis personae in the motion picture horror genre—we dare you!
1. Director Eduardo Sanchez wrapped shooting for this 1999 breakthrough horror flick in just eight days. It shattered box office profit margins, costing only $60,000 to make and reaping sales of nearly $250 million.
a. House on Haunted Hill
b. The Blair Witch Project
c. Idle Hands
d. Stigmata
2. This master of the macabre starred in more than 100 films and is heard reading creepy poetic verse in Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.”
a. Vincent Price
b. Boris Karloff
c. Bela Lugosi
d. Peter Lorre
3. This heartthrob actor was cast as a conventional leading man in the mid-1950s before taking one of the most iconic horror film roles in history.
a. Tim Curry
b. Tab Hunter
c. Warren Beatty
d. Anthony Perkins
4. This actor improvised one of the greatest lines in horror movie history when, after breaking down a door with an axe, he proclaimed, “Here’s Johnny!”
a. Scatman Crothers
b. Tom Cruise
c. Dennis Hopper
d. Jack Nicholson
5. Hungarian-born Bela Lugosi helped cement Universal Pictures’ early dominance in the horror genre with the portrayal of this character in 1931.
a. Count Dracula
b. Frankenstein’s monster
c. The mummy
d. The invisible man
6. John Krasinski, cast member of NBC’s sitcom The Office, took a career turn as co-writer, producer, director, and star of this horror franchise.
a. Saw
b. A Quiet Place
c. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
d. Final Destination
7. This writer/director, known for psychological horror films, got a career start in improv and sketch comedy in the early 2000s.
a. Nia DaCosta
b. Brandon Cronenberg
c. Jordan Peele
d. Rose Glass
8. British real estate developer Harvey Spencer Stephens was cast as a child in this demonic mid-70s film and later returned to make a cameo appearance in the remake, 30 years later.
a. The Exorcist
b. The Omen
c. Pet Sematary
d. The Shining
9. This silent film era horror star was known as “The Man of a Thousand Faces,” owing to his creative makeup techniques.
a. Max Schreck
b. Bill Skarsgård
c. Basil Rathbone
d. Lon Chaney
10. British-born horror film director Alfred Hitchcock, who stoked fear in millions, was himself plagued by an irrational fear of what?
a. Mirrors
b. Clocks
c. Eggs
d. Horses
Answers
- The Blair Witch Project was an example of the “found footage” genre—a documentary-style film comprised of fictional, unedited film clips that are pieced together to tell a story. Shot with camcorders, Blair Witch was pulled off on a shoestring budget and hyped in a viral marketing campaign that stoked a box office bonanza.
- “Darkness falls across the land…” Those words were uttered over the music tracks of “Thriller” by none other than Vincent Price, a 20th-century emissary of silver screen evil.
- Although he’s forever associated with the chilling shower scene from Psycho, Anthony Perkins was rehearsing on Broadway the day the scene was shot, and body double Margo Epper filled in, dressed as “Mother.”
- A reference to Ed McMahon’s nightly introduction of talk show host Johnny Carson, Jack Nicholson’s improvised line in The Shining became horror flick gold, even though British-born director Stanley Kubrick initially didn’t get the joke.
- Bela Lugosi adapted his stage role of Count Dracula to the big screen and became an O.G. of the Universal Monsters franchise.
- Jim Halpert in a horror flick? Yes, Krasinsky broke free of his office prankster legacy as the creative force behind A Quiet Place.
- Comedian Jordan Peele made his directorial debut in 2017 with the psychological horror film Get Out.
- Stephens was cast in the role of Damien in The Omen and returned in a brief appearance as a news reporter in the 2006 remake. During the audition, director Richard Donner instructed the four-year-old Stephens to attack him. He got more than he bargained for; the youngster punched him in the testicles for good measure. Pure evil, indeed.
- Famous for classic silent-era horror characters such as the Phantom of the Opera, Lon Chaney set the bar for motion picture makeup artistry. His son, Lon Chaney Jr., followed in his father’s footsteps at Universal Pictures, notably in the 1941 role of cursed protagonist Larry Talbot in The Wolf Man.
- A famously passionate gourmand, it’s ironic that Hitchcock had ovophobia, a fear of eggs. In fact, it was more than just fear; it was, in his words, “a revulsion.” To add to the irony, Quiche Lorraine was one of his favorite dishes.