July 5th, 2016 by Cobwebs
- This band was formed in the early 80s by identical twins Jay and Michael Aston.
A) Alien Sex Fiend
B) Nosferatu
C) Rosetta Stone
D) Fields of the Nephilim
E) Gene Loves Jezebel
- What’s the name of the Roman god of War?
- It’s a common misconception that Tim Burton directed A Nightmare Before Christmas. Who actually directed the film?
A) Ray Harryhausen
B) Henry Selick
C) Nick Park
D) George Pal
E) Phil Tippett
- Absinthe is traditionally flavored with what bitter herb?
- The first motion-picture adaptation of Frankenstein wasn’t the 1931 version starring Boris Karloff. Instead, it was a “kinetogram” produced in 1910 by this inventor.
A) Nikola Tesla
B) Alexander Graham Bell
C) Guglielmo Marconi
D) George Eastman
E) Thomas Edison
- In this 1972 fantasy novel, a group of trick-or-treating boys is helped by a mysterious character named Carapace Clavicle Moundshroud.
- The most powerful alien/demon in H.P. Lovecraft’s mythos is:
A) Nyarlathotep
B) Azathoth
C) Shub-Niggurath
D) Yog-Sothoth
E) Cthulhu
- Daveigh Chase, who provided the voice for Lilo Pelekai in Disney’s Lilo and Stitch, also played the “monster” in what 2002 horror movie?
- Type O Negative’s Peter Steele wrote “I Like Goils” to make light of the attention he was receiving from gay men after his photoshoot appeared in this magazine.
A) Penthouse
B) Celebrity Skin
C) Playgirl
D) Hustler
E) Nuts
- What movie has Beetlejuice seen 167 times (“and it keeps getting funnier every single time I see it!”)?
(Answers below the fold)
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June 7th, 2016 by Cobwebs
- Siouxsie and the Banshees’ cover of “Dear Prudence” became a top five hit for the band. What band originally recorded the song?
- Today Transylvania is a part of Romania. However, when Dracula was published in 1897, the region belonged to which country?
A) Turkey
B) Poland
C) Albania
D) Hungary
E) Serbia
- In Harry Potter, what was Tonks’ first name?
- Clive Barker’s dark fantasy novel Weaveworld involves the magical race The Seerkind attempting to avoid the attentions of a destructive force called what?
A) It
B) Shadowman
C) The Scourge
D) Bane
E) The Darkness
- The Orcs in Lord of the Rings couldn’t withstand sunlight, but Sauron and Saruman bred a stronger race which could. What were these warriors called?
- Stephen King’s collection of short stories Night Shift included both a prequel and a sequel to his novel ‘Salem’s Lot. The prequel was “Jerusalem’s Lot.” What was the sequel titled?
A) “One for the Road”
B) “Nightflyers”
C) “Graveyard Shift”
D) “I Know What You Need”
E) “Sometimes They Come Back”
- This DC Comics superhero is the ghost of Boston Brand, a former circus acrobat who was allowed to return from the dead to avenge his own murder.
- The religion of Santería emerged in the Caribbean but has its roots in the mythology of which West African people?
A) Hutu
B) Yoruba
C) Zulu
D) Berber
E) Amhara
- Frankenstein begins and ends with letters from an explorer named Captain Robert Walton describing his encounters with Victor Frankenstein and his monster. Where does he encounter them?
- Charles Dickens’ The Uncommercial Traveller includes “nurse’s stories” recounted to him by his nanny. One of them was a retelling of the legend of Bluebeard, featuring a villain called whom?
A) Chips
B) Old Grim
C) Mr. Feeder
D) Doctor Death
E) Captain Murderer
(Answers below the fold)
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May 3rd, 2016 by Cobwebs
- Voldemort made Horcruxes from items belonging to three of the four founders of Hogwarts. Which founder wasn’t included?
- What is Jonathan Harker’s profession?
A) Psychologist
B) Physician
C) Solicitor
D) Travel Agent
E) Schoolteacher
- In Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Alice meets a pepper-hating Duchess whose baby ultimately turns into what animal?
- The pipe organ in the ballroom scene of Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion was originally a prop used in this Disney movie.
A) Darby O’Gill and the Little People
B) 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
C) Bedknobs and Broomsticks
D) Swiss Family Robinson
E) Treasure Island
- The Winchester House in San Jose, CA is reputedly haunted. It was built by the widow of a man who made his fortune selling what?
- The famous goth nightclub The Batcave was founded by the lead singer of this band.
A) Alien Sex Fiend
B) Bauhaus
C) Fields of the Nephilim
D) Flesh for Lulu
E) Specimen
- The Bunyip is a large mythical creature reputed to lurk in swamps, creeks, and other watery locales. What country does it call home?
- What kind of car was Christine?
A) Plymouth Fury
B) Cadillac Eldorado
C) Ford Mustang
D) Dodge Demon
E) Chevrolet Blazer
- C. Auguste Dupin is a fictional character who uses “ratiocination” to solve mysteries; he was invented before the word “detective” was coined, but laid the groundwork for most of the common elements of the detective fiction genre. What gloomy author is responsible for Dupin?
- The Egyptian god Sobek was associated with the Nile river and was represented as this animal (or a human with this animal’s head):
A) Hippopotamus
B) Ibis
C) Crocodile
D) Bull
E) Falcon
(Answers below the fold)
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March 29th, 2016 by Cobwebs
- This author seems to have an October fixation, giving us such books as The Halloween Tree, Something Wicked This Way Comes, and The October Country. Name him.
- “They’re coming to get you, Barbra!” is a famous line from which zombie film?
A) Dawn of the Dead
B) White Zombie
C) Day of the Dead
D) I Walked with a Zombie
E) Night of the Living Dead
- Born Theodosia Goodman in Cincinnati, Ohio, this silent movie starlet was nicknamed “The Vamp.”
- What was the name of Wednesday Addams’ favorite pet spider?
A) Ovid
B) Virgil
C) Homer
D) Nero
E) Horace
- What was the last film Bela Lugosi ever appeared in?
- In Haitian Vodou a male priest is called a houngan. What is a female priest called?
A) Mambo
B) Loa
C) Bokor
D) Hounfour
E) Bondye
- In Poe’s poem “The Raven,” the main character pondered (weak and weary) in what month of the year?
- What is the only horror movie to have been nominated for 10 Academy Awards?
A) Rosemary’s Baby
B) Aliens
C) Jaws
D) The Exorcist
E) The Silence of the Lambs
- In the original Halloween movie, the mask worn by Michael Myers was actually fashioned after the face of what famous TV actor from the 1960s?
- Who wrote the horror story “Lamb to the Slaughter,” in which a housewife bludgeons her husband to death with a frozen leg of lamb, then cooks it and serves it to the police?
A) A.A. Milne
B) Maurice Sendak
C) L. Frank Baum
D) Roald Dahl
E) J. R. R. Tolkien
(Answers below the fold)
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March 1st, 2016 by Cobwebs
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer‘s Xander perpetually seemed to get involved with women who were actually monsters of some type. In which episode did Xander fall for his first non-human?
A) “Inca Mummy Girl”
B) “Teacher’s Pet”
C) “Witch”
D) “The Zeppo”
E) “Pangs”
- In Madeleine L’Engle’s classic novel A Wrinkle in Time, the protagonists encounter the monstrous IT on this planet (which L’Engle named after a Mayan bat god).
- What is Ron Weasley’s middle name?
A) Fabian
B) Septimus
C) Bilius
D) Marvolo
E) Hugo
- What well-known horror character is first described as “a tall old man, clean shaven save for a long white moustache, and clad in black from head to foot, without a single speck of colour about him anywhere?”
- Penny Dreadful‘s lycanthrope Ethan Chandler (played by Josh Hartnett) was recently revealed to have been using a false last name. His real one is:
A) Lupine
B) Romulus
C) Lobo
D) Fenrir
E) Talbot
- In the SF series Firefly, the “monsters” are savage, violent, cannibalistic humans whose behavior has been altered by the chemical Pax. What are these creatures called?
- Medieval European miners believed in various underground spirits who inhabited mines and might help (by indicating rich veins of ore) or hinder (by causing cave-ins). Which one of these is NOT a type of mine spirit?
A) Grindylow
B) Bluecap
C) Coblynau
D) Bucca
E) Kobold
- Stephen King’s son Joseph has followed in his father’s footsteps, penning several horror/dark fantasy novels. What is the pseudonym he uses?
- This powerful witch from Shakespeare’s The Tempest was the mother of Caliban.
- Edgar Allan Poe’s sonnet “To Science” was strongly influenced by this poem by John Keats about a serpentine demon who takes the form of a human woman to marry the youth Lycius.
A) Hymn To Apollo
B) Ode to Psyche
C) Lamia
D) Hyperion
E) La Belle Dame sans Merci
(Answers below the fold)
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February 2nd, 2016 by Cobwebs
- Pottsylvanian spies Boris and Natasha are Rocky and Bullwinkle’s perennial arch-enemies. What are their last names?
- What’s the animal symbol of Ravenclaw?
A) Crow
B) Dragon
C) Lion
D) Eagle
E) Badger
- One of the denizens of Corpse Bride‘s cheerful Land of the Dead is Bonejangles, a one-eyed, singing skeleton. What musician performs his voice?
- The golem is a creature from Jewish folklore, an anthropomorphic being magically created from inanimate matter. The most famous golem story involves the rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel creating one to protect this European city.
A) Vienna
B) Warsaw
C) Kiev
D) Budapest
E) Prague
- Arguably the most famous Dungeons & Dragons monster, this creature appears as a floating sphere of flesh with a large mouth, single central eye, and many smaller eyestalks (each of which have a different magical ability).
- This classic Western stars Clint Eastwood as an enigmatic revenant, returned to mete out justice to the corrupt townspeople who murdered him.
A) A Fistful of Dollars
B) Unforgiven
C) High Plains Drifter
D) Pale Rider
E) Hang ‘Em High
- In Neil Gaiman’s American Gods the protagonist takes a job as a bodyguard for Mr. Wednesday, who is actually an incarnation of what god?
- Where was the eventually murderous HAL 9000 computer built, according to 2001: A Space Odyssey?
A) Urbana, Illinois
B) Berkeley, California
C) Riverside, Iowa
D) Cambridge, Massachusetts
E) Steve Jobs’ garage
- One of the classic sequences in Disney’s Fantasia is the “Night on Bald Mountain/Ave Maria” segment, which features this giant demon looming above a mountain and summoning his evil minions.
- Before she became the vengeance demon Anyanka, Buffy the Vampire Slayer‘s Anya was a 9th-century Scandinavian named what?
A) Alida
B) Anke
C) Agneta
D) Aud
E) Astrid
(Answers below the fold)
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January 5th, 2016 by Cobwebs
- The Barghest is a legendary monster from North England. Sometimes it is invisible and walks with the sound of rattling chains, but usually it takes the form of this animal.
- Goth anthem “(Every Day is) Halloween,” was performed by what influential band?
A) Sisters of Mercy
B) Ministry
C) Alien Sex Fiend
D) The Crüxshadows
E) Bauhaus
- Which member of the Peanuts gang believes in the Great Pumpkin?
- All of the Munster family are monsters of one kind or another, except for this niece, who is “normal.”
A) Tabitha
B) Madeline
C) Katie
D) Charity
E) Marilyn
- What monstrous creature did the Nautilus famously encounter in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea?
- According to Ovid, Medusa was cursed with the ultimate Bad Hair Day because she had sex with Poseidon in this goddess’ temple.
A) Hera
B) Aphrodite
C) Demeter
D) Athena
E) Artemis
- In this post-apocalyptic novel by John Wyndham, most of the Earth’s inhabitants have been rendered blind by a meteor shower, leaving them easy prey for carnivorous, mobile plants.
- An American Werewolf in London opens with two backpackers on the Yorkshire Moors stopping for the night at a pub called what?
A) The Slaughtered Lamb
B) The Savage Beast
C) The Headless Woman
D) The George and Dragon
E) The Olde Man and Scythe
- During the filming of Jaws, Steven Spielberg and his crew gave their oft-malfunctioning mechanical shark this affectionate nickname.
- Guillermo del Toro’s fantasmagorical Pan’s Labyrinth takes place a few years after which conflict?
A) Spanish Civil War
B) World War II
C) American Civil War
D) Thirty Years’ War
E) Korean War
(Answers below the fold)
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December 1st, 2015 by Cobwebs
- The horror anthology series Tales from the Crypt featured a Christmas-themed episode in which a greedy woman makes the mistake of murdering her husband while an escaped mental patient dressed in a Santa Claus costume is on the loose. What was the episode’s title?
A) “Silent Night, Deadly Night”
B) “Scary Christmas”
C) “Slay Bells Ring”
D) “Christmas Evil”
E) “And All Through the House”
- Jack Skellington sends the trick-or-treating trio Lock, Shock, and Barrel out to bring Santa Claus back to Halloween Town. Which other holiday icon do they accidentally kidnap first?
- Even The Addams Family had a Christmas episode. In “Christmas with the Addams Family,” a grouchy neighbor tells Wednesday and Pugsley that there is no Santa Claus, leading this family member to dress up as Santa but accidentally get stuck in the chimney.
A) Gomez
B) Cousin Itt
C) Uncle Fester
D) Lurch
E) Grandpa Squint
- Who accuses a visiting ghost of being nothing more than an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, or a fragment of an underdone potato?
- Befana is a Santa-like character depicted as a broomstick-riding old lady who leaves candy and presents for good children and coal or garlic for naughty ones. Which country does she call home?
A) Portugal
B) Spain
C) Bolivia
D) Italy
E) Mexico
- When the Grinch is sneaking around Whoville trying to steal Christmas, he is briefly interrupted by this little girl, who is no more than two.
- Since 2005, Doctor Who has had a special episode premiering on Christmas every year. The first one, “The Christmas Invasion,” saw the Doctor and Rose battling which scary alien race?
A) Sycorax
B) Cybermen
C) Racnoss
D) Judoon
E) Raxacoricofallapatorians
- In Norse mythology, the goddess Frigg extracted a promise from everything in the nine worlds to cause no harm to her son Balder. She overlooked a single plant, which, of course, is what Loki used to kill him. What is this plant, which luckily for the sake of this trivia theme happens to have Christmas associations?
- The comedy Scrooged involves Bill Murray as a cynical TV programming executive who’s coordinating a live production of A Christmas Carol. Which famous Olympic gymnast portrays Tiny Tim?
A) Mary Lou Retton
B) Olga Korbut
C) Nadia Comaneci
D) Cathy Rigby
E) Kerri Strug
- In Terry Pratchett’s Hogfather, the Auditors of Reality try to eliminate Discworld’s Santa Claus analogue because he doesn’t fit their view of the universe. Which cat-loving character takes over the Hogfather’s job in his absence?
(Answers below the fold)
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November 3rd, 2015 by Cobwebs
- In Harry Potter, what is the name of the horrible aunt whom Harry accidentally blows up like a balloon?
A) Dahlia
B) Mabel
C) Lobelia
D) Marjorie
E) Rose
- Bilbo Baggins found a troll-hoard which contained the swords Glamdring and Orcrist, plus a knife that he decided to call what?
- According to The Twilight Zone, “It’s a Good Life,” why?
A) The sun has risen
B) Otherwise Anthony might do something bad to you
C) Because God says it is
D) The apocalypse is over and Zachariah is still alive
E) The AI in charge makes you think that it is
- In Stephen King’s Carrie, “Carrie” is actually a nickname. What is her full first name?
- This horrifying (in relative terms) creature is the world’s first known predator, an arthropod relative found in the Burgess Shale.
A) Opabinia
B) Hallucigenia
C) Anomalocaris
D) Wiwaxia
E) Nectocaris
- In this 1984 horror-comedy starring Catherine Mary Stewart, a mysterious “red dust” from space has turned most people into zombies, leaving behind a small band of people who avoided exposure.
- It’s no secret that the Grimm Brothers’ fairy tales are significantly darker than the Disneyfied versions more popular today. In the Grimm’s version of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves,” what happens to the Evil Queen at the end?
A) Her eyes are pecked out by birds.
B) She is forced to dance in red-hot iron shoes.
C) The dwarves drop her into the depths of their mine.
D) She is thrown into a thicket of thorns and dies a slow death.
E) She is put naked into a barrel of nails and dragged through the streets by a horse.
- The following novels all involve what famous murderer as a character?
Anno Dracula (Kim Newman), A Night in the Lonesome October (Roger Zelazny), Savage (Richard Laymon), Pentecost Alley (Anne Perry), The Michaelmas Girls (John Brooks Barry), Nine Buck’s Row (T.E. Huff), Sagittarius (Ray Russell)
- In the novel Dracula, the Count used a pseudonym to do business (such as buying real estate) in London. What name did he use?
A) Count Alucard
B) Baron Latos
C) Mathias Cronqvist
D) General Targo
E) Count De Ville
- Warren Zevon’s immaculately-coiffed werewolf was looking for a Chinese restaurant called what?
(Answers below the fold)
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October 6th, 2015 by Cobwebs
- Castle Rock, Maine is a fictional town which provides the setting for several of Stephen King’s works. Which of these is NOT set there?
A) The Dead Zone
B) Cujo
C) The Body
D) Needful Things
E) It
- What item did Dumbledore bequeath to Hermione in his will?
- The space-vampire flick Lifeforce involves the discovery of an alien spacecraft inside the head of what comet?
A) Shoemaker–Levy 9
B) Halley
C) Kohoutek
D) Hyakutake
E) Hale-Bopp
- The brothers in Supernatural are Sam and Dean who?
- In the Aliens series of movies, the soulless corporation more interested in making a profit than saving people from the xenomorphs is:
A) Cyberdyne
B) Aperture Science
C) Tyrell
D) Weyland-Yutani
E) Omni Consumer Products
- In this offbeat horror-comedy, nursing-home residents Elvis Presley (Bruce Campbell) and John F. Kennedy (Ossie Davis) fight off a reanimated Egyptian mummy who preys on the elderly.
- Who wrote the auto-erotic novel Crash?
A) Brian Aldiss
B) Julian May
C) J.G. Ballard
D) Ian McDonald
E) George R. R. Martin
- What is the name of Harry Dresden’s vampiric half-brother?
- In what was presumably an homage, the doctor who treated Michael Myers shares a name with the boyfriend of the victim in Psycho. Is it:
A) Sam Loomis
B) Lankester Merrin
C) Martin Brody
D) Ben Hanser
E) Seth Gecko
- Which movie reveals the root of a family’s ghostly problems with this line? “You son of a bitch, you moved the cemetery but you left the bodies, didn’t you?! You son of a bitch! You left the bodies and you only moved the headstones!”
(Answers below the fold)
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