Origins & Odd History
In what year did the Salem witch trials begin?
1692
Who directed the original Halloween, released in 1978?
John Carpenter
What literary term describes a narrator whose account cannot be fully trusted?
An unreliable narrator
In Irish folklore, which female spirit’s mournful cry is said to foretell a death?
The banshee
Which gas has a rotten-egg odor and can form during decomposition, becoming dangerous at high concentrations?
Hydrogen sulfide
Before pumpkins became popular for jack-o’-lanterns in North America, which vegetable was traditionally carved in parts of Ireland and Scotland?
Turnips
In Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, what is the name of the motel where Marion Crane stops?
Bates Motel
In Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Jonathan Harker travels to the count’s castle in which historical region?
Transylvania
In Mexican and wider Latin American folklore, what is the name of the “weeping woman” whose legend often involves lost children?
La Llorona
What is the technical term for the fear of being buried alive?
Taphophobia
What 19th-century crisis drove a major wave of Irish emigration to North America, helping carry Irish Halloween customs with it?
The Great Famine (Irish Potato Famine)
Michael Myers’s iconic mask was modified from a mask portraying which Star Trek character?
Captain James T. Kirk
Who wrote The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde?
Robert Louis Stevenson
Which West Virginia town is most associated with Mothman sightings reported in 1966–67?
Point Pleasant
What is the scientific term for tissue death, which can occur after severe infection or loss of blood supply?
Necrosis
In the Irish legend associated with jack-o’-lanterns, what is the name of the wandering figure doomed to roam with a lantern?
Stingy Jack
Who played Regan MacNeil, the possessed child in the 1973 film The Exorcist?
Linda Blair
Who wrote the 1959 haunted-house novel The Haunting of Hill House?
Shirley Jackson
What term describes a dead person who returns from the grave, especially in European folklore?
A revenant
What term describes an organism that obtains nutrients by externally digesting dead organic matter?
A saprotroph
In the older British Allhallowtide custom called “souling,” what did visitors receive in return for prayers for the dead?
Soul cakes
Who directed The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, released in 1974?
Tobe Hooper
What is the subtitle of Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein?
The Modern Prometheus
In Greek mythology, what winged female creature is associated with snatching or carrying people away?
A harpy
What genus includes parasitic fungi known for manipulating ant behavior, sometimes called “zombie-ant fungi”?
Ophiocordyceps