Spooky Idioms & Phrasal Verbs
To abruptly cut off all communication with someone online without explanation.
To ghost someone
The famous 19th-century American author known for macabre poems and stories like The Raven and The Tell-Tale Heart.
Edgar Allan Poe
An adjective meaning giving the impression that something bad, dangerous, or unpleasant is about to happen; synonym of "threatening."
Ominous
The ancient Celtic festival celebrated over 2,000 years ago that modern Halloween originated from.
Samhain
The ghost mask worn by the villain in the slasher movie series Scream was inspired by an iconic painting by which artist?
Edvard Munch
A secret, embarrassing, or damaging fact about your past that you keep hidden.
A skeleton in the closet
The 1818 novel about a scientist who creates a living creature from reanimated body parts, written by Mary Shelley.
Frankenstein
An adjective used to describe disturbing, gruesome topics connected with death and dark themes.
Macabre
The modern custom where children dress in costumes and go door-to-door asking for candy.
Trick-or-treating
The 1980 psychological horror film directed by Stanley Kubrick featuring a haunted hotel and the iconic line, "Here's Johnny!"
The Shining
Complete the idiom used when forbidding something strongly: "Over my..."
Dead body
The vampire count who travels from Transylvania to England in Bram Stoker’s classic 1897 novel.
Count Dracula
A noun for a belief or practice resulting from ignorance, fear of the unknown, or trust in magic or chance rather than reason.
Superstition
Before pumpkins became popular in North America, Irish people originally carved eerie faces into this root vegetable.
Turnip
A sudden, startling technique in horror movies designed to shock the audience by introducing an unexpected visual or loud sound.
Jump scare
To do or say something that will inevitably cause your own failure or ruin is to "dig..."
your own grave
The literary device where an author drops subtle hints or warnings early in a story about terrifying events that happen later.
Foreshadowing
An adjective describing a place that is bare, cold, dark, and empty, causing feelings of bleakness or gloom.
Desolate
The original purpose of wearing scary costumes and disguises during ancient Celtic autumn festivals.
Confuse/disguise oneself from wandering evil spirits
The supernatural villain in A Nightmare on Elm Street who attacks teenagers inside their own dreams.
Freddy Krueger
An expression meaning a sudden feeling of intense fear or dread that physically chills your skin: "To give someone..."
Chills down their spine
In this famous Gothic novel by Oscar Wilde, a handsome young man stays young forever while a painting hidden in his attic grows old and reflects his sins.
The Picture of Dorian Gray
A verb meaning to frighten someone so severely that they become completely unable to move or think clearly.
Petrify
The tradition of trick-or-treating evolved from the medieval practice of "souling," where poor people promised to do what in exchange for food?
Pray for the souls of the dead
The common film trope term for the single female character who outsmarts the killer and survives until the very end of a horror movie.