Global Folklore Frights
Horror on Screen
Haunted History
Science of Fear
Halloween Customs and Candy
100

Japan's long-haired, white-clad female yurei is often compared to this specific Western screaming specter. 

What is a banshee?

100

"Who ya gonna call?"

What is Ghostbusters?

100

New England's most infamous 1692 panic led to executions largely by hanging, not burning, in this Massachusetts town

What is Salem?

100

These black circles at the center of your eyes widen when you're scared to let in more light.

What are pupils?

100

The carved turnip lantern of Ireland preceded the American pumpkin version of this decoration.

What is a jack-o'-lantern?

200

In Slavic folklore, iron teeth and a mortar-and-pestle are trademarks of this forest-dwelling witch.

Who is Baba Yaga?

200

This 1978 John Carpenter film's relentless masked killer is credited with popularizing the modern slasher template.

What is Halloween?

200

This Colorado hotel inspired Stephen King's Overlook in The Shining and offers popular ghost tours.

What is the Stanley Hotel?

200

This "fight‑or‑flight" hormone surges from the adrenal medulla when you're startled.

What is adrenaline (epinephrine)?

200

Those small orange charity boxes carried by kids at the door are part of this long‑running Halloween fundraising tradition.

What is Trick‑or‑Treat for UNICEF?

300

Among Algonquian peoples, this emaciated, winter-haunting spirit embodies insatiable hunger and cannibalistic taboo.

What is the wendigo?

300

This 1960 Alfred Hitchcock film's infamous shower scene takes place at the Bates Motel.

What is Psycho?

300

This London site, home to Anne Boleyn's ghost, is guarded by ravens whose departure is said to doom the Crown

What is the Tower of London?

300

Repeatedly facing a feared cue without harm until the response fades describes this learning process.

What is exposure therapy/systematic desensitization?

300

This tri-colored candy debuted in the 1880s and was originally marketed as "Chicken Feed."

What is candy corn?

400

The Filipino aswang sometimes separates at the torso; its vampiric variant that flies by night is specifically called this.

What is the manananggal?

400

This 1984 Wes Craven film introduced a dream‑stalking killer with a bladed glove.  

What is A Nightmare on Elm Street?

400

The 1912 Villisca house in this U.S. state is the site of eight unsolved axe murders, now a ghost-hunting destination.

What is Iowa?

400

This almond-shaped brain region orchestrates the "fight-or-flight" response, crucial to jump scares.

What is the amygdala?

400

In Scotland, this messy divination game uses a hanging fruit and no hands allowed.

What is dookin' for apples (apple bobbing)?

500

In West African and Caribbean lore, this spider trickster spins tales that invert power.

Who is Anansi?

500

This 1999 found-footage film never shows its titular entity, using sound design, off-screen space, and diegetic text to terrify.

What is The Blair Witch Project?

500

This ever‑expanding California mansion—with stairways to nowhere—became a staple of ghost lore.

What is the Winchester Mystery House?

500

The "uncanny valley" describes unease triggered by near-human likenesses; the idea is credited to this Japanese roboticist.

Who is Masahiro Mori?

500

In Scotland and Ireland, children traditionally performed a song, joke, or poem while costumed—this practice gave us modern trick‑or‑treating.

What is guising?

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