Adaptations
This 1979 musical, originally based on a Victorian penny dreadful called The String of Pearls, features a murderous barber and questionable meat-pies.
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
What literary device is used in the popular Halloween song "Spooky Scary Skeletons"?
Alliteration
What is the name of the horror novel written by Mary Shelley? Bonus points if you can remember the full title!
Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow was a short story written by Washington Irving in the 1800s, about a phantom known as the Headless Horseman who rides a jet-black horse and wears a Jack O'Lantern head with two burning red eyes. What is the name of the school teacher who is tormented by the Headless Horseman?
Ichabod Crane
What author has written the most horror books? Bonus points if you can name this author's best-selling book!
Stephen King; The Shining.
What is the most often adapted Gothic text?
Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897)
Which iconic Halloween song has the lyrics:
"Out from his coffin, Drac's voice did ring/ Seems he was troubled by just one thing/ He opened the lid and shook his fist/ He said/ "Whatever happened to my Transylvania twist?"
Monster Mash by Bobby "Boris" Pickett & The Crypt Kickers
In her novel Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen writes about Catherine Moorland, a teenage girl who visits Northanger Abbey, the house of her prospective love interest, Henry Tilney. Catherine is obsessed with Gothic novels, and convinces herself that the abbey is haunted. Then she persuades herself that Henry Tilney's father, General Tilney, has got his allegedly deceased wife trapped in his attic. In what Gothic novel, published almost 30 years after Northanger Abbey, does a character actually have his wife locked in his attic?
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
What is the name of the werewolf creature in French-Canadian folklore?
Loup-garou.
R.L. Stine is an American writer who writes horror books for kids. His books have been sold worldwide and adapted into several television shows and movies. What is the name of his most popular and famous horror book series?
Goosebumps
The 1999 film The Haunting is based on the 1959 novel The Haunting of Hill House by which author?
Shirley Jackson
Which mythological creature originating from Native American tribes appears in both the video game Until Dawn and the second episode of Supernatural?
Wendigo
To which famous Gothic horror novel does this quote belong: "You said I killed you - haunt me, then!"
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte! (Heathcliff says this line in a dramatic scene with his true love, Catherine Earnshaw.)
Which Gothic horror writer died mysteriously on October 7, 1849 from what some claim to be rabies and what others believe to be related to voter fraud?
Edgar Allan Poe; there are many theories surrounding his death, ranging from rabies to murder to being a victim of cooping (forced voter fraud).
Which play by Arthur Miller features the events of the Salem witch trials?
Bonus if you can name the main character!
The Crucible.
John Proctor.
Daphne du Maurier was a legendary British Gothic writer most famous for her novel Rebecca. Her short story "The Birds" was adapted into a 1963 horror film by which famous American director?
Alfred Hitchcock
This Gothic novel inspired Kate Bush to write a 1978 song of the same name, released as her first single when she was only 19 years old.
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte.
In 1816, during a stormy summer, the poet Lord Byron challenged his friends Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (later known as Mary Shelley), Mary's step-sister Claire, and Byron's physician John William Pollidori to a writing contest while they were all staying in a villa on Lake Geneva. Mary came up with Frankenstein, Byron wrote an unfinished horror story, and Pollidori wrote The Vampyre. The Vampyre became inspiration for a later horror novel, published in 1897. What was the title of this novel, and who was its author?
Dracula by Bram Stoker
After the death of her husband Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley kept this object of his in a wooden box until her own death almost 30 years later.
His heart.
At his cremation, Percy Bysshe Shelley's heart did not burn (perhaps having been calcified due to tuberculosis), and Mary took it and kept it in her desk drawer.
What is the name of the middle-grade fiction series, written by Deborah and James Howe, narrated by a dog and starring a vampire rabbit?
Bunnicula
WRITING CHALLENGE! Write a 6-word horror story.
Share with the club!
What novel does the phrase "It was a dark and stormy night" actually come from?
Paul Clifford (1830) by Sir Edward George Earle Bulwer-Lytton, who is often considered to be the "most celebrated bad writer". This line has even inspired a contest for writing the worst opening line.
One of the first depictions of a vampire was in an 1872 Gothic novella by Sheridan Le Fanu, which features a lesbian vampire by this name (hint: it's the same as the novella's name!)
Carmilla from Carmilla: The First Vampire.
WRITING CHALLENGE! Use figurative language to describe yourself as a classic Halloween creature (werewolf/bat/skeleton/vampire/etc).
Share with the club!
What novel is said to have started the horror genre?
The Castle of Otranto (1765) by Horace Walpole.