Halloween Trivia Quiz
Samhain, Stingy Jack, Hocus Pocus and Michael Myers: 15 Halloween questions for party night.
The Day of the Dead, celebrated on 1 and 2 November with sugar skulls and marigolds, originated in which country?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Mexico
Día de los Muertos is a Mexican tradition that blends Aztec rituals honouring the dead with the Catholic feasts of All Saints and All Souls. Families build altars called ofrendas with photos, food and bright orange marigolds to welcome returning spirits.
UNESCO added Mexico's Day of the Dead to its list of intangible cultural heritage in 2008.
Which Peanuts character spends every Halloween waiting in a pumpkin patch for the Great Pumpkin?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Linus
Linus van Pelt believes the Great Pumpkin rises from the most sincere pumpkin patch each Halloween to deliver toys, and he waits all night with Sally while the others go trick-or-treating in It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.
The 1966 TV special gave Charlie Brown his famous line about trick-or-treating: while everyone else gets candy, he keeps getting a rock.
Which classic monster first appeared in a novel written by Mary Shelley in 1818?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Frankenstein's monster
Mary Shelley began Frankenstein at the age of 18 during a rainy summer at Lake Geneva in 1816, and Victor Frankenstein's stitched together creature has haunted Halloween ever since.
The flat head and neck bolts come from Boris Karloff's 1931 film, not the book, where the creature is described as eloquent and agile.
Halloween has its roots in which ancient Celtic festival marking the end of the harvest?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Samhain
Samhain, held around 1 November, marked the end of summer and the start of the dark half of the Celtic year. People believed the boundary between the living and the dead thinned that night, lighting bonfires and wearing disguises to ward off spirits.
Beltane, Imbolc and Lughnasadh are the other three Celtic seasonal festivals, held in May, February and August.
The famous witch trials of 1692 took place in Salem, in which US state?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Massachusetts
Salem, Massachusetts, was the centre of a panic in 1692 and 1693 in which more than 200 people were accused of witchcraft and 20 were executed, 19 by hanging. Arthur Miller later dramatised the trials in The Crucible.
Modern Salem leans into its past, welcoming hundreds of thousands of visitors every October for its month-long Haunted Happenings festival.
Before pumpkins became popular, which vegetable did people in Ireland and Scotland traditionally carve into lanterns?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Turnips
In Ireland and Scotland, turnips and similar roots were hollowed out, carved with grotesque faces and lit with embers or candles to frighten off wandering spirits. Immigrants to America found the native pumpkin far bigger and easier to carve.
A turnip lantern from the early 1900s is on display at the National Museum of Ireland and looks genuinely terrifying.
Who plays Winifred Sanderson, the eldest of the three witches, in the 1993 film Hocus Pocus?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Bette Midler
Bette Midler plays Winifred, the bossy, buck-toothed leader of the Sanderson sisters, with Sarah Jessica Parker as Sarah and Kathy Najimy as Mary. The witches are resurrected in Salem when a teenager lights the black flame candle.
Midler has called Winifred her favourite role, and she returned for the sequel Hocus Pocus 2 in 2022, nearly 30 years later.
In the 1988 film Beetlejuice, how many times must his name be said to summon him?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Three
Saying Beetlejuice three times in a row summons the obnoxious bio-exorcist played by Michael Keaton, and saying it three more times sends him away. The Maitlands use the trick after he takes things too far.
Keaton is on screen for only about 17 minutes of the film, yet the character became one of his most famous roles.
Who recorded the 1962 novelty hit Monster Mash?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Bobby "Boris" Pickett
Bobby Pickett, billed as Bobby "Boris" Pickett and the Crypt-Kickers, recorded Monster Mash in 1962, doing a Boris Karloff impression over a dance beat. It reached number one in the United States just before Halloween that year.
The BBC initially banned the song in Britain for being too morbid, and it did not become a UK hit until 1973.
Who directed Michael Jackson's 1983 Thriller video, with its famous dancing zombies?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
John Landis
John Landis, fresh from An American Werewolf in London, directed the 14-minute Thriller short film, which features Jackson transforming into a werecat and leading a zombie dance. Make-up artist Rick Baker created the ghouls.
Thriller was the first music video added to the United States National Film Registry, in 2009.
Which actress made her film debut as babysitter Laurie Strode in the 1978 horror classic Halloween?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Jamie Lee Curtis
Jamie Lee Curtis was 19 when John Carpenter cast her as Laurie Strode, the resourceful babysitter stalked by Michael Myers. The role launched her career and earned her the nickname scream queen.
Curtis's mother, Janet Leigh, starred in Psycho, so the casting was partly a nod to horror's most famous shower scene.
In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, which creature gets into Hogwarts on Halloween night?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
A troll
A mountain troll wanders into the castle on Halloween, and Harry and Ron knock it out in the girls' bathroom, which is how they become friends with Hermione.
Halloween is also the night Harry's parents were killed, a date Rowling returns to in several of the later books.
According to Irish legend, the jack-o'-lantern is named after a trickster who fooled the Devil and was doomed to roam the earth with a burning coal. What was he called?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Stingy Jack
In the folk tale, Stingy Jack trapped the Devil and made him promise never to take his soul. When Jack died, heaven refused him and hell could not take him, so he wandered with a coal inside a hollow turnip, Jack of the Lantern.
Jack Frost, Jack Sprat and Little Jack Horner are all characters from other English folklore and nursery rhymes.
What is the name of the towering butler who serves the Addams Family?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Lurch
Lurch is the Addams Family's giant, groaning butler, famous for answering the gong with the words You rang? Thing is the disembodied hand, Fester is Gomez's brother, and Gomez is the head of the family.
The Addams Family began as a series of New Yorker cartoons by Charles Addams in 1938, long before the 1960s TV show.
In which fictional Illinois town is John Carpenter's 1978 film Halloween set?
Got a hunch? Pick the answer that feels right.
Haddonfield
Michael Myers escapes from a sanitarium and returns to his hometown of Haddonfield, Illinois, on Halloween night. The town was named after Haddonfield, New Jersey, the hometown of the film's co-writer and producer Debra Hill.
Woodsboro is the setting of Scream, Springwood is home to Freddy Krueger, and Derry is Stephen King's haunted Maine town.
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All General Knowledge quizzes →About the Halloween Trivia Quiz
Before pumpkins, Irish families carved scary faces into turnips. Before Boris Karloff's bolts, Frankenstein's monster was dreamed up by a teenager on a rainy night by Lake Geneva. And before it was Halloween, 31 October was Samhain, the Celtic festival when the dead were thought to walk. There is more to the spookiest night of the year than candy.
These 15 questions mix the origins and traditions of Halloween with the films, songs and characters that define it, from the Great Pumpkin and Beetlejuice to Thriller, Hocus Pocus and the 1978 slasher that started it all. Early questions are party friendly, the later ones separate the casual fans from the true horror buffs. Each answer has a short explanation and an extra fact to scare your friends with.
You will find 15 multiple choice questions here, each with four options. Difficulty: Medium. Most people finish in about 6 minutes, and every answer comes with a short explanation and one extra fact worth keeping.
How to play
Read the question and pick one of the four answers. The correct answer is revealed straight away with a short explanation, then press Next question to keep going. At the end you get your score out of 15 and a full review of your round. Play again any time and the questions arrive in a fresh order. There is no timer and no account.
Good to know before you play
What topics does the Halloween Trivia Quiz cover?
The Celtic origins of Halloween, jack-o'-lantern folklore, the Salem witch trials, Day of the Dead and classic Halloween films and songs such as Hocus Pocus, Beetlejuice and Monster Mash.
Is the quiz suitable for a Halloween party?
Yes, it is designed for groups: read the questions aloud, let teams argue, then reveal the explanation. The first five are easy enough for all ages.
How hard are the horror film questions?
They stick to famous films such as Halloween, Hocus Pocus, Beetlejuice and Frankenstein, with the toughest ones near the end.
Answer key: all 15 questions with explanations
- The Day of the Dead, celebrated on 1 and 2 November with sugar skulls and marigolds, originated in which country?
Mexico Día de los Muertos is a Mexican tradition that blends Aztec rituals honouring the dead with the Catholic feasts of All Saints and All Souls. Families build altars called ofrendas with photos, food and bright orange marigolds to welcome returning spirits. UNESCO added Mexico's Day of the Dead to its list of intangible cultural heritage in 2008. - Which Peanuts character spends every Halloween waiting in a pumpkin patch for the Great Pumpkin?
Linus Linus van Pelt believes the Great Pumpkin rises from the most sincere pumpkin patch each Halloween to deliver toys, and he waits all night with Sally while the others go trick-or-treating in It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. The 1966 TV special gave Charlie Brown his famous line about trick-or-treating: while everyone else gets candy, he keeps getting a rock. - Which classic monster first appeared in a novel written by Mary Shelley in 1818?
Frankenstein's monster Mary Shelley began Frankenstein at the age of 18 during a rainy summer at Lake Geneva in 1816, and Victor Frankenstein's stitched together creature has haunted Halloween ever since. The flat head and neck bolts come from Boris Karloff's 1931 film, not the book, where the creature is described as eloquent and agile. - Halloween has its roots in which ancient Celtic festival marking the end of the harvest?
Samhain Samhain, held around 1 November, marked the end of summer and the start of the dark half of the Celtic year. People believed the boundary between the living and the dead thinned that night, lighting bonfires and wearing disguises to ward off spirits. Beltane, Imbolc and Lughnasadh are the other three Celtic seasonal festivals, held in May, February and August. - The famous witch trials of 1692 took place in Salem, in which US state?
Massachusetts Salem, Massachusetts, was the centre of a panic in 1692 and 1693 in which more than 200 people were accused of witchcraft and 20 were executed, 19 by hanging. Arthur Miller later dramatised the trials in The Crucible. Modern Salem leans into its past, welcoming hundreds of thousands of visitors every October for its month-long Haunted Happenings festival. - Before pumpkins became popular, which vegetable did people in Ireland and Scotland traditionally carve into lanterns?
Turnips In Ireland and Scotland, turnips and similar roots were hollowed out, carved with grotesque faces and lit with embers or candles to frighten off wandering spirits. Immigrants to America found the native pumpkin far bigger and easier to carve. A turnip lantern from the early 1900s is on display at the National Museum of Ireland and looks genuinely terrifying. - Who plays Winifred Sanderson, the eldest of the three witches, in the 1993 film Hocus Pocus?
Bette Midler Bette Midler plays Winifred, the bossy, buck-toothed leader of the Sanderson sisters, with Sarah Jessica Parker as Sarah and Kathy Najimy as Mary. The witches are resurrected in Salem when a teenager lights the black flame candle. Midler has called Winifred her favourite role, and she returned for the sequel Hocus Pocus 2 in 2022, nearly 30 years later. - In the 1988 film Beetlejuice, how many times must his name be said to summon him?
Three Saying Beetlejuice three times in a row summons the obnoxious bio-exorcist played by Michael Keaton, and saying it three more times sends him away. The Maitlands use the trick after he takes things too far. Keaton is on screen for only about 17 minutes of the film, yet the character became one of his most famous roles. - Who recorded the 1962 novelty hit Monster Mash?
Bobby "Boris" Pickett Bobby Pickett, billed as Bobby "Boris" Pickett and the Crypt-Kickers, recorded Monster Mash in 1962, doing a Boris Karloff impression over a dance beat. It reached number one in the United States just before Halloween that year. The BBC initially banned the song in Britain for being too morbid, and it did not become a UK hit until 1973. - Who directed Michael Jackson's 1983 Thriller video, with its famous dancing zombies?
John Landis John Landis, fresh from An American Werewolf in London, directed the 14-minute Thriller short film, which features Jackson transforming into a werecat and leading a zombie dance. Make-up artist Rick Baker created the ghouls. Thriller was the first music video added to the United States National Film Registry, in 2009. - Which actress made her film debut as babysitter Laurie Strode in the 1978 horror classic Halloween?
Jamie Lee Curtis Jamie Lee Curtis was 19 when John Carpenter cast her as Laurie Strode, the resourceful babysitter stalked by Michael Myers. The role launched her career and earned her the nickname scream queen. Curtis's mother, Janet Leigh, starred in Psycho, so the casting was partly a nod to horror's most famous shower scene. - In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, which creature gets into Hogwarts on Halloween night?
A troll A mountain troll wanders into the castle on Halloween, and Harry and Ron knock it out in the girls' bathroom, which is how they become friends with Hermione. Halloween is also the night Harry's parents were killed, a date Rowling returns to in several of the later books. - According to Irish legend, the jack-o'-lantern is named after a trickster who fooled the Devil and was doomed to roam the earth with a burning coal. What was he called?
Stingy Jack In the folk tale, Stingy Jack trapped the Devil and made him promise never to take his soul. When Jack died, heaven refused him and hell could not take him, so he wandered with a coal inside a hollow turnip, Jack of the Lantern. Jack Frost, Jack Sprat and Little Jack Horner are all characters from other English folklore and nursery rhymes. - What is the name of the towering butler who serves the Addams Family?
Lurch Lurch is the Addams Family's giant, groaning butler, famous for answering the gong with the words You rang? Thing is the disembodied hand, Fester is Gomez's brother, and Gomez is the head of the family. The Addams Family began as a series of New Yorker cartoons by Charles Addams in 1938, long before the 1960s TV show. - In which fictional Illinois town is John Carpenter's 1978 film Halloween set?
Haddonfield Michael Myers escapes from a sanitarium and returns to his hometown of Haddonfield, Illinois, on Halloween night. The town was named after Haddonfield, New Jersey, the hometown of the film's co-writer and producer Debra Hill. Woodsboro is the setting of Scream, Springwood is home to Freddy Krueger, and Derry is Stephen King's haunted Maine town.
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