Can You Guess the Horror Film from Its Opening Plot Setup? Ultimate 20-Question Trivia Quiz!

Answers Below – No Peeking!

Are you a true horror aficionado? Challenge yourself with these 20 questions that recreate the chilling opening plot setups of classic and modern horror films. From easy starters to devilish brain-teasers, see if you can identify them all without peeking!

20 Trivia Questions: Guess the Horror Film from Its Opening Plot Setup

Question 1: Which horror film opens with a young boy donning a clown mask and stabbing his teenage sister to death on Halloween night?

A. Scream
B. Halloween
C. Friday the 13th
D. A Nightmare on Elm Street

Question 2: Which horror film opens with a secretary impulsively stealing $40,000 in cash from her employer’s client and fleeing town by car?

A. Psycho
B. Misery
C. The Silence of the Lambs
D. Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?

Question 3: Which horror film opens with a group of young friends in a van picking up a deranged hitchhiker who slices open his own hand with a straight razor?

A. The Hills Have Eyes
B. Wolf Creek
C. Wrong Turn
D. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

Question 4: Which horror film opens with an archaeological dig in northern Iraq where a statue of the demon Pazuzu topples, unleashing evil?

A. Prince of Darkness
B. The Omen
C. The Exorcist
D. The Believers

Question 5: Which horror film opens with a young woman going skinny-dipping at night during a beach party, only to be attacked by a shark?

A. The Shallows
B. Deep Blue Sea
C. 47 Meters Down
D. Jaws

Question 6: Which horror film opens with a teenage girl receiving taunting and increasingly threatening phone calls while home alone?

A. I Know What You Did Last Summer
B. The Strangers
C. Scream
D. When a Stranger Calls

Question 7: Which horror film opens with two men chained to pipes in a filthy bathroom, discovering a third man dead in a bathtub amid Jigsaw’s game?

A. Cube
B. The Collector
C. Saw
D. Hostel

Question 8: Which horror film opens with a struggling writer interviewing for the winter caretaker position at the isolated Overlook Hotel?

A. Misery
B. Doctor Sleep
C. The Shining
D. Gerald’s Game

Question 9: Which horror film opens with paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren taking possession of the haunted Annabelle doll?

A. Insidious
B. The Nun
C. Annabelle
D. The Conjuring

Question 10: Which horror film opens with a young girl arranging a dollhouse replica of her grandmother dying alone in bed?

A. Hereditary
B. Midsommar
C. The Lodge
D. The Visit

Question 11: Which horror film opens with a car hitting a deer at night, heightening tension for the black protagonist en route to his girlfriend’s family home?

A. Nope
B. Us
C. Get Out
D. Candyman

Question 12: Which horror film opens with a young woman fleeing in terror along a beach after sex, pursued by a slow-walking entity?

A. It Follows
B. Smile
C. The Invisible Man
D. Relic

Question 13: Which horror film opens with Super 8 footage showing a family of five executed by a riding lawnmower?

A. V/H/S
B. Sinister
C. The Poughkeepsie Tapes
D. Hell House LLC

Question 14: Which horror film opens with a flashback car crash killing the father on the way to the son’s birthday party?

A. The Babadook
B. Mama
C. Lights Out
D. Orphan

Question 15: Which horror film opens with a 1630s Puritan family banished from their plantation, venturing into eerie woods?

A. Salem’s Lot
B. The Village
C. The Witch
D. Apostle

Question 16: Which horror film opens with a family’s kitchen chairs stacking themselves after the TV sign-off into static?

A. Poltergeist
B. The Amityville Horror
C. The Others
D. What Lies Beneath

Question 17: Which horror film opens with a teenage girl chased through a boiler room by a burned man with a bladed glove in her dream?

A. Wes Craven’s New Nightmare
B. Freddy’s Dead
C. A Nightmare on Elm Street
D. Dreamscape

Question 18: Which horror film opens with a diplomat in a Rome hospital secretly replacing his dead baby with another under ominous circumstances?

A. Rosemary’s Baby
B. The Omen
C. Damien: Omen II
D. The Final Conflict

Question 19: Which horror film opens with two teenage girls watching a cursed videotape, dooming one to die in seven days?

A. Ringu
B. The Ring
C. The Ring Two
D. Sadako

Question 20: Which horror film opens with camp counselors in 1958 being murdered by a vengeful mother at Camp Crystal Lake?

A. Sleepaway Camp
B. Madman
C. Friday the 13th
D. Friday the 13th Part 2

Answers

  1. B. Halloween – John Carpenter’s 1978 film opens with child Michael Myers stabbing his sister Judith. The others start differently: Scream with a phone call, Friday the 13th with camp murders, Nightmare with a dream chase.
  2. A. Psycho – Alfred Hitchcock’s classic begins with Marion Crane stealing cash and driving to the Bates Motel. The others involve captivity or different crimes, not theft and flight.
  3. D. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre – Tobe Hooper’s 1974 film has friends picking up a self-mutilating hitchhiker. The others feature different cannibal or mutant encounters.
  4. C. The Exorcist – William Friedkin’s 1973 film starts with the Pazuzu statue in Iraq. The others lack this specific demonic archaeology.
  5. D. Jaws – Steven Spielberg’s 1975 blockbuster opens with Chrissie’s shark attack. The others involve later shark scenarios or captivity.
  6. C. Scream – Wes Craven’s 1996 meta-slasher begins with Casey Becker’s calls. The others have similar but non-iconic phone openings.
  7. C. Saw – James Wan’s 2004 film wakes Adam and Dr. Gordon in the bathroom trap. The others feature different confined horror setups.
  8. C. The Shining – Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 adaptation starts with Jack Torrance’s interview. The others follow different isolation stories.
  9. D. The Conjuring – James Wan’s 2013 film opens with the Annabelle case. The spin-offs start later in the timeline.
  10. A. Hereditary – Ari Aster’s 2018 film uses the dollhouse to depict grandma’s death. The others have distinct family horror openings.
  11. C. Get Out – Jordan Peele’s 2017 satire opens with the deer crash. The others feature different racial horror setups.
  12. A. It Follows – David Robert Mitchell’s 2014 film starts with the beach pursuit post-sex. The others lack this entity mechanic.
  13. B. Sinister – Scott Derrickson’s 2012 film shows the lawnmower snuff film. The others use different found-footage murders.
  14. A. The Babadook – Jennifer Kent’s 2014 film flashes back to the crash. The others involve supernatural children differently.
  15. C. The Witch – Robert Eggers’ 2015 film depicts the 1630s banishment. The others are modern or vampire tales.
  16. A. Poltergeist – Tobe Hooper’s 1982 film features the chair stacking post-TV static. The others have hauntings without this exact poltergeist intro.
  17. C. A Nightmare on Elm Street – Wes Craven’s 1984 film opens with Nancy Thompson’s boiler room dream. The others are Freddy sequels or unrelated.
  18. B. The Omen – Richard Donner’s 1976 film has Robert Thorn’s hospital baby switch. Rosemary’s Baby involves pregnancy, not adoption.
  19. B. The Ring – Gore Verbinski’s 2002 remake starts with the girls and tape. The originals are Japanese with different visuals.
  20. C. Friday the 13th – Sean S. Cunningham’s 1980 film flashes back to 1958 killings by Mrs. Voorhees. The sequel starts in 1980 post-Jason.

How did you score? Share your results in the comments and dare your friends to tackle this horror opening quiz!