Can You Guess the Horror Movie from Its First Act Setup? Ultimate 20/20 Trivia Challenge!

Answers Below – No Peeking!

Are you a true horror aficionado? Challenge yourself to identify these chilling films based solely on their opening act setups! From iconic slashers to modern psychological terrors, these 20 questions span classics and contemporaries, ramping up from easy to expert level.

20 Trivia Questions on Guess the Horror Movie from Its First Act Setup

Question 1: A group of young friends drives through rural Texas in a van to visit a relative’s grave, stopping at a desolate gas station and picking up a manic hitchhiker who shows them a gruesome family photo?

A. Friday the 13th
B. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
C. The Hills Have Eyes
D. Wrong Turn

Question 2: On Halloween night in 1963, a six-year-old boy dressed in a clown mask murders his teenage sister by stabbing her in the kitchen?

A. Halloween
B. Trick ‘r Treat
C. Scream
D. Child’s Play

Question 3: A struggling writer and his family – including his psychic young son – arrive at the remote Overlook Hotel, where he accepts the job as off-season winter caretaker?

A. Doctor Sleep
B. The Shining
C. Misery
D. 1408

Question 4: A real estate secretary steals $40,000 in cash from her employer and flees Phoenix by car, eventually checking into a secluded roadside motel late at night?

A. Psycho
B. Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?
C. Duplicity
D. Fargo

Question 5: In Georgetown, Washington D.C., a famous actress and her 12-year-old daughter settle into a new home, where the girl befriends an elderly woman and plays with a Ouija board?

A. The Amityville Horror
B. The Exorcist
C. Stigmata
D. Constantine

Question 6: A wholesome suburban family enjoys life in their new development home until their youngest daughter communicates with entities through the TV set during static?

A. Poltergeist
B. The Suburbans
C. Insidious
D. Sinister

Question 7: In 1971, a family of seven moves into a rundown old farmhouse in Harrisville, Rhode Island, hoping for a fresh start?

A. The Conjuring
B. The Haunting in Connecticut
C. Annabelle
D. The Nun

Question 8: Depressed true-crime author Ellison Oswalt moves his wife and children into a new home that was the site of a previous family’s attic hanging murder?

A. The Gallows
B. Sinister
C. The Watcher
D. Criminal Activities

Question 9: A couple installs video cameras in their San Diego home to record nocturnal paranormal activity after the woman reports feeling watched while sleeping?

A. REC
B. The Fourth Kind
C. Paranormal Activity
D. Ghostcam

Question 10: Two men awake chained by the ankle to pipes in a filthy, dimly lit bathroom, with a dying man in the centre and no idea how they arrived there?

A. Cube
B. Saw
C. 10 Cloverfield Lane
D. Room

Question 11: Three student filmmakers hike into the Black Hills Forest in Maryland to shoot a documentary on the local Blair Witch legend?

A. The Blair Witch Project
B. Exists
C. Grave Encounters
D. As Above, So Below

Question 12: A young woman has a sexual encounter at a lake house, after which she begins being relentlessly pursued by a slow-walking entity that only she can see?

A. Smile
B. It Follows
C. Happy Death Day
D. The Endless

Question 13: Young Black photographer Chris travels with his white girlfriend to her parents’ remote estate for a weekend meet-the-parents visit?

A. Us
B. The Visit
C. Get Out
D. Candyman

Question 14: Following their reclusive grandmother’s funeral, a family returns home where the mother makes creepy miniature replicas and the daughter experiences disturbing visions?

A. Hereditary
B. The Autopsy of Jane Doe
C. Relic
D. The Taking of Deborah Logan

Question 15: A grieving widow and her hyperactive six-year-old son are terrorised by a pop-up storybook character called Mister Babadook shortly after the father’s death anniversary?

A. Where the Wild Things Are
B. The Babadook
C. Coraline
D. Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark

Question 16: In 1630 New England, a devout Puritan family is exiled from their plantation and establishes an isolated farmstead on the edge of a foreboding wood?

A. The Village
B. Apostle
C. The Witch
D. The Revenant

Question 17: Newlywed couple Guy and Rosemary move into a luxurious but ominous apartment building in New York City called the Bramford?

A. Rosemary’s Baby
B. Suspiria
C. The Tenant
D. Repulsion

Question 18: In Rome, American diplomat Robert Thorn and his wife Kathy mourn the death of their baby at birth and adopt a newborn boy named Damien from a hospital chapel?

A. The Omen
B. Damien: Omen II
C. The Final Conflict
D. The Prophecy

Question 19: A young woman visits a Tokyo apartment investigating a reported haunting, immediately sensing malevolent spirits in the vengeful curse?

A. Ringu
B. Ju-On: The Grudge
C. Dark Water
D. Pulse

Question 20: After a family tragedy, a woman joins her boyfriend and his academic friends on a trip to a remote Swedish commune for a midsummer festival?

A. Midsommar
B. The Ritual
C. Apostle
D. Border

Answers

  1. B. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) – The friends’ trip to the cemetery and encounter with the hitchhiker (Grandpa’s photo) precisely opens Tobe Hooper’s film; others involve similar road-trip cannibals but different setups like desert or Appalachia.
  2. A. Halloween (1978) – John Carpenter’s iconic prologue shows young Michael Myers’ sister-killing on 31 October 1963; Child’s Play involves a doll, not a child killer.
  3. B. The Shining (1980) – Jack Torrance’s interview and family’s arrival at the Overlook sets Kubrick’s adaptation of King’s novel; Doctor Sleep is the sequel.
  4. A. Psycho (1960) – Marion Crane’s theft and flight to the Bates Motel launches Hitchcock’s thriller; others are unrelated heists or thrillers.
  5. B. The Exorcist (1973) – Chris MacNeil and Regan’s Georgetown life with the Ouija board opens Friedkin’s film before possession escalates; not Amityville‘s haunted house move-in.
  6. A. Poltergeist (1982) – The Freelings’ Cuesta Verde home with TV spirits and stacked chairs begins Tobe Hooper’s suburban haunting; Insidious starts with astral projection.
  7. A. The Conjuring (2013) – The Perrons’ 1971 move to the Arnold Estate in Harrisville introduces Ed and Lorraine Warren’s case; Annabelle focuses on a doll.
  8. B. Sinister (2012) – Oswalts settle into the murder house attic discovery in Scott Derrickson’s film; The Gallows is school theatre-based.
  9. C. Paranormal Activity (2007) – Katie and Micah’s bedroom camera setup for sleep hauntings defines Oren Peli’s found-footage breakthrough; REC is apartment quarantine.
  10. B. Saw (2004) – Adam and Lawrence’s bathroom awakening with Jigsaw’s game launches James Wan’s franchise; Cube is a trap room.
  11. A. The Blair Witch Project (1999) – Heather, Josh, and Mike’s Black Hills hike for the witch doc opens Eduardo Sánchez and Daniel Myrick’s found-footage classic.
  12. B. It Follows (2014) – Jay’s post-sex pursuit by the entity defines David Robert Mitchell’s STD metaphor horror; not Smile‘s grinning curse.
  13. C. Get Out (2017) – Chris’s visit to the Armitage estate sets Jordan Peele’s social thriller; Us starts with tethereds at a fair.
  14. A. Hereditary (2018) – Graham family’s post-Ellen funeral with miniatures opens Ari Aster’s grief horror; Relic centres on dementia.
  15. B. The Babadook (2014) – Amelia and Samuel’s post-widower life with the book arrives in Jennifer Kent’s Australian debut; Coraline is animated fantasy.
  16. C. The Witch (2015) – William and Katherine’s 1630s woodland farm exile begins Robert Eggers’ folk horror; The Village is modern Amish-like.
  17. A. Rosemary’s Baby (1968) – Woodhouses’ Bramford move amid eccentric neighbours opens Polanski’s satanic pregnancy tale; Suspiria is dance academy.
  18. A. The Omen (1976) – Thorn’s hospital adoption of Damien after his son’s death launches Richard Donner’s antichrist story.
  19. B. Ju-On: The Grudge (2002) – Rika’s entry into the Saeki house triggers Takashi Shimizu’s vengeful ghost curse; Ringu starts with a videotape.
  20. A. Midsommar (2019) – Dani’s Härga commune trip post-family deaths opens Ari Aster’s daylight folk horror; The Ritual is a forest hike.

How many did you get right? Drop your score in the comments below and challenge friends to this spine-tingling quiz!