Before They Were Remakes: Horror Originals! Quiz

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. In 1999, "House on Haunted Hill" was remade starring Geoffrey Rush and a handful of b-list actors. But what was the name of Vincent Price's eccentric billionaire in the 1959 original film?

Answer: Frederick Loren

Vincent Price played the manipulative and eccentric millionaire Frederick Loren in this classic black and white horror original. In the remake, Loren was replaced by Stephen Price (Geoffrey Rush) - a nice nod to Vincent Price.

The two films differed greatly, the remake being more of a ghost story, while the Price version was a murder mystery with ghostly red herrings.

2. Japanese film "Ringu" (1998) was remade by director Gore Verbinski ("Pirates of the Carribbean") as "The Ring" four years later. But in the original, how did Sadako's real mother meet her untimely end?

Answer: She threw herself into a volcano.

In both versions, Sadako (Samara in the American version) was thrown down a well, but it was only in the Japanese version that her mother met her end in a volcano. Samara's mother has the much less dramatic demise of jumping from a cliff.

Based on the books by Koji Suzuki, these are not the only two adaptations of the story - apart from the American film series, the Japanese original has spawned a prequel, two sequels (one based on the second book "Spiral" and the other following an original path), two television adaptations, and a video game. There has also been a Korean remake.

3. Jennifer Carpenter starred in the US film "Quarantine" in 2008, a remake of the 2007 Spanish film "[Rec]". In the Spanish film, what was revealed to be the source of the infection spreading through the apartment building?

Answer: An infected girl in the penthouse

While the dog did spread the infection, it appeared that the source was a girl brought back to the apartment building by a Vatican agent. She was suspected of being possessed by demons, but instead it was a virus, which became contagious and spread to the dog, and then to the rest of the building.

4. A double remake question! In 2007, Rob Zombie provided his own version of the story of Michael Myers, remaking the 1978 classic "Halloween". In the original, what film - later to be remade by John Carpenter - was watched by the children Laurie was babysitting?

Answer: The Thing From Another World

"The Thing From Another World" is a classic Howard Hawks picture with a defrosted humanoid vegetable that menaces an arctic research station.

John Carpenter later remade "The Thing From Another World" as "The Thing", often considered one of the greatest sci-fi horrors ever made. As far as "Halloween" goes, Zombie's remake was a vastly different film than the original, focusing more on the back-story and upbringing of Michael Myers than on his murderous rampage.

5. 2009's The Uninvited was an American remake of an excellent Korean horror film. What was the title of the Korean original?

Answer: A Tale of Two Sisters

"A Tale of Two Sisters" was a mind-bending psychological thriller about two girls returning from a mental institution only to confront their mysterious stepmother and a possible ghost in the house. Its Korean title "Janghwa, Hongryeon" translates to "Rose Flower, Red Lotus", the names of the two sisters in the film.

6. The book "The Amityville Horror" was based on the true accounts of the Lutz family before it became a 1979 film, a bunch of sequels, and a 2005 remake. In the original, Father Delaney (Rod Steiger) had a fairly unpleasant time after trying to bless the house. Which of the following did NOT happen to Father Delaney?

Answer: He was killed in a car accident.

While Father Delaney was run off the road while returning to the house with Father Bolen, he was not killed in the accident. He did suffer plenty of misfortune - while trying to bless the house he was driven out by a swarm of flies, his hands blistered and burned when he tried to call Kathy Lutz, and he later went blind and mad.

In the 2005 film, Delaney became Callaway, who escaped without much harm. The Lutzes later tried to sue the makers of the remake, claiming the film was too different from the real events, and that they had not been consulted on changes to the story.

7. In 2006, the 1976 film "The Wicker Man" was remade with some fairly drastic changes to the plot. But in the original, what did Sergeant Howie find in the coffin of Rowan Morrison?

Answer: A hare

While the original was an excellent exploration of the nature of faith, the remake threw all that out the window to knock together a nonsensical story about bees, drones, and femme fatales. Not to mention it didn't have Britt Ekland dancing naked, or the amazing Christopher Lee. In the remake, Cage's Edward Malus found a doll in Rowan's grave.

8. In 1964, Herschell Gordon Lewis made the gloriously camp splatter film "Two Thousand Maniacs!", which was remade in 2005 as "2001 Maniacs". In the original film, who wrote and performed the theme song "The South's Gonna Rise Again"?

Answer: Herschell Gordon Lewis

That's right, as well as writing and directing the film, HG Lewis was also responsible for the film's theme song, which reappeared in Tim Sullivan's remake. The remake featured great over-the-top performances by Robert Englund (Freddy Krueger!) and Eli Roth - reprising his role from Cabin Fever!

9. Despite 2005's "The Stepford Wives" having comedy/sci-fi leanings, the original was a devilishly downbeat social horror. In the original, what feature sets Joanna apart from her unfinished robotic replacement?

Answer: Her eyes

Before it's finished, the robotic Joanna was recognisable by its creepy eyes - all black, no whites - though this problem was fixed by the time she's replaced at the end of the film. "The Stepford Wives" was based on a book by Ira Levin, the author of "Rosemary's Baby" and "Sliver".

10. In the 1978 version of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers", Don Siegel, director of the 1956 original film, appeared for a small cameo. What character did he play?

Answer: A taxi driver

Don Siegel appeared as a taxi driver who pretended to drive the protagonists out of town, but instead delivered them to the waiting pod people. The Priest in the film was played by Robert Duvall, and Philip Kaufman, the director of the 1978 remake, played a city official. Dr Miles Bennell was Kevin McCarthy's character in the original film and he reprised this role briefly, trying to warn the public about the invasion before being run down by a car.

There have been plenty of cinematic versions of the 1955 book "The Body Snatchers" by Jack Finney. 1956 and 1978 both saw different versions titled "Invasion of the Body Snatchers", followed by "Body Snatchers" in 1992 and "The Invasion" in 2007.

Source: Author chooken

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor jmorrow before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

It seems every movie is being rebooted, remade or re-imagined these days. Here's a quiz about a bunch of great horror originals!

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