Popcorn Crunchers, Reel 22 Trivia Quiz

Answer: a woman who can become a cobra

There is a remote connection between the Lamians in "Cult of the Cobra" and the Greek mythical figure Lamia. She was a beautiful queen who had offspring by Zeus, which children were all killed by Hera, Zeus' wife. She turned into a child-eating monster, half human and half snake.

The English poet John Keats wrote a poem which derived (somewhat) from this myth in 1820. The Lamians in "Cult of the Cobra" are still farther derived from it, if at all. They are described as an Asian religion which worships a goddess who can turn herself from a woman into a snake.

Answer: Horror in the Haunted Castle

"Beast from Haunted Cave" (1959) was produced by Gene Corman, Roger Corman's brother. "House on Haunted Hill" (1959) was a William Castle/Vincent Price collaboration. "Terror in the Haunted House" (1958) was originally titled "My World Dies Screaming". Georges Méliès made "Le manoir du diable" ("The Haunted Castle") in 1896. It was a three-minute silent film. F.W. Murnau made "Schloß Vogelöd" ("The Haunted Castle") in 1921. "Haunted Castle" (2001) is a computer-animated horror film shown in IMAX theaters. There does not appear to be a motion picture named "Horror in the Haunted Castle".

Answer: a really really big spider

In this classic sci-fi horror film, a tarantula eats a super-food intended to make farm animals grow to immense size to increase the food supply on Earth. It grows until it is bigger than a house and wreaks appropriate havoc. The creature is black and hairy and hungry.

Answer: George Wallace

Commando Cody, played by George Wallace, is a civilian scientist/inventor called upon to save the Earth from the evil designs of Retik, Ruler of the Moon. He is aided by his flying suit (a snazzy helmet and a leather jacket to which an atomic-powered rocket pack is affixed). He also has his own rocket ship. After his success on film, he appeared on Broadway in a series of successful plays: "Pipe Dreams", "The Pajama Game", "New Girl in Town", "The Unsinkable Molly Brown", "Most Happy Fella", "Camelot", and "Man of La Mancha".

Answer: nothing at all

The Phantom is naked underneath his space suit. In order to escape pursuing humans, it removes the suit and becomes thereby invisible. It walks through powder spilled on a laboratory floor and leaves the footprint of a bare humanoid foot. When the Phantom suffocates in the last scene, he becomes visible and falls to the floor from a great height.

His dead body is (decorously) naked before it disintegrates.

Answer: giant wasps

Scientists send animals (e.g. guinea pigs) and insects (e.g. wasps) into space on rockets to test their ability to survive. One such rocket fails and crashes in Central Africa. Wasps on board, which were exposed to cosmic radiation, grow to immense size, too heavy to fly, with compound eyes and horns. (They look more like beetles than wasps.)

Answer: It is a TV show which riffs scary B movies.

"Mystery Science Theater 3000" is abbreviated MST3K. It purports to be a horror and science fiction film review. The premise is that the host has been captured by two mad scientists and is forced to watch B movies in order to measure his response to them.

He is accompanied by several robot companions - Tom Servo, Crow T. Robot, and Gypsy - who assist him in "riffing" on the films as they are shown. Each movie is projected so that the host and robots appear in black-out profile from behind, so as to appear to be viewing the film.

The programme has been canceled and revived too many times to number. The aggregate is just over 200 shows.

Answer: acting

Vincent Price (1911-1993) began his career as a stage actor, as a voice actor on radio, and in a variety of motion pictures. It was not until "The Fly" (1958) that his arc turned toward horror films. Had appeared in eight horror movies with "house" in the title: "The House of the Seven Gables" (1940), "House of Wax" (1953), "House on Haunted Hill" (1959), "House of Usher" (1960), "House of 1,000 Dolls" (1967), "The Hilarious House of Frightenstein" (1971), "Madhouse" (1974) and "House of the Long Shadows" (1983).

He was a gourmet chef, wrote several cookbooks, lectured on art history, and served on the boards of many art-related institutions. Perhaps he crowned his career with "The Abominable Dr. Phibes" (1971) and "Dr. Phibes Rises Again (1972).

Answer: Bayou Landing, Louisiana

Cypress Plantation, an address which Paul Webster gave on his college enrollment forms, is the ancestral home of the Websters in Bayou Landing, Louisiana. His wife, Joyce Webster/Jane Marvin, travels there to find him.

Answer: Roger Corman, the director

Corman, like Alfred Hitchcock, enjoyed taking small roles in his motion pictures. In "The Wasp Woman", when the private investigator hired by Janice Starlin finds Eric Zinthrop in a local hospital, she rushes there and consults with the attending physician. The doctor is played by Roger Corman.