Horror Cinema World Tour Trivia Quiz

Answer: Ginger Snaps

"Ginger Snaps" premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and was quite well-received for a Canadian film from a sophomore film director. Written by Karen Walton, "Ginger Snaps" followed the story of two goth sisters dealing with one sister's inadvertent bite from the Beast of Bailey Downs, a creature discovered to be a werewolf. While Ginger's condition worsened and she began to grow into a full-fledged creature of the night, her sister, Brigitte, tried to save her from her fate.

Katharine Isabelle, who played Ginger, also appeared in "Freddy vs. Jason" in 2003 while Emily Perkins starred as sister Brigitte. Both returned for the sequel, "Ginger Snaps II: Unleashed", and the DVD prequel, "Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning".

Canada hasn't been short on horror films though. Bob Clark directed "Black Christmas" in Canada in 1974 and David Cronenberg continued the tradition with the classic sci-fi and body horror films "Videodrome" (1983) and "The Fly" (1986). 2009's "Pontypool" was also a Canadian affair directed by Bruce McDonald and written by Tony Burgess, the author of "Pontypool Changes Everything".

While "The Howling" was directed in 1981 by American filmmaker Joe Dante, "Cry Wolf" was a 2005 film by Jeff Wadlow made in the U.S. "Dog Soldiers" was a 2002 movie by UK director Neil Marshall.

Answer: Funny Games (1997)

The UK is no stranger to popular horror. "28 Days Later" was directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Danny Boyle in 2002 and starred Cillian Murphy as a man who woke up from a coma a month into a zombie outbreak. These zombies, spawned from a disease known as RAGE spread through bodily fluids, morphed the infected into killing machines. Fairly well-received by critics and filmgoers alike, it received a sequel, "28 Weeks Later", in 2007.

"The Children" was directed in 2008 by Tom Shankland. This film, another disease-themed horror movie, ended up making children the killers. When two families headed to a remote cabin for an annual trip, the kids started getting sick and murderous. Its stylish art direction won critics over.

"The Descent", directed by Neil Marshall in 2005, starred an all-female cast as they descended into an obscure cave system, got trapped, lost, and claustrophobic, and faced the inhuman creatures hiding, hungry in the dark. An extremely popular UK example (at least in the North American box office), "The Descent", earned over $50,000,000 and was praised by critics for its genuine scares, amazing setting, and stylish art direction. Neil Marshall also directed "Doomsday" and oversaw production on the sequel, "The Descent Part 2", during its making in 2009.

Other horror to come from the UK includes 2004's "Shaun of the Dead", 1973's "The Wicker Man", and "Eden Lake", a well-received horror-thriller from 2008.

"Funny Games", a shockingly brutal Michael Haneke film from 1997, was actually made in the director's home country of Austria. The movie followed a family of three heading to their cottage in the country. Their trip was interrupted by two sadistic young men with the ability to alter the audience's role in the movie-going experience. "Funny Games" received an American remake (made by Haneke) in 2008 starring Tim Roth and Naomi Watts. Both films polarized critics. The original premiered at Cannes in 1997.

Answer: REC

"REC" (also known as "[REC]") starred Manuela Velasco as Angela Vidal, a news reporter working on a story with a local fire department. When the trucks were called to a job at a local apartment complex, she tagged along and discovered the true emergency at hand. As the night progressed, the building was quarantined and the infected residents had their night documented on the news station's video camera.

"REC" was an immense hit in the horror community with many critics deeming it not only the best handycam film ever made, but the best Spanish horror film ever made. It won several awards at the Festival de Cine de Sitges and received a number of sequels ("[REC2]", "[REC] Genesis", and "[REC] Apocalypse") as well as an American remake in 2008. The remake, "Quarantine", starred Jennifer Carpenter of "Dexter" and "The Exorcism of Emily Rose" fame and Jay Hernandez from "Hostel". It was released in 2008 and garnered similar popularity.

Spain has gotten the odd horror film (usually, Guillermo del Toro produces them) and they've often received a fair bit of press. "The Orphanage", released in 2007, debuted at Sitges and was directed by Juan Antonio Bayona. It won the Goya Award for 'Best Picture'. Its star, Belén Rueda (who was nominated for 'Best Actress' at the same awards for her acclaimed role) also appeared in "Julia's Eyes" in 2010. This was another del Toro production. "Fermat's Room" is the odd one out. This 2007 thriller was made in Spain, but it wasn't a horror film.

Answer: Martyrs

The earliest of these films would be Claire Denis' "Trouble Every Day" which was released in 2001 and involved an almost vampiric disease which turned some of its characters into cannibalistic monsters. The film was associated with French filmmakers' tendency to produce graphic horror films involving body mutilation. These would foreground the inevitable 'torture porn' subgenre of horror and pave the way for Eli Roth's "Hostel" and the "Saw" series.

"Haute Tension", released by French director Alexandre Aja in 2003, was his second feature film after 1999's "Furia" and it allowed him to become one of the most famous up-and-coming directors in the horror scene at the turn of the century. He would later direct the "Hills Have Eyes" remake, "Mirrors", and "Piranha 3D". "Haute Tension" became a cult classic, however, and remained a benchmark for the French in this genre.

"Inside", released in 2007, was a brutal film about pregnancy and madness directed by Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo, a French screenwriting/directing duo as a feature film debut. Another cult classic, the movie was distributed by Dimension Extreme.

"Martyrs", by Pascal Laugier, was notable for its popularity upon its festival release at Cannes. Later appearing (like "Haute Tension") at the Toronto International Film Festival, it received attention from horror circles for its stylistic depiction of extreme gore characteristic of the new age horror extremity. Starring Morjana Alaoui and Mylène Jampanoï, "Martyrs" involved two girls caught in a torturous plot followed by a secret society looking for the secrets of the afterlife.

France was never really a big contender in the horror genre until the turn of the century. Other than the films listed, other movies from this country include "Ils (Them)" which was remade in the United States as "The Strangers", "Irréversible" by "Enter the Void" director Gaspar Noé, and the After Dark Horrorfest acquisition, "Frontière(s)", another graphic body horror film.

Of course, the first horror film ever made, "Le manoir du diable", was directed by George Melies in France in 1896. English viewers may know it by one of its many other names, particularly "The Haunted Castle".

Answer: Suspiria

"Suspiria" (1977) was critically-renowned upon its release for its vibrant colour scheme and Argento's contribution to the Italian horror canon. Rich in its red and blue tones, "Suspiria" was the last movie to be filmed in Technicolor. This was also the start of Argento's "Three Mothers" trilogy which would continue with "Inferno" in 1980 and "The Mother of Tears" in 2007. "Suspiria" followed the story of an American girl attending a prestigious dance academy in Germany only to discover the horrifying coven of witches within.

Argento also filmed "Phenomena" in 1985 (Jennifer Connelly's first film) and "Trauma" in 1993. His other films (including "The Bird with the Crystal Plumage") are famous for being noteworthy exemplars of the Italian 'Giallo' horror wave.

"Black Sunday" (La maschera del demonio) was a 1960 horror film directed by Mario Bava starring Barbara Steele as both Katja and the vampiric witch Asa Vadja. Bava's work on this film would go on to inspire many later horror images in future films.

"Demons" (and some of its subsequent sequels) was a film produced by Argento, but directed by Lamberto Bava in 1985. Containing much of the characteristic gore and over-the-top colour schemes typical of 1980s Italian horror, it followed a group of people at a theater while a group of demons slowly infected their way into the real world. Lamberto Bava, of course, is Mario Bava's son. He continued to make "Dèmoni" films throughout the 1980s.

"Cannibal Holocaust" (1980) was a notorious cult classic horror film by Ruggero Deodato set in Brazil. Featuring exceedingly graphic sequences, the movie was banned in most of Europe for many years. Filmed as a mockumentary, many horror fans were delighted by the unrelenting realism of the movie while many governments questioned its lack of censorship.

Italy, known for neorealist pieces after World War II, took a strong turn from the portrayal of the everyday seen in the 1940s and 1950s. Considering movies from the pulpy crime dramas of the giallo days to the splatter subgenre that emerged in the later decades, Italy has been fairly prolific from a horror standpoint.

Answer: Skjult (Hidden)

The horror genre never really struck the Norwegian market until the 2000s, at which point a few psychological horror entries made their way to theaters and, inevitably, international festivals. "Skjult", also known as "Hidden", was released in 2009 and found its distribution with After Dark Films as part of their fourth series of 'Films to Die For'. "Skjult" featured interesting stylistic choices with a great deal of focus on the sublime landscape.

Kristoffer Joner, the lead actor in "Skjult", also starred in the 2003 film "Villmark" about a group of reality TV crew members who found a body in a remote lake.

"Cold Prey", which began filming in 2004 and finally saw a release in 2006, was filmed on top of the Jotunheimen. It found its international audience at several film festivals in 2007; the movie followed a group of snowboarders who, under unfortunate circumstances, found themselves needing to take refuge in a rather chilling, abandoned hotel. This film was followed by two sequels, the first of which had the top-grossing opening weekend ever held in Norway.

Horror fans who know better have already heard about "Dead Snow". If you've ever enjoyed the idea of Nazi zombies trekking through the snows of Norway, then this has been an option since 2009. This one was directed by Tommy Wirkola and made a North American debut at the Sundance Film Festival.

Answer: Let the Right One In

"Låt den rätte komma in" was a major horror title for Sweden. After many years of films joint-produced between Sweden and Norway, many of which were not horror movies, this vampire film based on Lindqvist's 2004 novel was a major venture. After lauded appearances in international film festivals, the movie ended up topping numerous renowned critics' year-end lists and winning dozens of awards. Unsurprisingly, American filmmakers remade the title in 2010 with a similarly well-received film called "Let Me In" (directed by Matt Reeves).

"Let the Right One In" starred Kåre Hedebrant as Oskar, a boy who fell in love with a little girl named Eli, played by Lina Leandersson, though her nature as a vampire certainly complicated matters. While Eli simply tried to survive and hide in her eternal childlike state, Oskar simply tried to survive his day-to-day life as a neglected, bullied child. Of course, both found solace in each other.

Sweden, as noted, was never a major contender in the horror market, at least not until "Låt den rätte komma in" made huge waves in the genre, reshaping the vampire story while including many traditional facets of cinematic vampire lore. Mikael Håfström, another Swedish director, was known for his 2004 Swedish slasher "Drowning Ghost", the American Stephen King adaptation of "1408" (2007), and the Anthony Hopkins film "The Rite" (2011).

Answer: The Eye (2002)

"Whispering Corridors" was released in 1998 and followed a tale of urban myth in a South Korean girls academy. It was followed by a number of sequels as it foregrounded many future works in the coming years (in the genre). Likewise, "A Tale of Two Sisters" (2003) was an immensely popular horror offering about two sisters trying to find out the truth about their stepmother. This movie was eventually remade in the United States as "The Uninvited" (which, ironically, is the title of another K-horror film) which starred Emily Browning, Arielle Kebbel, and Elizabeth Banks.

"Into the Mirror" was released in 2003 and involved a shopping center containing haunted mirrors. This, of course, was also somewhat remade in the U.S. as Alexandre Aja's 2008 film "Mirrors" (starring Keifer Sutherland) though its DVD sequel followed the storyline much closer.

Like much of the rest of Asia, South Korea hit a horror stride in the late 1990s and early 2000s, particularly around the time Japan's "The Ring" made its debut in the United States (at least Gore Verbinski's remake of it). At the same time Japanese horror was getting remade in the States, Korean horror was getting its fair treatment. Tartan Asia Extreme, a now-defunct film distribution company, was responsible for the DVD releases of many Korean horror films in the 2000s and, as noted, many of the country's films revolved around either folk tale retellings (eg. "Cinderella", "Hansel and Gretel", "The Red Shoes", etc.) or ghost stories.

The 2002 version of "The Eye" was actually a film released by Chinese filmmakers the Pang Brothers. When a woman received a new eye via a transplant to cure her blindness, she discovered that she could see horrible ghosts. This was followed by a number of Hong Kong-made sequels in later years as well as an American remake starring Jessica Alba (in 2008) and an Indian version in both 2004 and 2005.

Answer: Dark Water (2002)

"Dark Water" (or "Honogurai mizu no soko kara") was originally a collection of water-themed short stories in a horror anthology written by Koji Suzuki. Of course, most horror fans would know Suzuki as the original writer of "Ringu", the 1991 novel which later became "Ringu" (and subsequently Gore Verbinski's 2002 film, "The Ring", which many considered the first major J-horror remake in mainstream American cinema). "Dark Water" (the film) was based on the first short story of the collection, "Floating Water" in which a mother and daughter moved into a new apartment to find frightening ghosts of past inhabitants therein. The 2002 Japanese film was followed by a 2005 American film starring Jennifer Connelly and John C. Reilly, and while it was similar to the original, it failed to recoup its budget in the box office. The director of the American remake was Walter Salles who was also known for Cannes and Oscar-nominated films like "The Motorcycle Diaries"; Salles was Brazilian-born.

"Chakushin Ari" and "Ôdishon" were both directed by Japanese filmmaker Takashi Miike (who was also known for the violent "Ichi the Killer"). The former film was released in 2004 and the horribly-panned, American remake of the same name ("One Missed Call") showed up in 2008. The latter, a graphic and frightening tale of obsession and torture, was praised by horror fans for its unnaturally horrifying scenes. "Audition" was released in 2000 though it premiered in film festivals a year earlier.

"Rinne", also known to American audiences as "Reincarnation", was included in the first batch of "After Dark Horrorfest" movies. In addition, it was a part of the collection known as 'J-Horror Theater' for which major Japanese horror directors contributed films in the genre. Others in this set included the 2004 film "Kansen" ("Infection") by Masayuki Ochiai, "Yogen" ("Premonition") by Norio Tsuruta in the same year, and "Sakebi" ("Retribution") released by Kiyoshi Kurosawa in 2006. "Rinne" was about the production of a movie recounting the events of a grisly hotel murder. When people soon found themselves recalling the horrible events at the hotel a horrible sense of deja vu began to take its course.

Japan has had a very strong market in horror for many years; like Korean horror, a lot of films followed past folk stories about ghosts and paranormal events. This is why American remakes have, for the most part, been cursed ghost stories (eg. "The Ring" (originally "Ringu"), "The Grudge" (originally "Ju-On"), "Pulse" (originally "Kairo"), and of course, "Dark Water". The typical Japanese ghost, that of a pale, white girl with long, black hair, is known as a Yûrei. This concept has also crossed over into the video game world with games like "F.E.A.R." and "Fatal Frame" though the latter of these was originally Japanese-made.

Answer: Wolf Creek

"Wolf Creek" was a surprising 'true events' film which ended up in theaters in 2005. Finding a good deal of money in the box office, the movie was a surprise hit and ended up faring quite well in horror circles due to its unflinching approach to violence and sadistic torture, especially considering other 'torture porn' films like Eli Roth's "Hostel" and James Wan's "Saw" were released within a year of "Wolf Creek". The movie followed two British travellers and an Aussie backpacker who made their way through Australia before coming upon the radar of a vicious killer and becoming his prey. Contradicting the film's idea that these events actually happened, they did not.

A hankering for Aussie horror was definitely heard in later years. 2007's "Storm Warning" pitted a couple against horrible rednecks in a vicious storm. The movie, directed by Jamie Blanks (known for "Urban Legend" and "Valentine") was popularly-reviewed by horror outlets.

"Lake Mungo" (2008), a documentary-style horror film following the lives of family members trying to solve the mystery of their daughter's drowning, was added to the fourth list of "After Dark Horrorfest" titles and likewise imparted a unique, realistic style of filmmaking.

"The Loved Ones" (2009), like "Wolf Creek" and "Storm Warning" before it, took the torture concept and ran with it, providing a long-anticipated, original horror film enjoyed by fans worldwide (at international film festivals). It too was widely-praised by critics and horror fans alike. It featured the events occurring when a schoolboy did not accept the invitation of a rather unsettling girl to the local dance (and the lengths to which her family decided to go).

Quite simply, Australia's horror films have been bloody gruesome and bloody popular. From the selections listed to the Spierig Brothers' 2003 film "Undead" (and their later vampire/dystopian film, "Daybreakers"), Greg McLean's giant croc movie, "Rogue" (2007), and the 2008 After Dark cannibal entry "Dying Breed", things have been positively horrifying down under.