Movie Smarts

Halloween Quiz: Keep the Lights On

You have seen the movie. Now see how much of it you can bring back.

Published 2026-10-24 Updated 2026-10-24 15 questions

Halloween: The Neighborhood Has an Uninvited Guest

A quiet neighborhood is getting ready for an evening of costumes and candy. One young woman keeps noticing a stranger who seems to vanish whenever she looks again. As night falls, the familiar streets become much less comforting, and the adults are nowhere near as helpful as they should be. It is a simple, patient nightmare about how frightening an ordinary house can feel after dark.

Keep the lights on if it helps. The quiz will not judge.

1. Who directed the original Halloween?
- Tobe Hooper
- John Carpenter
- George A. Romero
- Wes Craven
Carpenter made it for around three hundred thousand dollars in about twenty days, and it became one of the most profitable independent films ever made. He also wrote the piano score himself, in a few days, in the 5/4 time his father had taught him on bongos.
2. Who plays Laurie Strode?
- Nancy Loomis
- Jamie Lee Curtis
- Debra Hill
- P.J. Soles
Curtis was nineteen and had never made a film; the producers liked that her mother, Janet Leigh, had been Psycho's most famous victim. She was paid a few thousand dollars, and Nancy Loomis and P.J. Soles play her friends Annie and Lynda.
3. What is the killer's name?
- Jason Voorhees
- Norman Bates
- Michael Myers
- Freddy Krueger
He murders his teenage sister Judith on Halloween night 1963, at the age of six, and spends the next fifteen years in a sanitarium without speaking. The name belonged to the British distributor of Carpenter's previous film, Assault on Precinct 13.
4. What fictional town is the main setting?
- Derry
- Woodsboro
- Haddonfield
- Springwood
Debra Hill grew up in Haddonfield, New Jersey, and borrowed the name; Laurie Strode is named after an old girlfriend of Carpenter's. The town was played by South Pasadena and Hollywood, which is why palm trees occasionally sneak into the shot.
5. In which state is Haddonfield located in the story?
- Ohio
- Michigan
- Indiana
- Illinois
The title card sets the opening in Haddonfield, Illinois, on Halloween night 1963, and the rest fifteen years later. Carpenter shot it in Southern California in spring, so the crew painted bags of leaves in autumn colors and reused them from shot to shot.
6. Who plays Dr. Sam Loomis?
- Christopher Lee
- Peter Cushing
- Donald Pleasence
- Vincent Price
Pleasence took the part after Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee both passed, and Lee later called turning it down the biggest mistake of his career. The name Sam Loomis is borrowed from Psycho, where it belonged to Janet Leigh's boyfriend.
7. What is Loomis's profession?
- Police detective
- School principal
- Surgeon
- Psychiatrist
Loomis spent eight years trying to reach his patient and another seven trying to keep him locked up, by his own account, and has decided there is nothing behind the eyes at all. He arrives in Haddonfield with a revolver rather than a treatment plan.
8. What is Laurie doing for work on Halloween night?
- Taking cinema tickets
- Working at a diner
- Delivering newspapers
- Babysitting
Laurie is minding a boy across the street from the Wallace house, where her friend Annie is sitting for Lindsey, and the two jobs merge when Annie goes off to collect her boyfriend. Carpenter and Hill's working title was The Babysitter Murders.
9. What is the boy Laurie looks after called?
- Billy Loomis
- Tommy Doyle
- Andy Barclay
- Danny Torrance
Tommy has been told about the boogeyman by the bullies at school, and the Myers house on his street is the one every kid avoids. The other three names belong to Scream, Child's Play and The Shining, which is a fair summary of what the film started.
10. What item does Michael take from a hardware store along with knives and rope?
- A toolbox
- A mask
- A pair of boots
- A flashlight
He takes it from Nichols Hardware, and the sheriff's look into the break-in is how Loomis first picks up his trail in town. The mask stays on for the rest of the film, apart from the bedsheet and glasses he uses to fool Lynda.
11. Whose face was the commercial mask based on before it was altered?
- William Shatner
- Clint Eastwood
- Leonard Nimoy
- Burt Reynolds
The production designer bought a Captain Kirk mask for under two dollars, widened the eyes, pulled off the sideburns and sprayed it a bluish white. The alternative on the table was a clown mask, which is what the six-year-old Michael wears in the opening.
12. Who co-wrote the screenplay with Carpenter?
- Dario Argento
- Tommy Lee Wallace
- Debra Hill
- Wes Craven
Hill produced the film as well and wrote most of the teenage girls' dialogue, having spent her own teens babysitting. She and Carpenter went on to make The Fog and Escape from New York together; Tommy Lee Wallace was the production designer and editor.
13. Which 1950s science-fiction film is on television while Tommy and Lindsey are being babysat?
- The Thing from Another World
- Invasion of the Body Snatchers
- The Blob
- It Came from Outer Space
Tommy watches Howard Hawks's 1951 film while Laurie carves a pumpkin, and later in the evening the set is showing Forbidden Planet. Carpenter remade the Hawks film himself four years later as The Thing, with Kurt Russell.
14. What does Laurie use while hiding in a closet to defend herself?
- A knitting basket
- A broken mirror
- A curtain rod
- A wire coat hanger
Laurie straightens the hanger and jabs it into his eye, then stabs him with his own knife and assumes he is dead. He is not, which is the point of the final shot, in which Loomis looks down from the balcony and finds the lawn empty.
15. What phrase is used for Michael in the film's credits?
- The Shape
- The Shadow
- The Watcher
- The Stranger
The credits list him as The Shape, and Nick Castle, a film-school friend of Carpenter's, wears the mask for most of the film for a modest daily fee. Tony Moran is the face in the brief unmasking shot, and Castle went on to direct The Last Starfighter.

All the answers

1. Who directed the original Halloween?

John Carpenter

Carpenter made it for around three hundred thousand dollars in about twenty days, and it became one of the most profitable independent films ever made. He also wrote the piano score himself, in a few days, in the 5/4 time his father had taught him on bongos.
2. Who plays Laurie Strode?

Jamie Lee Curtis

Curtis was nineteen and had never made a film; the producers liked that her mother, Janet Leigh, had been Psycho's most famous victim. She was paid a few thousand dollars, and Nancy Loomis and P.J. Soles play her friends Annie and Lynda.
3. What is the killer's name?

Michael Myers

He murders his teenage sister Judith on Halloween night 1963, at the age of six, and spends the next fifteen years in a sanitarium without speaking. The name belonged to the British distributor of Carpenter's previous film, Assault on Precinct 13.
4. What fictional town is the main setting?

Haddonfield

Debra Hill grew up in Haddonfield, New Jersey, and borrowed the name; Laurie Strode is named after an old girlfriend of Carpenter's. The town was played by South Pasadena and Hollywood, which is why palm trees occasionally sneak into the shot.
5. In which state is Haddonfield located in the story?

Illinois

The title card sets the opening in Haddonfield, Illinois, on Halloween night 1963, and the rest fifteen years later. Carpenter shot it in Southern California in spring, so the crew painted bags of leaves in autumn colors and reused them from shot to shot.
6. Who plays Dr. Sam Loomis?

Donald Pleasence

Pleasence took the part after Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee both passed, and Lee later called turning it down the biggest mistake of his career. The name Sam Loomis is borrowed from Psycho, where it belonged to Janet Leigh's boyfriend.
7. What is Loomis's profession?

Psychiatrist

Loomis spent eight years trying to reach his patient and another seven trying to keep him locked up, by his own account, and has decided there is nothing behind the eyes at all. He arrives in Haddonfield with a revolver rather than a treatment plan.
8. What is Laurie doing for work on Halloween night?

Babysitting

Laurie is minding a boy across the street from the Wallace house, where her friend Annie is sitting for Lindsey, and the two jobs merge when Annie goes off to collect her boyfriend. Carpenter and Hill's working title was The Babysitter Murders.
9. What is the boy Laurie looks after called?

Tommy Doyle

Tommy has been told about the boogeyman by the bullies at school, and the Myers house on his street is the one every kid avoids. The other three names belong to Scream, Child's Play and The Shining, which is a fair summary of what the film started.
10. What item does Michael take from a hardware store along with knives and rope?

A mask

He takes it from Nichols Hardware, and the sheriff's look into the break-in is how Loomis first picks up his trail in town. The mask stays on for the rest of the film, apart from the bedsheet and glasses he uses to fool Lynda.
11. Whose face was the commercial mask based on before it was altered?

William Shatner

The production designer bought a Captain Kirk mask for under two dollars, widened the eyes, pulled off the sideburns and sprayed it a bluish white. The alternative on the table was a clown mask, which is what the six-year-old Michael wears in the opening.
12. Who co-wrote the screenplay with Carpenter?

Debra Hill

Hill produced the film as well and wrote most of the teenage girls' dialogue, having spent her own teens babysitting. She and Carpenter went on to make The Fog and Escape from New York together; Tommy Lee Wallace was the production designer and editor.
13. Which 1950s science-fiction film is on television while Tommy and Lindsey are being babysat?

The Thing from Another World

Tommy watches Howard Hawks's 1951 film while Laurie carves a pumpkin, and later in the evening the set is showing Forbidden Planet. Carpenter remade the Hawks film himself four years later as The Thing, with Kurt Russell.
14. What does Laurie use while hiding in a closet to defend herself?

A wire coat hanger

Laurie straightens the hanger and jabs it into his eye, then stabs him with his own knife and assumes he is dead. He is not, which is the point of the final shot, in which Loomis looks down from the balcony and finds the lawn empty.
15. What phrase is used for Michael in the film's credits?

The Shape

The credits list him as The Shape, and Nick Castle, a film-school friend of Carpenter's, wears the mask for most of the film for a modest daily fee. Tony Moran is the face in the brief unmasking shot, and Castle went on to direct The Last Starfighter.