Horror Films of 2011 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Don't Be Afraid of the Dark

"Don't Be Afraid of the Dark" was originally supposed to appear in theaters in January of 2011 but it never showed until August; surprisingly, it released with a U.S. R-rating and ended up being cleverly-shot and well-received. Earning over $30,000,000 in the box office, it was Canadian filmmaker Troy Nixey's first film. The movie features Guy Pearce and Katie Holmes as a couple, Alex and Kim, renovating a rather large abode in the middle of New England. Pearce's daughter, Sally, played by Bailee Madison, ends up coming to live with him.

She discovers creatures living within the ancient furnace of the house which, evidently, is a tunnel to a cavern far below, containing some goblins/fairies, of sorts, who need teeth to survive.

Answer: Fright Night 3D

The original "Fright Night", made by Tom Holland (director of "Child's Play") in 1985, was a surprise success, earning almost $25,000,000 and becoming one of the top-grossing horror movies of its year. The sequel, taking in over $35,000,000, starred Anton Yelchin, Colin Farrell (as the vampire, Jerry), and Toni Collette. Surprisingly, the movie did well with critics. The movie involves a teenager who has a vampire move in next door.

As his friends and neighbours slowly become vampires themselves, he tries to side with a famous vampire hunter in order to do away with the evils right outside his doorstep.

Answer: Scream 4

Released eleven years after "Scream 3", "Scream 4" picks up a decade after the events of the original trilogy with Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox Arquette and David Arquette all returning to the town of Woodsboro to face off against Ghostface. As with the original films in the series, the movie is very much self-reflexive and throws dozens of metafilmic references into the mix, to make the movie a hearty satire on the slasher genre at the same time as it's killing off teenagers.

In this film, Sidney's niece and her friends become victims of Ghostface's twisted games. "Scream 4" didn't earn as much as anticipated, though it did clock in near the $100,000,000 mark. Director Wes Craven attempted once again to subvert and parody the slasher genre while making a suitably up-to-par horror film; many critics felt he succeeded.

Answer: The Thing

"The Thing", originally released as a graphic alien feature in 1982, was actually based on John W. Campbell Jr.'s "Who Goes There?", released in 1938. "The Thing", which starred Kurt Russell, became a cult classic and, while many of the aspects of the 2011 film are shared with it, the latter is in fact a prequel. Directed by Matthijs van Heijningen Jr., it starred Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Joel Edgerton and earned under $20,000,000 (being dubbed a box office failure). The movie takes place in the days before the American Antarctic base goes face-to-face with the otherworldly creature.

A Norwegian camp discovers 'the thing' and faces off against it, in order to protect themselves and the world.

Answer: Final Destination 5

As is typical in the "Final Destination" franchise, the point of seeing the film isn't to figure out who dies, but how they kick the bucket -- and they are usually in quite unique ways. This installment sees an ill-fated bunch of people skewered, broken in half, exploded to oblivion, and otherwise decimated by death itself.

Their plan: survive. "Final Destination 5", like its predecessor, was created in 3D. Earning over $150,000,000 in the box office and receiving modest critical reception (surprisingly) it was one of the most popular horror films of the year. Tony Todd returned as the mortician from the first and second films.

Answer: Insidious

"Insidious" was the most profitable horror film released in 2011, taking in almost $100,000,000 on a budget of $1.5 million. James Wan, the director of "Saw", ended up helming this ghost story starring Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne. It was quite positively received by audiences and critics alike and, much like Wan's earlier effort, "Dead Silence" (2007), featured a unique visual style. In the movie, a family is rocked when their son falls into a mysterious coma. Believing their house to be haunted, they move away, only to discover that the haunting seems to followed them.

A medium opens them up to the idea of an alternate realm known only as 'The Further', where their son is trapped by a demonic force.

Answer: Apollo 18

"Apollo 18" follows a group of astronauts who land on the moon in the 1970s and explains why Earth never sent a landing party to our only satellite. Filmed entirely on handheld cameras (or at least NASA's equivalent of them), the movie takes the viewer on a trip along the craters and into the ships used on the surface only to find that there's an infection spread by something found there. "Apollo 18" is one of those films in 2011 that was tossed around the yearly schedule.

It inevitably got released in September 2011 where it earned over $25,000,000 in theaters, despite very negative reviews.

It was also Spanish director Gonzalo López-Gallego's first U.S. film.

Answer: Paranormal Activity 3

Although the third movie in this high-earning, handheld horror series, "Paranormal Activity 3" follows the same women from the first two, only it's set in the 1980s when they're both young girls. Once more, the familiar creakings and unmistakably evil occurrences return to wreak havoc on a family home, in an attempt to claim one of the girls. "Paranormal Activity 3" was placed into the hands of Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost, both of whom worked on the mockumentary "Catfish" in 2010.

Their influence on the camera helped; "Paranormal Activity" took in upwards of $175,000,000 in the box office, breaking the month's opening weekend records. Combined, the first three movies made almost $600,000,000 in the box office.

Answer: Shark Night 3D

Although "Piranha 3DD", the gratuitous sequel to Alexandre Aja's "Piranha 3D" was slated to be released in late 2011, viewers were instead invited to watch sharks of all kinds wreak havoc on co-eds in "Shark Night 3D", a film by "Snakes on a Plane" director David R. Ellis.

It earned over $30,000,000 in the box office, but was far from critically praised. One critic asked "How delicious would it be if we were to look back and find that the current lousy 3D trend "jumped the shark" with a film that actually features jumping sharks?" "Shark Night 3D" didn't solely take place at night -- the group of kids who went to an isolated island cottage in the middle of a lake full of hungry sharks kept finding themselves in the water for perfectly banal reasons over and over again.

At one point the audience is told that this keeps happening because of a revenge plot. By the time one character blames Discovery Channel's "Shark Week", it's too late to get your money back.

Answer: Dream House

Released to bad reviews in September 2011, "Dream House" starred Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz, and Naomi Watts. It only earned three fifths of its budget back in the box office (only $30,000,000) and was thought by many to have had its more shocking twists revealed in their entirety in the theatrical trailer.
The movie involves a man, fresh out of a stint at a mental institution, moving into a dream house with his family and living a relatively sane life. As it turns out, he's not sane at all; his wife and kids have been dead, killed by himself, for five years and the house is a dilapidated mess. He soon comes to discover that he lost his memories of that specific time. In other words, the house is not at all dreamy.
Director Jim Sheridan was nominated for two Oscars before this movie was released, once for "My Left Foot" in 1989 and again for "In the Name of the Father" in 1993. He tried to remove his name from "Dream House" (so did Craig and Weisz) but to no avail.