Matheson's Greatest Hits Multiple Choice Quiz | TV & Movies Mixture

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Matheson wrote a short story about a man who has an intense fear of flying, who sees a creature on the wing of a plane. What was this story?

Answer: Nightmare at 20,000 Feet

This appeared on the "Twilight Zone" television show and feature movie, starring William Shatner and John Lithgow respectively. The line "There's someone on the wing! Some...THING!" is not only famous, it's fun to shout. Many comedies have featured characters saying it, and parodies of this story are commonplace.

2. Steven Spielberg's very first feature film was about a man who is relentlessly attacked on the road by an eighteen wheeler. What was the Richard Matheson story which served as the movie's basis?

Answer: Duel

The driver of the truck becomes fixated on David Mann, the main character, and is determined to kill him. The attacker's motives are unknown and the driver himself stays unseen. He is a malevolent force more than a person.

3. "Hell House" features a home which the story's characters call the "Mount Everest of haunted houses" which was once owned by a man they call the Roaring Giant. What was this house?

Answer: The Belasco House

The house is still haunted by the ghost of Emeric Belasco, the Roaring Giant. Many, many people died badly in the Belasco House, and the parapsychologists who enter have their own lives threatened as they search for the truth of the spectral manifestations.

4. This vampire story has been made into a movie starring Vincent Price, one starring Charlton Heston, and one starring Will Smith. It was also the inspiration for a song by the rock group White Zombie. The main character's name is Robert Morgan, but the movies name him Robert Neville. What was this book?

Answer: I Am Legend

This intense story has Morgan barricading his home against hordes of the undead ghouls which now populate the earth. The isolation and loss is even more of an enemy than the vampires, and was an inspiration to George Romero's "Night of the Living Dead".

The movies made from this story were "The Last Man on Earth" with Vincent Price, "The Omega Man" with Charlton Heston, and "I am Legend" starring Will Smith.

5. "Born of Man and Woman" was told from the perspective of a monstrous child.

Answer: True

Matheson's very first short story, "Born of Man and Woman" is the monster's own thoughts about its existence, and questions whether the real monsters are the creature or the people who keep it.

6. How many episodes of "The Twilight Zone" were written by Matheson?

Answer: Sixteen

Many great science fiction writers were involved with this classic TV show. Apart from Matheson and Rod Serling, other famous writers included Harlan Ellison, Ray Bradbury, and Charles Beaumont.

7. "The Path: Metaphysics for the '90's" is nonfiction.

Answer: True

This book was what might be considered philosophy. Metaphysics covers the nature of existence, and things which can't be scientifically detected; the mind, the soul, etc. Matheson was extremely interested in the paranormal, and in the possibilities of the unseen.

8. A film was made of one of Matheson's novels which was about Heaven and Hell. The main character, Chris Nielsen, dies and goes to Heaven, but is forced to descend into Hell to search for his wife. The movie starred Robin Williams and Cuba Gooding Jr. What was this novel?

Answer: What Dreams May Come

The novel contains references to Dante's "Divine Comedy", and creates a fairly unique view of the afterlife. There are elements of many different religions involved, and there are references to psychic communication, reincarnation, and the mind's power over the soul.

9. "Button, Button", a short story about a device which grants money to its operators in exchange for killing people elsewhere in the world, was made into which "Twilight Zone" episode?

Answer: Button, Button

"The Box" was a movie made from the same basic story. In Matheson's original, a woman is offered the chance to push a button and kill someone "she doesn't know" to receive $50,000. She eventually gives in and presses the button, and receives $50,000 in insurance money when her husband dies. It seems she really didn't know him like she thought.

10. What is Richard Matheson's pen name?

Answer: Logan Swanson

Matheson has used this name in several teleplays and short stories. Richard Bachman is the pseudonym of Stephen King, Kilgore Trout is a science fiction writer created in the mind of Kurt Vonnegut, and Zane Grey is the more well known name of Pearl Grey.

Source: Author drowsteel

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

Matheson's Greatest Hits Trivia Quiz

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