Celluloid Serial Killers Trivia Quiz

Answer: Psycho

Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" is a masterpiece of suspense. In the shower scene the music actually sounds like stabbing. Although based on Ed Gein, the only thing that Norman Bates had in common with Gein was an obsession with dead women. In Norman Bates' case it was dressing as his mother to murder women guests, while Ed Gein used the skin from women he dug up from the local graveyard, as well as those he murdered, to make clothing for himself.

Answer: Evilenko

In this Italian film, Andrej Romanovic Evilenko is a school teacher who is dismissed for molesting one of his students. This, added to his mortification at the imminent collapse of the Soviet Empire, leads to eight years of horror as the authorities cannot stop his cycle of abduction, murder and cannibalism of children and young women. The real Andrei Chikatilo was born in the Ukraine in 1936. Due to Stalin's collectivization policy, famine was widespread and many were starving. Cannibalism was not unknown, and his mother told him that his brother had been eaten when he was ten. During the Nazi occupation he saw many dead bodies, which he later said excited him. Whether these events in his early life were causal in his becoming the admitted killer, mutilator and sometimes even consumer of his victims, can only speculated on.

Answer: Ted Bundy

The tagline for this film was: "Not every killer fits the profile".
In this film, we see the contrast between the face that Bundy presents to the world and that seen by his victims. It shows us Bundy's descent from a purse-snatching, petty thief and peeping tom to a brutal, raping, murdering serial killer. Opinions are varied as to whether the violence shown is too graphic, but after seeing it few would disagree with his death sentence.

Answer: Arsenic and Old Lace

"Arsenic and Old Lace" is a very funny farce and like that entire genre it is difficult to explain the plot. Cary Grant plays the part of a college professor who brings his new bride to meet his aunts. He finds the body of a vagrant, and assumes that his eccentric brother, Teddy, who thinks that he is Theodore Roosevelt, has killed him.

He then finds that his aunts have been using arsenic to poison lonely old men, believing that they were doing them a kindness. The plot is further complicated by the arrival of another brother, who has escaped from an Asylum for the Criminally Insane. If you haven't seen this classic you should get the video and enjoy it.

Answer: Sherlock Holmes

"Murder by Decree" is one of the best Ripper films made, partly because it has a brilliant screenplay, authentic sets and superb direction, but mainly because it has a wonderful cast. There is Christopher Plummer as Holmes, James Mason as Dr Watson, Anthony Quayle as Sir Charles Warren and numerous other top actors.

It subscribes to the old theory that the murderer was a prominent person and in the final showdown Holmes makes a series of allegations that could ruin the Crown. Great theatre!

Answer: Charlize Theron

The beautiful Charlize Theron shows the depth of her acting skills when she plays the pathetic, unlovely and unloved Aileen Wuornos, a prostitute who sold herself in biker bars and on the side of the highway. This role won Theron the 2004 Best Actress Oscar and 18 other Best Actress Awards around the world.

Answer: Frenzy

"Frenzy" is the classic Hitchcock mixture of suspense and black comedy. The dialogue in the dinner scene between the very proper police inspector and his wife is priceless. While the inspector explains the developments in the grisly 'Necktie Murders', his wife is serving the gruesome dishes that she has learnt in her home cooking classes. It was the first Hitchcock film to be given an R-rating in the USA.

Answer: Summer of Sam

The film, "Summer of Sam" tells, in almost documentary form, how New York society reacted when David Berkowitz shot and killed six people and injured seven others. It is a powerful and gritty film, with the action focused on the effect of the murders rather than the murders themselves.
Berkowitz, a postal worker, claimed that the dog next door gave him the name 'Sam' and directed him to randomly shoot and kill young people.

Answer: Wolf Creek

In the film, three young people are befriended by Mick Taylor, an outback loner, after they break down in the middle of nowhere. He offers them a tow to his camp, an abandoned old mine site. It turns out to be a graveyard of other young tourists and their vehicles. Ivan Milat is the type of person that parents have nightmares about when their children are far away overseas.

He would offer young people, either singly or in a couple, a ride as they travelled along Australia's east coast. He would take them to a lonely part of the bush and they were not seen again.

It is suspected that his brother took part in these crimes but the police have not found enough evidence to charge him. Milat was convicted of seven murders and will spend the rest of his life behind bars.

Answer: 10 Rillington Place

Director Richard Fleischer made this film with a deliberately low key approach. There is minimal music and events are not portrayed with high suspense but are no less frightening for that. Christie hands a woman a cup of tea, we see him reach for a rope, and we know she will soon be dead. Richard Attenborough plays the part to perfection.

He portrays Christie as drab man, lacking in personality, yet we are always aware of the murderous menace that lurks beneath. John Hurt is equally good as the intellectually challenged Evans. This film was made in another house in Rillington Place with an identical floor plan. Fleischer aimed to have all technical details correct but ran into trouble when re-enacting the scene of Evans' hanging. All information was protected by the Official Secrets Act, so Fleischer secretly hired the government hangman, Albert Pierrepoint, to reveal all the components of an official execution.