Drop Dead Trivia Quiz

Answer: Misery

'Misery' is named after Misery Chastain, the heroine of a series of Victorian romance novels written by Paul Sheldon. Sheldon hates the books and wants to branch out into writing more 'serious' novels. Annie Wilkes, a former nurse who is later revealed to be a serial killer, takes Paul in and keeps him prisoner. she is furious with him for killing Misery off in the latest book in the series and wants him to bring her back to life, even giving him a typewriter.

When he tries to escape, she breaks his ankles with a hammer (in the book, she cuts one of his feet off). Paul ends up writing a book that he considers to be his best novel yet, and finally manages to escape after beating Annie to death with the typewriter.

Answer: fatal attraction

The term 'bunny boiler' comes from a particularly memorable scene from 'Fatal Attraction' where Alex sneaks into the house of Dan Gallagher (Michael Douglas), with whom she has been having an affair, kills his daughter's pet rabbit and boils it. Alex works in publishing and Dan is a lawyer; when he breaks off the affair, she refuses to let go and starts stalking him, spying on his family, vandalising his car and kidnapping Ellen, Dan's daughter.

The film climaxes with Alex attacking Beth (Anne Archer), Dan's wife in the bathroom with a knife, and Dan tries to drown her, but it doesn't work and only Beth shooting her finally stops Alex for good.

Answer: Single White Female

'Single White Female' is often considered to be the archetypal story of a person who becomes obsessed with someone else, copies them and eventually tries to BE them. In this case, it's Hedy Carlson (Jennifer Jason Leigh), who answers an advert for a roommate from Allie Jones (Bridget Fonda). Hedy has issues with abandonment and loneliness, claiming that her twin sister was stillborn, and becomes increasingly clingy towards Allie, trying to stop her getting back with her ex Sam (Steven Webster) and letting Allie's puppy die. She even gets the same hairdo as Allie and pretends to be her in a club. Allie discovers that Hedy's real name is Ellen Besch and that her twin sister drowned when she was nine. When Sam returns, Hedy pretends to be Allie and stabs him in the eye. She tries to force Allie to kill herself, but Allie refuses. She hides in a wardrobe and stabs Hedy to death as the two fight.

(I made the other titles up.)

Answer: Uncle Fester

Debbie Jellinsky has a history of marrying rich men, offing them and stealing their inheritances. She gets a job with the Addams family as a nanny and seduces Uncle Fester (Christopher Lloyd), but when Wednesday (Christina Ricci) becomes suspicious of her, Debbie arranges for her and Pugsley (Jimmy Workman) to be sent to a summer camp (and the scene with the Thanksgiving Play, incidentally, is one of the funniest scenes in the movie).

She tries to kill Fester by throwing a boombox into his bath, but fails.

He moves in with her and she makes him cut the Addams family off. Debbie blows up their mansion in another attempt to kill Fester, but he survives. When Wednesday and Pugsley escape from summer camp, Debbie ties the family to electric chairs and forces them to watch a slideshow of everyone she murdered.

She tries to electrocute them but Pubert, Gomez and Morticia's baby son, manipulates the wires and kills her instead.

Answer: Misty

The film, of course, is 'Play Misty for Me'. Evelyn, the fan in question, always phones Dave's show to request 'Misty', an old jazz song recorded by various artists; the version in the film is the Johnny Mathis one from 1959. Evelyn takes the relationship far more seriously than Dave and begins stalking him.

When he rejects her, she attempts suicide and breaks into his home again, and is institutionalised. Dave gets back with Tobie (Donna Williams), and Evelyn phones his show again, quoting Edgar Allan Poe's 'Annabel Lee' and claiming to be moving to Hawaii.

Instead, she breaks into his house and tries to stab him. Dave has to warn Tobie to stay away in case Evelyn harms her, but Evelyn moves in with her as a roommate, calling herself Annabel. Tobie realises who 'Annabel' is when she sees the scars on her wrists, and Evelyn ties her up and kills a detective who comes to check on Tobie. Dave puts two and two together and leaves taped music to play as he goes home, where Evelyn is waiting for him.

She tries to kill him, but he pushes her out of a window and she falls to her death. Dave and Tobie leave the house as 'Misty' plays.

Answer: Japan

'Yandere' is a Japanese term for an obsessive person, usually female, and it perfectly describes Asami Yamazaki (Eihi Shiina), the new wife of Shigeharu Aoyama (Ryo Ishibashi). His film producer friend Yoshikawa holds an 'audition' for potential new wives and Shigeru takes a fancy to Asami, although Yoshikawa has suspicions about her. For instance, he has trouble tracking down any of the references on Asami's CV. Asami makes Shigeharu swear to love her and no-one else. Asami goes missing and Shigeharu tries to track her down using her CV, and finds out that the owner of a bar where she claimed to work had been murdered, and extra severed body parts found with the corpse. Asami finds a photo of Shigeharu's dead wife in his house and spikes his drink, and is also revealed to have been keeping a disfigured man prisoner in her flat.

She tortures Shigeharu with needles and cuts off his foot with piano wire. Shigeharu wakes up in the hotel, but later finds Asami fighting his son Shigehiko (Tetsu Sawaki).

She tries to mace him, but Shigehiko shoves her down some stairs and kills her.

Answer: Gone Girl

'Gone Girl' is the story of Nick (Ben Affleck) and Amy Dunne (Rosamund Pike), a middle-class couple who have moved from New York to Missouri to take care of Nick's sick mother. Amy goes missing and leaves behind a series of diary entries about her and Nick, suggesting that things are unhappy in their marriage and that she is scared Nick will kill her. Nick is under suspicion because of broken glass and bloodstains in their house, and Amy's diary also states that she is pregnant; however, the pregnancy is actually a lie (she stole another woman's urine and passed it off as her own) and Amy is revealed to have engineered her own disappearance in revenge for Nick cheating on her, even setting up a 'treasure hunt' of clues in places where Nick met the other woman.

She dyes her hair and goes to live in a campground in the country, but has to escape after a couple of people there rob her. She runs off to the house of an ex, Desi (Neil Patrick Harris), and kills him; she self-harms badly to make it look like he raped and abused her.

At the end of the film, Amy reveals to Nick that she is actually pregnant, having inseminated herself with his sperm, and the couple are forced to stay together because Nick is afraid she might harm the baby if he leaves her.

Answer: Eva Green

Angelique is Barnabas' servant, and is in love with him. When he turns her down back in the 18th century, she kills his parents and puts a curse on him, saying that all he loves will die, which causes his fiancée Josette (Bella Heathcote) to jump off a cliff. Barnabas jumps after her, but survives and is later buried alive after the entire town turns on him.

He wakes up in the 20th century and discovers that Angelique is alive, and now the owner of a seafood restaurant. She has been posing as various members of the Bouchard family over the decades.

History repeats itself when Angelique turns the town against Barnabas' family, but the Collins manage to defeat her and Barnabas is reunited with Josette; she has reincarnated as Victoria, the family governess.

Answer: All About Eve

Bette Davis plays Margo Channing, an actress, and Anne Baxter plays Eve Harrington, an obsessive fan of Margo who claims to have followed her last theatrical tour. Margo takes Eve on as an assistant and Eve eventually becomes her secretary, but the relationship turns sour when Margo finds Eve posing in one of her costumes. Eve manipulates her way into becoming Margo's understudy and Margo's friend Karen (Celeste Holm) helps Eve replace her in one performance, where Eve turns out to be a brilliant actress.

She is cast in the lead role of Cora in 'Footsteps on the Ceiling' and tells the critic Addison DeWitt (George Sanders) that she plans to seduce Karen's husband, the playwright Lloyd Richards (Hugh Marlowe), so he can write plays starring her. Addison is not buying it and reveals that he knows the truth about Eve; her name is really Gertrude and she had to leave town after having an affair with her boss. Eve becomes an award-winning actress and finds a young fan, Phoebe, sleeping in her flat. Phoebe worms herself into Eve's life, just as Eve did with Margo.

Answer: Perfect Blue

Before there was 'Black Swan', there was Satoshi Kon's 'Perfect Blue'. Mima Kirigoe, a member of the idol group CHAM!, leaves the group to start an acting career, much to the upset of several of their fans, and receives a fax calling her a traitor. She also finds a blog purporting to be written by her. One fan, a hideous man who goes by the nickname of 'Me-Mania', has built an entire shrine to Mima and later tries to rape her during the film; she kills him with a hammer in self-defence.

He is initially blamed for several murders of people who are thought to have 'tarnished her reputation', and evidence suggests that Mima herself may be responsible, causing Mima to question her sanity.

However, the real culprit is Mima's manager, Rumi, who dresses like her and claims to be the 'real' Mima, and believes that Mima is ruining 'her' reputation.