Stephen King: Master of Horror – answers and explanations
Here are the answers to all 15 questions in the Stephen King: Master of Horror quiz, each with a short explanation. Four decades of King's novels, characters and screen adaptations. Haven't played yet? Take the quiz first and compare your score.
Play the quiz · 15 questions1. In 'It', Pennywise the clown terrorises which fictional Maine town?
Answer: Derry
Pennywise haunts the fictional Maine town of Derry in It, returning roughly every 27 years to prey on children; Derry also features in Insomnia and 11/22/63.
2. Who directed the 1980 film version of Stephen King's 'The Shining'?
Answer: Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick directed the 1980 adaptation of The Shining, starring Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance; Stephen King famously disliked the film's departures from his 1977 novel.
3. Which actress won an Oscar for playing Annie Wilkes in the film 'Misery'?
Answer: Kathy Bates
Kathy Bates won the Academy Award for Best Actress for playing obsessive fan Annie Wilkes in Misery (1990), receiving the Oscar at the 63rd Academy Awards in March 1991.
4. Which novel did Stephen King publish under the pen name Richard Bachman?
Answer: The Running Man
The Running Man (1982) was one of seven books Stephen King published as Richard Bachman, alongside Rage, The Long Walk, Roadwork, Thinner, The Regulators and Blaze; the pseudonym was exposed in 1985.
5. In 'Carrie', what is dumped on Carrie White at the high school prom?
Answer: Pig's blood
In Carrie, a bucket of pig's blood is tipped over Carrie White after she is named prom queen, triggering her telekinetic destruction of the school; the 1976 film was directed by Brian De Palma.
6. What is the name of the haunted hotel in Stephen King's 'The Shining'?
Answer: The Overlook Hotel
The Overlook Hotel, an isolated resort in the Colorado Rockies, is the haunted setting of King's 1977 novel The Shining. King was inspired by a 1974 night he spent at the real Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado.
7. In 'Pet Sematary', what happens to animals buried in the ancient burial ground?
Answer: They come back to life, but wrong
In Pet Sematary, animals buried in the ancient Mi'kmaq ground beyond the pet cemetery return to life changed for the worse, often slow, mean and foul-smelling, as with the Creeds' cat Church.
8. Which Stephen King novel is set in the Maine town of Castle Rock?
Answer: Cujo
Cujo (1981) takes place almost entirely in the fictional town of Castle Rock, Maine, which King named after the fort in Lord of the Flies and first used in The Dead Zone (1979). Pet Sematary is set in Ludlow.
9. What kind of creatures take over the town in King's novel 'Salem's Lot'?
Answer: Vampires
'Salem's Lot (1975) sees the Maine town of Jerusalem's Lot overrun by vampires after the ancient vampire Barlow and his helper Straker arrive; King conceived it as a modern American reworking of Bram Stoker's Dracula.
10. In 'The Stand', what wipes out most of humanity at the start of the story?
Answer: A deadly superflu virus
The Stand opens with an escaped military-engineered superflu nicknamed Captain Trips that kills about 99.4 percent of humanity, leaving survivors to choose between Mother Abagail and Randall Flagg.
11. In Stephen King's 'It', what do the seven children call their group?
Answer: The Losers' Club
In Stephen King's 1986 novel It, the seven bullied outcast kids of Derry, Maine, call themselves the Losers' Club. Formed in the summer of 1958 and led by Bill Denbrough, they swear a blood oath to return if the creature Pennywise ever resurfaces.
12. What breed of dog is the rabid title character in King's 'Cujo'?
Answer: St. Bernard
Cujo, from King's 1981 novel set in Castle Rock, Maine, is a roughly 200-pound Saint Bernard owned by the Camber family who turns deadly after a rabid bat bites him. King was inspired by a real growling St. Bernard he met at a Maine mechanic's shop in 1977.
13. Which Richard Bachman novel centres on a deadly televised game show?
Answer: The Running Man
The Running Man, published in May 1982 under King's Richard Bachman pen name, follows Ben Richards on a lethal televised game show where Hunters pursue him for 30 days. It was loosely adapted in 1987 with Arnold Schwarzenegger.
14. 'The Shawshank Redemption' is based on a story from which King collection?
Answer: Different Seasons
The 1994 film The Shawshank Redemption adapts the novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption from King's 1982 collection Different Seasons, which also contains The Body, filmed as Stand by Me.
15. In King's 'Christine', what make of car is possessed by evil?
Answer: A 1958 Plymouth Fury
Christine, King's 1983 novel, centres on a red-and-white 1958 Plymouth Fury bought for $250 by teenager Arnie Cunningham in Libertyville, Pennsylvania. John Carpenter filmed it the same year.