85 Halloween Trivia Questions and Answers for Spooktacular Fun

Ready for some spooky fun this Halloween? It’s the perfect time to cozy up on the couch for a Halloween movie marathon, crack a few clever Halloween riddles and share a scary-good joke or two. But here’s the real question: How much do you really know about the scariest day of the year? Challenge your family and friends to a Halloween trivia showdown, and find out who’s the true Halloween expert.

We’ve gathered a bunch of tricky Halloween trivia questions (with answers!) that cover everything from eerie literature and classic horror flicks to creepy creatures and the history of October 31st.

So keep scrolling, and dive into the Halloween trivia fun!

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Halloween history trivia

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• Question: How did early New Englanders protect their homes from evil spirits?
  Answer: By hiding their shoes in the walls

• Question: What vegetable was once thought to have supernatural powers on Halloween?
  Answer: Cabbage

• Question: What is the significance of bobbing for apples during Halloween?
  Answer: It was originally a fortune-telling game, where it was believed that the first person to catch an apple would be the next to marry

• Question: In 2023, Travis Gienger nabbed the Guinness World Record for the heaviest pumpkin. How much did it weigh?
  Answer: 2,749 pounds

• Question: What historic weather event occurred on Halloween in 1991?
  Answer: The Halloween Blizzard of 1991

• Question: Who brought the Halloween tradition to the United States?
  Answer: The Irish, during the potato famine in the mid-1800s

• Question: Which Roman goddess is thought to be honored on Halloween?
  Answer: Pomona

• Question: Which U.S. city hosts the world’s largest Halloween parade?
  Answer: New York City, for the annual Greenwich Village Halloween Parade

• Question: What day does All Saints’ Day fall on?
  Answer: Nov. 1

• Question: When was the first known guide on celebrating Halloween published?
  Answer: Halloween: How to Celebrate It was published in 1897

• Question: What is another name for Halloween?
  Answer: All Hallows’ Eve

• Question: Why do some people wear their clothes inside out on Halloween?
  Answer: They believe they’ll see a witch at midnight

• Question: When did Halloween start?
  Answer: Around 600 AD with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain

• Question: Why was Halloween nearly canceled as a holiday in the 1930s?
  Answer: Pranksters and vandals were causing millions of dollars of damage to U.S. cities on Halloween night

• Question: Why do we trick-or-treat?
  Answer: For homeowners to reward pranksters for not vandalizing their homes on Halloween

• Question: Which Halloween candy was originally referred to as chicken feed?
  Answer: Candy corn

• Question: Before pumpkins, which root vegetables did the Irish and Scottish carve on Halloween?
  Answer: Turnips

• Question: What did Americans use for Halloween decorations in the early 1900s?
  Answer: Crepe paper, cardboard cutouts, corn stalks, pumpkins, gourds and hay

• Question: What is having a fear of Halloween called?
  Answer: Samhainophobia

• Question: Which first lady was the first to decorate the White House for Halloween?
  Answer: Mamie Eisenhower, in 1958

• Question: Which U.S. president told a group of schoolkids that the White House was haunted by the ghost of Abraham Lincoln?
  Answer: George H.W. Bush, in 1989

• Question: Why are the Halloween colors orange and black?
  Answer: Orange is for pumpkins and harvest, and black represents night, death or darkness

Halloween movie trivia

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• Question: Which famous Halloween movie features the line “Do you like scary movies?”
  Answer: Scream

• Question: What year did It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown first air?
  Answer: 1966

• Question: In The Nightmare Before Christmas, what is the name of the Pumpkin King who rules Halloween?
  Answer: Jack Skellington

• Question: Which of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills played the role of Lindsey Wallace in the 1978 movie Halloween?
  Answer: Kyle Richards

• Question: How many Halloween movies has Jamie Lee Curtis appeared in?
  Answer: Seven

• Question: In Twilight, what year did Edward Cullen turn into a vampire?
  Answer: 1918 

• Question: What movie serial killer is said to be immortalized with a statue at the bottom of a lake?
  Answer: Jason Voorhees

• Question: Which movie tops Rotten Tomatoes’s list of the Scariest Horror Movies Ever?
  Answer: The Exorcist

• Question: What was the original title of the movie Halloween?
  Answer: The Babysitter Murders

• Question: Which actor was the basis for Michael Myers’s mask in Halloween?
  Answer: William Shatner (as Captain Kirk)

• Question: Where was Hocus Pocus filmed?
  Answer: Salem, Massachusetts

• Question: Which actor said that Hocus Pocus was one of her favorite movie roles of all time?
  Answer: Bette Midler

• Question: What’s the name of the fictional town in the movie The Lost Boys?
  Answer: Santa Clara

• Question: What actor auditioned for a role in Poltergeist but ended up in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial instead?
  Answer: Drew Barrymore

• Question: How long did it take to make The Nightmare Before Christmas?
  Answer: Three years

• Question: How many minutes does Michael Keaton appear on screen in Beetlejuice?
  Answer: 17

• Question: What was the original working title of Beetlejuice?
  Answer: House Ghosts

• Question: What popular cartoon ghost has appeared in dozens of films, TV series and comic books?
  Answer: Casper the Friendly Ghost

• Question: What real-life jelly beans notoriously boast the flavors earwax, grass, rotten egg, dirt, liver, earthworm and booger, among others?
  Answer: Harry Potter Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans

• Question: Which two fears from his own childhood did Steven Spielberg reportedly incorporate into the 1982 movie Poltergeist?
  Answer: A clown doll and the tree with long branches outside the window of his childhood home

• Question: What’s the name of the young witch in Disney’s Halloweentown?
  Answer: Marnie Piper

Halloween literature trivia

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• Question: Where does the quote “Double, double toil and trouble” come from?
  Answer: William Shakespeare’s Macbeth

• Question: Who wrote The Legend of Sleepy Hollow?
  Answer: Washington Irving

• Question: Besides horror, in what other genre did Dracula author Bram Stoker publish books?
  Answer: Romance

• Question: The 1962 novel Something Wicked This Way Comes was penned by what author?
  Answer: Ray Bradbury

• Question: Who wrote the 1818 classic book Frankenstein?
  Answer: Mary Shelley

• Question: Who wrote It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown?
  Answer: Charles M. Schulz

• Question: What year did Norman Partridge publish Dark Harvest?
  Answer: 2006

• Question: In Harry Potter, how do Hermione, Ron and Harry usually celebrate Oct. 31 at Hogwarts?
  Answer: By attending the annual Hogwarts Halloween Feast

• Question: How many witches are in Shakespeare’s Macbeth?
  Answer: Three

• Question: In The Diary of a Wimpy Kid, how do Rowley and Greg manage to escape when teenagers chase them on Halloween?
  Answer: By hiding at Greg’s grandma’s house

• Question: In what Stephen King book does a family move into a haunted hotel?
  Answer: The Shining

• Question: Who is the author of the Goosebumps series?
  Answer: R.L. Stine

• Question: What 1845 poem by Edgar Allen Poe features a talking bird that repeats the word “Nevermore”?
  Answer: “The Raven”

• Question: In the 1972 children’s book of the same name, who are Meg and Mog?
  Answer: A witch and a cat

• Question: Janet and Allan Ahlberg’s Halloween classic Funnybones tells the story of a big skeleton, a little skeleton and what other type of skeleton?
  Answer: A dog skeleton

Halloween music trivia

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• Question: Who penned the 1962 song “Monster Mash”?
  Answer: Bobby “Boris” Pickett

• Question: What was the original title of the Michael Jackson song “Thriller”?
  Answer: “Starlight”

• Question: Which 1980s band did The Nightmare Before Christmas composer Danny Elfman perform in?
  Answer: Oingo Boingo

• Question: What year was the song “Don’t Fear the Reaper” released?
  Answer: 1976

• Question: According to the lyrics of “Monster Mash,” who are the guests of the Halloween party?
  Answer: Wolfman, Dracula and his son

• Question: Vincent Price provides the spooky monologue in which popular Halloween song?
  Answer: Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”

• Question: Which film inspired Michael Jackson to collaborate with director John Landis on the “Thriller” video?
  Answer: An American Werewolf in London

• Question: Which Irish band has a hit song named “Zombie”?
  Answer: The Cranberries

• Question: Who sings the song “Spooky Scary Skeletons”?
  Answer: Andrew Gold

• Question: According to a well-known song, which family is said to be creepy, kooky, mysterious and spooky?
  Answer: The Addams Family

• Question: Which rock band released the Halloween song “Somebody’s Watching Me” in 1984?
  Answer: Rockwell

• Question: The song “This Is Halloween” is featured in which movie?
  Answer: The Nightmare Before Christmas

• Question: A 1984 song asked, “Who you gonna call?” What is the answer?
  Answer: Ghostbusters!

• Question: Which actor in The Rocky Horror Picture Show co-wrote the screenplay with director Jim Sharman?
  Answer: Richard O’ Brien, who played Riff Raff

• Question: Taylor Swift’s song “Haunted” appears on which album?
  Answer: Speak Now

Halloween monster trivia

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• Question: What do you call a man who practices witchcraft?
  Answer: A warlock

• Question: Where is Transylvania located?
  Answer: Romania

• Question: What’s another name for a lycanthrope?
  Answer: A werewolf

• Question: In Slavic folklore, what is the name of the water-dwelling demon who drags humans into lakes and river?
  Answer: The Rusalka

• Question: Which ancient Egyptian mythological figure is often portrayed as a mummy in horror stories?
  Answer: Imhotep

• Question: What is another name for a witch’s kettle or pot?
  Answer: A cauldron

• Question: Besides sucking human blood, what do bats and vampires have in common?
  Answer: They usually only come out at night

Halloween pumpkin trivia

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• Question: What is the name of the legend that jack-o’-lanterns originated from?
  Answer: The Irish mythology of Stingy Jack

• Question: Is the pumpkin a fruit or a vegetable?
  Answer: Fruit

• Question: What does it mean if you see a blue pumpkin while trick-or-treating?
  Answer: There are allergy-free treats at that home

• Question: How many pieces of candy does a plastic jack-o’-lantern carry?
  Answer: About 250

• Question: What place holds the Guinness World Record for the most jack-o’-lanterns lit in one place?
  Answer: Keene, New Hampshire

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