Upcoming Must-Read: James Newman's 666 Hair-Raising Horror Movie Trivia Questions: Test Your Horror Acumen!

I'm not generally the type of blogger that makes a big deal about press releases and I almost never post the one sheets and DVD covers of upcoming films or books, etc.  There are news sites that are custom-made for things like that, and I typically leave them to their business.  But when an author I really like has something new coming out, I tend to make an exception.

James Newman - author of one of my favorite books in the last several years, The Wicked (review here) - has a new book coming out the end of this month, and I think it's something every horror fan will want to get their hands on.  I have a copy of said book that I am just getting down to reading, so a review will be forthcoming, but I wanted to make mention of the formal press release, as it does explain a bit of what you're in for. 

From the official press release: 

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 

NEW TRIVIA BOOK CHALLENGES GENRE FANS:  “THINK YOU KNOW HORROR MOVIES?  PROVE IT.”
666 HAIR-RAISING HORROR MOVIE TRIVIA QUESTIONS by James Newman

Ever been called a “weirdo” because you know more about Night of the Living Dead than you know about current events?  Do people look at you funny because you have no interest in reality-TV but you can name every film in which Vincent Price appeared?  Do you feel like an outsider because you’ve never cared about sports, yet you cheered at the top of your lungs when some kids played soccer with a severed head at the end of Hostel, Part 2?  If you would rather visit Count Dracula’s castle than take a trip to the beach . . . if you’d prefer hanging out with Pinhead, having lunch with Leatherface, or babysitting for Rosemary instead of spending time with your real friends and family . . . this book is for YOU.  Test your film knowledge with 666 Hair-Raising Horror Movie Trivia Questions compiled from over a century of genre cinema!

Now available from Post Mortem Press, 666 Hair-Raising Horror Movie Trivia Questions guarantees hours of fun for trivia-loving film fanatics who welcome a challenge.  Covering the history of the genre from silent movies like Nosferatu to modern-day blockbusters like The Conjuring, no bloody stone is left unturned in this collection of questions divided into seven categories:  Vampires, Zombies, Werewolves, Ghosts & Demons, Maniacs & Madmen, It Came From Another World, and Miscellaneous Madmen.  In the end, fans will grade themselves against the “Who Will Survive . . . and What Will Be Left of Them?” scoring system, proving once and for all whether they’re “Just Another Victim” or a true “Master of Horror”. 
  
Fangoria Editor Chris Alexander called 666 Hair-Raising Horror Movie Trivia Questions “a chump-stumping shock cinema party book of the highest horror order!”.  Adam Minarovich (“Ed” from AMC’s The Walking Dead, screenwriter of Chop and Pawn Shop Chronicles) said “(it’s) a must-read . . . worth crawling out of your grave for!”

About the Author:  James Newman has been obsessed with horror since he was just four years old, when his father took him to see The Incredible Melting Man.  His published works include the novels Midnight Rain, The Wicked, Animosity, and Ugly As Sin, and the collection People Are Strange. 
666 Hair-Raising Horror Movie Trivia Questions is scheduled for release on January 28, 2014.  For more information visit:  http://www.postmortem-press.com/666.php/, or the author’s official website:  www.james-newman.com.

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This is James' first non-fiction outing, and it looks to be something special.  After just reading the first few introductory pages, I know this is written by someone just like me: a crazy-obsessed horror fan whose life revolves around the next great horror film or novel.

I know this from comments like this one:  "I’d be willing to bet my entire DVD collection that nobody here in my little hometown in North Carolina lives, breathes, eats, and sleeps horror movies and horror literature like I do."  And this one, which I think encapsulates the reason that many of us watch horror in the first place:  "When things get to be too much in the real world . . . when the bills pile up, or the boss just chewed out three-quarters of your ass . . . what better way to push it all aside than losing yourself in Seth Brundle’s infinitely worse problems in Cronenberg’s remake of The Fly? Or to laugh at Ash’s splatstick escapades in the Evil Dead series? Step away from the real world for a while, won’t you, and pray that a van full of harmless hippies guilty of nothing more than believing in astrology and picking up hitchhikers ultimately survive The Texas Chainsaw Massacre . . . ."

When someone that feels this passionately about horror gives fans the gift of something a little different, a book that challenges us fans to see just how much we know about the genre we love so much, well that's what I call a must-read.  I love trivia, and when you combine that with horror, well I'm just over the moon.
After answering the first ten trivia questions (in the "vampires" category) correctly, I knew this was the book for me!

 It's going to be a blast, and I hope you'll join me!

Horror Quotes: How mad are your skills?

So, how good are your horror trivia skills? Your talent at remembering quotes?
We all talk in movie quotes at one time or another, but when it comes down to it - how much do you put to memory?

I saw this on Facebook and thought I'd post it here instead.
The deal on FB was to pick twenty of your fave movies and find quotes (on IMDB or the likes) and post them for people to guess.
So I thought a horror version might be cool.

I'll start off easy. But I'm not gonna do any "You're gonna need a bigger boat" or "Wanna play a game?".... way too simple.
And yes, this pic is sure enough from one of the flicks.



So here goes:

1) "Get away from her, you bitch!"

2) "It's totally insane. We have three new cheers to learn in the morning, the game is in the afternoon, I have to get my hair done at five, and the dance is at eight! I'll be totally wiped out!"

3) "You listen to me, and you listen good! I am gonna kill every member of your family! I'm gonna hunt them down like the animals they are, and I'm gonna skin em' alive! They are going to feel the pain and suffering of every last victim! They're gonna crawl on on their hands and knees, and they're gonna beg me for mercy! But all I'm gonna have for them is pain! Pain and death! "

4) "I don't care. I'm just gonna smoke. I'm just gonna totally smoke. I'll finish these, go to the store and get a brand new pack, smoke the shit out of that one."

5) "What's the point they're all the same, some stupid killer stalking some big-breasted girl who can't act who is always running up the stairs when she should be running out the front door, it's insulting. "

6) "He vould have an enormous schwanzstucker."

7) "Samhain, also known as All Hallows' Eve, also known as Halloween. Pre-dating Christianity, the Celtic holiday was celebrated on the one night between autumn and winter when the barrier between the living and the dead was thinnest, and often involved rituals that included human sacrifice."

8) "How'd we get into the sex crime business anyway? My brother, Saul, a plumber, makes twice as much money as I do and gets three weeks vacation too."

9) "I live in the weak and wounded."

10) Q: "Would you like to hear today's specials?" A: "Not if you want to keep your spleen."

11) " I gotta thing about chickens. "

12) "Have you ever had a SINGLE MOMENT'S THOUGHT about my responsibilities? Have you ever thought, for a single solitary moment about my responsibilities to my employers?? Has it ever occurred to you that I have agreed to look after the OVERLOOK Hotel until May the FIRST. Does it MATTER TO YOU AT ALL that the OWNERS have placed their COMPLETE CONFIDENCE and TRUST in me, and that I have signed a letter of agreement, a CONTRACT, in which I have accepted that RESPONSIBILITY? Do you have the SLIGHTEST IDEA, what a MORAL AND ETHICAL PRINCIPLE IS, DO YOU? Has it ever occurred to you what would happen to my future, if I were to fail to live up to my responsibilities? Has it ever occurred to you? HAS IT??"

13) "I don't think so. We just cut up our girlfriend with a chainsaw. Does that sound "fine"?"

14) "Did they look like psychos? Is that what they looked like? They were vampires. Psychos do not explode when sunlight hits them, I don't give a fuck how crazy they are!"

15) "You know what I think? I think that we're all in our private traps, clamped in them, and none of us can ever get out. We scratch and we claw, but only at the air, only at each other, and for all of it, we never budge an inch."

16) "Woe be unto him who opens one of the seven gateways to Hell, because through that gateway, evil will invade the world."

17) "Amputate a man's leg and he can still feel it tickling. Tell me, mum, when your little girl is on the slab, where will it tickle you?"

18) "Wrists are for girls. I'm slitting my throat."

19) "Ohh, for God's sake! He's got an arm off! "

20) " Good shot! OK, he's dead; let's go get 'im. That's another one for the fire."

And two bonus quotes -

*"That house is not fit to live in. No one's been able to live in it. It doesn't want people."

*"Dance with me, you little toad."

So, there you go.
And if anyone gets them all, I'll know you're cheating. No one's that good. (And if they are, I should have married them.)