Quiz of the (Curious) Year 2024

Fans of the Substack will have an advantage!

The following quiz will test you on a range of topics from stage devils to marine biology. What links it together? All of the answers can be found in articles that I wrote for this newsletter in 2024.

That means that regular readers will have an advantage – but you can still see how many you can guess if you’re new to the curious family, or head to my archive to revise!

Scroll down for hints and further down for answers. Let me know how you did in the comments below.

Questions

1. What is the name of the dog that ‘turned out evil’ in Wallace & Gromit: A Close Shave (1995)?

2. Which Elizabethan play sparked rumours that a real devil had been summoned by its scenes of conjuration?

3. Who was the first artist to depict deep sea fish in their natural habitat?

4. Which black and white movie stars Robert Mitchum as a serial killer posing as a preacher?

5. According to medieval grimoires (books of magic) what kind of people should avoid trying their spells and conjurations?

6. The Ludovico Technique is a fictional psychological treatment in which novel?

7. What was unusual about the Queen of Sheba’s body according to some versions of the myth?

8. What happened to Detective Arbogast in Psycho (1960)? (The answer is a spoiler)

9. What’s the real first name of the little girl in Aliens (1986)?

10. Which film stars Vincent Price as a snubbed actor who commits murders in the style of Shakespearean deaths?

11. In which French theatre might you find a play like Crime in a Madhouse?

12. Who was the real inventor of Pepper’s ghost?

13. Who wrote Daemonologie (1597)?

14. Who is the first character to die in Titus Andronicus?

Hints

1. It’s also the name of a city in Lancashire. I mentioned him in my first ever horror moment on 25/07/2024.

2. It’s not by Shakespeare. See the article on 29/07/2024.

3. It was a woman. I mentioned her in an article on 12/08/2024.

4. Its name is one word off from ‘Night of the Demon’ which I mentioned in the same article on 15/08/2024.

5. It’s the same kind of people who were discouraged from learning to read. I discussed this on 26/08/2024.

6. The film adaptation famously featured a scene of violence played out to Singing in the Rain. I mentioned this story on 29/08/2024.

7. It’s to do with her legs. See 09/09/2024.

8. It happened on the stairs. It’s a scene referenced in A Matter of Loaf and Death which I talked about on 27/09/2024.

9. ‘Newt’ is her nickname, not her real name. The final confrontation features in this horror moment: 03/10/2024.

10. It’s from 1973 and also stars Diana Rigg, see 10/10/2024.

11. Its name means ‘The Theatre of the Great Puppet’ and it featured in 24/10/2024.

12. It was originally called the ‘Dircksian Phantasmagoria’ and was discussed in 28/10/2024.

13. He was alive during Shakespeare’s life and featured in the article on Macbeth on 07/11/2024.

14. He is one of Queen Tamora’s sons. I discussed him in this article: 21/11/2024.

Questions

1. Preston. Full article here, ‘“Daddy created him for good!” The flaying of Preston in A Close Shave.’

2. Doctor Faustus, by Christopher Marlowe. Full article here, ‘One Devil Too Many.’

3. Else Bostelmann. Full article here, ‘“Big bad wolves of an abyssal chamber of horrors.” What horror films can learn from Else Bostelmann's early pictures of the deep sea.’

4. Night of the Hunter (1955). Full article here, ‘Black and White Menace – Feathers McGraw in The Wrong Trousers.’

5. Women (I will also accent: peasants, foreigners, and men of low moral character/intellect). Full article here, ‘Women, know your (magical) limits!’

6. A Clockwork Orange (1962). Full article here, ‘Experimenting on the Brain – Wallace brainwashes the bunnies in “Curse of the Were-Rabbit.”’

7. She had excessively hair legs. Solomon ordered his devils to create a magical hair removal cream for her. Full article here, ‘The Queen of Sheba’s Hairy Legs.’

8. He is killed by Norman Bates. Full article here, ‘Hitchcock on the staircase, Bava in the bedroom – Gromit finds Piella’s trophies in A Matter of Loaf and Death.’

9. Rebecca. Her surname is Jorden. Full article here, ‘Get away from her you b****’ – Piella vs Fluffles in A Matter of Loaf and Death.’

10. Theatre of Blood. Full article here, ‘Pound of Flesh – Horror in Shakespeare and Mutilation in The Merchant of Venice.’

11. The Grand-Guignol. Full article here, ‘Eye-popping Effects – The blinding of Gloucester in King Lear and the history of eye gouging on stage and screen.’

12. Henry Dircks. Full article here, ‘Whose Ghost is it Anyway?’

13. King James I. Full article here, ‘Are Witches still Scary? – the Weïrd Sisters meet Macbeth.’

14. Alarbus. Full article here, ‘“Religiously they ask a sacrifice” – Alarbus is disembowelled and burned in Titus Andronicus.’

How did you do? Let me know below and remember to subscribe and share/recommend this Substack to help it grow.

I’ve got one hell of a posting schedule lined up for 2025 with more articles on the history of magic, theatre and special effects, more horror moments (a new series starts this Thursday) more quizzes, and some brand new ideas I’m really excited about. Thank you so much to everyone who has made my first six months on Substack so joyful, it means a lot and I can’t wait to see what the new year holds.

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