Stuff You Should Know's Exploitation Movie Quiz

Estimated Completion Time
3 min
Stuff You Should Know's Exploitation Movie Quiz
Image: Jeff Pachoud/AFP/Getty Images

About This Quiz

Any fan of SYSK knows we love our movies. We brought out the big guns with our episode on exploitation movies, and now it's up to you to see how much information you retained.
The first exploitation film was made in what year?
1947
1954
1913
"Traffic in Souls" is generally regarded as the first exploitation film; it was made 1913.

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What code sought to clean up movie content?
Content Code
Hays Code
Named for Wills Hays, the Hays Code was the first piece of legislation that sought to clean up movies.
Harvey Code

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True or false: The writer of the Hays Code was previously the Attorney General of the United States
True
False
Close but no cigar -- Will Hays previously worked as the Postmaster General.

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The Hays Code was credited for doing what?
delaying the portrayal of sex in movies
launching exploitation movies
Just like prohibition sparked the speakeasy, the Hays Code kicked off the exploitation movie genre.
delaying the portrayal of violence in movies

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The 1932 exploitation movie "Freaks" was released by what major film studio?
MGM
"Freaks" was one of the early successes for the Metro Goldwyn Mayer film studio.
Paramount Pictures
United Artists

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Who were the "40 Thieves"?
the first exploitation film financers
the first exploitation actors
the first exploitation film exhibitors
Because exploitation movies couldn't be shown in theaters at first, the "40 Thieves" were exhibitors that set up guerilla screenings in small towns.

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True or false: Live births were often filmed and exhibited as exploitation films in the 1930s.
True
True. Some early exploitation movies were known as "birth of baby films."
False

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What was the result of the Supreme Court's "Paramount Decision"?
movie studios could no longer make films with nudity
movie studios could no longer own movie theaters
Before the "Paramount Decision," movie studios also owned movie theaters.
movie studios could no longer make films that included murder

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Post World War II, what did movie goers begin to see in exploitation films?
nudity
Because Americans felt like it was good for morale, nudity began showing up in exploitation movies, thanks to a court decision that allowed it as long as it wasn't sexual in nature.
sex
blood and gore

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What helped to legitimize exploitation movies in the 1950s?
drive-in theaters
Drive-in movie theaters brought exploitation films into the mainstream -- largely because adults did not frequent them.
major actors working in nudist films
record breaking grosses

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What silent movie star appeared in what were known as "beach movies"?
Fatty Arbuckle
Charlie Chaplin
Buster Keaton
Silent film star Buster Keaton was brought out of retirement to appear in movies like "Beach Blanket Bingo."

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Filmmaker Russ Myer embraced nudity in movies and made a series of films known as what?
sexcapades
nudie cuties
The first filmmaker to make movies featuring nudity with a plot and storyline, Myer made a series of "nudie cuties" in the 1960s.
skin flicks

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In the early 1960s, increasingly violent movies were known as what?
slasher films
roughies
This was before gore came on the scene, but for the 1960s, the "roughies" really pushed the envelope with violence.
bloodies

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Director Herschel Gordon Lewis was the first filmmaker to show what onscreen?
violence against women
sexual intercourse
excessive blood and gore
Blood and gore was the final frontier that Lewis exploited in his films.

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What is credited as the first gory movie?
"The Bloody Stump"
"Bloodmeal"
"Bloodfeast"
Herschel Gordon Lewis cracked the gore barrier with his excessively violent "Bloodfeast."

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What movie is credited with bringing movie violence into the mainstream?
"To Catch a Thief"
"Psycho"
Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" was the first mainstream film to show overt violence and blood.
"The Birds"

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The Hays Code eventually went away and was replaced by what?
the MPAA ratings system
It wasn't a direct replacement, but the Hays Code gave way to the MPAA ratings system in the 1960s.
The Paramount Decision
The Beckett Code

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"Last House on the Left" was one of the first movies to show what?
sexual crimes
teenagers as victims
Wes Craven's horror film was one of the first movies to show teenagers as victims of violence.
actual news footage

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Blaxploitation movies showed what for the first time?
black actors as victims of violence
black actors in leading roles
black actors as heroes
Blaxploitation was a big step forward for the African American community because it showed black actors as heroes for the first time.

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True or False: Melvin Van Peebles' movie "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song" was popular in the black community, but failed at the box office.
True
False
Van Peebles' landmark blaxploitation movie grossed $4 million, and was regarded as a financial success because of its modest budget.

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The revenge film was an exploitation subgenre best represented by what 1978 movie?
"I Spit on Your Grave"
Filmmaker Meir Zarchi put revenge films on the map with the ultra-violent "I Spit on Your Grave."
"The Hills Have Eyes"
"Tortured"

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What classic exploitation movie centered around a trio of bisexual go-go dancers?
"Go-Go Girls"
"The Triad"
"Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!"
Russ Myers' "Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!" has become an iconic film in the exploitation genre.

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In order to get buxom actresses, filmmaker Russ Myer used women who were what?
were in their first trimester of pregnancy
Myer was known for casting pregnant women because they had larger breasts.
had breast implants
were overweight

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What was the first wide-released movie to show actual humans being killed?
"The Making of a Murder"
"Body Count"
"Faces of Death"
Known as a "shockumentary," "Faces of Death" showed actual humans (and animals) being killed onscreen -- it was allegedly banned in 46 countries.

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What 1980 exploitation movie had the tagline "Better to rest in peace in the body of a warm friend, than in the cold ground"?
"Cannibal Holocaust"
Filmmaker Ruggero Deodato exploited cannibalism in the gore fest "Cannibal Holocaust."
"The Cannibals"
"Mondo Cannibal"

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Quentin Tarantino's "Inglorious Basterds" is a modern example of what kind of exploitation film?
Army exploitation
Nazi exploitation
Tarantino hit the nail on the head, so to speak, with his Nazi exploitation movie "Inglorious Basterds."
war exploitation

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What grizzly Nazi exploitation film garnered an X-rating in 1975?
"Hitler Goes Camping"
"Hitler Must Die!"
"Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS"
Considered the foundation of Naziploitation, "Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS" was the first of a series of Nazi exploitation movie.

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What 1936 exploitation movie was originally titled "Teach Your Children"?
"Cocaine Fiends"
"Reefer Madness"
Clocking in at just 66 minutes, the drugsploitation movie Reefer Madness had the original, and decidedly less exciting, title "Teach Your Children."
"Don't Talk to Strangers"

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What Bruce Lee movie had the American title "Fists of Fury"?
"Enter the Dragon"
"Furious Fists"
"The Big Boss"
"The Big Boss" was the title of Bruce Lee's breakout film everywhere but in the United States.

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Even though we got it wrong on the podcast, basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar starred alongside Bruce Lee in what movie?
"Game of Death"
The 7-foot, 2-inch tall basketball star appeared in Bruce Lee's posthumously released "Game of Death."
"Enter the Dragon"
"Fists of Fury"

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You Got:
/30
Jeff Pachoud/AFP/Getty Images