Quiz: Can You Guess These Classic Crime and Thriller Films From their Alarming International Movie Posters?
You haven't seen advertisements like these!
Hi, friends. There are some insane international movie posters out there. We figured you needed to see them… and figured it would be more fun to ask you to guess what movie they’re actually advertising. Hence… quiz.
Let’s hop to it. First, I’d like to say that this quiz stands on the shoulders of giants; I owe this list to MANY Cracked and ScreenRant listicles of eras past. Thank you to all who have suffered before me so that I might make this quiz.
Now, the directions. This is a very simple quiz. Look at the poster and see if you can tell what the heck it’s about.
Some of the posters have the film’s names on them, in English. That’s okay. You deserve a few easy ones. Maybe you can read one of these languages! That’s okay, too. Go get the points where you can.
Because I guarantee… you’re not going to get them all.
If you want to make things a bit more interesting… give yourself points if you can guess the movie, and points also if you can guess the country/language of the poster.
The answer key is way down at the bottom. As you take the quiz, I’d write down your answers next to the corresponding questions’ numbers (on a sheet of paper or in your notes app) and then grade yourself in one swoop when you’re done, so that you’re not constantly scrolling down and up again as you go, thereby risking seeing some of the other answers. The answer key also features commentary from me! Perhaps you’ll commiserate with my completely stupefied takeaways.
Well, happy quizzing! Also… I’m sorry you had to see some of these.
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Here are your answers… with commentary!
1.
The Birds (1963) [Czechoslovakia]
How is this a poster for Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds? It doesn’t even have to do with birds!
2.
The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976) [Czechoslovakia]
Actually, Czechoslovakia strikes again. What is Clouzot up to, here?
3.
The Big Lebowski (1998) [Poland]
Poland’s The Big Lebowski poster looks like School House Rock did LSD.
4.
Bullitt (1968) [East Germany]
I have only one question… who the hell is that? He’s not in Bullitt!
5.
Weekend at Bernie’s (1989) [Poland]
I strongly suspect that this poster artist was notified about the plot of Weekend at Bernie’s without also being told that it is a comedy. This poster is about a puppet-master who uses a dead body as a convenient doll. Which, yes, is the plot of Weekend at Bernie’s except, again, Weekend at Bernie’s is a comedy.
6.
First Blood (1989) [Japan]
As far as visual representations go, it’s not an inaccurate depiction of the movie. This is NOT the strangest poster on this list.
7.
Alien (1981) [Poland]
This is the strangest poster on this list!
8.
Aliens (1986) [Poland]
They had five years to capture the franchise’s vibe a little more accurately… five years! And this is what they gave us!
9.
Chinatown (1976) [Poland]
Andrzej Klimowski’s evocative black-and-white poster doesn’t have much to do with the plot of Chinatown. It looks like a Soul Asylum album cover, if I’m being honest. Maybe not what Robert Towne had in mind.
Olivia Rutigliano
Olivia Rutigliano is an Editor at Lit Hub and CrimeReads. Her other work appears in Vanity Fair, Vulture, Lapham's Quarterly, AirMail, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Public Books, The Baffler, Bright Wall/Dark Room, Politics/Letters, The Toast, Truly Adventurous, and elsewhere. She has a PhD from the departments of English/comparative literature and theatre at Columbia University, where she was the Marion E. Ponsford fellow. She hosts the podcasst "Culture Schlock" at Lit Hub Radio. She is on instagram at @oldebean, twitter at @oldrutigliano, and bluesky at @oliviarutigliano.bsky.social.
