The Scariest Horror Movies Of All Time, According To Science
Science can tell us a lot of things: how fast light travels, how species evolve in nature, and, believe it or not, even what the scariest movie is. Just in time for Halloween, the Daily Mail reports that the Science of Scare Project has determined what the scariest horror movies of all time are based on several factors. The list is similar to the one we reported on last year but updated to include new entries from 2023, like Skinamirink as well as former champion Sinister reclaiming the top spot after being dethroned last year by 2020’s Host.
The project uses a group of 250 participants—all fitted with heart rate monitors—to determine which horror movies have the biggest scares. This year, the experiment focused on heart rate and heart rate variance—one being the heart’s beats-per-minute (BPM), and the other measures the time between each individual heartbeat.
According to the Science of Scare Project, 2012’s Sinister has reclaimed the #1 spot as the scariest movie ever. The film was previously knocked from the top by 2020’s Host.
“With heart rate (BPM), the higher the number, the faster the movie got our audiences’ blood pumping, an indicator of excitement and fear as part of your fight or flight instinct,” said one of the Science of Scare researchers.
That takes care of jump scares, but what about movies that slowly build a sense of unease and dread over time? That’s where the heart rate variance comes in. “The lower the heart rate variance, the more stressed our audience members became,” said the researcher, “a good indicator of slow-burn fear and dread.”
The team combined both scores to create a single score for each movie out of 100. The example the project members give for a baseline is the movie Shrek—not widely considered a horror movie by any metric—which scores a 3 out of 100. Meanwhile, the #1 scariest movie of all time, 2012’s Sinister, scored a 96.
Rounding out the top ten scariest horror movies of all time is the fifth entry, 2013’s The Conjuring, followed by Hereditary (2018), Smile (2022), The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005), Hellhouse LLC (2015), and Talk to Me (2022).
The Scott Derrickson horror movie had reined supreme for nearly a decade only to be knocked from its perch last year by the pandemic-inspired scare-fest 2020’s Host. This year, Sinister returned the favor, pushing Host back down to the #2 spot. Coming in at #3 is this year’s Skinamirink, a controversial pick considering many viewers found the film boring and a slog to sit through.
On an interesting note, the #4 film Insidious (2010) also features the single scariest scene out of all the movies watched as part of the project. If you’ve seen the James Wan-directed horror movie, then you probably already know what scene we’re referring to.
For anyone not familiar, it’s a scene in which Darth Maul appears behind Patrick Wilson—sorry, we meant to say a malevolent demon that just happens to look identical to the Sith Lord.
Rounding out the top ten scariest horror movies of all time is the fifth entry, 2013’s The Conjuring, followed by Hereditary (2018), Smile (2022), The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005), Hellhouse LLC (2015), and Talk to Me (2022).
Some interesting takeaways from this project are that in the entire list of 50 entries, there are no films made outside of the U.S.—an interesting omission since any horror fan can tell you some of the best horror movies of the last ten years have come out of Japan and Korea. Also of note, there is not a single zombie movie anywhere on the list, leaving us to wonder if they didn’t include any in the experiment or if the participants just didn’t find them all that scary.
“With heart rate (BPM), the higher the number, the faster the movie got our audiences’ blood pumping, an indicator of excitement and fear as part of your fight or flight instinct.”
-The Science of Scare Project
We have a sneaking suspicion it’s the former—for both foreign and zombie—as we’re almost positive the Korean zombie horror movie Train to Busan would have made the list over some of the tamer entries if it had been in the running.
Despite any flaws the project may or may not have, it’s still a fun list, and any of the horror movies included in the Science of Scare’s rankings would make for excellent viewing come October 31.
