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The Science of Scare:

The scariest movies of
all time
Thursday, October 12 2023

In this article
The Science of Scare Project

How to measure the scariest movies?

The Science of Scare score

What is the scariest movie of all time?

The scariest films of 2023

Science of Scare 2023 quick facts

How we choose and rate movies

Whether it's zombies, ghosts or anything else

that goes 'bump in the night', is there anything
better than a good horror movie? But of the
hundreds of horror flicks, which takes the crown
for fright night?

The Science of Scare

Project
Is there anything better than a truly terrifying
movie? One that gets your heart pounding,
makes you jump out of your seat or sleep with
the lights on?

We don’t think so, but with streaming services

giving us an endless supply of horror films at our
fingertips, it can be hard to know which can give
you a true fright night, and which are child’s
play.

That's why in 2020 we founded the Science of

Scare Project, an experiment to categorically
find the scariest movies in existence, based on
what get hearts pumping and pulses racing.

Now in its fourth year, the Science of Scare is

back and bigger than ever tracking the scariest
movies ever made, at its new home here at
MoneySuperMarket broadband.

How to measure the

scariest movies?
Each year, the Science of Scare Project curates
a list of the most terrifying English language films
and puts them to our 250 strong panel.

Our test subjects are invited to special

screenings of our movies where they are fitted
with heart rate monitors and their heart rate is
tracked throughout each movie.

To prevent audience fatigue, screenings take

place over the course of several weeks
throughout the year, before we publish our
results in October, just in time for Halloween.

In previous years, we would measure the

average impact our shortlisted movies had on
the heart rate (measured in BPM) of our subjects,
compared to the average resting BPM of the
total sample size (64 BPM).

However, new for 2023, we have developed a

more detailed way of measuring, with the
creation of the Science of Scare Score.

The Science of Scare

score
One of the main pieces of feedback from horror
afficionados and communities (like r/horror) in
last year’s study was that only using one
physiological factor (heart rate) meant the study
favoured heavy jumpscare based movies rather
than slow burn horror films.

That’s why for 2023 we have created the Science

of Scare score, a combination of multiple
factors, to rank the scariest movies.

The new score system combines both heart rate

(measured in beats per minute BPM), and heart
rate variance (measured in milliseconds, or m/s).

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.

On the other hand, heart rate variance (HRV),

measures the time in between each beat of your
heart. The lower the heart rate variance the more
stressed our audience members became, a good
indicator of slow burn fear and dread.

After collecting the average heart rate increase

and HRV decrease, we then combine both score
to create a Science of Scare score out of 100.
For comparison, Shrek holds a ‘Scare Score’ of
3 out of 100.

What is the scariest

movie of all time?
According to our improved scientific study, Scott
Derrickson’s 2012 supernatural horror, Sinister
has reclaimed its crown as the scariest movie
ever made.

Sinister stars Ethan Hawke as true crime writer

Elliot Oswalt who in his obsession with a series
of grizzly events documented in chilling 8mm
footage, unwittingly puts his own family in
danger. Our audience experienced a 34% uplift
in heart rate when watching the movie, from 64
bpm, up to 86 bpm across the movie, with the
films scariest moment sending hearts pounding
to 131 bpm. HRV dropped by 21% among
viewers, the second lowest of any film on the list,
indicating a perfect balance of startling moments
and slow burn scare.

Both combined to give Sinister a scare score of

96 out of 100.

Sinister had originally been crowned the scariest

of all time in our initial 2020 study, before losing
the top spot to Host in 2021. However, it was
Sinister’s ability to give our viewers that sinking
feeling that edged it back into first place.

The Science of Scare 2023

Avg resting Avg movie Overall HRV Highest
Scare
Ranking Movie heart rate heart rate difference Difference spike
Score
(BPM) (BPM) (BPM) (%) (BPM)

1 Sinister 64 86 22 21 131 96

2 Host 64 88 24 18 130 95

3 Skinamirink 64 84 20 22 113 91

4 Insidious 64 85 21 18 133 90

5 The Conjuring 64 84 20 18 132 88

6 Hereditary 64 82 18 19 104 81

7 Smile 64 83 19 15 114 78

The Excorcism of Emily

8 64 82 18 17 96 76
Rose

9 Hell House LLC 64 81 17 16 107 75

10 Talk To Me 64 79 18 15 106 75

11 The Descent 64 79 15 16 121 74

12 The Conjuring 2 64 79 15 17 116 74

13 It Follows 64 81 17 17 96 74

14 The Dark and The Wicked 64 80 16 19 88 74

15 Paranormal Activity 64 80 16 15 115 73

16 The Babadook 64 79 15 15 119 72

17 A Quiet Place Part 2 64 80 16 13 123 71

18 The Autopsy of Jane Doe 64 78 14 15 122 70

19 Insidious 2 64 78 14 15 118 70

20 The Ring 64 78 14 15 114 69

In second place was last year’s winner Host, with

the Zoom-based horror scoring 95, just one
point below the top spot. However, Host still got
our audience’s hearts beating faster than any
other movie on the list.

In third place was a new entry for 2023,

Skinamarink, with the divisive, high concept
horror film, terrifying our audiences despite its
lack of a clear narrative. Skinamarink impacted
audiences’ heart rate variance (HRV) more than
any other movie on our list at 24%, causing the
most stress and dread among viewers for a
score of 91.

Rounding the top 10 were Insidious, The

Conjuring, Hereditary, Smile, The Excorcism of
Emily Rose, Hell House LLC and Talk To Me.

The scariest films of

2023
In total 13 new horror movies from 2022/2023
were included in this year’s study, with nine
making the top 50 scariest movies of all-time
list.

New films to the study

The scariest film of 2023 was Skinamarink, the

experimental horror directorial debut from Kyle
Edward Ball, charting at number three, with an
overall scare score of 91.

Other high charting movies of 2022/2023

included another directorial debut in Talk to Me
from Danny and Michael Philippou, and Smile.

Four of the 13 new films rated this year, Cobweb,

M3GAN, Malignant and Pearl missed out on the
top 50.

Science of Scare 2023

quick facts
Sinister reclaims its number one spot this year,
having been the winner in our original 2020
study.

Smile’s performance, means star Sosie Bacon

and Kevin Bacon (Friday the 13th) become the
first father-daughter team on the list.

Ethan Hawk and Patrick Wilson hold the

record for most appearances as a different
character on the list with two a-piece. Wilson
features a whopping six times across the
Conjuring and Insidious franchises.

James Wan (4) and Scott Derrikson (3) feature

more times than any other director on our list,
with Tobe Hooper also making two
appearances.

Below you can explore the full table of 2023’s

results, allowing you to order by heart rate or our
new Science of Scare score system. You can
also compare this year to previous years with the
tables below.

Science of Scare: All Years

How we choose and

rate movies
There are easily hundreds of horror movies from
all over the world, with new indie horrors being
released all the time. That means, unfortunately
it’s not possible to screen every horror movie
ever made to our panel. Luckily, this is where our
Scare List comes into play.

Our Scare List is our collated list of the scariest

films taken from critic best of lists, forum and
subreddit suggestions (a particular thanks the
r/horror community), personal and expert
recommendations and of course your feedback.

Here’s how the Scare List works.

Based on previous results, the top 25 movies are

locked in and do not get rescreened (unless of
course a new entry is scary enough to bump
them out of the top 25). The remainder of the 50
(our relegation zone) get rescreened alongside
our new entries.

Any movie which doesn’t make the top 50, is

blocked for 12 months, after which they can be
voted back in.

Our Scare List only considers English language

horror movies.

Whether you’re looking for a scary movie or a

family-friendly flick, find more ways to save with
MoneySuperMarket by comparing the best TV
and streaming services, TV and movie packages,
or broadband deals today.

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