I enjoy scary movies. Gore? No can do. But give me a good psychological thriller and I’m on the edge of my seat.
I still remember watching the Blair Witch Project in the theatre when it came out….THAT was a wild ride.
It was the type of movie that had the entire theatre screaming and covering their eyes. I think it was so effective because it was one of the first that shot like a documentary, it had us thinking it was real.
Of course, what scares you varies from person to person. Dan Clifford wanted to determine the scariest movie scientifically with his The Science of Scare Project. He had participants of a study watch movies wearing heart rate monitors. 50 people, of all ages, were in his test group.
He had them watch over 120 hours of the best horror films. He then took their average resting heart rate and compared it to the average increased heart rate when they were watching scary movies.
Out of all the movies, Sinister, starring Quad County vacationer, Ethan Hawke, was determined to be the scariest movie ever made. The plot is he is a true crime writer who investigates a string of grisly family murders by moving into the home of one of the victims.
While watching the movie, the average heart rate of the viewers was the highest at 86 BPM with the highest spike in heart rate, to 131 BPM!
Check out the chart below for how other movies ranked
BOO!
