Top 5 Horror Movies Scientists Think Are The Scariest You'll Ever See

By RodneyHatfieldJr for Movies

I came across an article about a study by the UK broadband company Broadbandchoices. They conducted a scientific study tracking the heart rates of 50 people watching over 120 hours of beloved horror films in 5.1 surround sound. They recorded the involuntary response (beats per minute) of the 50 participants. 

I am going to skip my usual banter and opinion till the end. Because this deserves commentary after reading the results.


5. Paranormal Activity 2009: 82 bpm

After moving into a suburban home, a couple becomes increasingly disturbed by a nightly demonic presence.


4. Hereditary 2018: 83 bpm

A grieving family is haunted by tragic and disturbing occurrences.


3. The Conjuring 2013: 84 bpm

Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren work to help a family terrorized by a dark presence in their farmhouse.


2. Insidious 2010: 85 bpm

A family looks to prevent evil spirits from trapping their comatose child in a realm called The Further.


1. Sinister 2012: 86 bpm

Washed-up true-crime writer Ellison Oswalt finds a box of super 8 home movies in his new home that suggests the murder that he is currently researching is the work of a serial killer whose work dates back to the 1960s.


This study should not even be written or even conducted. It is full of flaws. The main thing is they are going by heart rate to measure how jumpy a film is. So to this kind of study, someone throwing an object toward your face is extremely scary. 

The next problem is millennials and Zoomers( Generation Y and Z). They forget that history did not begin around the year 2000. Why didn’t they use IMDB or Rotten Tomatoes scariest movies list and then conduct the study using a sample of their combined lists of movies? I am not being ageist. It is well known that whatever generation tends to spotlight their generation. My generation (X) did it, Boomers did it, etc. And speaking from experience, we miss out on some great things because of it. I didn’t grow into my love of classic horror until I was around 21. We all need to widen our horizon of interests, and the sooner the better. And because this was lost on the people conducting the study, it suffers from it.

The biggest problem with these kinds of studies is they have no way to measure psychological fear. From the list above, the only one I would list would be Sinister, and if I had a longer list I would have included Hereditary. But it would be really far down on the list. The rest were jump scares and surprises. That isn’t scary. I bet if you showed people a documentary like  Unit 731, their bpm would be higher. Does that make it scarier? No, because it is disturbing.

Million-dollar horror movie idea. 1 hour and 20 minutes of people throwing random objects at your face: IN 3D. And then every 10 minutes a clown comes on-screen dancing with a python around their neck carrying a knife with a big hairy tarantula. Don’t laugh, it might top the scariest movie charts. So do you agree with this study, or do you think it is silly?

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