It's the spooky season and we're probably all watching a little more horror than usual. If you're looking for a definitive list of movies that deliver the biggest scares, this story may be helpful.
According to NME, a recent study attempted to rank the scariest horror films of all time by monitoring viewers’ average heart rates. They showed more than 50 participants over 1,000 hours of horror movies and narrowed the field to the 35 films that delivered the greatest heart rate increases. 2012's Sinister landed in the top spot. Audience members watching the Ethan Hawke-starring supernatural thriller experienced, on average, a 32% heart rate increase.
Here's how the rest of the list shook out:
- Sinister
- Insidious
- The Conjuring
- Hereditary
- Paranormal Activity
- It Follows
- The Conjuring 2
- The Babadook
- The Descent
- The Visit
- The Ring
- A Quiet Place
- A Nightmare on Elm Street
- Halloween
- The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
- 28 Days Later
- The Exorcist
- Hush
- It
- Scream
- The Grudge
- The Witch
- The Blair Witch Project
- Alien
- The Thing
- Poltergeist
- Annabelle
- Friday the 13th
- The Orphanage
- Dark Skies
- Wolf Creek
- The Omen
- The Shining
- Get Out
- Audition
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