Horror films, like most art, can’t really be ranked in any sort of subject way to test how “good” they are. Dubbing a film a “good” movie is so beholden to personal taste and other outside factors, it would be almost foolish to say that any sort of film ranking system is fundamentally objective. But the UK-based BroadbandChoices has created a scientific study that claims to have found a way to definitively rank the scariest films of all time. And believe it or not, the film that tops the chart is “Sinister.”
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Look, before we really dive into the rankings, it must be said that any study that puts “The Exorcist” at #17 and “The Thing” at #25 (both are well below “The Visit” at #10) is suspect, to say the least. However, judging based on the criteria and the methods of measuring “scary,” the study does have merit and is worth discussing. And how the study works is simple, 50 people watched 50 horror films and during their time watching, their heartbeat is monitored. As their pulse pounds, the study looks at the biggest highs and the lowest lows and takes an average beats-per-minute number, which is what determines the rank. So, “scary,” by this study, means the film is able to get your heart pumping faster than normal.
As mentioned, leading the way is Scott Derrickson’s 2012 horror film, “Sinister,” with an average BPM of 86, an increase of 21 BPMs over resting average. Following that film are “Insidious” and “The Conjuring,” at #2 and #3, respectively. And as you look at the rest of the list, you can tell that modern films are ranked higher than the classics, with jump-scare-filled films doing the best. Again, when you measure by BPM, the advantage is given to the features that pack more scares-per-minute than slower burns like “The Exorcist” or “The Witch” (#22).
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Overall, the list is pretty surprising, as you wouldn’t really find many people that would mention “Sinister” up there with the all-time horror classics. That being said, if you’re looking at the last ten years of features, Derrickson’s film is definitely one of the best of the recent crop, by a big margin. It’s genuinely scary. But that doesn’t take away the pain of seeing films like “Alien” (#24), “The Shining” (#33), and “Get Out” (#34) rank so low.
The full list can be seen in the infographic below:
