Posted on 02/27/2020 8:07:34 PM PST by SeekAndFind
The number of horror movies released each year has increased hugely since the 1930s, at least doubling since the 1960s. 2007 in particular was a golden year for horror – over 100 million tickets sold led to the genre taking a 7% market share. Coupled with the proliferation in number, horror movies have become increasingly violent, graphic and explicit. The harrowing shower scene in Psycho (1960) looked mild by The Texas Chainsaw Massacre's standards (1974), and the sexual violence of Hostel (2005), briefly popularised in the 'gorno' subgenre, would have been unthinkable three decades earlier.
The scare tactics might be notched up each year, but YouGov's halloween horror ranking reveals it's the satanic terror of The Omen (1976) and The Exorcist (1971) that make them the all-time scariest movies for British people.
Paranormal Activity (2007) and The Ring (2002) are the only post-2000 horrors to make the top ten.
In terms of pure reach, lighter horror makes for a larger audience – Jaws, The Silence of the Lambs, Alien and The Birds are the most-watched, all with over 50% of British people having seen them.
But tastes are changing. Only seven movies have a net positive score for scariness among 18-24s, and five of these were made after 1999, while the two scariest movies nation-wide have negative net scariness scores. 25-39 year olds find 15 of the 22 movies scary on balance, and both 40-59s and over-60s find 19 of them scary.
By analysing the profiles data of over 7000 fans of the horror movie genre fans, we have also pulled out attitude statements that are disproportionaly true of horror fans compared to the general population.
The religious inversion theme of popular horrors chimes with this group for a reason – they tend to see religion as having created more harm than good throughout history – and these are definitely creatures of the night, tending to say they are night owls and can survive on very little sleep. They also share some of the recklessness of the genre ('when I drink, I drink to get drunk'), along with the rough justice necessary in the netherworlds ('an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth').
The Blob (1958)
War of the Worlds (1953)
The Mummy (1932)
Poltergeist scared the crap out of us. But it does NOT hold up. Not sure why. The dwarf perhaps. My kids were bored, but loved the Sixth Sense.
“Salem’s Lot” with James Mason, and David Soul.
The 2020 Democrat Primary Debates.
Winner of Best Horror, Comedy, and Fantasy!
I am not a horror movie fan but, I have seen many of these movies and I agree with the consensus that The Omen is the best of the bunch listed here.
The Exorcist is almost comical in its poor production quality. It was so poorly produced and directed as to make it a farce. Too bad. Because the premise of the movie, based loosely on an actual exorcism, so we are told, deserved so much better.
And...
My bad.
My vote would be for “The Haunting”.
Although not a horror movie per se, The Thing from Another World (1951) really scared me when my parents thoughtfully took me to see it when I was five. Years later, it still gives me the chills.
“Triumph of the Will” is the downright scariest movie I’ve ever seen.
Along those lines, the "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" scene in Cabaret is one of the most chilling scenes ever made.
I don’t see how Jaws and Alien are so far down the list against some of that other dreck, and movies like The Thing (either the ‘51 Hawks or ‘82 Carpenter versions) get excluded entirely? This is why I can’t stand polls like these. Too misleading and subjective.
1984 is the scariest book I’ve ever read. Anyone else have a favorite?
Hey where is Black Christmas?
That movie really creeped me out when i was a young kid.
“Carnival of Souls”.
That creepy dude tripped me out. The chick was pretty Hot!
3D House of Pancakes!
I too saw “The Thing from Another World” as a child in the 1950s and it scared the c#@p out of me. The Kurt Russell version, “The Thing,” years later was even scarier.
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