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').
Yeah, that was a weird one!
***The Shining didn’t make the list? ***
The great movie version or the horrid made-for-TV long version? Like two different films.
I’ll take the original THE HAUNTING (1963), BURNT OFFERINGS(1976) and POLTERGEIST (1984)as the scariest, along with RACE WITH THE DEVIL(1975).
EXORCIST was silly.
THE OMEN was good.
As for SI-FI movies, the first one to really scare me was BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS back in 1954, and the original INVADERS FROM MARS. The next, seen on late night tv was I WALK WITH A ZOMBIE.
I still thrill at the original FRANKENSTEIN movies from the 1930s. How come none of those great old UNIVERSAL films are on the list?
At the time I read it in the late 60s, can’t recall which one, but it was a book by H. P. Lovecraft. Not so much scary as incredibly spooky and profoundly atmospheric.
I need to go back and read some of his work again.
Scanners, hands down!
It’s different watching horror as a kid and as an adult. When you’re a kid, you are very willing to suspend your disbelief and that’s what everyone behind the making of a scary movie hopes _everyone_ will do. Because while you can unsettle adults, they are always aware that what playing before them is not real.
I like the great horror classics of the 1930’s and 1940’s the best, but most are held in esteem today because of the great acting, cinematography and art direction, not for their ability to terrify, as they are so tame compared to most modern horror flicks.
The movie that began as a comedy and ended as a documentary.
#7.
Lovecraft is the master of spooky atmosphere! Too bad he had such a terrible time with ending his stories.
Saw and Hostel are not “Horror” movies. Torture porn
I would argue that Hitchcock was the master.
I have to go with the Movie version.
I didn’t know there was a TV version.
Have you ever watched some of the Italian horror/suspense films (Giallos)? There are some interesting films in that genre.
Any Barbra Streisand movie.
Different medium. Hitchcock film, Lovecraft the written word.
But Lovecraft might have trouble beating out Edgar Allen Poe.
Susperia. Both the original and the remake. Pretty good.
That’s the stair case in “The Exorcist.”
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