There’s something oddly captivating about watching a film that makes you jump, scream, or better yet—a film that sticks with you long after watching. Millions of people embrace the fear, willingly diving into the dark world of horror movies. But why? What is the appeal of subjecting ourselves to terror? The reasons we watch and enjoy scary movies go far beyond the jump scares—they’re deeply psychological.
For those who find themselves covering their eyes or clutching the nearest pillow, it might be hard to understand. Yet, as the hair-raising month of October ends, many people spent the 31 days leading up to Halloween watching films designed to scare the daylights out of them. In this blog, we explore why people enjoy fear (or why they don’t) and what psychology reveals about the movies that truly terrify us.
Inside the Mind of a Horror Enthusiast
The question of why people love scary movies has puzzled researchers (and me) for decades. The earliest psychological studies on horror focused on sensation-seeking individuals. “Sensation-seekers” as described by behavioral psychologists Zuckerman and Litle are “seeking varied, novel, complex and intense sensations and experiences.”1 For high sensation seekers—more often described as “thrill seekers”—horror films might be a safe way to engage with fear in a controlled environment—like riding a rollercoaster from the comfort of your couch.
But, it’s not just adrenaline junkies who enjoy horror. Psychologist G. Neil Martin’s review of empirical research on psychology and horror films reveals that empathy plays a surprising role in how we experience fear2. Several studies have described that people with lower levels of empathy often enjoy horror more than their high-empathy counterparts. This doesn’t necessarily mean that your best friend who enjoys horror films lacks empathy; rather, that they are able to disconnect empathetic feelings from fictional characters in these films. Horror-lovers can recognize that the suffering they see on screen is not real—making the experience less emotionally intense.
The ability to separate fiction from reality may also explain why horror movies are such powerful tools for emotional regulation. The fear or thrill that they induce provides a cathartic release, allowing us to process anxiety in a structured way. According to Zillmann’s “excitation transfer theory”, the heightened negative emotions we experience during suspenseful moments in horror films eventually lead to a feeling of euphoria when the threat is resolved. This emotional shift from fear to relief explains why viewers often feel exhilarated after watching a horror movie. It’s a process that can help people manage their own anxieties, offering a controlled environment to experience intense emotions and then safely return to a steady, calm state. It’s only fitting that so many people flock to horror during stressful times—it offers a psychological outlet for releasing pent-up emotions and processing fear.
Quantifying the Most Popular Scary Movies
What makes a horror movie truly terrifying? While personal tastes vary, the “Science of Scare Project” (launched by MoneySuperMarket) has taken a unique approach to this question. Since 2020, they have conducted an annual survey to determine the scariest movies of all time—testing new movies as they are released (Note: they have limited their survey to English language films). They put hundreds of horror films to the test by measuring 250 viewers’ physical reactions. Participants wear heart rate monitors, which track changes in heart rate and heart rate variability as they watch each movie, providing a data-driven measure of fear. In 2023, the project founders introduced a new metric: heart rate variance (HRV), which measures the time between heartbeats. A lower HRV suggests heightened stress and tension, which is perfect for gauging those slow-burn horror films that might not rely on constant jump scares but instead build dread over time. By combining BPM with HRV, the Science of Scare Project calculates a “Scare Score” to determine the scariest English language movies of all time, according to their heartrate metric.
It turns out, horror films have different methods for triggering fear, and the most effective ones capitalize on the psychology behind why we fear certain things. Jump scares—sudden loud noises or visuals that cause us to flinch—tap directly into our fight-or-flight response, flooding our body with adrenaline. Sinister, a film that reclaimed the top spot in the 2024 Science of Scare study, is a master of this technique. The Project found that viewers’ heart rates spiked to 131 BPM during its scariest moments, making it a physiological terror for anyone watching.
However, jump scares aren’t the only way to terrorize an audience. Films like Skinamarink (ranked #3) and Hereditary (#6) take a different approach, inducing slow-burning dread. Tying these findings back to Martin’s review: these films play on our deep-seated anxieties by using psychological tension, ambiguous visuals, and haunting soundscapes to keep us on edge. The absence of obvious danger makes our minds work harder, filling in the gaps with worst-case scenarios. Skinamarink, for instance, caused the largest drop in HRV among viewers in the Science of Scare survey, indicating that it created the most sustained sense of dread and discomfort.
Sound design also plays a huge role in the efficacy of the scare. For example, Insidious (#4) uses a chilling score to amplify the terror, with high-pitched strings and sudden noises that keep viewers on edge. Similarly, The Conjuring (#5) is renowned for its use of eerie soundscapes — creaking doors, whispers, and sudden crashes — to heighten fear. Even the lack of sound like in A Quiet Place (#25), plays on an anticipatory fear using sound. These auditory cues (or lack thereof) bypass logic and tap directly into our primal instincts, making us brace for danger even before we see it.
So, what are the scariest films of all time, according to the Science of Scare Project? The 2024 rankings have Sinister in the top spot, followed closely by Host and Skinamarink. Sinister excels in combining heart-pounding jump scares with a lingering sense of foreboding. Meanwhile, Host, a film shot entirely over Zoom, was praised for using its format to create an unsettling feeling of isolation— something we can all relate to post-2020. And then there’s Skinamarink, a divisive film that manages to deeply unnerve those who appreciate atmospheric, slow-burn horror. These films use different techniques to elicit fear, but they all have one thing in common: they get your heart racing and keep it there.
To see the full list, check out The Science of Scare Project.
Ready to Test Your Nerve?
Horror films tap into something primal—a blend of curiosity, thrill-seeking, and emotional release. Whether you love the heart-pounding adrenaline of a jump scare or the slow dread of a psychological thriller, there’s a science behind what makes these movies so terrifying—and why we can’t seem to get enough of them.
So, on Halloween, the crescendo of spooky month, consider challenging your fear tolerance with one of the scariest films ever made—or stick to a lighthearted classic like Shrek (which earned a “Scare Score” of just 3 out of 100). Whatever you choose, please don’t tell me about it.
References
- Zuckerman, M., & Litle, P. (1986). Personality and curiosity about morbid and sexual events. Personality and Individual Differences, 7(1), 49–56. https://doi.org/10.1016/0191-8869(86)90107-8
↩︎ - Martin, G. N. (2019). (Why) Do you like scary movies? A review of the empirical research on psychological responses to horror films. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, Article 2298. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02298 ↩︎
Anna Bennett
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