Science and horror movies- two wonderful things that keep the Earth spinning, well in my own world anyway. Well, anyways folks over at All Home Connections conducted a horror fan approved science experiment to find out who exactly reigns supreme in the fear factor department.
Participants in this study watched 5,760 minutes of horror films while wearing a heart rate device to determine which villain scared them the most. This was all based on the variance of their resting heart rate and how the rate peaked throughout each film. And like all good science experiments, they surveyed 990 additional people to determine which movie villain they think is the scariest to compare the perception to the actual heart rate data.
Pretty neat, eh?! Although I’m dying to know how one would volunteer for such a project; I’ve seen several catchy jobs that make viral headlines around Halloween time that offer cash incentives for people to purely watch horror films. And I’m kind of perturbed I’ve never been hired for a job I’m beyond qualified for dammit.
Well anyway, according to this study and somehow not too surprising, Michael Myers came out on top as being the scariest to participating viewers with the average heart rate spiked to 119 beats per minute during the movie watching with an average resting heart rate of 74—that’s a 62% spike. Jason Voorhees came in at a close second according to the data. Movies included in the study were some straight horror classics across the board such as:
- A Nightmare On Elm Street
- Halloween
- Child’s Play
- Friday the 13th
- Hellraiser
- The Ring
Some other interesting findings in the study included The Ring, which has been named the #6 scariest horror movie of all time, main antogonist Samara Morgan was the least scariest according to physiological data. Also, according to the press release, the team found after surveying Americans asking which villain they thought was the scariest without watching the movies, only 19% thought Chucky would be the one to scare them. Ol’ Chucky boy came in second to last in rankings.
All information and graphics were provided by All Home Connections, and you can check out the original source of findings by clicking here!
What are your thoughts? Which infamous horror icon personally gets your heart racing? Sound off in the comments!
