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Sinister Is The Scariest Film, According To New Study

Sinister Is The Scariest Film, According To New Study

The study monitored viewers heart rates while watching horror movies to see which caused the biggest increase

Claire Reid

Claire Reid

If you're planning a horror movie marathon over Halloween and are looking for a film to really get your heart racing then you might want to give Sinister a watch, because a new study claims it's the scariest flick.

Looking into the 'science of scares' the study, by broadbandchoices.co.uk, strapped heart monitors to 50 participants and got them to watch more than 120 hours of horror movies.

This included The Conjuring, Alien, Paranormal Activity, Nightmare on Elm Street, and It.

Momentum Pictures

The study took an average resting rate of 65bmp, and compared it to an average rate during the movie as well as a highest spike - caused by jump scares.

It found that while watching Sinister, the participants hart rate was around 32 percent higher than usual - with 86bpm - and hit a spike of 131bpm.

Meanwhile, Insidious, which came in second place overall, had the largest spike of 133 bpm.

The Conjuring came in third with a 20bpm difference and a 129bpm high.

Hereditary was in fourth place with a 18bpm difference and a high of 109bpm, while Paranormal Activity was fifth with an increase of 17bpm and a jump scare producing a high of 127bpm.

Down the other end of the scale, Hush was in 18th place with an average difference of 11bpm and a jump scare of 86bpm.

It came in 19th, giving viewers a 10bpm increase and a high of 89bpm.

Broadbandchoices.co.uk

Rounding out the top 20 was Scream, with an average increase of 8bpm and a high of 81bpm.

Sinister, starring Ethan Hawke, tells the tale of true crime writer Ellison Oswalt, who moves into the home of a family who were brutally murdered, in the hopes of writing his new book about the case.

In the attic of the family home, Ellison finds a projector and a number of home movies, as you do.

However, each of the tapes contains a grisly murder and the discovery of the home movies puts Ellison and his entire family in danger.

If you've not seen it yet, it's worth a watch and if you have seen it you can probably remember the exact scene that would have resulted in that 131bpm spike.

While the results of this study are interesting, it's important to remember that scariest doesn't necessarily mean best.

The Shining is a horror masterpiece and it didn't even scrape the top 20; nor did the very brilliant Get Out or the sci-fi/horror classic Alien.

Still, one to add to the list for spooky thrillseekers this Halloween.

Featured Image Credit: Momentum Pictures

Topics: TV and Film, Interesting