Listen up nerds… these movies are scientifically proven to scare the bifocals right off of you.
SINISTER (2012)
From the very beginning of Sinister, you know it’s going to be scary. If not for the strange opening of several people being hung to death on a tree, it’s the fact that a family has just moved into a new house – which seems to be a catalyst in horror movies for evil tidings. This time a true crime writer finds 8mm film in his new home with links back to a crime story he’s researching. Naturally, the family vacates the home and flees. Just kidding, the writer continues to reveal the horrors of the home, keeping dark secrets from his family and all suffer for it.
HOST (2020)
It will be interesting to see if this one drops from the number one spot over the years as Host is a pandemic-inspired flick that was shot via Zoom. Nothing is worse than a Zoom meeting that could have been an email unless it’s a séance gone wrong in which a supernatural entity starts haunting those in the virtual room. Is it scary because of the medium writer/director Ron Savage used during a time when we were all communicating virtually? Only time will tell.
Say goodbye to found footage horror films and give a thumbs-up emoji to Zoom room scares. Remember, if you don’t take yourself off mute, no one can hear you scream.
SKINAMIRINK (2022)
This is the newest addition to the list of 40 and it debuted at #3. A young boy and girl wake up in the middle of the night to discover that their father has mysteriously disappeared. If that’s not frightening for a pair of youngsters, the windows and doors of the house have all been removed. They decide to camp out in the living room where they have a TV and toys to fill the time and find comfort. But mysteries and evil lurk adding heart-racing tension.
This $15,000-budgeted indie film (according to IMDb) has nestled its way into the top five. Will it still be there next year?
INSIDIOUS (2010)
Take note, horror writers. Buying a new house, especially in a rural area, can spell trouble (see: Insidious, The Conjuring, Amityville Horror, Beetlejuice). In fact, old creepy houses are perfect settings for hauntings, ghosts, serial killers, and demonic possessions. In Insidious, a family moves into a new house and soon their son becomes comatose with no explanation. They finally discover that demons from The Further are trying to use their child as a portal into our world.
Moral of the story: stick with new construction.
THE CONJURING (2013)
James Wan’s second film in the top five scariest movies involves a family moving into a new home (seriously, folks, don’t move, especially not to rural farmhouses) that is haunted by a dark, demonic presence. Who ya gonna call? Paranormal investigators, of course! A husband/wife duo are the saviors who try to rid the home and the family of the evil before it’s too late and open the doors to two sequels and three spin-offs via Annabelle.
HEREDITARY (2018)
Ari Aster’s debut feature became the fifth scariest film according to science. The movie centers on a grieving daughter whose family history of supernatural mental illness comes back to haunt them. Having conducted a séance, Annie (Toni Collette) discovers she has the power to speak with dead relatives. Hereditary is about how tragedies get passed down from previous generations and how they impact the succeeding ones. Horror is often experiencing the unexplained, which happens quite a bit in this scary movie.
Source: screencraft