Sinister: 2012 horror film is the scariest movie ever according to science

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

They say we have to listen to the scientist but I think they may have missed the mark on this latest study.  According to a scientific study, Scott Derrickson's 2012 horror film, SINISTER, is the scariest movie of all time.

So how did they figure this out? Well, the study has been dubbed the "Science of Scare Project," and it involved participant's heart rates being tracked while watching over 100 hours of scary movies. Each member of the test audience was fitted with a heart rate monitor to see how much their heart rates rose on average during each movie compared with their resting heart rates. It should be noted that the study was only conducted on a total of 50 people across a variety of age ranges. That being said, SINISTER emerged as the most frightening cinematic experience that they faced and director Scott Derrickson made sure to share the crowning achievement on his Twitter page which can be viewed below:

The average resting heart rate of the participants was 65 BPM (beats per minute), but while watching Derrickson's SINISTER, heart rates rose by 32%, all the way up to 86 BPM, the highest recorded throughout the study. Director James Wan's supernatural horror film INSIDIOUS took second place, and featured the biggest jump scare, raising heart rates to a whopping 133 BPM. If you've seen INSIDIOUS, you definitely know the scene and it STILL makes me jump out of my skin.  The rest of the top ten were THE CONJURING, HEREDITARY, PARANORMAL ACTIVITY, IT FOLLOWS, THE CONJURING 2, THE BABADOOK, THE DESCENT, and THE VISIT Additionally, director James Wan, who scored three movies in the top ten, was crowned the overall "king of horror."

SINISTER follows a washed-up true-crime writer named Ellison Oswalt, played by Ethan Hawke, that finds a box of super 8 home movies in his new home that suggests the murder he is currently researching is the work of a serial killer whose work dates back to the 1960s. The film also stars Juliet Rylance, James Ransone, Fred Thompson, Vincent D'Onofrio, Michael Hall D'Addario, and Clare Foley. The movie received decent reviews, scoring a 63% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and it was financially successful, grossing $82.5 million worldwide on an $18 million budget. I thought the film was quite good but, the scariest movie of all time? Not so much.

What are YOUR thoughts on SINISTER?