There are a lot of things that make Halloween great – from the costumes and candy to the perfect excuse to indulge in some of our all-time favorite scary movies.

Whether you find yourself reaching for classics like “Psycho” or “The Shining,” or modern takes on visceral terror like “Saw” or the 2017 smash hit “Get Out,” there’s something for everyone in the great library of horror movies, including a few you may not yet have seen.

We surveyed over 600 Americans to find out which horror movies they loved the most, and which generation of films left behind the biggest impression. From the modern classics of the ’80s and ’90s to the remakes and sequels coming out today, we looked at which movies are considered truly frightening and which are merely tiny terrors. Read on (if you dare) to see what we uncovered.

Overall Ages 18-24 Ages 25-34 Ages 35-44 Ages 45-54 Ages 55+ Men Women Non-Religious Religious

Finding the Right Balance

We want to be frightened; this is why horror films keep us coming back after every bone-chilling moment. Scary movies take entertainment to a whole new level. They tap into our subconscious fears, let us taste victory with the heroes that actually survive, and often leave us breathless by the time the credits roll.

But when it comes to these scary movies, there may be a disconnect between the films we find truly horrifying and the ones we genuinely enjoy. Americans polled rated movies that fell into the torture, cannibalism, and extreme gore categories (like “Saw”) among the scariest movies they’ve seen, but not necessarily the ones they liked the most.

However, two genres stood out as the scariest and most enjoyable: possession movies and paranoia films. Possession movies (like “The Exorcist”) were considered the most unnerving of all. While slightly less scary, Americans said madness and paranoia films (like “The Babadook”) were their all-time favorites.

The Best Decades for Horror

Some experts have gone so far as to suggest horror films from certain decades find a way to tap into things that scare us as a society. In the ’50s, when mutant monsters were the stars of the show, scary movies played into the fear of the nuclear boogeymen. In the ’60s, while the Vietnam War was raging, zombie movies like “Night of the Living Dead” were that much more horrifying. In the ’80s, as a response to the Watergate scandal and the ensuing mistrust of authority figures, movies like “A Nightmare on Elm Street” played off real-life concerns as a way to scare viewers through the film. Today, the fear of torture makes a movie like “Saw” so truly terrorizing it’s managed to spawn seven sequels, with another slated for 2017.

For most Americans, the horror flicks of the ’80s proved the scariest and most favorite. With such cult classics as “The Shining,” “The Evil Dead,” and “A Nightmare on Elm Street,” the horror films of the ’80s didn’t just scare us, they forever changed the way scary movies portrayed their villains and the gruesome ways they killed. More than 1 in 4 Americans said scary movies from the ’80s were the most shocking and spine-chilling, and nearly 1 in 3 respondents said the ’80s were their favorite.

More than 1 in 5 Americans said they thought the horror movies from the ’70s were the scariest (including the original “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and “Alien”), and over 17 percent said their favorites were the slasher flicks of the ’90s, like “Scream” and “I Know What You Did Last Summer.” Younger generations may have a penchant for the new era of horror films, as over a third of millennials told us movies from the 2010s (like the new “It” and “The Babadook”) were both the most frightening and their favorites.

That Crazy Moment When …

When it comes to the way scary movies make us jump in our seats or scream aloud, a certain filmmaking trope has been referred to as one of the basic building blocks for horror films: the jump scare. You probably know the moment, even if you don’t know it by name. A scene when you’re watching one thing happen and then quickly and out of nowhere, something sinister appears. In some cases, the jump scare can be considered a crutch for movies desperate to scare us, but it’s arguably helped establish some of the most iconic horror sequences of all time.

According to Americans polled, nearly 28 percent said they generally disliked jump scares no matter what. From the cheesy to the terrifying, even a jump scare done wrong might be too unnerving for some viewers. Still, more than half of people said they liked jump scares when they were set up properly, and 18 percent said they loved them regardless of the setup or execution.

Decades with the most jump scares per film? In the ’80s, we found nearly 10 cutscenes meant to shock and startle viewers in each movie, followed closely by the 2010s and 2000s. While scary movies in the ’40s and ’60s may have used jump scares more sparingly, the ’70s introduced the more regular use of the technique with almost six in each movie on average.

Pick Your Poison

When it comes to horror movies, everyone has an opinion on what might be the best, the freakiest, and the downright scariest. There’s no perfect formula for what scares each of us or how we’ll react to those sometimes predictable moments where things jump out of the shadows and onto our screens. Still, certain decades managed to produce some of what have gone on to be considered the most terrifying (yet, enjoyable) horror films of all time.

If you’re looking to revisit the classics, discover something new, or just enjoy something gruesome to get into the Halloween spirit, you’ll find all of that and more on DIRECTV. With live streaming and DIRECTV CINEMA®, you’ll be able to take the best in scary movies with you wherever you go – it’s your very own pocket poltergeist.

Methodology

We surveyed over 600 American horror movie watchers to obtain data for this project. We also used data from www.wheresthejump.com to come up with jump scares by era and subgenre data. Subgenres were collected from reddit.com

Fair Use Statement

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