Scientists name the most horrifying movie and the scariest scene in cinema

It's Halloween time, so thrill-seekers are organizing a horror movie marathon to celebrate the spooky holiday. However, a new study found that not all scary movies are the same.

In the new project, participants were fitted with heart rate monitors so that researchers could see which scenes increase fear and excitement. This was reported by the Daily Mail.

The team of experts found that the scariest moments are shown in the movie Astral, and the scariest movie of all time is Sinister. Although the study does not specify which part of Astral caused people to have heart palpitations, it is likely to be the scene of the Demon in the Corner.

The findings are part of the Science of Scare project, which investigated the scariest movies. The test group consisted of 250 participants, with heart rate monitors attached to control their vital signs while they watched.

This year's experiment evaluated heart rate and heart rate dispersion. The former measures beats per minute, while the latter calculates beats in milliseconds.

"In terms of heart rate (HR), the higher the number, the faster the movie accelerates the blood circulation in the audience: it is an indicator of excitement and fear, as part of the human instinct to fight or flight," says Science of Scare.

Heart rate dispersion measures the time between each heartbeat. "The lower the heart rate dispersion, the more stressful the stress was," the experts explained.

In the end, the experts combined both results to create a Science of Scare score, on a scale of 100. "In comparison, Shrek has a 'fear score' of three out of 100," the research team wrote.

Using these measurements, the project leaders found that Scott Derrickson's 2012 supernatural horror film Sinister is the scariest movie of all time.

The movie tells the story of crime writer Allison Oswald (played by Ethan Hawke), who is going through a creative crisis after not writing a single bestseller for ten years.

He decided to write about the unsolved murder of a seemingly ordinary family. The youngest child was kidnapped and never seen again, while the other four, including the parents, were hanged in their own garden.

Later, Allison doesn't just research the subject of his book, he takes a reckless step. He moves his family into the house where the murders took place.

There, the protagonist finds a box with a family video archive and a projector. As he watches the videos, he realizes that they are gruesome videos of the murders of five families that have occurred over the past 50 years.

On a mission to solve the case, Allison believes that a serial killer has committed the horrific acts. However, the writer and his family soon discover something sinister behind the crimes.

"While watching the film, our viewers experienced a 34 percent increase in heart rate, from 64 beats per minute to 86 throughout the film, with the heart rate rising to 131 at the scariest moment," the researchers note. "The variance among viewers fell by 21 percent, the second lowest of any film on the list, indicating a perfect balance of thrills and slow scares. In total, Sinister received 96 points out of 100.

While Astral was ranked fourth in the scariest. The authors of the study found that the 2010 film caused the highest emotional surge. This means that the movie contains the scariest scene in the history of horror films.

The story of Astral centers on a married couple whose boy inexplicably enters a comatose state and becomes the plaything of various demonic creatures. The red demon with hooves and claws is an evil creature that tries to kill Dalton while he is in a coma.

During the most terrifying scene, the boy's grandmother tells his parents about hearing a terrifying voice coming from his room: he told her he wanted to destroy Dalton. A moment later, a red demon appears over the shoulder of the father of the family.

Earlier, OBOZ.UA wrote about four films that, according to Ukrainian designer Andre Tan, are worth watching for those who want to become a businessman.

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