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Starting our analysis at the top of the graphic, we see an interesting phenomenon: religious fears, for a majority of those surveyed, creates the strongest emotional response. That's not surprising though, as the CIA World Factbook claims that 33.5% of the world population is Christian (at least a faith based in Christianity).
Most interesting to me is the correlation between the themes of the movies, and their ratings on both the survey and on RottenTomatoes.com. It suggests that the ranking of the themes is accurate, in that the scariest movie has the scariest theme, and so on. That trend also continues for the top 5 movies. Moreover, the movies that are the scariest aren't necessarily the best. We could also consider the evidence that movies which mixed their themes got significantly more critical acclaim, but there isn't enough data to prove that hypothesis.
Sources
Central Intelligence Agency. (2008). The World Factbook: Religions. Updated October 4, 2012, Retrieved October 26, 2012, from https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/...HorrorBid. (2012). The Best and Worst Horror Movies of All Time Survey - Fans Speak!. Updated October 12, 2012, Retrieved October 25, 2012, from http://www.horrorbid.com/blog/blog1.php/...
I suppose it makes sense that the supernatural is one of our greatest fears, since it is beyond human understanding. Which of the movies on the top list have you seen? I tried to watch the Ring, but I could only get so far before I got too creeped out to continue.
ReplyDeleteI personally don't agree with the popular opinion shown here. I thought Paranormal Activity was a farce, and that the Descent is one of the scariest movies I've seen. Go figure. I'm working my way through the movies on this list I haven't seen yet, The Ring included.
DeleteBut not being religious myself, I don't find Satan as scary as some of my more religious friends do (who thought Paranormal Activity was scary).