The horror movie with the highest number of jump scares
Some things are scarier than the likes of Michael Myers, Freddy Krueger and Leatherface, with nothing infuriating and petrifying audiences more than the controversial jump scare. Popularised in the horror genre as the form of filmmaking gained commercial backing in the 1980s, franchises like Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street and Halloween began to rely on this cheap way to get a fright from the audience.
Of course, jump scares, which involve the filmmaker building suspense with a moment of silence before blindsiding the audience with a visual fright and a loud noise, have long existed in the movie industry. In fact, the very first of its kind came way back in 1942 with the release of Cat People by Jacques Tourneur, with the moment coming when a bus abruptly enters the frame with a loud crash after a moment of tension. As a result, the jump scare is sometimes referred to as the Lewton Bus, named after producer Val Lewton.
Still, Cat People was an outlier, and it wasn’t until the release of the Brian De Palma movie Carrie in 1976 that the modern jump scare would be introduced. Finishing the film off with one final scare, in which the protagonist’s hand emerges from her own grave, the ending of Carrie would become iconic, replicated by Friday the 13th four years later, whilst kicking off the jump scare trend in the following decade.
Ever since, the device has become a cliche of the horror genre, in equal parts mocked and celebrated by modern audiences. Steadily, the number of movies that featured jump scares increased, with Sam Raimi’s 1987 film Evil Dead II, Wes Craven’s 1996 classic Scream and the not-so-celebrated 2007 film The Messengers holding records for the most amount of jump scares from their respective decades.
Still, nothing compares to the one movie with the most amount of jump scares, the 2013 Tom Elkins horror The Haunting in Connecticut 2: Ghosts of Georgia, which recorded 32 jump scares, according to the aficionados of the subject over at Where’s the Jump.
A fairly unknown horror movie, The Haunting in Connecticut 2: Ghosts of Georgia tells the story of a young family who move to an old house in Georgia and discover that they may not be the only beings occupying the residence. Starring the likes of Abigail Spencer, Chad Michael Murray and Emily Alyn Lind, the film was a critical flop and made just $5million at the worldwide box office from a budget of just $8m.
For those dedicated horror lovers who are intrigued about the runners-up of this troubled trophy, in second place is the 2014 alien flick Extraterrestrial with 30 total jump scares, and taking the bronze medal is the more well-known Hollywood thriller Resident Evil: The Final Chapter from 2016, which boasts 29 sudden frights.
Take a look at the trailer for The Haunting in Connecticut 2: Ghosts of Georgia below if a jump scare-fest is exactly what you’re looking for.
