The most influential horror movie ever made, according to science
Horror is simultaneously one of the most popular movie genres and one of the most critically underappreciated. A quick glance at the history of Academy Award winners proves the point: no matter how well-received a horror film is, it’s almost guaranteed to be snubbed during awards season. Aside from The Exorcist, The Sixth Sense, and Get Out, no horror films have ever been nominated for ‘Best Picture’, let alone won. This bias likely explains why films like The Substance choose to compete in the ‘Best Comedy or Musical’ category at the Golden Globes, sidestepping the uphill battle against so-called “serious” dramas.
Still, any fan of horror or anyone who’s enjoyed a horror film knows that this genre is one of the most innovative and culturally relevant. Countless filmmakers have been able to articulate the horrors of modern society through the lens of cinematic horror in a way that straightforward genres can’t. Class stratification, rampant consumerism, religious extremism, and emotional repression have all been indicted with razor-sharp precision in horror movies over the years to the extent that even ostentatious dramas and (the Academy’s favourite) biopics can.
The influence of horror movies on cinema more broadly is equally undeniable, which was made categorically evident in a 2018 study published in Applied Network Science that sought to rank movies by importance. The researchers analysed 47,000 films to reach their conclusions and based their findings on metrics such as how often a movie is referenced in other movies and how quickly that influence spread after their release.
In the top 20 most influential films, there are no fewer than four horror movies, with Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 slasher movie Psycho ranking third overall after The Wizard of Oz and Star Wars. It’s difficult to overstate what a surprise hit Psycho was when it was released. Following more than a decade of making Technicolor thrillers with impeccable costume design and tightly wound suspense, Hitchcock was determined to make a grimy, low-budget horror flick that had none of the glamour of his previous films.
The studio refused to produce the project, even when Hitchcock promised to slash his usual budget. He financed it with his own money and managed to sell the distribution rights to Paramount. Instead of his usual director’s fee, Hitchcock settled for a 60% stake in the film negative, which seemed like a huge sacrifice given that the movie was expected to bomb at the box office. On the contrary, it became a sensation, breaking box office records around the world and becoming Hitchcock’s most successful film.
Psycho was the first slasher movie to gain a wide audience and has become a touchstone of the subgenre. The shower sequence alone is an inescapable part of cinema, with countless movies parodying and paying homage to it. It also provided one of the most daring plot twists of all time, killing its main character halfway through the story and throwing audience expectations into disarray.
Just because Psycho was ranked as the most influential horror movie of all time does not mean that it’s the scariest. In fact, there has been some scientific-ish research on the matter and Hitchcock’s film doesn’t even make the top ten. However, in terms of its place in the landscape of cinema, Psycho looms the largest.
