The scariest movie of 2023, according to science
What is it about horror movies that make people want to revisit them time and time again? While most people might not like the idea of paying money to be frightened, the heightened drama that can come up with making a good movie or thriller is unlike any experience one can have in the theatre. Although multiple elements make horror movies what they are, there is a scientific approach that makes a film scary.
Throughout film history, though, many directors have taken certain liberties about what makes films unsettling for viewers. Even though many people left a film like Psycho in shock and fear when it premiered in the 1960s, the number of technical innovations between then and now has led to directors refining what constitutes as scary.
Whereas a film like The Shining may not have as many blood-curdling moments as a modern-day slasher movie, its power comes from the feeling it creates in the viewer as they are watching. Given the massive drawn-out shots from Stanley Kubrick, the retelling of Stephen King’s classic horror novel has remained a fixture of horror for the pure surrealism and unsettling images that flash on the screen.
The other central element of making a scary film as of late comes with the jump scare. Even though nothing significant may be happening onscreen, the art of sucking all of the audio out of the film before making a massive swell during a scary moment is one of the surefire ways to get viewers on edge when they are in that dark theatre.
When looking at the ways humans react to horror movies, The Science of Scare was conducted to find out what visceral reactions come from watching horror movies. Monitoring the specific heart rate of the viewer and the amount of tension that they keep inside, the study found that many different horror films stood out as particularly unsettling upon first viewing.
Although many new films, such as Host and Sinister, were awarded the top spots in the study, the clear winner of the scariest movie of 2023 went to Skinamarink. Filmed with little resources, the movie follows the story of kids trying to find out where their parents are late at night while a demonic force may be lurking in the shadows away from them.
While the final product provided some of the most unsettling still frames from this year, one of the common elements among the top positions comes from the grainy footage used throughout the film. Using archival footage or the look available on Zoom calls, that style of filmmaking helps ground the scenarios in reality much better than the average Hollywood-quality images.
Then again, one of the best aspects of any horror movie comes from what is suggested than what is shown onscreen. From Sinister to Paranormal Activity, audiences can be terrorised by what they don’t see, with their mind filling in the gaps for what may have happened when the cameras weren’t in play. Even though Skinamarink may have horrifying images to keep audiences on their toes, the key to good horror comes from someone who understands that the scariest place to be is inside someone’s mind.
