Half of Respondents Watch Scary Movies Year Round

Through a survey of 3,000 Americans, Blumhouse has released a study revealing the viewing habits of horror fans as well as their favorite films and subgenres.

Of those surveyed, 44% identified as die-hard horror fans, consuming the genre all year round, while only 6% wait until Halloween to throw on their favorite scary movie.

45% of respondents feel horror movies have improved since their introduction into the mainstream film market. Of that 45%, 49% said the improvements stem from better production quality, 44% said the improvements are due to advanced technology and special effects and 39% acredited more original and creative concepts.

As for when horror fans first fell in love with the genre, 52% started watching scary movies before age 12. 42% of Millennials and 30% of Gen Z participants said they first got into horror after being introduced to the genre by a family member. The most cited first horror movies watched were “Halloween,” “Nightmare on Elm Street,” “The Exorcist,” “Jaws” and “Friday the 13th.”

Blumhouse asked participants to categorize 100 of the most popular horror movies of the last five decades into subgenres and select films they most strongly identified with each subgenre. The most popular selections in order were psychological thriller, survival horror, supernatural/paranormal/possession, horror comedy and science-fiction horror. The films most closely associated with those subgenres were “Split,” “The Road,” “The Conjuring,” “Scary Movie” and “Alien,” respectively.

Between age demographics, psychological horror was the favorite of Baby Boomers, Gen X and Millennials, while Gen Z selected survival horror as their favorite subgenre.

The study was conducted by Sage Outcomes and commissioned by Blumhouse. 2,000 respondents participated in the genre categorization survey, while the remaining 1,000 were surveyed on their viewing habits and how they were introduced to horror films.