What Makes the Perfect Horror Film?

Millions of movie fans worldwide are horror fans. There is something about the genre that captivates the audience for different reasons – some love the stories; some love the violence, and some just find them pure comedy. However, there is a burning question that many fans wonder – what is a perfect horror film?

A perfect horror can be chosen by fans, or, in most cases scientifically investigated by the core elements needed in a horror film to make it “perfect”.

Upon asking users on Rosie Hughes Reviews’ Facebook page, key elements include acting, music, mystery, jump scares, blood volume and fear. But not every horror film has all these elements, and many that don’t have still become iconic, such as Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Jaws and Nosferatu.

According to the scientists, Sinister (2012) was the scariest film for eight years running, dubbing it a perfect horror film. It has recently been taken over by computer screen horror Host (2020) which documents a séance going wrong over Zoom. The question remains – why did Sinister hold the top spot for so long? Why specifically is this deemed a perfect horror out of over a century’s worth of films?

Sinister, directed by Scott Derrickson, tells the story of crime writer Ellison (Ethan Hawke), who moves his family into a house of a murdered family.  While writing their story, he comes across film reels in the attic which documents the horror of not only the original family’s death, but other families too. Together Ellison and Deputy So-and-So (James Ransone) must find out what ties them together and who is the mysterious “Mr Boogie” who keeps appearing in drawings and the films.

Director and writer Scott Derrickson attends the Los Angeles premiere of ‘Sinister’. Credit: Gregg DeGuire/WireImage

Granted, Sinister is a great film, it has some of the great core elements to show why it is worthy of the title for eight years running, especially its music, jump scares and blood volume (or lack of should I say), but many people argue that this is a film known as “elevated horror” and not a definitive horror film.

“Elevated horror” is relatively new term within the horror community, coined to describe horror films are made with the specific aim to upset you emotionally, with an emphasis on blood, gore and jump scares. Examples of these kind of films are The Witch, Get Out, and Hereditary.

Sinister falls into this “elevated horror” subgenre for its jump scares and gore, especially the focus of the murders on the film reels Ellison finds, but these are only two core elements – where is the rest?

The acting was near pinpoint perfect, especially from Oscar nominee Ethan Hawke (who has teamed up again with Derrickson for The Black Phone, coming out this year). Hawke makes this film better than what it could have been as he suits the eerie, mysterious story.

Ethan Hawke attends premiere of 2012’s ‘Sinister’ at New York’s Tribeca Grand Hotel. Credit: D Dipasupil/FilmMagic

The music, composed by Christopher Young, known for his score for the American version of The Grudge, delivers us one of the most terrifying horror scores ever heard and will be automatically referenced to film like John Williams is to his powerful Jaws theme.

The fear aspect comes in the form of the film reels; we, like Ellison, are watching these murder films for the first time. Filmed on an old-fashioned camera, an unseen force kills each family and names the resulting tape a seemingly innocent but apt title based around the method of killing – an example being “Pool Party ‘66”, where the family are tied to metal bars to weigh them down in the pool thus drowning them. This is a clever fear concept – the audience is filled with fear of not only watching it, but also their inability do anything about it, which ties into the gore and blood volume respectively.

The jump scares are easily predictable. It is obvious that the mystery of “Mr Boogie” will appear in the jump scare sequences. His almost Slenderman appearance comes to only children which is a scary concept, especially given the thought and detail put into his mythology.

What is bizarre is a complex film like Sinister was knocked off the top spot by Host – which is one of the most simplistic stories yet terrified most people who watched it.

This proves one thing – a simple story is more. Sinister is without a doubt one of the greatest horror films to be made, but Host, a simple, low-budget film, is deemed scarier.

Could it be generations have changed and different people are scared by different things?  There is no Jasons, Freddys or Michaels in modern day originality – maybe the unseen entities like in Host is how the horror genre will progress, and that isn’t necessarily a good thing.