Sinister, the 2012 horror film starring Ethan Hawke, has been named the scariest movie of all time in a scientific study for the fourth consecutive year, and it is available to stream in the UK this Halloween.
The film, directed by Scott Derrickson, follows Ellison (Hawke), a crime writer who moves his family to a house where a series of gruesome murders took place. When his research leads him to discover disturbing footage, the lives of Ellison and his family take a sinister turn.
The Science of Scare rankings
The Science of Scare Project uses heart rate monitors and a 250-strong panel to measure viewers' psychological response to horror films. Sinister topped the list with a heart rate spike of 131 BPM during the film and an overall scare score of 96.
Found footage horror Host, released during the pandemic in 2020, comes in second place with a peak heart rate of 130 and a scare score of 95.
Top five scariest films
- Sinister (2012): scare score – 96
- Host (2020): scare score – 95
- Skinamarink (2022): scare score – 91
- Insidious (2010): scare score – 90
- The Conjuring (2013): scare score – 88
This year's study introduced 15 new films into the mix, including this year's blockbuster horror hits Obsession, Backrooms and Undertone. Undertone, released by A24 and comically described as ASMR for horror, is the scientifically scariest new film of 2026.
Hawke's reaction to filming
Ethan Hawke admitted he was 'legitimately scared' during filming. He told Flicks and Bits in 2012: 'I realised about halfway through shooting Sinister that I think the real reason that I never wanted to act in a scary movie was because I thought it would be scary to do it.'
He added: 'I think some part of me was a little superstitious that if I play that stuff I might open the door to the demons of my own mind. I've even been offered things like Macbeth, and I've found it very scary the idea of if you fully imagine this stuff, what's going to happen to you? But the truth is that it was a lot of fun, Sinister was a lot of fun.'
A sequel was released in 2015 but struggled to capture the magic conjured up in the first instalment. Sinister is available to watch on HBO Max, Amazon Prime Video with a subscription, as well as Apple TV and Sky Store.
