Science reveals the scariest scene in horror movie history… can YOU guess it?

The spooky season has arrived and thrill seekers are watching countless hours of horror movies to celebrate. But a new study shows that not all scary movies are the same.

A new project fitted participants with heart rate monitors while they watched special displays, allowing researchers to see which movements increase anxiety and arousal.

The team found that the scariest scene is in ‘Insidious’ and the most gruesome movie of all time is ‘Sinister’.

Although the research doesn’t reveal which part of Insidious makes people’s hearts beat faster, it’s probably the ‘Demon in the Corner’ scene.

The findings are part of the Science of Scare Project, which has collected the scariest films over the past four years.

The test group consists of 250 participants equipped with heart rate monitors that monitor their vital functions during each film.

This year’s experiment scored on heart rate and heart rate variance.

The former measures beats per minute, while the latter calculates beats in milliseconds.

“For heart rate (BPM), the higher the number, the faster the film got our audience’s blood flowing, an indicator of excitement and fear as part of your fight or flight instinct,” the Science of Scare Project shared.

‘On the other hand, heart rate variance (HRV) measures the time between each heartbeat.

‘The lower the heart rate deviation, the more stressed our spectators became, a good indicator of slow anxiety and fear.’

The team then combined both scores to create a Science of Scare score of 100.

“For comparison, Shrek has a ‘Scare Score’ of three out of 100,” they shared.

Based on these measurements, project leaders found that Scott Derrickson’s 2012 supernatural horror Sinister is the scariest film ever made.

The film follows true crime writer Ellison Oswald, played by Ethan Hawke, who is in a slump after not writing a bestseller in more than a decade.

He has decided to write about the unsolved murder of a seemingly ordinary family.

The youngest child was kidnapped and never seen again, and the other four, including mom and dad, were hanged from a tree in the backyard.

Unwisely, Ellison does more than just research his new project. He moves his own family into the house where the murders took place.

He discovers a box of home movies and a Super 8 projector up there.

When he plays the innocently named reels, he discovers that they are snuff films detailing the murders of five families over the past fifty years.

On a mission to solve the case, Ellison believes the heinous acts were the work of a serial killer.

But he and his family soon discover something sinister behind the murders.

“Our audience experienced a 34 percent increase in heart rate when watching the film, from 64 bpm to 86 bpm throughout the film, with the film’s scariest moment sending hearts racing to 131 bpm,” project researchers said.

“HRV fell 21 percent among viewers, the second lowest of any film on the list, reflecting a perfect balance between startling moments and slow-burn scares.”

Both resulted in Sinister receiving a scare rating of 96 out of 100.

Although Insidious ranked fourth as the scariest, the researchers found that the 2010 film had the highest peak overall.

This means that the film contains the scariest scene in the history of horror films.

The story of Insidious revolves around a married couple whose boy inexplicably falls into a comatose state and becomes a vessel for various demonic entities on an astral plane.

The red demon with hooves and claws is the evil creature trying to reach Dalton, played by Ty Simpkins, who is in a coma.

During the scariest scene, the boy’s grandmother tells his parents how she heard a horrible voice coming from his room telling her he wanted Dalton.

Lorraine Lambert (Barbara Hershey) tells her son, Josh Lambert (Patrick Wilson), and his wife, Renai Lambert (Rose Byrne), the story, and moments later the red demon appears over Josh’s shoulder.