In the 130 years between the 1896 release of Georges Melies’ three-minute supernatural ghost story The House of the Devil and last week’s horror film Other Mommy, the horror genre has divided and conquered by telling stories about killers, monsters, ghosts, demons, genetically modified sharks (we love Deep Blue Sea), wishes gone awry, and Sam Neill going insane (Event Horizon, In the Mouth of Madness). What started with a three-minute story about a supernatural creature harassing people is now a multi-billion dollar enterprise that has produced thousands of horror films of all stripes.
With spooky season officially upon us, we decided to hack up 1,300+ horror films with at least 10 reviews into five principal subgenres to determine which has the best Tomatometer average. When we started, we were 95% certain the slasher subgenre’s Tomatometer average wouldn’t match the average of the Psychological subgenre. But we knew it would be fun to discover trends, stats, and number-related surprises.
We used this handy flowchart that the horror-loving internet didn’t hate to define 1,317 horror films into the following categories: Killer/Slasher, Paranormal, Psychological, Monster, and Gore/Violence. Why only five? We wanted to prevent a Russian nesting doll-esque situation in which we had subgenres of subgenres, like “monster movie musicals with a hint of angsty teenager elements” (think Anna and the Apocalypse).
Here are the subgenres we used, with some examples to illustrate how we separated the movies:
- Killer – (Halloween, Urban Legend, Black Christmas, I Know What You Did Last Summer)
- Paranormal – (Paranormal Activity, The Others, Devil, The Uninvited, The Exorcist)
- Psychological – (We Need to Talk About Kevin, Midsommar, Goodnight Mommy, Don’t Look Now, Creep, Berberian Sound Studio)
- Monster – (The Descent, The Host, Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, Day of the Dead)
- Gore/Disturbing – (Hostel, The Loved Ones, Green Inferno, A Serbian Film, Saw)
We’re fully aware that there are a myriad of horror subgenres that have been left out — there is no dark fantasy, splatterpunk, revenge, found footage, giallo, or horror comedy — but many of these films fall under the five categories above. We also recognize that there are some films that would qualify for more than one of our subgenres, and in those cases, we went with the one that fit best.
With all of that out of the way, here’s how our five subgenres ranked, according to the Tomatometer:
5. Paranormal
(Photo by ©Warner Bros. courtesy Everett Collection)
Tomatometer Average: 50.3%
Number of Films: 318
Fresh Films: 135
Rotten Films: 183
Definition: Films that feature ghosts, spirits, or religious elements
With the likes of The Exorcist, The Omen, The Evil Dead, The Dark and the Wicked, Drag Me to Hell, The Sixth Sense, The Uninvited, and House on Haunted Hill within the paranormal subgenre, it’s taken a lot of Rotten films to drop the Tomatometer average down to 50.3%. For every Personal Shopper or In Fabric there are Rotten movies like Brahms: The Boy II, The Turning, Fantasy Island, and The Grudge dragging the average down like the Lamia demon did to unlucky folks in Drag Me to Hell.
Of the 318 films we considered, 183 (57.5% of them) are Rotten, which gives the subgenre the highest percentage of Rotten films. Adding to the Rotten average is the fact that 25 of the films, like Flatliners (2017) and the aptly titled The Disappointments Room (2016), have Tomatometer scores below 10%. We can’t pinpoint a specific reason why paranormal movies are largely Rotten; we just know that the subgenre has been haunted by low scores since 2000, as the average went from a respectable 54% to a less respectable 49% in the years since.
Despite the Rotten average, the Paranormal subgenre is a haven for ambitious directors looking to make a name for themselves. Popular horrors The Evil Dead, Lights Out, Night Swim, Mama, and Smile started as short films, and their unique high concept premises led to them becoming feature-length movies. Also, Paranormal Activity, The Blair Witch Project, and Obsession have an average budget of somewhere around $505,000, and their total worldwide haul is $917 million. Toss in the box office receipts of The Sixth Sense, The Exorcist, Rosemary’s Baby, The Nun, and The Conjuring: Last Rites, and you have a subgenre that can offer studios riches — and mostly Rotten scores.
4. Killer/Slasher
(Photo by Dimension Films courtesy Everett Collection)
Tomatometer Average: 54.6%
Number of Films: 262
Fresh Films: 122
Rotten Films: 140
Definition: Films that feature killers who use bladed weapons (or similar) to murder/terrorize victims
While horror historians may never come to a full consensus on what the original slasher movie was, we can all agree that films like Peeping Tom, Psycho, Bay of Blood, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), and Black Christmas aren’t bad places to start. Since then, the Killer subgenre has become home to classics like A Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, Friday the 13th, and Scream. The problem with the category is that it’s also home to the 35 Rotten sequels and remakes that were a direct result of their success; the 86% Tomatometer average of the originals isn’t enough to combat the 32% Tomatometer average of their less-than-stellar later installments. While every other genre has to deal with Rotten sequels, reboots, and remakes as well, they slashed the Tomatometer average of the Killer subgenre the most.
These scores make us appreciate movies like Happy Death Day 2U, Red Dragon, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, Cult of Chucky, Curse of Chucky, and Wes Craven’s New Nightmare even more, as these Fresh sequels and remakes managed to buck the Rotten trend.
Aside from the recent Renny Harlin-directed Strangers trilogy, the slasher genre has seen an uptick in quality since 2021 with Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, X, Pearl, Freaky, In a Violent Nature, Terrifier 3, Sissy, and Totally Killer collecting Fresh scores. The previously mentioned films are all wildly unique and totally different in the ways that they slash, and they’ve introduced iconic characters like Art the Clown, Pearl, and Johnny, who have some of the all-time best kills to their name. Long-time staples are doing well too; the combined box office of the three Scream films released since 2021 is $522 million, which is a lot of money for the 30-year-old franchise. Even Rotten slashers like Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends felt ambitious and unsafe. Love them or hate them, director David Gordon Green delivered some unexpected and self-destructive chaos.
3. Gore/Violence
(Photo by ©Screen Gems courtesy Everett Collection)
Tomatometer Average: 59.8%
Number of Films: 71
Fresh Films: 42
Rotten Films: 29
Definition: Films that feature excessive graphic violence throughout or build towards gratuitously gory conclusions
What makes the gore subgenre unique is its lack of super Fresh (90%+) and super Rotten (10% or below) films. In our data set, only The Loved Ones, Bone Tomahawk, and The Ugly Stepsister scored 90% or above on the Tomatometer, and only Strangeland (1998), Martyrs (2016), and the 2016 remake of Cabin Fever scored below 10%. It’s as if critics are afraid to universally praise films that feature graphic blood-dumping, but they also don’t dislike them enough to universally pan them. The category’s Tomatometer average is almost Fresh, as the majority of the films in our data set (59% of them, if you can believe it) are Fresh, but they aren’t quite bloody-good enough to achieve a Fresh average overall.
Part of the blame falls on the Saw and Human Centipede franchises, whose 13 films have a 34% Tomatometer average and work against the positive scores of the brutal yet occasionally brilliant French films Inside, Frontier(s), and Martyrs. Even these “gore” classics didn’t set the Tomatometer ablaze, as they averaged just a respectably Fresh 68%; stepping outside of the horror genre bubble, this seems fair, considering their subject matter is polarizing. Takashi Miike’s bloody classic Audition remains an excellent example of gore done right; the film is violent, it’s directed wonderfully, and it burns slowly to a gut-punch finale you won’t soon forget.
2. Monster
(Photo by Everett Collection)
Tomatometer Average: 60.5%
Number of Films: 446
Fresh Films: 257
Rotten Films: 189
Definition: Films that feature a monster (or monsters, large or small) hunting or killing/eating unlucky victims
For well over 100 years, monster movies like King Kong, Gojira, Night of the Living Dead, The Thing, Alien, Jaws, Nope, Bride of Frankenstein, The Host, and Nosferatu (all of them) have risen above their horror labeling to become all-time classics featuring excellent special effects, beautiful creature design, and Trojan-horse messages that Christopher Nolan would be pleased with. Since 2018, monster movies like The Shape of Water, Sinners, Godzilla Minus One, and Frankenstein have been nominated for 39 Academy Awards (and won 12). Basically, the creature feature genre rules.
One of the most impressive aspects of this subgenre is that 48 of the 446 films (10.7% of the data set), including Sinners, Godzilla Minus One, Train to Busan, Nosferatu (1922), Bride of Frankenstein, The Host, and Let the Right One In, have Tomatometer scores above 90%, which proves that in the right hands, monster movies can be straight-up classics. The subgenre is also extremely flexible, as it allows for pure thrills like monsters eating coeds (Piranha 3D) and spelunkers (The Descent) just as easily as it can serve as a vehicle for thematic portrayals of consumerism (Dawn of the Dead), nuclear fallout (Gojira), and the dangers of toxic waste (The Host). Basically, monsters can fill in for any number of serious thematic allusions, or they can just be monsters.
Like every other horror subgenre, there’s a plethora of Rotten films, but they’re mostly enjoyable. Jaws: The Revenge, Ernest Scared Stupid, Deep Rising, Predator 2, Anaconda (1997), Fire in the Sky, Alien 3, Jennifer’s Body, Underwater, 30 Days of Night, Blade, Blade 2, Pandorum, and The Faculty are all beautiful in their own ways. So, the Monster movie genre finished in the No. 2 spot, but it’s No. 1 in our hearts.
1. Psychological
(Photo by ©IFC Midnight)
Tomatometer Average: 72.3%
Number of Films: 220
Fresh Films: 145
Rotten Films: 75
Definition: Films that inspire dread or discomfort primarily by utilizing tone and atmosphere to dive into the darkness of humanity
With a 72.3% Tomatometer average, the Fresh psychological horror subgenre is the best of all the horror subgenres, according to the Tomatometer. With 145 Fresh films (a whopping 65.9% of them) and 54 of them at 90% or above on the Tomatometer, it’s the clear victor here (we promise we’re not messing with your heads). The most impressive statistic is that there’s only one psychological horror film with a Tomatometer score below 10% in our data set, namely 2011’s The Roommate.
With films like Don’t Look Now, The Lodge, Unsane, Goodnight Mommy, Midsommar, The Invitation, Mulholland Drive, Black Swan, Creep, and The Babadook, it’s easy to see why it has a Fresh average. Directors like David Lynch, Ari Aster, Karyn Kusama, Jennifer Kent, and Darren Aronofsky have thrived in the genre by creating dread-soaked worlds full of mystery, murder, and people leaping out from behind dumpsters. Considering the overall data set average is 58.8%, the 72.3% average of this subgenre is excellent, and it’s impressive when you consider that psychological horror films depend on an effective atmospheres and committed performances to draw audiences into their twisted worlds. They can’t rely solely on jump scares or thrills; instead, they build sensory-blasting worlds that draw you into the film — and then punch you in the gut. Movies like Eraserhead are so immersive that you enter another world and only realize where you are when the film ends. This is really hard, and it asks a lot of viewers, which is nice and occasionally results in excellent Tomatometer scores.
