They said we were crazy to set up the brackets like we did. The Exorcist against Night of the Living Dead? Halloween against Psycho? In the first round? Why not just cross off the heavy hitters before the voting even starts?
But here’s the thing: the numbers from yesterday’s voting proved to be a slaughter. If the tallies had been Florida-style close, there might be cause for remorse and re-evaluation, but all of the losers got dramatically beheaded in a bloody landslide.
While we look at the winners and losers (and make predictions for today’s voting), I want to draw a ridiculous conclusion – that we aren’t just voting for the scariest movie, but that we’re voting against our weaker fears. I’ll joyously go into greater detail in a bit without any help from pesky old science.
If you want to skip this nonsense and get straight to voting, feel free, but if you want to think too deeply, check out the First Round scores and guess which of Round Two’s movies will survive the night, let’s get to it.
Round One Results (24 Films Left)
Clicking Makes That Bigger.
- The Exorcist projectile vomited all over The Night of the Living Dead (494-74)
- The Descent threw The Changeling down some stairs (383 – 64)
- Poltergeist blew Jaws out of the water (355-167)
- Halloween carved out a victory against Psycho (330-198)
- Session 9 did something horror pun-like to Fire in the Sky (220-96)
- A Nightmare on Elm Street terrorized Insidious (388-104)
- Alien proved to Paranormal Activity what a dark hallway can really do (428-100)
- Invasion of the Body Snatchers sank its teeth into Dracula (334-92)
So here’s what the bracket looks like now:
Clicking also makes that bigger.
Those are some serious numbers. Perhaps there are a few surprises in there for fans. The most notable result was that the Steven Spielberg movie that made people afraid to go into the water lost to the Steven Spielberg-produced movie that made people afraid to build pools in their backyards (or watch TV late at night). That’s pretty incredible – you chose Tobe Hooper over Spielberg. Or, if you believe the behind-the-scenes take, you chose Spielberg over Spielberg.
On the too-deep front, you voted off the prototype zombie movie (leaving REC to defend the subgenre) as well as three ghost stories, an alien abduction (while pushing two other alien stories to the next round), a serial killer classic (which lost to a supernatural serial killer classic), and two villains with serious teeth. What does that say about our collective scarred psyche? Probably that there’s nothing more terrifying than a red and green striped sweater.
Or maybe we need more data.
Round Two Predictions
In brief, without explanation:
- Freaks over Rosemary’s Baby
- The Shining over The Blair Witch Project
- The Strangers over Inside
- The Texas Chain Saw Massacre over It
- The Orphanage over The Omen
- REC over The Ring
- The Thing over The Amityville Horror
- Friday the 13th over Them (Ils)
Time to surprise me.