Few movie genres inspire reactions as strong as horror. To explore why, YouGov conducted a series of polls examining how Americans feel about horror movies — including how many love or hate them, which subgenres they prefer, and which movies are the most widely viewed and beloved.
We asked Americans whether they love, like, dislike, or hate 10 movie genres. Of these, horror has the smallest share of people who collectively love or like it (50%) as well as the largest share of people who hate or dislike it (46%).
Horror has a lot more haters than other genres: Three times as many Americans (22%) say they hate horror as hate each of the next most hated genres — Western, fantasy, and science fiction — , which are each hated by 7% of Americans. A greater share (49%) of horror detractors — those who dislike or hate it — say they hate it than for any of the other nine genres. At the same time, many people who are fans of horror tend to love it. A large share (43%) of horror fans — people who like or love horror — say they love it, behind only the comedy (52%) and action (48%) genres.
In addition to being one of the most disliked genres, horror is also viewed as one of the most overrated by critics. 30% of Americans think professional critics tend to overrate horror movies, which about as many as say the same about romance movies (29%). 18% think horror movies are underrated by critics and 25% say they are accurately rated.
Which groups of Americans are most likely to be into horror movies? Men are more likely to enjoy horror than women. Far more younger adults than older ones say they love or like the genre. And people without college degrees are more likely than college graduates to be fans.
What type of horror movies do Americans enjoy most? The largest shares say they love or like comedic horror (60%) and psychological horror (60%). Other relatively popular subgenres are horror movies about the paranormal (51%), vampires (49%), monsters (49%), and witchcraft (47%). Among the least favored horror subgenres are films with torture (22% love or like them), eroticism (30%), body horror (30%), and gore (31%).
What is the ideal setting to view a horror movie? For many viewers of horror, the best time is at night. Three times as many people who watch horror say they prefer watching the genre at night (44%) than say they do during the day (14%).
While they're watching, horror viewers are far more likely to prefer to have the company of others than being alone: 47% of people who watch horror movies say they prefer to do so with other people, while only 17% say they prefer to watch alone. Though a theater may be one option for communal viewing, most people who watch horror movies say they prefer to watch at home (55%) rather than in a theater (17%).
Most Americans think horror movies are inappropriate for young children to watch: Only 14% say it is appropriate for children 12 or younger to watch horror; 39% say the youngest children it is appropriate for are between 13 and 16, and 32% say it isn't appropriate until someone is 17 or 18.
Among people who watch horror movies, slightly more say they prefer classic horror movies (28%) to newly released ones (18%); 54% say they have no preference between the two.
The largest shares of Americans think the horror genre peaked in the 1980s (19%) or 1990s (12%). Age divides views on when the genre peaked. Americans who are between the ages of 45 and 64 — all of whom spent at least some of the 1980s between the ages of 9 and 19 — are especially likely to view 1980s horror fondly. Adults under 30 are more likely to think horror's best decade occurred more recently. Opinions of those who are 65 and older don't converge on any single decade, though few place the genre's best decade in the past 35 years.
Which horror movies have been viewed by the most Americans? To find out, we started with a survey about 81 films that might be classified as horror. Since genre definitions can be subjective, we took an extra step for borderline cases: We asked viewers of each film whether they personally considered it to be horror. If more people said a film wasn’t horror than said it was, we removed it from the list. We then ranked the remaining movies by viewership and selected the 50 most-watched titles to include in our final poll.
In the final poll, we asked Americans whether they have seen each of the 50 horror movies, including sequels or remakes for any film on the list that has had them. An average of 49% had seen each film, ranging from Sinners (23%) to The Exorcist (69%).
Ranking just behind the Exorcist for most widely viewed horror movies are The Silence of the Lambs (67%), Frankenstein (66%), Friday the 13th (65%), Halloween (65%), Dracula (64%), A Nightmare on Elm Street (63%), The Shining (63%), and Alien (63%).
Which horror movies are best liked by those who have seen them? The survey also asked people who said they'd seen each movie what their opinion of it is — that is, whether they love, like, dislike, or hate it. The results, displayed below, show that each movie is loved or liked by far more people who saw it than the share who hate or dislike it.
Sinners — the least viewed and also most recently released movie on the list — is loved by the highest percentage of its viewers. But many widely viewed and older movies are also beloved, including The Silence of the Lambs, The Shining, and Misery. Other relatively recent movies (including those that have had new franchise releases) that are loved by a large share of people who have seen them include Get Out, Final Destination, Insidious, 28 Days Later, and Alien. Like Sinners, Get Out, Insidious, and 28 Days Later are among the least viewed of the 50 popular films asked about — and the people who chose to view them are disproportionately positive about the experience.
Few top horror movies are hated or disliked by significant shares of Americans who have viewed them. About one-third (32%) are not fond of the Blair Witch Project, and 25% of viewers didn't enjoy each of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Child’s Play / Chucky.
— Carl Bialik contributed to this article
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See the results for these YouGov polls
Methodology: The article includes results from two 2025 polls. One was conducted among 1,123 U.S. adult citizens from October 6 - 9. The other was conducted online among 2,136 U.S. adult citizens on two separate 2025 surveys from October 7 - 12 and October 8 - 12. A random sample (stratified by gender, age, race, education, geographic region, and voter registration) was selected from the 2019 American Community Survey. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, 2024 presidential vote, 2020 election turnout and presidential vote, baseline party identification, and current voter registration status. 2024 presidential vote, at time of weighting, was estimated to be 48% Harris and 50% Trump. Demographic weighting targets come from the 2019 American Community Survey. Baseline party identification is the respondent’s most recent answer given around November 8, 2024, and is weighted to the estimated distribution at that time (31% Democratic, 32% Republican). The margin of error for the overall sample is approximately 3%.
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