New Irish movie is one of the scariest films ever according to science

Stephen Porzio

The 2024 flick beat out some horror heavyweights to make the list.

An excellent new Irish movie has been dubbed one of the scariest films of all time, according to science.

Released in cinemas in August of this year, the horror thriller is titled Oddity and hails from writer-director Damien Mc Carthy (Caveat).

The plot synopsis for the film reads:

“When Dani (Carolyn Bracken, An Cailín Ciúin) is brutally murdered at the remote country house that she and her husband Ted (Gwilym Lee, Bohemian Rhapsody) are renovating, everyone suspects a patient from the local mental health institution, where Ted is a doctor. However, soon after the tragic killing, the suspect is found dead.

“A year later, Dani’s blind twin sister Darcy (also Bracken), a self-proclaimed psychic and collector of cursed items, pays an unexpected visit to Ted and his new girlfriend, Yana (Caroline Menton). Convinced that there was more to her sister’s murder than people know, Darcy has brought with her the most dangerous items from her cursed collection to help her exact revenge.”

Also featuring amongst its cast, Joe Rooney (Father Ted), Steve Wall (Dune: Part Two) and Tadhg Murphy (The Northman), Oddity earned rave reviews for its creepy iconography (including a terrifying life-sized wooden man owned by Darcy), its claustrophobic setting, its unnerving atmosphere, its beautifully gloomy cinematography, its inventive story structure and its gallows humour.

Already holding a whopping 96% Rotten Tomatoes score, the film has also earned another honour – making a list of the top 20 scariest movies ever according to science.

In 2020, the Science of Scare Project was founded, which is described as “an experiment to categorically find the scariest movies in existence, based on what gets hearts pumping and pulses racing”.

“Each year, the Science of Scare Project curates a list of the most terrifying English-language films and puts them to our 250 strong panel,” a statement reads.

“Our test subjects are invited to special screenings of our movies where they are fitted with heart rate monitors and their heart rate is tracked throughout each movie.

“To prevent audience fatigue, screenings take place over the course of several weeks throughout the year, before we publish our results in October, just in time for Halloween.”

The scariest films are determined by measuring the average impact the shortlisted movies had on viewers’ heart rate and heart rate variance.

“With heart rate (BPM), the higher the number, the faster the movie got our audiences’ blood pumping, an indicator of excitement and fear as part of your fight or flight instinct,” the project states.

“On the other hand, heart rate variance (HRV), measures the time in between each beat of your heart. The lower the heart rate variance the more stressed our audience members became, a good indicator of slow burn fear and dread.”

Despite 10 new movies being screened for the 2024 panel, only one entry – Oddity – broke into the top 20, nabbing the number 20 spot.

This means it beat out other horror gems from this year including Alien: Romulus, The First Omen, Immaculate, Late Night with the Devil, Longlegs, Speak No Evil, Stopmotion, The Substance and Terrifier 3.

We’d take the Science of Scare Project list with a pinch of salt as not every horror film made can be screened for the panel.

Plus, its organisers state that the study only considers English-language entries in the genre.

That being said, it’s still quite an honour for an indie flick like Oddity to make the list.

You can check out the top 20 scary movies according to science right here: