Film expert's top tips on how to survive a horror movie and why the genre is so unique

Horror movies have had a bigger share of the domestic box office than ever before in 2025.

As of 10 October, horrors had already cleared $1 billion at the US box office, movie expert Stephen Follows reports.

That means the potential for record-breaking movie moments is rife.

Stephen is a world-leading film industry analyst and Guinness World Records consultant who helps us chronicle record-breaking film facts.

When we asked him how one ends up with a job like this, he said: “I've been doing the film data stuff for maybe 10 to 15 years. It started off as a sort of a sideline hobby.

Stephen Follows

“I still have a portfolio career of other things, but this was kind of a fun thing to play around with, and because it's still connected to movies it's always interesting.

“I don't just want to do raw statistics - I want to do something that's a bit more culturally interesting and needs a bit more of a thought process.

“So, when Guinness World Records reached out to me, I was like, ‘where have you been all my life?’”

We were waiting for you, Stephen!

Stephen has a passion for collating data about movies, especially the more obscure and unusual aspects of film.

He loves working out things like which James Bond movie mentions its title the most (Moonraker – 39 times) and what the most unrealistic film genre is (romantic comedy because it has the lowest proportion of movies based on real life).

When it comes to horror movies, Stephen has helped us determine things like the most frequently cursed object in horror movies (stay away from evil supernatural rings) and the most portrayed character in horror films (Dracula).

He admits he probably enjoys studying horrors more than watching them, but that makes him somewhat of an expert when it comes to surviving them.

Find more stories like this in our Arts and Entertainment section.

Randy Meeks in the Scream franchise had his own list of rules around how to survive a horror, but since that didn’t end too well for him (RIP Randy), we asked Stephen for his slasher rules.

He said: “The victims of slasher films are most usually young adults, and what's interesting is that mixed age groups are declining within slasher films. So if you wanted to survive the 1960s, you might want to hang out with people different ages to you.

"Now, the best advice I can give you is hang out with people the same age as you and ideally, don't be a young adult.

“That's not very useful if you’re in that age group, but time is on your side. If you can survive a few years into adulthood, you can likely survive a whole horror film.”

Warning, the following clip is from Scream and contains some bad language:

Young adults make up 45.3% of slasher movie victims, according to Stephen’s findings.

The question of how to survive a horror is one Stephen pondered in his epic study The Horror Movie Report 2.0.

Statistics don’t lie, and Stephen’s findings are that most killers in slashers hang out in rural areas, so stay clear of that cabin in the woods.

Residential neighbourhoods are second on the list and you’re actually safest in the desert, medical environments or on board transport – safer, but never completely safe.

The most common motivation for killers in slashers is psychosis and most victims know their killer, so be careful who you hang out with!

And a horror movie killer’s favourite holiday is Christmas, so maybe think twice before leaving cookies out for Santa.

Stephen explained to us why the horror genre is so unique.

He said: “Horror films and children’s films are the two genres that don’t really mix well with others.

“You can't have ‘kind of a horror film’ or ‘kind of a kids’ film’ because horror has to feel a certain way and in kids’ films there’s so much that can’t happen, like swearing.

“With most other genres, there's heavy overlap. So, the difference between comedy and drama could just be perspective.

“Horror is kind of interesting because it sets itself apart, and the audiences are much more forgiving of things than in other films – they won’t mind a low budget or the level of acting as much.”

He added: “When you look at the correlation between how critics rate movies and how much those movies make, there’s a very strong link – but that’s not true for horror.

“There are all these rules that horror just ignores, and horror fans are very unapologetic – they like what they like and they’re generally more passionate than fans of other genres.”

Horror is also unique for its timeframe. While many movies take place across vast periods, horrors tend to last for less than 24 hours, or at most a few days of on-screen time.

Stephen also pointed out that you probably watch horrors way more often than you realize.

He said: “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory is a horror film. It's a slasher film.

“The children commit moral crimes and they're bumped off in creative ways one at a time. Willy Wonka is a serial killer of children.

“And is Pinocchio not just Frankenstein? We all tell stories that are scary or have got moral consequences, and that's a lot of what horror is.”

Check out these horror movie records if you want some inspiration on what to watch next.

And read more of Stephen’s movie analyses on his website.