Most horror films produced in one year

The year 2022 saw the production of 1,531 horror movies worldwide. With the exception of a brief dip during the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of horror films has increased dramatically every year since the early 2000s.

The large number of horror movies made every year is because, with the advent of digital cameras, the financial barriers for aspiring horror directors are extremely low. Indeed, it is the cheapest genre, with 53% of theatrically released horror films being made on budgets of less than $20 m, or £15.4 m (and 22% on less than $5 m, or £3.8 m). You can’t make a musical or an action-adventure on a shoestring, but you can set up a few fixed cameras in a house (like Paranormal Activity, 2007) or send your actors into the woods with camcorders (like The Blair Witch Project, 1999) and still end up with a blockbuster.