Grave Encounters (2011) came recommended to us by The Horror Academy Podcast. They believed this film had the potential to raise our subject’s heart-rate high enough to land in the top ten on our Instagram leaderboard. Did we encounter a record breaking scary movie? Read on if you dare…

Test Subject: Leah

Age : 35

Gender: Female

Fears: Ghosts

Resting HR: 65 bpm

Walking HR: 75-80 bpm

ANALYSIS:

After waiting thirty minutes without a change in vitals our subject’s heart-rate finally began to show life. The anticipation of scares while simply walking down dimly lit corridors elevated her pulse to consistently high numbers. There were multiple spikes of 90bpm and she maintained an average above 80bpm. Typically we would see drops between moments of fear however the anxiety and dread this movie created kept the numbers high and kept our subject cowering on the couch.

Note: For the first ten minutes our subject did experience mild nausea due to the ‘found footage’ camera style

CONCLUSION:

With her heart-rate sustaining elevated numbers for the entire second half of the film Grave Encounters gained a spot in our top ten scariest movies. (Of the ones we have monitored thus far). The lengthy introduction was the ultimate cause for the lower average bpm, otherwise this film had potential to break the top 3. Many thanks to The Horror Academy Podcast for this terrifying selection.

If you need yet another reason to check out this hidden gem, try to figure out why we compared the calories burned against a tongue… happy snacking.

Grave Encounters: Burns 251 calories

Beef Tongue: 253 Calories

Check out our Instagram page for the updated leaderboard!

How many Fear Calories did you burn watching Grave Encounters? Let us know in the comments below or on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook