The United States is a big, sprawling country with an enormously diverse mish-mash of cultures, tastes, and geographic predilections. Pop culture preferences can vary wildly from state to state. With October being the month that horror movies reign supreme, Kill the Cable Bill decided to take a look at each state to figure out which horror movies were of most interest to each state.

Their methodology incorporated a few tools and a strict date range. First, they looked at Rotten Tomatoes’ list of the 200 best horror movies of all time. Then, they looked at Google Trends from each state from October 1, 2019 through October 1, 2020 and utilized Mindnet Analytics to crunch the data. It’s important to note they didn’t focus on a state’s most searched for horror movie overall, but what horror movie each state searched for more than any other state. (In my opinion, it makes for a more interesting set of results than just getting 47 states returning Halloween or this year’s hit The Invisible Man as their most-Googled movie of 2020.) And as a small note, they also included the District of Columbia as its own state.

If you can’t see that graphic, you can check out the table below:

AlabamaHarpoon
AlaskaGet Out
ArizonaNight of the Comet
ArkansasHost
CaliforniaTheater of Blood
ColoradoThe Shining
ConnecticutThe Wicker Man
DelawareRepulsion
District of ColumbiaThe Devil’s Backbone
Florida1408
GeorgiaJacob’s Ladder
HawaiiCargo
IdahoFrankenstein
IllinoisI Walked With a Zombie
IndianaThe Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
IowaPeeping Tom
KansasTremors
KentuckyHalloween
LouisianaDr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
MaineThe Lighthouse
MarylandFreaks
MassachusettsJaws
MichiganThe Devil’s Backbone
MinnesotaPsycho
MississippiThe Loved Ones
MissouriThe Bride of Frankenstein
MontanaThe Babadook
NebraskaKing Kong
NevadaFreaks
New HampshireEraserhead
New JerseyThe Devil’s Backbone
New MexicoAlien
New YorkBakjwi
North CarolinaIt
North Dakota10 Cloverfield Lane
OhioTucker and Dale vs. Evil
OklahomaZombieland
OregonHost
PennsylvaniaThe Abominable Dr. Phibes
Rhode IslandThe Invisible Man
South CarolinaAn American Werewolf in London
South DakotaLa Llorona
TennesseeIsland of Lost Souls
TexasThe Devil’s Backbone
UtahThe Silence of the Lambs
VermontBakjwi
VirginiaDead Ringers
WashingtonDon’t Look Now
West VirginiaThe Night of the Hunter
WisconsinThe Love Witch
WyomingA Quiet Place

They also found a few interesting trends in the data they looked at.

  • Guillermo del Toro’s The Devil’s Backbone (2001) was the most sought-after movie in four states, Washington D.C., Michigan, New Jersey, and Texas.
  • A number of states’ interest was rooted in horror movies either being set in or filmed in their states, such as Massachusetts and Jaws (filmed in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts) or Colorado and The Shining (set in Colorado).
  • The southeastern U.S. has had a low interest in horror movies compared to the rest of the country, at least in the last year. Florida has the least interest, followed by Georgia, the Carolinas, and Mississippi. Oregon, conversely, has been the most interested in horror.

It’s that last point I’m most interested in. If someone were to do a study of why Oregon has been so into horror this year and the Southeast has been so uninterested in it, I think that would be fascinating. Wouldn’t you?

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