But Tyler Perry’s "Boo!: A Madea Halloween" is the most engaging "horror" film.

By Ben Tom George

“Backrooms” is the most-streamed horror movie this Halloween season by a wide margin, reaching 2 million more households than runner-up “Evil Dead Burn,” according to a new analysis from Samba.

Samba conducted the analysis by identifying all the horror genre films available on streaming over the last month and measuring their watch time and audiences.

"Backrooms," an unsettling, meme-inspired film, was A24’s highest-grossing release, earning more than $400 million worldwide at the box office, and it arrived on streaming with a built-in audience from Kane Parson’s popular YouTube channel. 

With a more modest international box office haul of $72 million, “Evil Dead Burn” found a second life on streaming when it landed on HBO Max on October 2.

Horror fans seem to be in need of a laugh this Halloween; four of the top ten titles by watch time (“Boo! A Madea Halloween,” “The Menu,” and two reboots, “Scary Movie,” and "Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice”) are horror-comedies. 

“Obsession,” the breakout summer horror hit that grossed $520 million at the box office worldwide, is a noticeable omission from both lists. The film was a streaming hit when it was released on Peacock on July 17, but viewership has since declined.

'Split,' 'IT' and 'Scream 7' surge in watch time

Accounting for watch time causes some dramatic shifts for horror film rankings

There's little change at the top — the five most popular horror movies by household reach are the same based on total hours viewed. Horror classics “Halloween” (1978) and “The Ruins” (2008) are replaced in the top 10 by contemporary titles “Scary Movie” (the new one from this year) and “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” (2024).

Some films surge up the rankings when judged by total watch time versus households reached.

"Split," the 2016 film from horror auteur M. Night Shyamalan, ranks 43rd by households but 24th by watch time, a gain of 19 spots. The 2017 film version of Stephen King's "IT" jumps 17 spots, from No. 40 by household rank to No. 23 by watch time.

Other movies lose ground by this comparison, most noticeably the aforementioned "Obsession," which drops 14 spots (19th by households, 33rd by watch time). Both the 1978 and 2018 versions of "Halloween" fell four spots, and the steepest decline is family-friendly "Hubie Halloween" (2020), which loses 25 spots to land at No. 38 on the watch time chart.

Average watch time per household puts "Split" at the top, and "Backrooms" at No. 8.

Tyler Perry’s ‘Boo’ is the most engaging horror film

To measure engagement even further, Samba calculated the completion rate of each horror title — the average minutes watched per household for each movie, divided by the movie’s runtime. That is, how far the average household made it through each movie.

The completion rate upends the household reach rankings. By completion rate, “Backrooms” is No. 9 on the list, with the average viewer watching two-thirds of the movie. “Dracula” comes in tenth with a dismal 55 percent completion rate. (In defense of both films, they are a good 20 to 30 minutes longer than most other titles on the list.)

Tyler Perry’s “Boo!: A Madea Halloween” from 2016 is the top film by completion rate, however, with viewers finishing 87 percent of the movie (though it hardly qualifies as a horror movie in the traditional sense).

The differences between rankings for household reach, watch time and completion rate illustrate the different ways to measure the audience for a piece of content. Some films attract a wide audience, some of whom are only partially interested in the content ("Backrooms"), while others cater to a niche audience who is deeply interested ("Boo!").