The most popular franchises are the Top 3 on the list: Halloween, Friday the 13th, and Nightmare on Elm Street. But these slasher series account for only about half of all the states. The other half of the country favors a range of different classic horror movies, from classics like Texas Chainsaw Massacre to more recent favorites like the Saw films.
2001’s Jeepers Creepers picked up a total of five states: Arkansas, Indiana, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Utah. That’s a surprisingly strong finish for a franchise that started relatively recently (the original Jeepers Creepers came out in 2001) and that has far less name-recognition than its competitors — including Nightmare on Elm Street, which is the favorite of only four states. Meanwhile the widely beloved Alien was #1 in only two states, the same number of states that favor Gremlins and Tremors, respectively.
Other movies surprised us by even making it onto the map. Puppet Master is more of a cult favorite than a horror classic, so we didn’t expect to see it take the #1 spot in Louisiana. Nor did we think the goofy 80s Gremlins movies would be considered the best horror franchise of all time by voters in both Oregon and Rhode Island. But we weren’t shocked to see that the famously proud people of Texas were the only ones to vote up Texas Chainsaw Massacre as their #1.
