What is Erie High School’s favorite Halloween movie? With Halloween right around the corner now is the perfect time to find out. Students answered a short survey asking them the question of the season, “what is your favorite Halloween movie?”
When the survey was first posted on the school Snapchat, that’s where problems arose. After multiple hours, and over 300 views, the survey had less than twenty responses. After the story was up for multiple hours, the best way to go about this was to ask some teachers for help. This study wouldn’t have been able to be completed if it weren’t for them, so a huge thank you to Brandon Bird, Jordan Graff, Sophia Billington, Holly Czernicki, Gretchen Hall, Greg Miller, and Judy Trinkner.
After three days, the survey had over 160 responses. After sifting through answers such as ‘LaLa Land’, ‘Space Jam’, and a strange amount of ‘I don’t know’, there were 152 responses. In total, there were 59 different responses, ranging from ‘Terrifier’ all the way to ‘Wallace and Gromit’.
In total, the survey had responses from 35 freshmen, 46 sophomores, 42 juniors, 32 seniors, and seven teachers. Alongside asking students their favorite Halloween movie, the survey also asked a question that’s been asked since it first came out. Is ‘Nightmare Before Christmas’ a Halloween movie, or a Christmas movie? Or both? Overwhelmingly, students agreed on both with 57% of the votes (88 students). 29% (44 students) said it was a Halloween movie, while only 13% (20 students) said it was exclusively a Christmas movie.
There were four movies that had significantly more votes than others. In fourth place, barely missing out on the podium, 1978’s ‘Halloween’, the original Michael Meyers movie, with 14 votes. Beating ‘Halloween’ by only two votes, ‘Nightmare Before Christmas’. In second place, with 20 votes, Disney’s ‘Hocus Pocus’. Winning with 24 votes, ‘Scream’. The first of seven in the franchise, 1996 ‘Scream’ is a cult classic.
Overall, the survey was a success. Despite its early challenges, 152 students is a pretty good survey. Of course, the survey only accounts for the students who participated. If a schoolwide study were to take place the answers very easily could fluctuate.
