Furniture has a life and death role to play in horror movies it would seem. Surround yourself with doors and wardrobes, but avoid beds at all costs if you want to survive this Halloween – that’s the findings of an in-depth study undertaken by The Furniture Market who have analysed the top 50 horror movies of all time and ranked each piece of furniture on what’s likely to get you killed and what will help you escape.

The ranking system graded each furniture type and the potential chances of using it resulting in a gory end. The Chance-of-Death system = number of times furniture led to a protagonist escaping – number of times it led to a protagonist dying.
 
Beds
The analysis shows that beds are the most dangerous piece of furniture to hide behind with more people meeting a grizzly demise between the sheets than in any other setting. Being the favourite killing grounds of Freddy Kruger et al., the bed topped the ranking by a clear distance, with some notable bedroom scenes throughout the Nightmare in Elm Street franchise and at some points even being responsible for the character’s demise as in the acupuncture scene in Final Destination 5.

Doors
At the other end of the rankings, the humble door emerged as the safest article to be around, such as when Sigourney Weaver uses one to finally rid herself of the alien in the title by the same. While the door accounted for the most total deaths across the films it was responsible for a far greater number of escapes to give it the lowest Chance-of-Death rating of -22.
 
Wardrobes
Next safest is the wardrobe, and all the options it offers for hiding. It’s joined low down on the list by a varied mix of furniture, with cupboards (Rosemary’s Baby), bookshelves (Scream III), plant pots (Scream II) and even fridges (Scream) all used in the process of escape.
 
Baths
There is also a wide-range of furniture further up the rankings – such as baths (Psycho).

TV
and lets not forget the TV in The Ring.

The full rankings of The Most Dangerous Furniture in Horror Movies can be seen below:

“Furniture is synonymous with the horror movie genre. Not only are a lot of films watched from behind the sofa but as we can see many different items are used in escape attempts – be they successful or not” says Robert Walters of The Furniture Market. “With Halloween coming up we thought we’d find out which furniture is the best to hide behind and which really is not. Hollywood tells us that if you’re being chased by a chainsaw wielding maniac in a leather mask then don’t seek refuge under the bed, instead get behind the nearest door or failing that hide in a wardrobe!”

Here’s the list of horror movies they analysed: