Fresh off its Hollywood launch, SCARESCORE heads north for the Toronto After Dark Film Festival, October 14–18, 2026.
From the press release:
SCARESCORE is crossing the border! The biometric horror app is bringing its technology to the Toronto After Dark Film Festival this week with world premieres and Shudder originals on the slate. Fresh off its exclusive launch on the Warner Bros. lot and at Screamfest in Hollywood, SCARESCORE is putting Toronto horror fans and their smartwatches to work. Luckily, there are no tariffs on fear!
Using the smartwatch a viewer already owns, SCARESCORE measures real-time reactions, including heart rate, heart-rate variability, movement and other patented measurements, turning them into a personalized score that moviegoers can challenge their friends with.
And it all starts with the screen.
SCARESCORE’s syncing technology recognizes and synchronizes with a film as it plays, connecting audience reactions to the exact moments that triggered them.
Every jump. Every spike. Every ‘that didn’t scare me.’
Now there’s a receipt.
“Horror fans have argued forever about what’s actually scary,” said SCARESCORE Co-Founder Chris Anastas. “Now we let their bodies join the argument. You can say whatever you want after the movie, but your biometrics already told us what happened.”
At Toronto After Dark, SCARESCORE is all about the fans: discovering their scores, challenging other horror fans and seeing how their reactions compare on the first-ever Global Human Scoreboard!
And the score doesn’t stop in Toronto.
As participating films move downstream after theatrical and festival screenings to streaming and home viewing, SCARESCORE continues syncing with the same film, gathering and comparing audience scores over the life of the title.
One movie. Different cities. Different audiences. One scientifically proven movie rating.
Films using SCARESCORE during Toronto After Dark (screenings held at the Cineplex Scotiabank Theatre in Cinema 1):
Hallowarrior (dir. Ben Sottak)
Wednesday, October 14th, 9:45 PM
Species (dir. Marion Le Coroller)
Thursday, October 15th, 9:30 PM
Red Snow (dir. Ilja Rautsi)
Friday, October 16th, 9:45 PM
Frogman Returns (dir. Anthony Cousins)
Sunday, October 18th, 9:30 PM, during the closing night gala.
ABOUT SCARESCORE
SCARESCORE is a biometric entertainment technology company creating a new way to measure, score and share audience response. Its syncing technology connects biometric reactions to the entertainment audiences are experiencing, transforming real-time physiological signals into personalized scores fans can share, compare, and compete with.
Beginning with horror, SCARESCORE is building a biometric record that can follow entertainment from the big screen through streaming and home viewing, measuring audience response throughout the life of a film.
