Google Ngrams provide a fascinating peak at trending topics over time by allowing us to compare the popularity of expressions in published books. For Halloween this week I whipped up the following sketch of some of Hollywood's favorite monsters:

Thoughts

• Popular vampire movies since the '90s (Interview with a Vampire, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Twilight, etc.) helped catapult our leading ghoul.
• Zombies were a little late to the party (they were not part of Universal's 1930s horror cast) but have definitely risen to icon status - the trend line has been moving since the 1960 cult classic Night of the Living Dead, but the impact of recent Zombie TV shows isn't completely felt by the time the data runs out in 2008.
• How much of the Mummy trend line is corrupted by Egyptology?
• Is there any hope for our poor Hunchback and Werewolf? The Phantom of the Opera made such a weak showing that he had to left out. Don't take it out on me Phantom - blame Andrew Lloyd Webber!
• Is the dip in the 1960s due to the thriller/horror/monster genre being taken over by Godzilla and Hitchcock?
• If you think Vampires are a big deal you should check out Witches.

 

Interested in hearing about what you see - and what monster you're going as on Halloween!

Info We Trust is a data adventure exploring how to better humanize information. To learn more read the opening post here. The creator, RJ Andrews, is an engineer and proud Northeastern University and MIT graduate. Please reach out through facebook, twitter @infowetrust, or the contact page.