i'm guessing "black". My second guess is "space".

I will reveal the answer one week from the original post... So the answer will be announced on Monday, February 2.

I have to guess "Dracula" being a vampire and all.

I vote for dark and night.

i sat at computer the entire day yesterday hitting the refresh button waiting for the answer to be posted. i was very disappointed when midnight came around and there was no answer. i am sad. will the world ever know most common word used in horror and sci-fi movies?

I thought maybe I wasn't getting a response for some other reason, but I guess we both might have been canceling each other out by performing the same task.

Put this query right up there with "How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Tootsie Pop?"

Here is the answer to the most frequent word in classic horror and sci-fi movie titles... (I delayed it one day, because what good is a horror movie without some suspense? hehe.)

And the winner is... DRACULA! With frankenstein following close behind.

(the number is how many times the word appears in a title)
19 dracula
17 frankenstein
14 monster
12 man
11 earth
11 house
11 space
9 dead
9 night
8 creature
8 dr
7 and
7 beast
7 king
7 outer
7 vampire
6 black
6 blood
6 cat
6 dark
6 phantom
6 woman

And for fun, here's the top ten 3-word phrases found in classic horror and sci-fi movies.

6 from outer space
5 attack of the
5 night of the
4 invasion of the
4 of the living
4 the living dead
4 war of the
3 brides of dracula
3 day the earth
3 house of wax

Combine the most popular word with the most popular phrase and you get DRACULA FROM OUTER SPACE!!!

Heh heh heh

erik (and tom).........
oh, what can i say.