FANCY A fright NIGHT IN?

Cower behind the sofa with one of Mail film critic Brian Viner’s Top Ten horror films

There’s one emotion cinema triggers like no other art form – fear – and these are the Top Ten films, in reverse order of scariness, that have terrified me like no others. If you want a proper dose of the heebie-jeebies on Halloween, any one would be perfect...

10 DON’T LOOK NOW (1973)

A hair-raising portrayal of grief, with Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie superb as a couple who move to Venice after their daughter drowns in an accident. There, it appears the little girl is trying to communicate with them. Truly haunting. Available on Sky On Demand/now TV.

9 THE SHINING (1980)

Jack Nicholson is an aspiring writer(below)whotakesajobas caretaker of a spooky hotel where a previous caretaker went mad, murdering his family before killing himself. He takes his wife and son, but the boy has a psychic gift enabling him to see into the hotel’s past, in particular the events that occurred in room 237. Yikes! Sky Halloween (Sky 311, Virgin 411), Sun, 12.55pm and Thu, 7pm. Available on Sky On

Demand/now TV.

8 HALLOWEEN (1978)

Preying on the fear that there’s no more convenient evening for a maniac to break into a house than when the grown-ups are out, this truly scary movie sees a knife-wielding psychopath escape from a lunatic asylum to stalk babysitter Jamie Lee Curtis. Sky Halloween, Thur, 9pm. Available on Sky On Demand/now TV.

7 ROSEMARY’S BABY (1968)

This classic stars Mia Farrow as a pregnant young wife increasingly worried, with good reason, about her new neighbours, their influence on her husband and the nature of her child. Available to buy on Amazon, Sky Store and Rakuten TV.

6 PSYCHO (1960)

The shower scene in which Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) is knifed to death by crazed mummy’s boy Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) caused a sensation at the time. By modern standards it looks tame, but Hitchcock was the master not just of suspense but of psychological horror. In Psycho, they’re in perfect synthesis. Available on Netflix.

5 THE WICKER MAN (1973)

One of the weirdest British horror films ever, as Edward Woodward’s devoutly Christian police sergeant looks into the disappearance of a girl on a Hebridean island, and becomes embroiled in some decidedly unwholesome folk traditions. Sky Halloween, Mon, 6am and Fri, 12.15pm. Available on Sky On Demand/now TV.

4 THE BABADOOK

(2014) Ifthis doesn’t terrify you, you’re made of sterner stuff than me. Essie Davis is terrific as the mother of a disturbed boy whose obsession with imaginary monsters seems to breathe life into one of them. Syfy, Thu, 9pm. Available to rent on Amazon, Sky Store and Rakuten TV.

3 THE EXORCIST (1973)

Probably the most famous of all horror films, it’s easy to see why the tale of a mother’s resolve to rid her daughter (Linda Blair) of demonic possession caused cinemagoers to faint. Available to rent on Amazon,

Sky Store and Rakuten TV.

2 THE INNOCENTS (1961)

One of the finest psychological horror films ever made. Deborah Kerr is a governess hired to look after an ageing man’s orphaned niece and nephew in a country house where evil spirits lurk. DVD available from Amazon, £17.89.

1 THE OMEN (1976)

No horror film has scared me more. The US ambassador in London (Gregory Peck) and his wife (Lee Remick) raise a child that he knows, but she doesn’t, isn’t really theirs. What the poor fellow doesn’t know is that the boy he secretly substituted for his own dead baby is the spawn of Satan. Sky Halloween, Mon, 5pm, followed by the three sequels. Available on Sky On Demand/now TV. n

See our movie planner on page 24 for more Halloween films.

Linda Blair in The Exorcist