The close proximity of Halloween along with watching Mark Gatiss ‘History of Horror’ on BBC 3 has got me thinking about the great scary movies that we should all be watching this Halloween weekend.

The first scary movie I saw stayed with me for the rest of my life, one scene in particular presenting itself in nightmares. ‘The Evil Dead’ was and is my favourite Zombie movie; to be fair I don’t actually like zombie movies, all that eating of brains and insides just makes me feel ill, but ‘The Evil Dead’ has a great sense of humour about it and Bruce Campbell makes it totally watchable.

Beyond that I saw a variety of the late 70’s early 80’s horrors, one of which I have never heard mentioned when discussing movies, perhaps because it was so awful? ‘Christina’ i think it was called and seemed to be about a Frankenstein type experiment putting the vengeful mind of a introverted, bullied and facially disfigured girl into the body of a sexy beautiful woman. Needless to say, madness and murder ensues.

Hammer Horror never appealed to me, the pinkish orange of the blood never sat right with me, I preferred black and white thrillers such as ‘Psycho’ and comedy thrillers like Bob Hope’s ‘The Cat and the Canary.’

It wasn’t until I was 18 that I saw the movie I consider the scariest film ever. ‘The Shining’ and other paranormal horrors that followed seem to bother me more than any vampire, serial killer or zombie ever has. The desolation of the hotel, the endless long corridors of empty rooms stretching away in the cold hotel would probably send any one mad even without the help of murderous spirits.  The simplicity of a children’s ball rolling down an empty hallway towards the young boy is enough to raise hairs. These simple scenes, though creepy, are like warnings of the more graphic and grotesque scenes that follow Particularly, the scene in the hallway where Danny sees the two girl ghosts  inviting him to play with them ‘forever’ with a spliced frame of their bloody murder……I still have to look away at that moment.

If I have learnt anything about what scares me when it comes to movies, it’s that you throw a haunting from a dead child in the mix and I am going to have trouble going to the bathroom during the night. Japanese horrors used that imagery and back story to great affect in The Ring, The Grudge and Dark Water and while not as good in its entirety; A Tale of Two Sisters has a few alarming scenes thrown in.  The American remakes of these movies don’t quite have the same feel to them as the originals, however the sight of Samara crawling out of the TV in ‘The Ring’ or the vengeful blood soaked ghost of ‘The Grudge’ crawling down the stairs translates fairly well. Another spooky children offering worth watching is Spanish movie The Orphanage, with its unexpectedly disturbing faceless child ghost.

More mainstream movies that delivered in that area were the TV movie of ‘The Woman in Black’ (soon to be remade by Jane Goldman) featuring a ghost child who likes to throw balls and leave toy soldiers in peoples beds, and the 1980 George C Scott movie ‘The Changeling.’ Scott plays a recently widowed concert pianist who moves to an old house in the desolate Pacific Northwest only to find that something in the house is trying to get his attention. The use again of desolate wintry locations and the children’s toys add an effortlessly creepy tone to the movie.

Another parapsychological horror that slipped under the radar for many was ‘The Machinist’ director Brad Anderson’s early movie ‘Session 9’, about a group of men clearing asbestos from a derelict insane asylum.  English actor Peter Mullan does a fabulous turn as the foreman bothered by the asylums lingering inmates.

I deliberately haven’t mentioned some of the more run-of-the-mill horrors that everyone knows and loves; while ‘Halloween’ is still one of my favourite movies of its genre, I cant say it ever kept me awake at night. If you want more ideas for Halloween viewing, get onto the BBC iPlayer and watch the 3 part series ‘A History of Horror’, its a damn good look at the genre from the early black and white’s to the American slasher movies of the 70’s. Plenty of viewing material there to give you a Halloween scream.

I figure the scariest it can get for me is if someone made a movie about an insane asylum haunted by the ghost of a small child. Still waiting.