This Is Halloween! - My Favourite Horror Films

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Tobe Hooper, 1974)

Visceral, brutal and utterly terrifying. This low-budget slasher flick was quickly branded a video nasty leading to widespread bans, but upon contemporary viewing, Hooper's flesh-ripping nightmare is actually incredibly well-crafted. Despite what the title may suggest, very little real violence is actually shown and is instead left to audience suggestion, while the use of sound is sublime - most notably in the notorious dinnertime sequence, with Marilyn Burns' desperate screams dominating the audio for the duration of the scene, turning the viewing experience into a nightmarish test of endurance. Stark, vicious and unforgettable.

The Exorcist (William Friedkin, 1973)

The grandaddy of dramatic horror flicks, The Exorcist harbours the same power to shock and unsettle audiences today as it did upon its initial release. Director Friedkin transforms the simple story of a young girl possessed into a slow-burning tale of evil, corruption and an omnipresent menace. The iconic Tubular Bells score perfectly sets the atmosphere for the film and Regan's gradual transformation from poorly young girl to demonic abhorrence is so expertly crafted that by the time the narrative reaches its climax, the audience's nerve lies in tatters.

Halloween (John Carpenter, 1978)

The teen slasher that set the benchmark for an entire genre. Carpenter's original masterwork proved so effective that it can be blamed for the slew of cookie-cutter slasher flicks that followed in subsequent decades, not least its own seven piss-poor sequels. But Halloween remains triumphant, and may be revisited again and again without losing any of its scare-power. Carpenter's use of lighting is superb - every set is obscured by shadows, allowing the killer to hide in the corner of any frame. Such technique lets Carpenter get away with showing very little real violence; the true horror lies not in what the audience sees, but in what it thinks it sees. Similarly, Carpenter's brilliantly simple musical score, and his use of first-person camera to force the audience to see through the killer's eyes and hear his heavy breathing as he stalks his victims, contribute to Halloween's unique and everlasting power to terrify.