Halloween can prove a minefield for the horror film averse. Everyone else will be clamouring for slasher-flick marathons, and there’s only so many times you can compromise with a rerun of the creepy but mercifully bloodless Hitchcock gothic, Rebecca.

Enter Shaun of the Dead, starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. A zombie film might not sound like a go-to watch for the more easily spooked viewer, but this ground-breaking ‘horror comedy’ feels more like a sitcom (albeit one with a few flesh eaters lurching about the streets of London).

Pegg plays Shaun, a slacker-Romeo who is going through a painful break-up and decides to drown his sorrows with his best mate (Frost), only to wake up, hungover, during a full-blown zombie apocalypse.

The thoroughly British humour is typified by Billy Nighy’s scene-stealing turn as Shaun’s father, whose reaction to getting bitten by a zombie is to proclaim: “I ran it under a cold tap”.

– Flora Carr, Drama Writer

Where to watch: Amazon Prime (sign up to Amazon Prime for a 30 day free trial)

Suspiria (1977)

Call Me By Your Name director Luca Guadagnino recently remade this unforgettable 1977 giallo into a new movie starring Tilda Swinton, but the original remains the superior film: a gory and gorgeously colourful horror with an incredibly creepy atmosphere and a tremendously memorable score.

The film follows Suzy Bannion (Jessica Harper), a young American ballet dancer who arrives at a prestigious German dance school and begins to suspect that supernatural forces are present at the academy.

Against the backdrop of increasingly strange occurrences, Suzy slowly begins to unravel the mystery of the school, leading to an impeccably shot showdown with the leader of a sinister witch’s coven.

It’s one of several Dario Argento films currently available with an Amazon Prime Video subscription – among the others on offer, Deep Red (Profondo Rosso), Phenomena and Opera are also well worth a watch for newcomers to the Italian maestro

– Patrick Cremona, Writer-Researcher

Where to watch: Amazon Prime (sign up to Amazon Prime for a 30 day free trial)

Nosferatu (1922)

The greatest fan film ever made, 1922’s Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror was the first screen adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula (a film released the previous year, Dracula’s Death, had featured the Count but was not directly based on Stoker’s novel) but was produced without permission, with names being changed from the original text in a flimsy attempt to avoid copyright issues – most notably, Max Schreck’s vampire is not the suave Count Dracula that would become standard but rather the memorably grotesque Count Orlok. This effort failed and a court ruling ordered all copies of Nosferatu to be destroyed – a few prints thankfully survived, though, preserving what is now considered to be a classic of silent German Expressionist horror, with director FW Murnau’s use of shadows and unsettling imagery still holding the power to unnerve almost 100 years on from the film’s original release.

– Morgan Jeffery, Executive Editor

Where to watch: MUBI on Amazon Prime (sign up to Mubi for a 7 day free trial)

Scream (1996)

Legendary director Wes Craven resurrected the ailing slasher genre with this inventive hit. Scream immediately hooks you in with what might be one of the most terrifying opening stings ever put to screen, featuring a heartbreaking performance from Drew Barrymore and the unforgettable first appearance of Ghostface.

The focus then shifts to a group of high schoolers led by Neve Campbell as Sidney Prescott, who are left reeling from the revelation that a killer is lurking in their sleepy town. The tone lightens just a little as Craven begins playing with the tropes of a sub-genre he helped create, with some amusing meta-commentary delivered by Jamie Kennedy as movie buff Randy Meeks.

Such is the brilliance of Scream; it delivers big on scares, but what really sets it apart is its smartly written characters and a dark sense of humour that should put a smile on any horror fan’s face. Without a doubt, one of the greatest slashers ever made.

– David Craig, Writer-Researcher

Where to watch:

• Scream (1996) Amazon Prime (rent from £3.49 or buy from £3.99)
• Scream 2 Amazon Prime (rent from £3.49 or buy from £4.99)
• Scream 3 Amazon Prime (rent from £2.49 or buy from £3.99)
• Scream 4 Amazon Prime (rent from £3.49 or buy from £6.99)

Get Out (2017)

Universal Pictures

If you’re looking for some food for thought with your serving of horror, Jordan Peele’s Academy Award-winning film Get Out is a perfect Halloween pick. While paying homage to scary classics like The Shining, Peele’s directorial debut looks at the genre through a satirical lens, simultaneously exploring social critiques and giving thrill-seeking audiences a good fright.

Starring Black Panther’s Daniel Kaluuya, Get Out follows photographer Chris (Kaluuya), who travels to rural Upstate New York with his white girlfriend Rose (Allison Williams) to meet her middle-class family. However, when Chris notices the odd behaviours of Rose’s parents and their strange neighbours, the trip takes a horrific turn.

A gripping thriller with racial commentary woven throughout, Get Out’s infusion of classic horror tropes with dark humour and thought-provoking imagery makes it one of the best films of 2017.

– Lauren Morris, Writer-Researcher

Where to watch: Amazon Prime (rent from £0.99 or buy from £3.99)

Night of the Living Dead (1968)

1968 saw the advent of the contemporary zombie movie with the release of George A Romero’s independent horror Night of the Living Dead.

Shot on a tight budget and going on to earn more than 250 times what it cost to produce, the film is a masterpiece in creeping tension, with occasional bursts of shocking gore, as it follows seven people trapped in a farmhouse and besieged by cannibalistic corpses. But like all of Romero’s best works, there’s more to Night of the Living Dead than what’s on the surface – it’s also a searing piece of social commentary, tackling themes of racism as the film’s Black hero Ben (Duane Jones) is mistreated by bigots who consider him as much a threat as the walking dead.

The film’s ending is perhaps its masterstroke – no spoilers, but it’s a twist rife with ambiguity, one which pays off the film’s underlying themes in shocking fashion.

– Morgan Jeffery, Executive Editor

Where to watch: Amazon Prime (sign up to Amazon Prime for a 30 day free trial)

Dawn of the Dead (1978)

Ten years on from Night of the Living Dead came George A Romero’s follow-up and arguably his finest work, Dawn of the Dead. Though themes of social commentary were absolutely present in Night, Dawn is much a critique of American society in the 1970s – and in particular the rise of mass consumerism – as it is a horror film, with a gang of four – SWAT officers Roger (Scott Reiniger) and Peter (Ken Foree), plus husband and wife Stephen (David Emge) and Fran (Gaylen Ross) – taking refuge from the spreading zombie plague in a suburban shopping mall (then still something of a novelty in the US).

The zombies are no longer just the enemy, Dawn of the Dead tells us – they’re us, a mindless mob blindly driven by a desire to consume above all else. The end result is a film that’s sharp, horrific, funny and bleak in equal measure.

– Morgan Jeffery, Executive Editor

Where to watch: Order DVD from Amazon

Day of the Dead (1985)

The final film in George A Romero’s original zombie trilogy, Day of the Dead is generally considered a weaker effort than its predecessors Night and Dawn (review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes has it at an 81 per cent approval rating, compared to its predecessors’ 90+ scores) – but in its own way, this 1985 film is every bit as powerful, entertaining and influential as what came before.

Exploring a central theme of science vs. military might – as personified by lead character Dr. Sarah Bowman’s (Lori Crdille) clash with the unhinged Captain Rhodes (Joseph Pilato) – Day sees Romero continue to push the series in new and fascinating directions with the introduction of “Bub” (Sherman Howard), a ‘friendly’ member of the undead horde taught to mimic human behaviour, introducing the concept of the semi-rehabilitated zombie which would later be explored in everything from Shaun of the Dead (2004) to the BBC TV series In the Flesh (2013).

Not only that, but who doesn’t have time for a film where a character having his guts torn out instructs his zombie attackers to “CHOKE ON ‘EM!!”?

– Morgan Jeffery, Executive Editor

Where to watch: Order DVD from Amazon

A Quiet Place (2017)

John Krasinski’s directorial debut takes the high-stakes tension of sneaking back into your house after an illicit night out, every tiny noise spelling your possible doom, into a truly pulse-pounding thriller. You’ll never look at a creaky stair in quite the same way again.

Set in a near-future version of present-day Earth, we’re dropped into a world where blind but hearing-sensitive aliens have wiped out most of human society. Those that are left survive by living in complete silence, with the slightest word or too-loud footstep drawing in a wave of the fast-moving monsters.

Part of the fun in the film is seeing the arduous methods the lead characters take to avoid detection – soft board game pieces, steamed food under floorboards, long sanded paths that they walk on barefoot – but of course, it’s also not too long before all the preparations go out of the window and a more traditional monster mash-up ensues.

– Huw Fullerton, Sci-Fi and Fantasy Editor

Where to watch: Netflix

Rosemary’s Baby (1968)

Horror cinema doesn’t get much more iconic than Roman Polanski’s 1968 adaptation of Ira Levin’s novel of the same name – an unsettling and chilling film which expertly builds tension to almost impossibly nightmarish levels.

Mia Farrow gives one of the all time great performances as the titular Rosemary, who moves into an opulent new home in New York’s Upper West Side along with her husband Guy, played by John Cassavetes.

When Guy becomes close with the pair’s slightly unusual neighbours, Rosemary begins to suspect something sinister is going on. These suspicions are only enhanced when she falls pregnant – with Rosemary believing herself to be carrying the child of Satan himself – but her attempts to stop a supposed coven only send her deeper into trouble.

This is a film almost entirely without gore, with the scares coming purely from more psychological elements, but more than 50 years after it’s release it stands up as one of the spookiest horrors ever made.

– Patrick Cremona, Writer-Researcher

Where to watch: Amazon Prime (rent from £3.49 or buy from £3.99)

Us (2019)

Weird, wonderful and extremely spooky are just some of the words that come to mind when thinking of Jordan Peele’s Us.

Initially set in two timelines – 1986 and the modern day –  the American horror film tells the story of a family of four headed by Black Panther stars Lupita Nyong’o and Winston Duke. The Wilsons are put in a compromising position during a trip to Santa Cruz and must fight for their lives when they’re attacked by their menacing doppelgängers.

Similar to Peele’s debut film Get Out starring Daniel Kaluuya, Us is as much a social metaphor for America today as it is a gripping, scary movie. With a shocking twist at the end you’ll never see coming, Us is sure to keep you on the edge of your seat!

– Grace Henry, Entertainment and Factual Editor

Where to watch: Amazon Prime (buy for £4.99)

If you’re looking for more to watch, check out our TV Guide.