6 films to set the mood

Halloween: It’s the most terrifying night of the year, when ghosts and ghouls abound and things are often not what they seem. It’s also the perfect excuse to catch up on some seriously scary movies — as long as you have a cushion to hide behind, that is. Here are six of the very best to guarantee a fun, spooky evening. Get the popcorn ready!

The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

Dr. Hannibal Lecter is the truly terrifying serial killer brilliantly portrayed by Sir Anthony Hopkins in this classic tale of a warped mind. Lecter is intelligent and cultured but also a barbaric murderer who is infamous for eating his victims. In his most famous line, he boasts that after killing a census taker “I ate his liver... with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.” Jodie Foster is the perfect match to Hopkins as FBI agent in training Clarice Starling.

Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)

Legendary director Francis Ford Coppola takes Bram Stoker’s famous novel about infamous Transylvanian vampire Count Dracula into a brilliant, dark but also humorous horror flick. An all-star cast including Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder, Keanu Reeves, and Anthony Hopkins — again! — ensures viewers can’t take their eyes off the screen, even if Reeves’s British accent raised some eyebrows. The winner of three Academy Awards, it travels from 19th-century London to Transylvania, with wolves, blood, and plenty of chills along the way.

Beetlejuice (1988)

Horror can also combine with comedy to great effect, such as in this classic featuring stars such as Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder. It tells the story of how a couple of ghosts find that their beautiful home has been taken over by horrible new owners, leaving them to hire a “freelance bio-exorcist” — the brilliant Beetlejuice. With zombies, visual gags, a great soundtrack, laughs, and screams aplenty, it makes for guaranteed edge-of-the-seat viewing.

The Shining (1980)

Providing what is arguably Jack Nicholson’s standout performance, The Shining is a psychological horror based on a book by Stephen King. It shows how Nicholson, a caretaker in an isolated hotel in Colorado, slowly descends into madness under the hotel’s malign influence. His son’s psychic ability to connect with supernatural forces will make sure you never look at a hotel corridor in the same way again!

Casper (1995)

Halloween movies don’t always have to mean feeling totally terrified (see Beetlejuice, for example), so Casper is the perfect way to enjoy October 31 with kids in tow, with cutting-edge (for the time) computer-generated imagery bringing the famously friendly ghost to life beautifully. Following the discovery of a treasure map marking a hidden fortune, a therapist played by Bill Pullman is bought in to exorcise ghosts from a home. They’re an interesting bunch, but while Casper is “the friendliest ghost you know”, his uncles are not so kind, ensuring thrills and laughs aplenty for all ages.

The Birds (1963)

Famed director Alfred Hitchcock was the master of suspense, nowhere more so than in this masterpiece. It’s a simple premise as two people meet in a San Francisco pet store, strike up a romance and share the gift of two lovebirds. But then things take a serious and horrifying turn for the worse, as suspense builds up before the birds attack guests at a party and then take on the town. You’ll be guaranteed to duck next time you see a pigeon!