Fright Nightz

I know I may be a little extreme in this matter, but I firmly believe that celebrating the horrifying pagan ecstasies of Halloween should never be limited to the 31st of October. This greatest of holidays calls for a month-long, blood-chilling descent into the realm of all things creepy, crawly, sick and twisted. With that in mind I've assembled a list of some of my favorite scary flicks in the hope that those of you with strong constitutions will join me at horror movie boot camp.

The Brood (David Cronenberg, also check out Rabid and Shivers)

Sisters (Brian DePalma, also check out Carrie and Dressed to Kill)

Eyes Without a Face (Georges Franju)

Freaks (Tod Browning)

Donnie Darko (Richard Kelly)

The Most Dangerous Game - this one inspired the Zodiac killer!!! (Irving Pichel & Ernest B. Schoedsack)

Don't Look Now (Nicolas Roeg, also check out The Witches)

The Elephant Man (David Lynch)

The Exorcist (William Friedkin)

Frailty (Bill Paxton)

Suspiria (Dario Argento)

The Honeymoon Killers (Leonard Kastle)

The Host (Joon-ho Bong)

Little Otik (Jan Svankmakjer)

A Nightmare on Elm Street (Wes Craven, also check out Red Eye and Cursed)

Night of the Living Dead & Dawn of the Dead (George A. Romero)

The Others (Alejandro Amenabar)

Pan's Labyrinth (Guillermo del Toro)

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (Tom Tykwer)

Poltergeist (Tobe Hooper, also see The Texas Chainsaw Massacre)

Rosemary's Baby (Roman Polanski)

Shaun of the Dead - this one lands in the "spoofy scary" category (Edgar Wright)

The Silence of the Lambs (Jonathan Demme)

Alfred Hitchcock Grab Bag: Take your pick from Shadow of a Doubt, The Birds, Psycho, Frenzy etc.

Sleepy Hollow (Tim Burton, also check out Beetlejuice and Ed Wood)

The Stepford Wives - original 1975 version (Bryan Forbes)

Slither (James Gunn)

The Shining (Stanley Kubrick)

The Stuff (Larry Cohen)

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? & Hush...Hush Sweet Charlotte (Robert Aldrich)

Strait-Jacket (William Castle, also check out The House on Haunted Hill and The Tingler)

The Haunting - 1963 version (Robert Wise)

Sweet dreams, everyone!