We’re on a countdown this week to Halloween so what are the best films to scare yourself witless with at the weekend?

Here are our top ten scary, have-a-clean-pair-of-underwear-handy, films for Halloween….

1. Halloween: Clip above!This is without doubt the perfect Halloween film and is why it’s our top of the charts, must-see this Halloween. It’s set in the small town of Haddonfield, Illinois where a teenage baby sitter tries to survive a Halloween night of relentless terror, during which a knife-wielding maniac goes after the town’s teenagers. I think this film was the archetypal prototype for all the teen slasher movies that have since followed. The baby sitter is played by Jamie Lee Curtis, the real-life daughter of Psycho victim Janet Leigh; and the obsessed policeman played by Donald Pleasence is named Sam Loomis, after John Gavin’s character in Psycho. In the end though, Halloween stands on its own as an uncannily frightening experience. It’s one of those movies that will have you literally jumping out of your seats and shouting at the screen. Produced on a low budget, the picture turned a monster profit, and spawned many sequels, none of which approached the 1978 original but are still worth watching one after the other for a full night of Halloween scariness!

2. The Ring: At number two is The Ring, with its disturbing images and a few really good and shocking moments, The Ring is the kind of scarefest that is perfectly suited to Halloween parties. It’s an American remake of the 1998 Japanese hit Ringu that was based on Koji Suzuki’s novel. The plot follows a Seattle reporter, Naomi Watts, as she investigates the death of her niece, the victim of a mysterious videotape that, according to urban legend, causes the viewer’s death seven days later. The film follows the reporter, her son, and her estranged boyfriend into deepening layers of terror that result in a kinda silly but scary ending.

3. Scream: (Next on Tuesday 4th November 9:05pm – TG4) In at number three, there’s the story of a peaceful town in California that turns into the setting for a bloodbath when a masked killer haunts the town. Sidney Prescott, a young teenage girl whose mother was killed a year before, becomes the target of the mask killer. Her boyfriend Billy Loomis becomes the main suspect along with Sidney’s father. Local Tabloid News Reporter Gail Weathers and Woodsbroro’s Deputy Dwight ‘Dewey’ Riley investigate and try to figure out who the killer is and if it’s the same person who killed Sid’s mom the year before. This is a very tongue in cheek film but it has some really good and scary moments in it.

4. The Exorcist: (Next on Friday 31st October 11:05pm – TCM )This film was banned for years because it so shocked, frightened and offended audiences, and if you’ve never seen it, make Halloween the night for your own personal premiere. Something beyond evil is happening in a little girl’s room. Regan has brutally changed both in the way she looks and the way she acts, with violent outbursts on everyone who comes into contact with her. Her worried mother gets in contact with a priest who comes to the conclusion that Regan is possessed. The top priest who can deal with an exorcism, Father Merrin is called in to help save Regan from the demon inside her but will he pay the ultimate price himself? This is a really shocking film in many ways and for its time, it was truly horrific.

5. Friday the 13th: Another oldie but goodie is Friday the 13th. In 1957, a young boy called Jason Voorhees drowned. In 1958, two camp counsellors were murdered. In 1962, fires and bad water thwarted the reopening of Camp Crystal Lake. Then, in 1979, Crystal Lake was finally reopened by Steve Christy with the help of a few new counsellors. Ignoring the warnings to stay away that are made by a local wacko, the murders start once again while a mysterious stalker prowls the area. Is it revenge that the killer’s looking for? Who will survive the nightmare and live to tell the story? You’ll have to watch from behind your cushion to find out!

6. Nightmare On Elm Street: No night in – even if it’s not Halloween – that involves being frightened to the point you need Tena lady should pass without a bit of Nightmare in it! In the early 1980’s, a psychopath named Freddy Krueger – known as the Springwood Slasher – murdered several children with a glove outfitted with straight razor blades attached to the fingers. When a foolish decision by a judge sets him free, Krueger is burned alive in the boiler room where he worked by an angry mob of the parents whose children he terrorised and murdered. Years after his death, the children whose parents were responsible for Krueger’s death – including Nancy Thompson, daughter of the police officer who arrested Krueger – are experiencing terrifying nightmares involving a burned man wearing a glove with razor blades on the fingers. The ghost of Freddy Krueger is haunting their dreams, and when Nancy’s best friend Tina dies violently in her sleep during a dream confrontation with Krueger, Nancy realizes she must find a way to stop the evil psychopath’s reign of terror – or never sleep again. You should also be prepared to sleep with a light on and a large weapon to hand!

7. House of Wax: This more modern horror movie is both gross and scary and definitely worth a watch, but again, from behind a sizeable cushion or from between your fingers… oh, and don’t have any candles lying around either. The film follows six friends who are on their way to a football game. They decide to camp out for the night and continue driving the next day. The next day, the friends find that their car’s playing up so two of them accept a ride from a stranger into a small town named Ambrose. The main attraction in Ambrose is the House of Wax, but something is not right in this town; the wax figures are so realistic and the whole town is deserted, except for two murderous twin brothers. The six friends must fight to survive and escape from being the next exhibits in the House of Wax.

8. The Blair Witch Project: This absolute classic is another must-have on a scary night, and if you can put up with snot-trails – which gross me out – and heavy panting, it’s well worth watching repeatedly. Heather Donahue, Michael Williams and Joshua Leonard are all student filmmakers who set out to shoot a documentary about a local legend, the Blair Witch. In the forests near Burkittsville, Maryland, many children vanished in the 1940s and people still avoid going too deep into the woods. So, the students set out to look for facts that prove the legend, equipped only with two cameras and their hiking gear. First, they find little piles of stone that must have been arranged artificially, then later, they of course get lost in the woods. Eerie sounds at night and more piles of stones in places where there weren’t any before cause the already desperate group to panic. And one night, days after they should’ve been back home, Josh disappears completely. Their cameras and film footage is found a year later and shows what happened in the woods…

9. Not Another Teen Movie: This one just take the mickey out of all of the above and is a good remedy for your nerves if you’ve watched one or more of the genuinely scary films this Halloween. At John Hughes High School, the students are the same as just about every other teenager in a teen movie; the popular jock, Jake takes a bet from his friend Austin that he can transform Janey – a pretty ugly girl – into the prom queen before the prom. But two people are trying to stop Jake from succeeding – his evil sister, Catherine, the cruellest girl in school, and Priscilla, a bitchy cheerleader. And all of their friends are the same as any other teen movie too; Areola, the naked foreign exchange student, Les, the beautiful weirdo, Malik, the token black guy, Amanda Becker, the perfect girl, Ricky, Janey’s obsessed best friend, and Sadie, the very old undercover reporter. There are some incredibly funny moments in this film and it really does cover all the Things You Shouldn’t Do When Being Stalked By A Crazed Killer.

10. April Fool’s Day: This film is supposed to be scary and just plain isn’t, but if you want to say you’ve watched a horror film without the trauma of actually watching one, this is the film for you. A group of eight college friends gather together at an island mansion – belonging to heiress Muffy St. John – to celebrate their final year of school. They soon discover that each of them has a secret of some sort and the secrets keep getting revealed, but soon after the revelations, the person in question turns up dead. But are they really dead or is it just part of some cruel April Fool’s joke? The hostess, Muffy, is the only one who apparently knows what’s going on, but then again, is it really her doing the killing? It really is laughably non-scary.

So there we are, our top recommendations for movies to watch this Halloween weekend. Don’t forget to visit our Rules For Surviving A Horror Movie before you settle down to watch though!