We have Halloween just around the corner. Here’s our guide to the most frightening films on TV, in cinemas, and on streaming services. 

Or should that be screaming platforms 

Make yourself a drink (no, that’s not that kind) then choose one of the scary movies from our selection – which we have divided into chunks. You can bite-size, of course. After all, that’s what fiends are for…

IN CINEMAS

Halloween Kills (Odeon. Cineworld. Picturehouse. Showcase).

The 12th film in the Halloween franchise that began with John Carpenter’s 1978 classic, Halloween Kills is showing at Odeon, Cineworld, Picturehouse and Showcase cinemas this weekend

The 12th film in the Halloween franchise that began with John Carpenter’s 1978 classic, Halloween Kills is showing at Odeon, Cineworld, Picturehouse and Showcase cinemas this weekend 

The 12th film in the Halloween franchise that began with John Carpenter’s 1978 classic. More importantly, this film is the second installment of the modern trilogy. Psycho slasher Michael Myers has escaped captivity and continues to cause havoc in Haddonfield. 

Gorier than 2018’s Halloween, which is saying plenty. Jamie Lee Curtis is back, having made her big screen debut in the original.

Shepherd (Showcase)

In Shepherd 2021, Eric Black (Tom Hughes) is lost after the mysterious death of his adulterous wife and finds himself trapped alone on an island with an ominous secret

In Shepherd 2021, Eric Black (Tom Hughes) is lost after the mysterious death of his adulterous wife and finds himself trapped alone on an island with an ominous secret

A man who is grieving the death of his wife takes up a job tending sheep on a remote British Island in the hope of starting over and putting his problems behind him.

 But guess what? It turns out that this is the worst place to grieve. 

Director Russell Owen uses the bleak beauty of the landscape to great effect, and teases fine performances from Victoria’s Tom Hughes as the bereaved husband, Greta Scacchi as his miserable mother, and Kate Dickie as the obligatory creepy local.

Barun Rai and The Cliff House (Vue. Showcase. Cineworld).

Psychological horror film set in the Seventies, in an English seaside resort. An Anglo-Asian couple moves into what they believe is their dream home. 

Dream homes in movies are often a place to hide nightmares.

The Addams Family 2 – Odeon, Vue & Picturehouse

Animation The Addams Family 2 will be showing in Odeon, Vue and Picturehouse cinemas over the weekend

Animation The Addams Family 2 will screen in Odeon and Vue cinemas this weekend 

This disappointingly lackluster sequel to the 2019 animation has a classy voice cast (Charlize Ton, Oscar Isaac and Grace Chloe Moretz), but it isn’t matched by the quality plotting and writing. 

But as the Addams Family go on a trans-American road trip it’s an innocuous enough way to introduce children to their spooky world, and youngsters might get a kick out of it.

Candyman (Odeon)

Supernatural slasher film Candyman (1992) starring Tony Todd will air at Odeon cinemas over the weekend

Supernatural slasher film Candyman (1992) starring Tony Todd will air at Odeon cinemas over the weekend 

This 1992 supernatural slasher film is based on a short story by Clive Barker, the Liverpudlian author whose collection Books of Blood earned the ultimate endorsement, a quote from Stephen King that read, ‘I have seen the future of horror and its name is Clive Barker’. 

Lavish praise indeed, and if Candyman never quite scaled the heights of certain movie adaptations of King’s own stories, it still won plenty of fans.

Blade (Odeon. Cineworld. Picturehouse. Showcase)

Blade, part-vampire and part-mortal, becomes a vampire hunter to protect human beings in the 1998 Marvel production starring Wesley Snipes

Blade, part-vampire and part-mortal, becomes a vampire hunter to protect human beings in the 1998 Marvel production starring Wesley Snipes

While the world might not have known it was awaiting a movie about a supervillain, Blade, the 1998 Marvel production starring Kris Kristofferson & Wesley Snipes is a memorable example. 

Blade was Marvel’s first box-office success, following the quacking disaster that was Howard The Duck. A reboot is in the works, with Mahershala Ali playing the title role.

An American Werewolf in London (Picturehouse October 31)

The 1981 comedy-horror classic An American Werewolf In London will be shown at Picturehouse cinemas in London on Halloween

The 1981 comedy-horror classic An American Werewolf In London will be shown at Picturehouse cinemas in London on Halloween 

The financial backers of this 1981 comedy-horror masterpiece were baffled by the script’s too scary and funny content. 

As it turned out, the balance was just about perfect, and winning the first ever Academy Award given for Best Make-Up was only one of the many accolades John Landis’s film received. 

The most memorable is, of all things, the way it is still cited every single time strangers walk into pubs and everyone gasps.

Room On The Broom (Picturehouse October 31)

Charming animation Room On The Broom will be shown at Picturehouse cinemas across the UK on Halloween

Charming animation Room On The Broom will be shown at Picturehouse cinemas across the UK on Halloween

Adapted from Julia Donaldson’s charming picture book about a kindly witch, who accommodates on her broomstick all the animals that have done her a good turn, this children’s animation is a real delight. 

It also features a stellar voice cast that includes Gillian Anderson, Rob Brydon and Martin Clunes, as well as Sally Hawkins, Simon Pegg, and Timothy Spall.

Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas (Showcase tomorrow)

Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas will be shown at Showcase cinemas on Saturday evening

Showcase cinemas will screen Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas Saturday evening

Tim Burton produced this stop-motion animation in 1993 about the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town, who becomes obsessed with Christmas. 

Burton evidently gathered memories from his lonely childhood to make the film. He was all set for it to be directed until he got fired by Disney. It looks amazing, even after almost 30 years.

Scream (Showcase, Tomorrow)

The 1996 slasher movie starring Courteney Cox and David Arquette will be shown at Showcase cinemas on Saturday evening

The 1996 slasher movie starring Courteney Cox and David Arquette will be shown at Showcase cinemas on Saturday evening

This huge 1996 hit was inspired by the real-life story of the ‘Gainesville Ripper’, a police officer’s son who in 1990 murdered five Florida students in four days. 

He confessed to eight murders and was sentenced to death. Wes Craven’s film is still considered a landmark in the horror genre because it featured so many well-known actors. 

Drew Barrymore stars in the show, while Courtenay cox requested (and got) a major part to counter her cozy image as Monica on Friends. Be on the lookout for Henry Winkler uncredited. 

TELEVISION

The Addams Family (tomorrow at 1.55pm, ITV).

The Addams Family (1991) stars Angelica Huston, Raul Julia, Christina Ricci and Jimmy Workman as America’s spookiest family and will air on ITV tomorrow afternoon

 The Addams Family (1991) stars Angelica Huston, Raul Julia, Christina Ricci and Jimmy Workman as America’s spookiest family and will air on ITV tomorrow afternoon 

America’s spookiest clan had long since been immortalised on the small screen by the time this 1991 movie version was made. 

It was a troubled production that was famously ruined by legal delays, ill-health and legal wrangles. However, Angelica Huston and Raul Juliet saved the day. Although not the classic production everyone hoped for, it was still entertaining.

The Exorcist (tomorrow 10.40pm, BBC2)

Supernatural horror masterpiece about the demonic possession of a 12-year-old girl The Exorcist will air tomorrow on BBC2

Supernatural horror masterpiece about the demonic possession of a 12-year-old girl The Exorcist will air tomorrow on BBC2

In the early Seventies, William Friedkin had just finished The French Connection. This is the movie, which was released on Boxing Day 1973. It is a supernatural horror film about the demonic possession and demise of a 12-year old girl. 

It was the first horror film to receive a nomination for Best Picture at Academy Awards. In fact, it received ten Oscar nominations and won two.

Halloween (tomorrow at 10.55pm, Film4)

The original 1978 slasher film Halloween starring Jamie Lee Curtis will air tomorrow evening on Film4

The original 1978 slasher film Halloween starring Jamie Lee Curtis will air tomorrow evening on Film4 

The original 1978 slasher movie, which launched a franchise that is still in operation. For that matter, so are the good folks of Haddonfield, who are desperate to escape Michael Myers, a serial killer. 

The original starred Donald Pleasance as psychiatrist Dr Sam Loomis, writer-director John Carpenter’s unsubtle but heartfelt homage to the 1960 Hitchcock classic Psycho, which also featured a Sam Loomis.

What We Do in The Shadows (tomorrow, 10:45pm, BBC2)

Director Taika Waititi features in hilarious vampire mockumentary What We Do In The Shadows airing tomorrow evening on BBC2

Director Taika Waititi features in hilarious vampire mockumentary What We Do In The Shadows airing tomorrow evening on BBC2 

This wonderful ‘mockumentary’, written, directed by, and starring Jermaine Clement and Taika Waititi, follows the eventful lives of four vampire flatmates living in modern-day New Zealand. 

Waititi said that his portrayal, which he described as a 379 year-old vampire who is dandyish and uptight, was based on his mother.

It (tomorrow, ITV2, 9pm)

Based on Stephen King’s novel of the same name, Bill Skarsgard stars as the terrifying  Pennywise in It, which airs tomorrow at 9pm on ITV2

Based on Stephen King’s novel of the same name, Bill Skarsgard stars as the terrifying  Pennywise in It, which airs tomorrow at 9pm on ITV2

Based on Stephen King’s novel of the same name, It was a colossal global hit, becoming the highest-grossing horror film of all time. It certainly put the ‘gross’ in highest-grossing. 

There are some truly disturbing scenes in the story about seven children who are terrorized and abused by a psychopath in small-town Maine. 

Even though the psycho happens to also be a clown, the demonic Pennywise by Bill Skarsgard will not do anything for those who already find clown costumes a bit creepy.

The Awakening (tomorrow 12.25am, BBC1)

In supernatural thriller The Awakening, which will air on BBC1 on Saturday, Florence Cathcart (Rebecca Hall) visits a boarding school to investigate the sightings of a child ghost

The Awakening, a supernatural thriller, will air on BBC1 on Saturday. Florence Cathcart, Rebecca Hall, visits a board school to investigate sightings of a child ghost.

This supernatural thriller, set in a haunted boarding college in the north of England in early 1920s, features a strong cast from Britain (Rebecca Hall and Dominic West), as well as Imelda Staunton. Although it was released only 10 years ago, it is charmingly old-fashioned.

Goosebumps 2 (Sunday, Premiere)

A sequel to the 2015 original based on the horror books by RL Stine will air on Premiere this Sunday

A sequel to the 2015 original based on the horror books by RL Stine will air on Premiere this Sunday 

This 2018 comedy-horror sequel to the 2015 original is based upon the books by RL. Stine. While it lacks the wit and verve of the first film but has its moments, Jack Black gives a good performance.

The Witches (Sunday 3.40pm, Channel 5)

The 1990 classic adaptation of Roald Dahl's The Witches will be airing on Channel 5 on Sunday at 3.40pm

The 1990 classic adaptation of Roald Dahl’s The Witches will be airing on Channel 5 on Sunday at 3.40pm

Not the enjoyable 2020 adaptation of the Roald Dahl story, with Anne Hathaway, but the even better Nicolas Roeg version from 20 years earlier starring the peerless Angelica Huston as the Grand High Witch, leader of all the world’s witches.

Beetlejuice (Sunday, 5.35pm, Channel 5)

Alec Baldwin plays a ghost who, with his wife (Geena Davis), haunts his former home in wildly successful comedy-horror film Beetlejuice from 1988

Alec Baldwin portrays a ghost who, along with his wife Geena Davis, haunts his former home in the wildly successful comedy-horror movie Beetlejuice (1988). 

Alec Baldwin recently made headlines for tragic reasons as he plays a ghost who haunts his former home with his wife Geena (Geena) in this 1988 comedy-horror film. 

Tim Burton directed the film. Michael Keaton stars as the title character, a sly polegeist. It was great fun.

Let the Right One In (Sunday, 12.05am BBC2)

The 2008 Swedish film Lat Den Ratte Komma In (Let The Right One In) will be available to watch on BBC2 this weekend

The 2008 Swedish film Lat Den Ratte Komma In will be available for viewing on BBC2 this weekend 

This superb 2008 Swedish film, which is reminiscent of What We Do in the Shadows, breathed new life into the vampire genre. 

This is the story of a 12-year-old bullied boy and his androgynous neighbor. It is a powerful mixture of genuine scares, and real charm.

STREAMING

Welcome to The Blumhouse (Amazon Prime Video).

On Amazon Prime Video Bingo Hell, Black As Night, Madres and The Manor are all available to stream in the Welcome To The Blumhouse special

On Amazon Prime Video Bingo Hell, Black As Night, Madres and The Manor are all available to stream in the Welcome To The Blumhouse special 

Blumhouse, horror specialists, unveils four new films: Bingo Hell and Black As Night, Madres, and The Manor. 

The Manor is the pick of the quartet, with Barbara Hershey playing an elderly woman who moves into a care home after suffering a mild stroke. 

Soon, she realizes that the place contains a supernatural force. Her anxiety is attributed to creeping dementia and she must face the demons.

Night Teeth (Netflix).

Netflix horror Night Teeth follows a group of vampires in Los Angeles and is available to stream over the weekend

Night Teeth is a Netflix horror that follows a group vampires in Los Angeles. It can be streamed over the weekend 

The title does not refer to dentures in a bedside water glass, but to vampires that are centuries old and stalking modern-day Los Angeles. It is more than a little derivative.

Classic Hammer Horror Collection (BritBox).

The Classic Hammer Horror Collection featuring films such as  The Nanny from 1965 (pictured) can be found on BritBox to stream this weekend

The Classic Hammer Horror Collection featuring films such as  The Nanny from 1965 (pictured) can be found on BritBox to stream this weekend 

Hammer Film Productions was started in London in 1934. However, it was two decades later that the company began producing the horror films for which it has become synonymous. 

This collection includes classics of horror and suspense, such as The Nanny (1965), which stars Bette Davis as the lead role. A young Wendy Craig plays the neurotic mother to her 10-year-old daughter. 

The collection also contains more traditional Hammer Horrors, like Scars of Dracula (1970), starring Christopher Lee, and To The Devil A Daughter (76), starring Lee, Honor Blackman, Richard Widmark.

Hypnotic (Netflix).

Low-budget psychological horror Hypnotic is available on Netflix. Pictured, Lucie Guest as Gina, Kate Siegel as Jenn

Netflix offers low-budget Hypnotic, a psychological horror movie that’s reminiscent of a horror movie. Pictured, Lucie Guest as Gina, Kate Siegel as Jenn

A low-budget psychological horror film about an outwardly dashing hypnotherapist, who charms a woman at a party before turning out to be, you’ve guessed, not quite the caring person he appears.

The Night House (Disney+).

In this 2020 chiller available on Disney+, Rebecca Hall plays a widow whose architect husband committed suicide

This chiller for 2020 is available on Disney+. Rebecca Hall plays a widow whose husband committed suicide.

This 2020 chiller features Rebecca Hall as a widow whose husband committed suicide. His death leaves her haunted and there is more to it than that, as evidence mounts that he may be a murderer.

Army of Thieves, (Netflix, starting today)

A brand-new prequel to Army of the Dead, Zach Snyder’s uproarious zombie-heist thriller, which itself only came out earlier this year is available on Netflix from today

A brand-new prequel to Army of the Dead, Zach Snyder’s uproarious zombie-heist thriller, which itself only came out earlier this year is available on Netflix from today 

A brand-new prequel to Army of the Dead, Zach Snyder’s uproarious zombie-heist thriller, which itself only came out earlier this year. 

This one takes place six years before the events in the last film. It is set during the early stages the zombie pandemic. It is described as a romantic comedy but you will also see plenty of undead.

Muppets Haunted Mansion – Disney +

Halloween special Muppets Haunted Mansion is available to stream this weekend on Disney+

Disney+ Halloween special Muppets Haunted Mansion available to stream this weekend

A Halloween special where Gonzo the Great (and Pepe King Prawn) spend the night in a haunted house, while the other Muppets get ready for Halloween. 

Be on the lookout for Ed Asner, who died in August at the 91-year-old age. He would be delighted that his final screen appearance was with Kermit, Fozzy, and Miss Piggy. This is something that every actor should experience.

This Sixties dream is a must-see… BRIAN VINER reviews Last night in Soho and Antlers

Last Night In Soho (18, 116 mins)

Verdict: A Sixties nightmare 

Rating:

Our vision is distorted by the rose-tinted glasses we use to romanticize the past. This is the message of Last Night In Soho by Edgar Wright, a wonderfully deft mix horror film and period thriller set in London in the present and the ‘Swinging Sixties.

Wright was best known for the so-called “Cornetto trilogy” of comedies (Shaun Of The Dead, Hot Fuzz & The World’s End). He has since made a great action film, Baby Driver 2017, and is now a master of psychological terror. Last Night In Soho — which Wright wrote with Krysty Wilson-Cairns — exerts a fierce grip from the start and never lets go.

It also provides us with our last glimpse of Diana Rigg (who died at 82 just after filming was completed). It also contains parts for veterans Terence Stamp (83) and Rita Tushingham (79).

Innocents snared: An aspiring nightclub singer called Sandie (the superb Anya Taylor-Joy), whose own dreams start coming true when a roguish charmer (Matt Smith) gets her an audition

Innocents captured: Sandie, a talented nightclub singer, is snared by Matt Smith (a roguish charmer). Her dreams begin to come true when Smith gives her an audition

Sixties iconography can be found throughout the movie, including the cast and title. It is named after a 1968 single by Dozy, Beaky Mick, Mick, and Dave Dee. But it all starts in the present in a bedroom in Cornwall. 

Eloise (the engaging New Zealand actress Thomasin McKenzie is making a decent fist with her West Country vowels) dances to A World Without Love by Peter and Gordon in 1964.

One glance around the room reveals that she is in love the Sixties. Her most heartfelt wish is for her to go to London to study fashion.

A letter arrives. Ellie was accepted to a Soho-based fashion college. Tushingham, her grandmother, is equally thrilled. However, she warns her that London can be overwhelming. This line — London can be a lot — might almost be the film’s subtitle. 

It is repeated many times by different characters and may reflect the experiences of the director who grew up in Somerset’s sleepy Wells. It appears that London was too much to Ellie’s mother who had died years ago by her own hands. While a strong part of Ellie’s motivation is to make her dead mother proud, her gran was right — London can be a lot.

Her first taste of city life is as a cab driver. When she moves into a residence hall, her country ways are quickly mocked by her fellow students, led her by Jocasta (Synnove Karsen), her spoiled, entitled roommate.

So unworldly that Ellie flees to a nearby hotel room owned by Miss Collins (Rigg), an elderly woman who calls her ‘dearie and seems like a better option than Jocasta.

Ellie vividly dreams of the Sixties that night. She is taken to Cafe de Paris, where Cilla is performing cabaret. 

There, she acquires a kind of alter ego — an aspiring nightclub singer called Sandie (the superb Anya Taylor-Joy), whose own dreams start coming true when a roguish charmer (Matt Smith) gets her an audition. Sandie is on her path.

These exciting visions inspire Ellie, who is now designing retro dresses in the real-world. She is offered a job at a pub by a sympathetic landlady.

John (Michael Ajao), a friend, clearly loves her rotten and looks just like Mr Right. Maybe this isn’t a world without love after all. The other Mr Wright, however, has a series shocks in store for her as well as for us.

It turned out that Soho in Sixties didn’t swing; it suppurated. Sexual predators didn’t lurk in the shadows; they were out in the open. The threat of violence was always present through the ever-present fug from cigarette smoke.

Sandie isn’t on the rise, she’s on the decline. As her life becomes a nightmare so does Ellie’s. She is haunted and convinced that Sandie lived in the exact house in which she is renting a bedroom.

Visions of a long-ago crime, in which a key appeared to be a louche elderly man (Stamp), led her to call the police. She is told that London can be very expensive, just like her grandma.

This film is captivating, and it’s a lot. The ending is perhaps a little overwrought, with Wright reaching for horror movie tropes a bit too enthusiastically, but it is ingeniously managed from start very nearly to finish — with a Sixties soundtrack, and let me choose my words carefully, to die for.

If the cinematic double bill was still around, Last Night In Soho might be a good choice. Quant, Sadie Frost’s fun documentary about the pioneering fashion designers, could be paired up with it. Quant is Sadie Frost’s entertaining documentary about Sadie Frost, who as a schoolgirl used her skirt to run for a bus and later made her most famous blueprint.

I was a Paris hotel concierge in the 80s and had to buy a hairdryer once for Quant. He generously tipped me. It was my greatest claim of fame at the time.

Hers were more seismically the mini skirt and wildly successful make up range, which she created when she realized that “Fifties faces weren’t matching Sixties lives”.

Last Night in Soho may suggest that women back then were not as liberated as we like, but Mary Quant did more to make them feel liberated than anyone.  

 Also,

Antlers (★★✩✩✩, 15, 99 mins), directed by Scott Cooper and produced by Guillermo del Toro, is also about people who are not what they seem. It’s a slow-paced horror film that uses metaphors about abuses and racism. It is set in small-town Oregon.

Keri Russ plays the role of his sister and Jesse Plemons plays the sheriff. Keri is a teacher convinced that a weak pupil of hers holds a terrifying supernatural secret.

The show’s real star is Jeremy T. Thomas, a young boy. It’s not a show that’s worth stealing.