10 films to give you the creeps on Halloween

He's back! The insane killer Michael Myers from the legendary 1978 movie "Halloween," when the young Laurie Strode — played by Jamie Lee Curtis — was the only survivor of a massacre in the small town of Haddonfield in Illinois. The new "Halloween" movie practically picks up where the old (and its successors) left off — including the 40-year-older Jamie Lee Curtis.

In 1978, John Carpenter sent the mother of all Halloween movies on a journey that has not ended to this day. The cheaply produced but incredibly effective shocker reaped millions of dollars — and ensured a successful cinema franchise. The new Halloween film repeats the formula: it was produced relatively cheaply but has been very successful at the box office.

Carpenter was especially inspired by Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" from 1960 when he created "Halloween." Before this groundbreaking psychological thriller, horror movies had been defined by the appearance of monsters, vampires and other such scary figures. Hitchcock's trick in "Psycho": Norman Bates, who was sympathetic at first, later turns out to be a human monster.

In this "New York gothic" film the viewer doesn't know the true source of the horror. Are the nightmares and paranoia only in the mind of the expectant mother, Rosemary (Mia Farrow)? The film's fame was tragically sealed when wife of director Roman Polanski, Sharon Tate, was brutally murdered a year later while pregnant. Then in 1980, John Lennon was shot in front of the house where it was filmed.

As a new horror genre took hold by the mid-1970s, director William Friedkin elevated the creep factor a step further. His shocker "The Exorcist" turned an initially cute child into a fearsome creature possessed by Satan. This led to some nervous breakdowns in the cinemas during the premiere screenings — and to unbelievably high ticket sales.

Like the film itself, the locations in Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece psychothriller, "The Shining," are particularly unforgettable, including the surreal, labyrinthine Overlook Hotel in which Jack Nicholson's character, the writer Jack Torrance, descends into violence-fueled madness. "The Shining" doesn't need to show a lot of blood — it's creepy enough as it is.

Shortly after "The Shining," the minimalist, psycho-horror genre gave way to a new era of splatter films utilisng the latest make-up and special effects technology — and a whole lot of fake blood. The new horror genre arguably was birthed when director Wes Craven terrified audiences with his Freddy Krueger character in 1984's "A Nightmare on Elm Street," which had endless remakes and sequels.

Wes Craven also made "Scream," the 1996 black comedy slasher film that inspired the like's of "The Cabin in the Woods" (2012). It begins with a few high school kids who are preparing for an evening watching videos until their small town is terrorized by a sadistic murderer. Kids are more likely to stream their films nowadays —yet horror, and Halloween, movie nights remain especially popular

A horror film classic that succeeded without much blood or brutal knife attacks is 2001's "The Others" by Chilean-Spanish director Alejandro Amenábar. Nicole Kidman plays the mother of two children who are allergic to light. The horror film, shot exclusively in a Spanish castle, was especially compelling due to its more subtle scare tactics and a surprising ending.

In addition to the new version of "Halloween," the supernatural thriller "Suspiria" might be the most eagerly awaited horror remake of the year. Italian director Luca Guadagnino dared to revive the 1977 horror classic by Dario Argento which is about evil witches — and this time is set in Berlin, in the year Argento's film was made, as an American dancer encounters a series of brutal murders.