Top 10 Halloween Moments

1. Girl crawling out of a television set Ringu (1998) – 16%

Talk about a bad hair day! Sadako crawls out of a well, shuffles squeakily towards the camera (she seems to be disjointed) and then proceeds to scare the living daylights out of everyone by emerging from the TV set, all without revealing her face. Makes you long for the days of 3D TV screens doesn’t it? Apparently a male crew member was Sadako’s eye-double for the sole close up of the lady’s crazed peeper.

2. Alien bursting out of stomach Alien (1979) – 14%

Was it something he ate? It’s hard now to remember the shock when John Hurt suffers stomach pains and then “births” the alien, a disturbingly phallic little critter who the crew might have done well to dispose of in its infant state. A friend of mine swears he was eating an orange in the Odeon Leicester Square during this scene, and was so frightened he inadvertently sent segments flying all over the auditorium. Now that’s entertainment.

3. ‘Here’s Johnny!’ The Shining (1980) – 10%

There was a time when Johnny Carson was the most famous man on US TV. Nowadays he’s most likely to be remembered as the inspiration for Jack Nicholson’s crazed Big Bad Wolf routine at the climax of Kubrick’s icy chiller. Maybe it’s just me, but I think it’s the axe that sells it. What’s really scary though is that having gone so far off the deep end, Nicholson was never the same actor again.

4. Ankles broken with a mallet Misery (1990) – 9%

Caregiver – and number one fan – Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates) proves her love to romantic novelist Paul Sheldon (James Caan) with some pieces of rope, a block of wood, and a sledgehammer. There’s no truth to the rumour that this is what Stephen King wanted to do to Stanley Kubrick after seeing The Shining.

5. Shower Scene Psycho (1960) – 8%

In which Hitchcock disposes of his star just 30 minutes into the movie. The 45 second scene was storyboarded by titles designer Saul Bass, and involves more than 70 different camera set ups and 90 cuts – it took a week to shoot (one sixth of the schedule for the entire film). Now we know the blood was only chocolate syrup, but fifty years ago this was probably the most violent and shocking scene audiences had seen.

6. Severed head underwater Jaws (1975) – 7%

An old fashioned scare tactic from Steven Spielberg, borrowed in fact, from the climactic cellar scene in Psycho. Only this one is underwater. Surprisingly the BBFC rated Jaws certificate “A”, which technically allowed admittance to five year olds and up.

7. Neck twisting scene The Exorcist (1973) – 5%

Linda Blair does a 360 degree turn without moving her body below the neck. “Any way you think I did it is not the way we did it,” claimed director Billy Friedkin. Mind you, Friedkin also claimed the levitation scene was achieved “by the use of a magnetic field”.

8. Face worn as a mask The Silence of the Lambs (1991) – 4%

Anthony Hopkins’ Hannibal Lecter gets the great lines, the Oscar and the iconic status, but Ted Levine’s Buffalo Bill is scarier, a kind of modern day Dr Frankenstein who is his own monster.

9. Jaw trap scene Saw (2004) – 3%

Dastardly ingenuity afoot as Jigsaw fixes a bear trap to a young woman’s face and invites her to unlock it or splatter her head all over the floor. The catch? The key lies in the stomach of the chap lying in front of her. Audiences can’t get enough of this stuff: Big Brother with gore.

10. Opening scene (Drew Barrymore) Scream (1996) – 2%

Wes Craven riffs on the Psycho gag by offing his biggest star right at the start of the show. This ten-minute telephone conversation is the talkiest scene in the list, with Drew Barrymore terrorized by a prank caller with an encyclopedic knowledge of horror movies and a big knife, but it’s probably a bit too self-conscious to be really frightening.

Tom Charity