It’s Halloween — a time of year when "scariest movie" lists haunt the internet like so many kernels of uneaten candy corn.

But, you’ve seen The Exorcist, The Shining, Halloween and Rosemary’s Baby. So, Wired.com is offering up a quick list of titles you might not have shivered through — though we admit the more die-hard cinema nuts amongst our readers are difficult to surprise.

1) Curse of the Demon: Entitled Night of the Demon in the United Kingdom, this 1957 British supernatural thriller holds up surprisingly well as its surreal mix of witchcraft and moody settings seem a likely enough patch for the devil to dwell.

Yes, the demon in question looks to be a denizen of puppet hell, but make sure no one passes you any rune parchments if you don’t want to come face to maw with this maniacal muppet.





2) Session 9: A simple setup has a team of asbestos removers (including Peter Mullan, Stephen Gevedon — the movie’s screenwriter — and a million miles from CSI-Miami David Caruso) tearing apart an abandoned insane asylum.

As one team member discovers abandoned recordings of a patient’s evil second personality (Simon), the others begin turning on each other as if the history of the building is feeding on them. The body count climbs without cheap, excessive gore, and the film’s final images and words ("I live in the weak and the wounded") will stick with you for days.





3) Something Wicked This Way Comes: Yes, you can have a scary movie connected to Disney. In fact, there was a time when Disney scared folks (especially kids) better than anybody in Hollywood — but we digress.

More creepy than terrifying, this Ray Bradbury story of a devilish circus tempting the souls of small town Americana is beautified by a dazzling performance by a young Jonathan Pryce as Mr. Dark. The States hadn’t seen much of Pryce when this film hit, and the fact that he held the screen with the legendary Jason Robards speaks for itself.





4) Dog Soldiers: British soldiers trapped in a cabin out in the woods and under attack by werewolves. What more do you need to know?

This is the funniest movie on our short list, but it packs plenty of visceral scares — in some cases, literally. Certainly the most action-packed of the movies here, it looks to the Aliens model of monster movie terror. And keep a look out for Sean Pertwee, son of Doctor Who No. 3, Jon.





5) The Woman in Black: First a novel by Susan Hill, then a very successful and long-running (in fact, still running) London stage production, The Woman in Black and its vengeful Mrs. Drablow should find a way to the big screen some day. But, a modest 1989 British TV production was a surprising success.

While the West End stage version literally causes people to scream aloud in their seats, the TV adaption packs enough of the story’s gloomy mystery and unavoidable tragedy to make you stay off the moors.

Image courtesy Columbia/Tristar Home Video

What forgotten (or never widely known) horror flicks give you nightmares? Unleash your fever dreams in the comments section below.

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