We acknowledge Australia’s First Nations People as the Traditional Owners and Custodians of the land, and pay respect to the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, upon whose Country SFF are based.
We honour the storytelling and culture of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities across Australia.
Freak Me Out: Top 10 Halloween Spook Shows
Community October 31 2022 by Richard Kuipers
Get ready to scream, sweat and shake with a scare on screen: SFF’s own Freak Me Out programmer Richard Kuipers has offered up ten Halloween spook shows to give you the cinematic shivers!

1 – Halloween (U.S., 1978).

An obvious but required choice. Frequently remade, re-booted, re-launched and re-imagined but nothing surpasses John Carpenter’s classic original.

2 – Suspiria (Italy, 1977).

Every night is Halloween in Dario Argento’s wildly flamboyant tale of ballerinas and witchy woo-woo goings-on in Freiburg. Goblin’s throbbing score could wake the dead.

3 – Braindead (New Zealand, 1992)

In 2010 Peter Jackson earned a knighthood for services to New Zealand. I reckon he deserved it 18 years earlier for making this unparalleled splatterfest comedy. Choice!

4 – The Haunting (U.K., 1963)

The best-ever adaptation of Shirley Jackson’s novel The Haunting of Hill House. Masterfully directed by Robert Wise, it still packs a huge scary punch 60 years later.

5 – Ring a.k.a. Ringu (Japan, 1998)

Turn off all the lights and submit to Hideo Nakata’s supremely creepy chiller about a cursed video tape and… ‘something in the well.’ J-horror at its best.

6 – Possession (France-West Germany, 1981)

Inner rage manifests spectacularly in this West Berlin-set exercise in body horror madness from the brilliant Polish-Ukrainian filmmaker Andrzej Zulawski. Sam Neill stars alongside Isabelle Adjani, whose subway tunnel freakout is one of the most astonishing scenes ever filmed.

7 – The Orphanage (Spain, 2007)

J.A. Bayon’s stunning tale of a haunted orphanage induces unease from its opening frame and delivers nerve-shredding suspense and scares as it reaches the emotionally devastating climax.

8 – The Babadook (Australia, 2014)

Childhood fear and adult trauma are the compelling emotional currents of Jennifer Kent’s superb Australian monster movie.

9 – The Black Cat (US, 1934)

The first film co-starring horror icons Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff is a kinky and visually striking tale of Satanism set in Hungary. This Universal hit is one of the best films by legendary B-movie maker Edgar G Ulmer.

10 – Tucker and Dale Vs Evil (U.S., 2010)

The all-time Freak Me Out audience favourite tells the hilarious tale of city slicker students getting tangled up with hillbillies. One of the smartest and funniest horrors of the 21st century.

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