Sprinting zombie or lumbering knifeman, Satan child or psycho dwarf, there’s nothing more blood-pumping than watching ghosts, demons and monsters munch, slash and stomp their way through an unsuspecting group of victims. But which are the scariest horror movies ever made? Check these out if you dare…

25. The Strangers (2008)

It wasn’t so much the fact that three maniacs in masks had broken into Liv Tyler’s house that makes The Strangers one of the most unsettling modern horror films, it’s that they just stand there, out of focus in the background, while Tyler goes about her business. Chilling.

Scariest moment: The sackhead guy appearing in a doorway behind Tyler. Just standing there.

24. Rosemary’s Baby (1968)

Imagine Hammer Horror made a prequel to The Omen and you have Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby, the 60’s most chilling horror flick in which (one sentence full-film spoiler alert) Mia Farrow is duped into mothering Belzebub’s child by a building full of undercover Satanists.

Scariest moment: Farrow takes her first look at her newborn child and cries “what have you done to his eyes?”

23. The Fly (1986)

Body horror maestro David Cronenberg hit the mainstream and bagged an Oscar with this icky story of Jeff Goldblum accidentally merging with a fly while trying to invent teleportation, and slowly watching bits of himself fall off.

Scariest moment: Geena Davis giving birth to a massive maggot. You don’t see that in One Born Every Minute.

22. The Babadook (2014)

When your child starts talking to something in your lovely new house, move. No questions, just move house. This Australian art house hit is amongst the finest of the type thanks to its Dr Suess-meets-Freddie Krueger baddie.

Scariest moment: The Babadook croaks its name through widower Amelia’s bedsheets as she cowers underneath.

21. Carrie (1976)

Brian De Palma’s take on Stephen King’s innocent telekinetic Carrie taking the ultimate revenge on the school where she was bullied is a slow-burn (no pun intended) classic, a coming-of-age horror with a legendarily chaotic split-screen climax at the world’s shittest prom. You’ve never sympathised with the monster more.

Scariest moment: Carrie’s cruel bullies pull a rope to drop a bucket of pig’s blood over her as she’s crowned Prom Queen. Bad idea. Really bad.