Back when M. Night Shyamalamalan was churning out effective scary flicks, I went to see Signs in a super-crowded cinema and the jump shocks worked a treat. One girl screamed so loud during a fake scare that she apologised to everyone around her. Oh, how we laughed. Mel Gibson though…meh…I’m fairly indifferent to the man but I’d have to say this is my favourite film he’s been involved with. The girl with her water needs was better though. Oh, and why does he go back to being a Priest at the end? Surely having come face to fucking face with a spaceman totally contradicts the Bible!? Grow the mullet back, Mel, your brain needs insulating.

The best ice-down-the-spine bit is this though, those creepy long fingers that snake under the door. Ugh… I shudder thinking about it.

OK, so it doesn’t look scary here. But it so is on a gigantic cinema screen – the fingers…they’re coming for you! Argh. Run. Run now!

It’s scary to think that this film and all of its hype is now 11 years old… I rarely watch it, it’d lose its effect that way. But this one time I came home from clubbing at 4am and decided to watch it…ferrr-eaky!! ‘Tis this climactic moment that does it.

Those who’ve never seen it probably can’t understand why it’s so scary – but it is. My horror-bud Grace and I looked at one another with expressions of fear when we saw it on the big screen.

Fact: clowns are scary.

OK, so not the one in The Clown at Midnight, but Stephen King’s IT was one creepy-ass book adaptified into a pretty eerie TV series (which was terrifying when I was 13 but less so when I watched it a couple of years ago). Joker-grinned Tim Curry, perfect for the role, still wigs me out to this day…

This is from the film’s prologue, where the fucking creepiness of said clown is joined with childhood fears of kidnap and disappearance into the supernatural realm of DEATH!!!! Shame the rest of the film couldn’t maintain the same level of unsettling material.