This year, for the first time since 2003, Halloween isn’t on a school night, so if you and your friends want to stay up until dawn watching horror movies, there’s nothing stopping you. So after the little ones have watched the “Great Pumpkin” and gone to bed, bring out the really creepy movies. These are guaranteed to keep you awake for a long, long time:

The Thing — John Carpenter’s 1982 thriller, starring Kurt Russell and Wilford Brimley, takes place in an American research station in Antarctica. The staff rescues a stray dog from being shot. The dog turns out to be something entirely other. The “thing” that invaded the dog’s body then moves into people. Explorers panic, and the body count rises. The movie’s tag line is “Man Is the Warmest Place To Hide.”

Alien — That line could apply to Ridley Scott’s brilliant 1979 shocker. While investigating an SOS, the crew of spaceship Nostromo finds some mysterious eggs. One opens, and a creature leaps onto John Hurt’s face. It’s all downhill from there.

The Blair Witch Project — Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez’s 1999 cinéma vérité is terrifying for its trembly faux home-movie camera work and because nothing specific is seen. It’s fear of the unknown. It tells of three friends who go deep into the woods to investigate rumors of a witch. They get lost, find some odd structures, and then one of them disappears. The ending (”Mike! Mike! Mike!”) is haunting.

Sleepy Hollow — Tim Burton’s 1999 adaptation of Washington Irving’s classic story of the Headless Horseman, who rides through the night in upstate New York decapitating people. Constable Ichabod Crane ( Johnny Depp) comes to investigate. Christina Ricci has an occult secret of her own, and Miranda Richardson is scary as her mother. The spooky visuals are fantastic, especially a nightmarish tree.

Eyes Without a Face — Georges Franju’s stylish 1960 creeper is about a doctor whose daughter’s face was disfigured in a car accident. So he kidnaps pretty women, cuts their faces off and tries to graft a new face onto his daughter. It’s in French with subtitles, but the spookiest thing needs no translation: the daughter, wandering the grounds in the dark, with a eerie mask on her face.

Nosferatu — For vampire fans, go far back in time — to 1922 — for the scariest-looking vampire in movie history. F.W. Murnau’s silent masterpiece stars Max Schreck, who was reportedly as creepy in life as he was in the movies. He plays Count Orlock, a mysterious Transylvanian nobleman who brings death wherever he travels. The shot of him standing on an empty ship is a classic nightmare image.

An American Werewolf in London — Werewolf fans can’t do much better than this. John Landis’ 1981 film was both a horror story and a comedy, but it has an unforgettable scene in which David Naughton’s face elongates, mottles and grows furry as he turns into a werewolf. Makeup master Rick Baker won an Oscar, largely on the strength of that scene. There are also several terrifying attack segments.

Carrie — Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie were nominated for Oscars for playing perfect visions of terror in Brian De Palma’s 1976 classic. Spacek plays the psychokinetic high school outcast who sets the prom on fire, and Laurie her religious fanatic mother. The only thing scarier than blood-soaked, dazed Carrie was her mother’s browbeating of her daughter. And don’t miss the “grabber” ending.

The Shining — Another Stephen King adaptation that brings on the fear. Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 movie version with Jack Nicholson is better known, but many insist the 1997 TV version starring Steven Weber is scarier. In both, a man with writer’s block living in an old, abandoned hotel finds that the place is full of ghosts. His son has terrifying visions, and he is driven to violent insanity.

Rosemary’s Baby — For those who think no monster is scarier than Satan, nothing beats Roman Polanski’s 1968 classic. It tells the story of a pregnant woman who discovers she is carrying the son of Satan. Ruth Gordon, in an Oscar-winning turn, is terrifying as a deceptively sweet old woman who turns out to be the leader of the coven that summoned Satan to impregnate Rosemary.

The Vanishing — For those who think no monster is scarier than humans, nothing beats George Sluizer’s terrifying 1988 drama. It’s in Dutch with subtitles, but don’t even think of watching the tame, lame American remake. A woman vanishes at a gas station, and her boyfriend becomes obsessed with finding out what happened to her. Unfortunately, he succeeds. The ending will scare you to death.

And those who think nothing but zombies will do,you have to choose: Do you want them slow, or fast? George Romero’s classics Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead are horror masterpieces featuring the shuffling variety, while Zack Snyder’s remake of Dawn of the Dead and Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later score shock points with their lightning-speedy flesh-munchers.

Source: http://www.courant.com/entertainment/movies/hc-scarymovies.art0oct30,0,1600913.story