The Tramp invites you to prepare for Mostly Film’s Halloween week by contemplating what frightens you.

What terrifies you? Personally I find sharks pretty terrifying, even Deep Blue Sea, a film I am quite happy to accept as being boundlessly silly, has me in a state of abject terror. Perhaps for you it is men with long fingernails and fangs? Or women who castrate men – randomly and for fun?  Or is it the thought of monsters who like to pop up and threaten or possess small children that has you peering through your fingers? Or the sick and perverse actions of a man with a chainsaw confronted with a group of teenagers on his property?  And just why do we watch these films anyway? What is our attraction to being scared?

Since cinema began there has been horror. Like erotica, it seems we cannot get enough of it and – as essential and ever present as the basic ingredients may be – the ‘splendid variety’ that film makers can conjure feeds an audience with a seemingly endless appetite for it.  We go to theme parks to be frightened and we watch movies too. Perhaps we need to feel frightened in a controlled manner to feel more alive? Perhaps we are all just a wee bit disturbed?

Horror fans have plenty to enjoy as Halloween approaches. New releases out this week include Horns with Daniel Radcliffe, The Babadook (which we reviewed on Friday) and a remastered version of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.

Of course there are real horrors in the world and right now they seem particularly plentiful: beheaded ISIS victims, the kidnapping and rape of school girls simply because they sought to be educated, parents leaving their children to die in a hot car so that they can collect the insurance money – for true horror open the pages of the Daily Mail, you don’t need to visit your local cinema.

So this week Mostly Film seeks to explore horror. What disturbs us and why? How is it that certain horror franchises manage to escape death? Why do some characters find an existence beyond their origins? And just what is going on in the relationship between sex and horror?

We hope you enjoy our thoughts and please do join in the discussion by sharing your own. For those seeking more traditional inspiration for what to watch this Halloween, here are the top 10 horror movies according to Rotten Tomatoes, all of which should be available to rent or download from somewhere reputable.
10. Frankenstein (1931)
9. The Invisible Man (1933)
8. Alien (1979)
7. Night of the Hunter (1955)
6. Psycho (1960)
5. The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
4. King Kong (1933)
3. Repulsion (1965)
2. Nosferatu (1922)
1. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)