Discovering Film: Horror

Authors and film critics including Bonnie Greer and Ian Nathan come together to dissect their favourite horror movies, including Frankenstein and the Exorcist

Nosferatu pivoting out of his coffin in the 1922 silent classic, Janet Leigh taking a shower in Psycho, or Max Von Sydow trying to cast out the devil in The Exorcist, we’ve all got our favourite horror moments.

Critics Bonnie Greer and Ian Nathan are among those discussing – with lots of clips – what works and what doesn’t when it comes to scaring the life out of people, and why we’re so addicted to being terrified.

(for more Halloween programmes see our TV Guide for full details).

MORE: Frightfully Fun Horrors for Halloween

Boris Karloff in Frankenstein (pictured above), Mia Farrow giving birth to a devil child in Rosemary’s Baby, that girl with the long black hair in the original Ring, there’s plenty to sink the teeth into here – not literally, please.

Tim Curry as Pennywise the evil Clown in Stephen King's It

On free-to-air Sony Movies, get your fill of horror flicks tonight...

The 1990 version of Stephen King’s It (9pm) easily gives the recent big-budget remake a run for its money, with Tim Curry’s Pennywise a particularly unsettling clown.

It’s the standout of an evening of spooky horror kicking off with Secret Window (5.10pm), and followed by the ho-hum The Covenant (7.05pm).

Light relief comes in the form of An American Werewolf in London at 12.50am.

TV Times rating ****