Halloween is less than two weeks away.

October 31, to be precise, but good luck donning an outfit more terrifying than anything this year has already thrown at us.

Yes, that includes the Karen mask.

I’ve seen some chatter online from parents about whether or not trick-or-treating should go ahead this year, but I’ll leave that one up to the breeders.

Also, I live in a complex, so nobody’s ringing my bell either way.

What we know for sure is that as October 31 draws nearer, people’s appetite for horror movies tends to increase, so the Independent compiled a list of 37 movies “that will actually scare you this Halloween”.

You’re busy, and I have better things to do than run through all of those, so let’s settle on five that you more than likely haven’t seen, just to spice things up.

The Descent (2005)

Directed by: Neil Marshall. Released in 2005, The Descent follows six women who, upon exploring a cave, battle to survive against the creatures they find inside. It’s these creatures that earn this British horror film’s placement on this list.

With an IMDb rating of 7,2, there’s real promise here.

The House of the Devil (2009)

Directed by: Ti West. The House of the Devil (2009) follows a student named Samantha who is hired to guard an isolated house with one rule: don’t go upstairs. For most of the film’s runtime, not much happens, which is what makes the action-packed final third so terrifying.

Spoiler alert – Samantha goes upstairs. Then again, it wouldn’t be much of a movie if she didn’t.

Kill List (2011)

Directed by: Ben Wheatley. To describe the horrors of Kill List is to ruin the film’s surprises, but let’s just say this: the final 20 minutes of Ben Wheatley’s violent drama from 2011 features some of the most unsettling scenes in any film from this decade.

That’s quite a claim, which I will leave you to investigate in your own time.

The Orphanage (2007)

Directed by: JA Bayona. Produced by Guillermo del Toro, this acclaimed 2007 chiller follows the disappearance of a young boy in an orphanage, which brings many of the building’s terrifying secrets to the fore.

Perhaps best watched after the kids have gone to sleep for the night.

Finally, there’s Sinister (2012)

Directed by: Scott Derrickson. Of all the Blumhouse horror films, 2012 release Sinister – which features the demonic character Bughuul – is the spookiest of them all. It stars Ethan Hawke as a true-crime writer who discovers a box of home movies depicting grisly murders in the attic of his new house.

Even the trailer is genuinely unsettling:

To each their own, but I’m not going to be putting myself through hell in the build-up to Halloween, thanks.

You can see the full list of terrifying movies here.

[source:independent]