Scotland's best horror screenings this Halloween

1) Dundead

Get your Halloween scares on with DCA’s annual scare fest Dundead, which kicks off with a screening of George Romero’s little-seen 1973 horror The Crazies, which sees a small town’s residents turn homicidal when an army nerve gas is accidentally unleashed. Other films to look out for over the horror weekender are Swedish YA horror Room 213; Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde, Roy Ward Baker’s gender-bending take on Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic story; and curious suspense thriller To the Devil a Daughter, starring Christopher Lee, Richard Widmark and Nastassja Kinski. Mel Brooks’ peerless horror spoof Young Frankenstein rounds off the festival.

27-29 Oct, DCA. Full programme info: www.dca.org.uk/whats-on/films/dundead

2) We Are The Weirdos

Mighty feminist film collective The Final Girls have been championing female-led and -produced horrors since May last year, and this Halloween they’ve outdone themselves with a programme of short films from the most exciting new female voices in horror cinema, screening UK-wide at the end of the month. The ten film lineup includes shorts from Canada, Spain and the US as well as several homegrown horrors.

29 Oct, Glasgow Film Theatre and Filmhouse

3) Prince Of Darkness

Braw Gigs & Edinburgh Zombie Club have come up with the perfect location for a screening of Prince of Darkness, John Carpenter’s underrated horror thriller set in an abandoned church. The venue? St Mark's Unitarian Church in Edinburgh. The 'in-church' screening will be preceeded by a set from Edinburgh electronic duo TST: The Southern Tenant, who’ll be playing an original live synth soundtrack to some brand new footage they've shot of Edinburgh late at night.

27 Oct, St Mark's, Edinburgh. Tickets at http://www.wegottickets.com/event/414847

4) Nightmare on Renfield Street

Burnt Church Press have a delicious quartet of films lined up for a spooky all-dayer on the Sunday before Halloween. As well as the Wes Craven film from which the night cribs its title, there’s also Joel Schumacher's stylish and ridiculously fun The Lost Boys, John Carpenter’s seminal slasher Halloween and Stanley Kubrick’s haunted hotel fright-fest The Shining.

29 Oct, Flying Duck; more details on Facebook

5) Stephen King: Carrie & The Shining

Speaking of The Shining... with the recent release of Andrés Muschietti’s effective adaptation of Stephen King’s horror classic It, film fans have been debating the finest big screen versions of King’s stories. As far as we’re concerned, however, there’s no debate. Two King films reign supreme over the rest: Brian De Palma’s comic tragedy Carrie and Stanley Kubrick’s aforementioned study in madness. Both screen this month, the latter on a special UK-wide re-release. 

Carrie: 13 Oct, Filmhouse; The Shining: 31 Oct, Filmhouse & GFT

6) The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

Is The Texas Chain Saw Massacre the scariest movie ever made? Tobe Hooper’s disquieting and grimly macabre horror is certainly up there. With Hooper’s recent death back in April, it’s the perfect time to pluck up the courage to revisit his insidious and queasily frightening movie.

3 Nov, Filmhouse

7) Phantom of the Paradise

Get in the Halloween mood early with this rare big-screen outing for Brian De Palma’s wild musical horror which crosses the Phantom of the Opera story with the tale of Faust. The film is as visually inventive as any of De Palma’s other Grand Guignol horror-thrillers (Dressed to Kill, The Fury), uproariously funny (particularly Gerrit Graham as a meat-headed glam rock star) and the music, courtesy of Paul Williams (who also stars), is pretty spectacular too.

6 Oct, Filmhouse