To celebrate Hallowe’en, the good folks at Rakuten’s Play.com spent a huge amount of time and money faffing around with heart monitors and spooky DVDs to decide what the scariest film ever was. They decided, and then we sent Duncan along to watch it. It’s Abattoir Blues, but with more infographics than usual…

All Hallows’ Eve approaches, and as usual we’ve been scouring the web for the very best of this year’s spooky film events. From screenings in a church to journeys into the history of horror, read on for our top five film-based Hallowe’en nights out.

Sometimes, it’s not enough to be a talented filmmaker. You don’t want to be making adventure films with a name like Spector Whussypants, and in that logic (however flimsy it is), you wouldn’t make a horror film with a non-scary name. In fact, sometimes, the scariest thing about a horror film is the name of the filmmaker. Hold on to your butt, because here are the top 10 horror directors’ names.

Rooney Mara is slowly becoming a household name for her chameleon approach to taking on challenging roles and refusing to be typecast. From a typical American teen to a Swedish computer hacker, and most recently a Texas outlaw in the 1970s in August’s Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, let’s take a look at some of the many changing faces of Rooney Mara’s dynamic career to date.

The 80s was a decade of low budget horror, most long forgotten and ready to stay that way. But every so often, a film returns to the modern world, ready to be re-evaluated, and maybe even re-appreciated. With the gratuitous cover art of a chainsaw-wielding anthropomorphise pig, I was expecting 1980’s horror-comedy Motel Hell to be another disappointment for the fire. But there is a god, and Motel Hell actually lives up to its evocative advertising.

For about the last two years, BFF stalwart Duncan has been talking about writing a column – and, thanks to Evil Dead remaker Fede Alvarez, he’s finally pulled his finger out and done it. Abattoir Blues will be creeping out of BFF’s cellar twice a month to shine a torch into the murky corners of horror, and where better to start than with the wholly unnecessary redux of 1981’s most plant-rapey gorefest? Turn down the lights and read on…

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a horror movie with a domestic gross amounting to a small fortune must be in line for a string of sequels of ever-diminishing quality. Almost all of them are terrible, being licenses to print money and all. But every now and then, by some strange alchemy, one of them.. isn’t. Here are five of our favorites, and one that we’re clearly over thinking.

If asked to name successful film franchises, you could more than likely rattle off a few that have held audience interests long enough to exceed the standard trilogy. James Bond. Harry Potter. Star Wars. Heck, even Resident Evil is still putting bums on seats after four instalments. But not all film franchises continue to pull in the crowds, instead defaulting to DVD as they continue to explore their characters, story and that crack in the floor in HMV. We’ve found seven of the saddest…

Not as Lincoln, obviously, as someone scary.

When the last trailer for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 landed online the other week, I was temporarily lost in face-devouring wow. While I’m sure the finished film will live up to my own TOWERING expectations, it certainly wouldn’t be the first time I was enchanted by a trailer only to be left disappointingly underwhelmed by the finished film itself.