• Frankenstein, James Whale's chiller from 1931.

'Such a powerful film, it is used in another great work, Victor Erice's 1973 Spirit of the Beehive.'

• Psycho, Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 masterpiece.

'It scared me stiff.'

• The Blair Witch Project, the 1999 surprise hit from Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez.

'One of the most profitable horror films made a virtue of looking like a home movie.'

• Pan's Labyrinth, Guillermo del Toro's fantastical thriller from 2006.

'Del Toro is a masterly director and behind a new school of horror film-makers.'

• La Zona, Rodrigo Pla's 2007 study in paranoia.

'About the gated communities people live in to keep out the hordes.'