Entertainment editor David Morgan runs through four recent horror movies that are worth a watch this Halloween

HEREDITARY

A creepy and psychological tour de force which really gets under your skin. The way writer-director Ari Aster ratchets up the tension is masterful and it is as surprising as it is shocking the first time you see it. The story focuses on Annie (Toni Collette) who unleashes a nightmarish sequence of events when she begins to unravel secrets about her family’s ancestry

THE SHAPE OF WATER

Doug Jones as the misunderstood monster Doug Jones as the misunderstood monster

The aquatic creature is not the real monster in Guillermo del Toro’s multi award-winning The Shape of Water.

Locked in a 1960s secret research lab and subjected to experiments, the film explores the evils of man but also our capacity for compassion and love.

Sally Hawkins plays Elisa Esposito, a lonely mute janitor, who falls in love with Doug Jones’ mysterious human-like creature.

It’s strange but absolutely captivating.

And, as with much of del Toro’s work, comes across like a dark fairytale.

A QUIET PLACE

Remember Jim from the American version of The Office? Well, believe it or not, he’s now become a filmmaker and has crafted one of the scariest movies of the year. A Quiet Place sees John Krasinski take a concept and really run with it. Almost Hitchcockian in its restraint, it is about a family attempting to survive in a situation where monsters with ultra-sensitive hearing hunt by sound and have all but eradicated mankind. It’s as tense as that sounds.

IT

Stranger Things made two things abundantly clear. That a throwback to the 80s is a great backdrop for a creepy supernatural thriller and that young teens make excellent protagonists given the right setting. IT follows in that vein and add to that one of Stephen King’s most terrifying creations and you have a hell of a movie. Bill Skarsgård is exceptional as the killer clown Pennywise who can go from mischievous to terrifying with just a slight adjustment of his glare.