ARE you planning a scary evening in for Halloween? Let 24:7 guide you to the most frightening films, records and cocktails to make your night go with a bump or two...

Top 10 spooky songs

1. Thriller - Michael Jackson

2. Monster Mash - Bobby Pickett & The Crypt-Kickers

3. Ghostbusters - Ray Parker Jr

4. Bad Moon Rising - Creedence Clearwater Revival

5. Addams Family Theme Tune

6. Timewarp - The Rocky Horror Picture Show

7. Ghost Town - The Specials

8. Spirit in the Sky - Doctor And The Medics

9. Sympathy For The Devil - Rolling Stones

10. Welcome To My Nightmare - Alice Cooper

Some creepy cocktails

Red Devil

1oz. whisky

1/2 oz. lime juice

Tomato juice

1 tsp. tequila

Pour whisky over ice, add the lime juice, fill with tomato juice, stir and then add tequila

The Brain

3/4 oz. Strawberry Schnapps

Dash of Grenadine

Chilled Baileys

Swirl Strawberry Schnapps over ice, strain into a large shot glass, add the Grenadine and then slowly float the Baileys on top

Exorcist

1 1/2 oz tequila

3/4 oz lime juice

3/4 oz blue curacao

Mix the ingredients over ice, shake and then pour into a shot glass

Russian Roulette

2 oz of gin

1 oz Kahlua

Float Kahlua over the gin in a cocktail glass. When the Kahlua sinks, drink.

Top tips for terrifying tipples!

Bloody hand

You will need:

New rubber glove

Red coloured punch or fruit juice

Pour juice into the glove and freeze for at least 24 hours. Then remove glove and float the "bloody hand" in your punchbowl to freak out your guests!

Evil eyeballs

You will need:

Radishes

Pimento stuffed green olives

An ice tray

Peel the radishes leaving red streaks to indicate blood vessels. Carve a small hole in each and add the olive as the eye. Pop into your ice tray, top up with water and freeze. Then add one to each drink to make your guests squirm.

Scariest movies

Exorcist (1973)

A young girl exhibits dramatic changes in behaviour and appearance in this shocking film based on the 1971 novel by William Peter Blatty. With famously spooky music, not to mention that legendary projectile vomiting scene and that bit where she does unspeakable things with a crucifix, it's no wonder the film was banned on video. It endures as one of the most frightening, atmospheric horror films ever.

Wicker Man (1973)

In this disturbing film Edward Woodward plays a Christian policeman who visits a remote Scottish island to investigate the disappearance of a child. The community he finds are an insular and sinister bunch, led by Christopher Lee as Lord Summerisle. If you have never seen the Wicker Man then rent it immediately, but prepare for one of the most shocking endings in film history. You have been warned.

Halloween (1978)

Made so long ago but the sequels just keep on coming. Though Halloween: Resurrection is released today (still featuring Jamie Lee Curtis!) the original takes the prize. Halloween gave us Michael Myers, the psychopathic six-year-old who was incarcerated after murdering his sister on Halloween, then returned years later to wreak havoc on his home town. The film effectively started the slasher era, and contains all the qualifications that a night of terror in front of the TV should.

Nightmare On Elm Street (1984)

Just when you thought it was safe to go to sleep, along comes Freddy Kruger, the spooky stripy-jumpered psycho, with the glove made of knives, who murders children in their dreams. It was a brilliant idea for a horror flick, the Freddy Kruger character was deeply scary. Alas, inevitably the sequels got worse and worse with too little fear and too many wisecracks until we all forgot that Freddy was once a creepy demon, rather than a comedian.

Blair Witch Project 1999

The hype that surrounded The Blair Witch Project was like nothing we've ever seen. This low budget horror film was pitched as the real life footage recovered from the woods from three students who went on the hunt for the Blair Witch and never came back. The improvised nature of the acting, shaky amateur-like camera shots and the suggestion of malevolence rather than the depiction of it make this a ground-breaking horror film, despite the fact that a lot of people found it irritating, pointless and, frankly, not very scary at all.

The Shining 1980

It is fair to say that this Stephen King tale of a haunted hotel has left us a perpetual image of Jack Nicholson hacking his way through a door with an axe screaming "Heeeere's Johnny!" Kubrick's masterful horror film sets Nicholson's character as a caretaker, along with his wife and son, in a haunted hotel. During their long and lonely stay, he has a mental breakdown, which has catastrophic consequences. The words Red Rum will never sound quite the same again.

The Others (2001)

A brilliant example of a contemporary horror film which relies on suspense and suggestion rather than slashing and screaming. Nicole Kidman plays a woman who lives in a spooky old house with her two children, who are acutely sensitive to light. Throughout the film sanity seems to slip away and you are never sure of anything, adding delicious tension to the film and making it genuinely frightening. Watch in silence, with the lights off, and you won't be disappointed.