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The best horror movies leave your palms sweaty and your knees weak. As you leave the theatre, you find yourself looking over your shoulder in a state of panic, and you survey the back seat of your car prior to entereing. With your pulse still racing, you speed home and curl up in bed in your safe haven. When a movie can alter your actions after the film has ended, then it has performed its primary task.

Cringing in your seat, squinting to view the film through your fingers as you shield your eyes from the horrific atrocities being perpetrated on the screen leaves you scared, trembling with fear. A horror movie that has been well made can have this impact on its viewing audience. The best horror movies of all time evoke fear, panic, and adrenaline rushes that tingle your spine and leave you clinging to the edge of your seat. If all of the elements of a truly gifted horror movie are present, then you are prepared for a thrill ride.

For a horror film to work its magic, it needs some basic elements. A horror film should touch on common fears and phobias of the general public, the protagonist needs to be menacing, loathsome and offensive, there needs to be shrieking violins, and all of the action should take place in dimly lit locales. Once these elements have been secured, then the film can begin its vicious assault on your inner-child. The best horror movies to blend these elements, weaving them intricately throughout the film, are Psycho, The Exorcist, The Shining, and Halloween.

Psycho is the classic horror movie, replete with all of the fixings befitting a fine horror film. The movie pioneered many filming techniques, and offered forth some of the most dreaded scenes in movie lore. Psycho, directed by the peerless Alfred Hitchcock, brought to the audience a film about a young woman on the run who unfortunately checks in to the Bates Motel while on the lam. Once a guest, the quirky manager of the motel, Norman, begins a tormenting form of invasion into her life. We, the audience, are given glimpses into the mental state of Norman Bates, who psychotically dotes for his deceased mother, propped up in the family home. The infamous shower scene, which left many a viewer using the tub or taking a holiday from hygiene, combined violence and violins. Although the violence occurs off camera, the shrieking violins and the sound of flesh being torn apart by a knife terrified audiences throughout the world. Psycho is the greatest horror movie of all time.

In 1973, The

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