Everyone loves a good scare- especially when it comes to the time for the annual celebration of all things frightful and frightening. Yes, tis’ the season called Halloween. Besides the jack-o’-lanterns, trick-or-treating, costume parties, ghost tours and bonfires, there’s one thing that Halloween cannot be complete without- a good old horror movie.

Come October 31st, the movies that will be flying off the shelves of home video stores are the likes of Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street and even Halloween. There’s perhaps no better substitute for a good scare than to curl up on your couch with a group of friends, grab some popcorn, and wait for some masked figure to come unleash his reign of terror.

Indeed, love them or hate them, there is a revered place in cinema history for horror movies- the particular genre of choice for Halloween. Not only does every generation have its share of horror classics, it also immortalizes horror icons (or ambassadors of horror if you will) for the next generation. How else will you explain the resurrection of Leatherface, Jason Voorhees, Freddy Kreuger and most recently Michael Myers within this decade alone?

And it seems audiences have responded with bloody glee, as the remakes of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Friday the 13th and Halloween have all gone on to make a handsome killing at the box office. Paradoxical as it may be, we love the fear these horror movies evoke, the most basic of which is the fear of death. But go through every generation’s horror classics and you’ll find that it isn’t so simple as dying- very often, death as depicted is grotesque and gruesome, that which Stephen King calls “bad death”.

It’s the kind of death you’ll face with when you’re confronted with Leatherface’s chainsaw, Michael Myers’ sharp knife, or Jigsaw’s elaborate death traps. And if that’s not enough, horror movies were never one to be subtle. Little or nothing is spared or left to the imagination. In fact, they always had a particularly graphic personality- not content to hint, they had to show, and sometimes in the most explicit ways possible.

But if you can’t understand others’ fascination with the genre, or perhaps your very own morbid fascination with horror movies, let us offer one humble suggestion stated ever as eloquently by the King of horror, Stephen King:

“I like to see the most aggressive [horror films] as lifting a trapdoor in the civilised brain and throwing a basket of raw meat to the hungry alligators swimming around in that subterranean river beneath. Why bother? Because it keeps them from getting out, man. It keeps them down there and me up there.”

This Halloween, we recommend five ambassadors of horror you may wish to spend some time with. They may scare you, they may frighten you, they may even terrify you- but if you’re looking for some form of cathartic release, they will be your best companions this season of dread.

Leatherface

One of the first horror movies to be remade for this generation was Tobe Hooper’s classic The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) and it’s not hard to see why. Leatherface was a truly terrifying character known for two signature weapons- the chainsaw and the sledgehammer- which he used to slaughter his victims. One of the first slasher film villains, his terror was compounded by his cannibalistic ways and his habit of wearing masks made out of human skin. The fact that he only communicated through strange vocal sounds only made him even more terrifying.

Fans of the original will no doubt recall the lengthy sequence in which Sally is pursued, captured and tortured before finally managing to escape. Coupled with the relentless buzz of the chainsaw, and her screams, groans and pleas, it was a visceral scene of terror that haunted audiences for a very long time. Six films later, Leatherface is still one sick, sick, demented fellow you best run as fast as you can once you hear the buzz of that chainsaw.

Jason Voorhees

The signature character from the “Friday the 13th” series of slasher films, Jason Voorhees made a glorified return to the big screen just earlier this year in another of Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes’ reboot of classic horror movies. Though best known for appearing in a hockey mask, it was only until “Friday the 13th Part III” (1982) that Jason first donned that mask. Before that, Jason was simply wearing a bag over his head to cover his face.

While his first appearance was that of a young, mentally disturbed young boy, Jason has since become a silent, indestructible, machete-wielding mass murderer that has the highest number of screen appearances among all his other fellow counterparts- twelve, to be exact. And that’s not the end of him. Thanks to the success of this year’s remake, Jason Voorhees will be retuning next year for another sequel.

If silence is deadly, then there’s probably no way you can escape this silent killer’s slice of death.

Michael Myers

Other horror films may have just hinted at the prospect, but John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978) came out explicitly to declare that Michael Myers was simple and pure evil. In the words of Carpenter himself, Michael Myers was “almost a supernatural force- a force of nature, one that is loose and unkillable”.

Instantly recognizable by his white mask, Michael Myers’ signature weapon was the kitchen knife, which he would use to stab his victims repeatedly until their very last breath. His choice date of slaughter was Halloween, when he would return to the town of Haddonfield, Illnois, seeking his sister, Laurie Strode and leave a trail of blood and bodies behind. Just like Leatherface or Jason, Michael never spoke; but he came with a tune, a synthesizer opening that preceded his return. That tune was written by Carpenter himself, and you’d best be running once you hear it this Halloween.

Jigsaw

The newest addition to the list, Jigsaw was the antithesis of Leatherface, Jason, Freddy and Michael. Jigsaw, or Johnathan Kramer, was really a patient dying from an inoperable frontal lobe tumour that had developed from colon cancer. His weapons of choice were his elaborate death traps, constructed as lessons built around his abducted subjects’ flaws. These lessons Jigsaw called “games”, often set to a certain time limit.

When kidnapping his victims, Jigsaw would be seen wearing a pig mask; and later when his victims had woken up from their chloroform-induced sleep, he would appear to them on a screen behind a Billy the puppet. These aesthetics hid a twisted teacher underneath, one that through the frailty of his own life wanted to impart onto others around him the importance of appreciating the potential of their own lives.

Since 2004, Jigsaw has been a regular fixture every Halloween and this year is no different. All six outings (including this year’s Saw VI) of Jigsaw have been portrayed with chilling efficiency by Tobin Bell and Saw VI looks set to terrify audiences once more.

Freddy Kreuger

Wes Craven had the idea for Freddy Kreuger after reading a true newspaper report in the 1980s of teenagers dying in their sleep. So Craven came up the idea of a disfigured pizza-faced dream stalker killing children and teenagers (including a very young Johnny Depp) in their sleep, hence causing their death in real life. In the dream world, Freddy was invincible; but when dragged out in the real world, he was just like any other human being.

While just as horrendously evil as Leatherface or Jason, Freddy possessed an insightful wit and a biting sense of irony that was quite unlike the sullenness of his counterparts. And unlike Leatherface or Jason, Freddy has been portrayed by the same actor through all eight of the Nightmare on Elm Street series of films, as well as the television series.

Brown fedora, red sweater, burned face, and trademark metal-clawed brown leather glove, Freddy was one nightmare you’d be kept wide awake from.

Nightmare on Elm Street will return in 2010.

"Halloween 2" opens on 22 October 2009

"Saw VI" opens on 5 November 2009