The under-the-radar scary films you need to watch this Halloween.

Halloween is good for a lot of things: for canoodling with someone in front of the latest series of American Horror Story (our new, convoluted way of saying “Netflix and Chill”); for dressing up as Gomez Addams or Lord Summerisle (see more outfit suggestions here); and for scaring yourself senseless by watching the most disturbing movies you can find. You can of course watch the tried and true horror film canon – from The Shining to Texas Chain Saw Massacre. But what could be more chilling than an unpredictable (and reassuringly low-budget) horror film that not only you haven’t seen, but hardly anyone else has, either? Trawling through film archives for the cult horror flicks that time forgot, we’ve picked out five shamefully overlooked horror films you need to watch this Halloween.

Amer is a modern-day Giallo Horror movie, in homage to colour-drenched Mr Dario Argento chillers like Suspiria and Inferno. It’s a tastefully trippy affair, but was neither the commercial nor cult smash French-Belgian directors Ms Hélène Cattet and Mr Bruno Forzani hoped it would be. Split into three decade-spanning parts, it follows the thrill-seeking sexual explorations of protagonist Ana. Cue toe-nibbling witches and screwball chase sequences through the French Riviera, rendered in super-high definition and co-scored by Mr Ennio Morricone.

Forget Mr Clint Eastwood’s political thriller of the same name, forgotten chiller The Changeling is a uniquely spectral look at loss and mourning. Mr George C Scott plays New York composer John Russell, who moves into a haunted Victorian mansion in Washington State following the death of his wife and daughter. The ghost who lives there – the murdered child of a state senator – persuades him to investigate his death. Full of the kind of dead-eyed “but they’ve been deeeaaaad for tttten years” creeps, The Changeling is a hugely satisfying fire-side yarn.

Mr John Carpenter never made the same movie twice. Famously antagonistic of the films that followed in Halloween’s wake (especially the cliché-addled Friday The 13th saga), throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Mr Carpenter was known for keeping fans on their toes. Enter In The Mouth Of Madness, a Lovecraftian horror-thriller following the investigations of an insurance detective (played by Mr Sam Neill) who links the death of horror writer Sutter Cane to one of his obsessed fans. Mr Neill is excellent at playing the kind of furrow-browed dad-next-door, and this is him at the peak of his powers.

On its release, Don’t Torture A Ducking was Mr Lucio Fulci’s most shocking film to date. It was the first Giallo of its kind to take a gratuitous approach to gore and human-on-human bludgeoning. The film, which unfolds after a local child goes missing in a small Italian village, is an absolute style-fest: packed with clanging sound effects, voodoo rituals and a naked Ms Barbara Bouchet inhaling super-slim cigarettes. What’s not to like?

Director Mr Jeff Lieberman’s cult favourite could double as a late-1970s anti-drugs propaganda flick: it’s about a series of murders in LA linked by a hallucinogen — a form of LSD known as Blue Sunshine — that 10 years before was the hip new drug in town. The drugs turn a group of groovy, reindeer sweatshirt-wearing thirtysomethings into bald, froth-mouthed killers. Featuring everything from a crazed parrot (whose lines were over-dubbed by Mr Liebermann himself) to a score by the appropriately named composer Mr Charles Gross, Blue Sunshine’s closing scene is ludicrous B-movie madness. In summary: a murderous baldy chases clubbers around a discotheque while wild-eyed marionettes sing pop classics. Worst acid flashback ever.