The 1978 film Halloween has been voted the best horror movie of all time by UK viewers.

The John Carpenter movie, starring Jamie Lee Curtis, sees a faceless killer embark on a mindless rampage.

Halloween is one of several movies in the horror poll, like Alien, Dawn of the Dead and The Exorcist, which spawned sequels or have been re-made for modern audiences.

The movie has beaten the 1968 classic Night of the Living Dead, which sees a terrified group hide from bloodthirsty zombies in a warehouse.

Haunted house movie The Haunting (1963) comes third in the poll, carried out by sci-fi magazine SFX, followed by the classic Hitchcock thriller Psycho and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.

The magazine’s news editor Steve O’Brien said: “Halloween is the daddy of the genre and has set the mark for horror movies for the last 20 years.

“It kick-started the modern idea of horror.”

He added: “The scariest films aren’t necessarily the ones with the most blood.

“The best horror films combine tension, atmosphere, and a gut-wrenching feeling that events are outside anyone’s control, including the director’s.”

Here are the Top 20 Horror Films compiled by writers at SFX magazine
1. Halloween (1978)
2. Night Of The Living Dead (1968)
3. The Haunting (1963)
4. Psycho (1960)
5. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
6. Bride Of Frankenstein (1935)
7. Ringu (1998)
8. The Exorcist (1973)
9. Alien (1979)
10. The Shining (1980)
11. The Wicker Man (1973)
12. The Evil Dead (1981)
13. An American Werewolf In London (1981)
14. Eyes Without A Face (1959)
15. Suspiria (1977)
16. Dawn Of The Dead (1978)
17. Peeping Tom (1960)
18. Don’t Look Now (1973)
19. The Masque Of The Red Death (1964)
20. The Devil Rides Out (1968)