October is my favorite month of the year, and it's not because of apple picking or pumpkin spice lattes. It's scary movie season, which means for one glorious month, my obsession with all things horror has a use. Inured to creepy clowns, excessive gore, and yelp-inducing jump scares, I take great pleasure in staying up late with my non-horror-fan friends and subjecting them to B-movie slashers, gleefully munching caramel corn as they scream for dear life. So yeah: October's a fun month for me.

But don't get me wrong: there are a few movies that still scare the living daylights out of me, and dozens of repeat viewings doesn't diminish the fright one bit. The scariest horror films are all scary in their own way, but they do share one thing: great actors. More than any other genre, horror cinema requires top-notch acting to sell the viewer on a supernatural, nightmarish, or otherwise improbable world; it takes a great performance to make you afraid of a chainsaw-wielding serial killer when you're really just sitting at home on the couch.

So I made a list of my top twenty favorite horror movie roles: hulking serial killers, uncanny psychopaths, scream queens, and zombie killers, plus the actors that made these characters so iconic and haunting. Check out the list of films below, and have a few friends over to watch two or three — if you dare. Happy Halloween!

20. Neve Campbell as Sidney Prescott in Scream

Scream  is a memorable movie for so many reasons: the famously terrifying opening scene with Drew Barrymore, the story-hungry anchorwoman played by Courtney Cox, and of course, the character of Ghostface, whose mask is so ubiquitous this time of year. But Neve Campbell is what makes this slasher comedy great, and its sequels... well, tolerable. Prescott's the emotional core of this pulpy 90's shocker, the only one who's smart, capable, and brave enough to solve and survive the string of murders that upend her small town community and unbury her own family traumas. At once innocent and wise, vulnerable and tough, Campbell set the standard for 21st century scream queens to come — one that I don't think anyone's met yet.

19. Duane Jones as Ben in Night of the Living Dead

Night of the Living Dead, the scariest, goriest movie of its time and widely considered the first zombie movie, tells the story of a group of strangers who have barricaded themselves in a farmhouse to survive an onslaught of undead cannibals. Their leader is Ben, played by Duane Jones, a resourceful, willful, collected man who protects his posse and serves as the group's moral compass as tensions rise. Ben is the archetypal zombie movie hero, the kind of character you fiercely root for and admire without even thinking about it. In addition to delivering an iconic performance, Jones also broke racial barriers with his work in this film, becoming one of the first black actors to star as the hero of a major motion picture.

18. Kathy Bates as Annie Wilkes in Misery

Kathy Bates is one of the few actors to win an Academy Award for a role in a horror film, and if you've seen Misery, you know why: she's absolutely hair-raising as the Colorado nurse who abducts her favorite novelist and tortures him into writing stories. In one moment she's composed, and in the next, she's unhinged. Her unpredictability is what makes Wilkes so damn scary, and gives the movie roller coaster excitement despite its simple premise. If you can make it through this movie, you have to at least get up to the hobbling scene —though I wouldn't blame you if you turn off the TV after you see just how scary Kathy Bates can get.

17. Robert Shaw as Quint in Jaws

As I said before, great actors make great horror, and Jaws is timeless for a reason: the  leads who propel this film are all excellent, with Roy Scheider giving his hydrophobic Police Chief Brody stoicism and sensitivity while Richard Dreyfuss is perfectly awkward, sarcastic, and geeky as marine biologist Matt Hooper. But Robert Shaw, as local shark hunter Quint, is the one who steals the show. From his hypnotizing opening monologue to his manic excitement upon encountering the shark in open water, Shaw draws your gaze whenever he's on screen, even when he's sharing it with a twenty-five foot great white. Plus, his speech towards the end of the film about surviving a shipwreck in World War II is about as nerve-frying as the rest of the film put together.

16. Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode in Halloween

Jamie Lee Curtis was only 19 when she landed the part of Laurie Strode in John Carpenter's Halloween, and after its release she became one of the best known scream queens of all time and catapulted to a massively successful career in horror and beyond. With the perfect blend of grit, fear, smarts, and determination, Curtis turned Laurie Strode from a helpless victim into an avenging heroine, setting a new standard for final girls in horror cinema for decades to come. Sure, Nick Castle is scary as psychopath Michael Myers, but the role is not that demanding: it’s mostly standing around without saying a word. It's Curtis' palpable emotion and her dedication to making Strode feel authentic that makes the terror of Carpenter's masterpiece resonate.

15. Tony Todd as The Candyman in Candyman

Jeff Goldblum is a renowned actor with dozens of credits under his belt, but his best role of all time might just be his turn as Dr. Seth Brundle in David Cronenberg's delightfully disturbing, gruesome adaptation of George Langelaan’s short story of the same name. A brilliant, charismatic scientist with the secret to teleportation technology, Brundle's pride leads him to attempt an experiment that fuses his body with that of a housefly's, granting him supernatural abilities, disfiguring his body, and taking over his mind as he develops into a repulsive hybrid creature. Goldblum, who many critics feel was snubbed by the Academy Awards, is masterful in his characterization of Dr. Brundle throughout all the phases of his ugly transformation, playing the antihero of this classic horror-tragedy to a T.

13. Gunnar Hansen as Leatherface in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, Leatherface: the archetype of the brutal, unstoppable hulk with nothing but a mask, a choice tool, and a need to kill has dominated horror films for the last forty years. But what makes Leatherface special? Gunnar Hansen's turn as the rural grunt who knows nothing but murder in the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre shows something we don't see in Jason or Mike Myers: vulnerability, fear, even tenderness for his desiccated Grandpa during the film's harrowing final sequence. That doesn't mean Leatherface isn't absolutely terrifying; pound for pound, Texas Chain Saw might be the scariest horror film of all time.

12. Rie Ino as Sadako Yamamura in Ringu

For the audience to believe that a character could plausibly scare someone to death, as Sadako is reputed to, then she has to be pretty damn scary, and boy, does Rie Ino deliver. As the protagonists of Ringu watch the cursed videotape that results in death a week after viewing and dive deeper into Sadako's backstory, we also see Ino play Sadako before her tragic end, which gives the character even more dimension and, with it, even sympathy. But that won't stop you from unplugging your TV and phone after the movie's over to ward off any possible Sadako invasions. You've probably heard this a hundred times, but this J-horror classic is twice as scary as the formidable American version -- rent it now!

11. Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger in A Nightmare on Elm Street

You couldn't do this list without Freddy Krueger, the infamous antagonist of the Nightmare on Elm Street series, played by Robert Englund in nearly every installment since 1984. Unlike the other iconic villains of horror history, Krueger isn't some strong and silent type; he's a wiry creep with a wicked laugh, a near-playful sadistic streak, and a nasty pair of pruning gloves. He's disturbing, decaying, and definitely keeping you up at night, and it's all thanks to a frightening and yet weirdly charming portrayal by classically trained actor Robert Englund. One of the few people to portray the same character in a horror film eight times, Englund has given Krueger a truly unique personality in the horror canon, creating an enduring legend that's spooked generations of fans.

10. Eihi Shiina as Asami Yamazaki in Audition

Audition isn't as well known in the States as some other Japanese horror films, but it's a tonal masterpiece and one of the most disturbing films ever. A lonely widower, encouraged by his son to start dating again, holds an "audition" to meet his next wife, and instantly falls for Asami, a delicate and insecure young woman with a mysterious charm. But he doesn't know that Asami has a gruesome secret, a traumatic past, and a collection of really, really sharp needles. You can probably guess where this is headed, but the real treat of this film is watching Shiina deliver a devastating performance. She hits all the right marks: she's demure, seductive, awkward, frail, and then, in the film's brilliant final third, gleefully sadistic. Asami's giddy chant in the movie's last sequence will keep you up at night for weeks after the movie's over: "Kiri, kiri, kiri, kiri..."

9. Shelley Duvall as Wendy Torrance in The Shining

Shockingly, Shelley Duvall was nominated for a Raspberry Award for her work on this film; Stephen King, who wrote the source material, notoriously hated the movie and her performance, while critics chose to focus on Kubrick's direction rather than her acting. Duvall may be over the top, but so would you be if your husband started to go mad while tending to a haunted hotel in the dead of winter. Wendy Torrance is perpetually shaken, and Duvall manages to capture her abject terror, her despair, and her turmoil; she seems to wonder, in every scene, "How can this be happening to me?" If her pain seems real, that's because part of it is: Kubrick famously pushed Duvall to the very breaking point on set, forcing to her cry, scream, do hundreds of takes and ostracizing her from the crew. Jack Nicholson said later that she had the hardest job of any actor he'd seen; that commitment alone entitles her to a spot on this list.

8. Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates in Psycho

Norman Bates: the very name of the psychopathic motel proprietor in Hitchcock's scariest film is enough to make one shudder. Psycho is iconic for so many reasons -- the shower scene, the shrieking violins, the frank depictions of sexuality and gore — but the villain brought to life by acclaimed actor Anthony Perkins might be the most enduring part of Psycho's legacy. Creating the template of the Oedipal, perverted, demented murderer that would pervade horror for decades to come, Perkins' legendary performance has legions of imitators and few equals.

7. Bruce Campbell as Ash Williams in the Evil Dead series

Many of the performances on this list are imitated in other films, or are themselves perfections of an archetype; it’s hard to find a truly unique character in horror cinema. But there is simply no one like Bruce Campbell as zombie-fighter Ash Williams in the Evil Dead series. Somehow both quick-witted and totally hapless, as confident as an action hero and as frightened as a child, Ash Williams is all over the place, changing from movie to movie, scene to scene, even shot to shot. Bruce Campbell expertly and hilariously tackles this performance in all three movies and the acclaimed TV spin-off, Ash vs. Evil Dead. Watch The Evil Dead to see Campbell ace visceral, low-budget horror; Evil Dead II for the perfect balance of terror and laughs; and Army of Darkness for just plain weird.

6. Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs

His smile. His mask. His appetites. His voice: calm, elegant, and ice cold. Everything about Hannibal Lecter seems fine-tuned to frighten, and Hopkins makes him feel so real he might leap out of the screen. It's no wonder the great British actor won his only Academy Award for his portrayal of the cannibal genius, which he dominates despite another powerhouse performance from Jodie Foster and a disturbing villain in serial killer Buffalo Bill. And if Silence of the Lambs isn't enough Lecter for you (though I can understand why you might think any Lecter is too much) check out Hopkins' star turns in the gorier Hannibal and Red Dragon.

5. Sissy Spacek as Carrie White in Carrie

I'm a huge fan of Carrie, the very first movie adapted from a Stephen King book, especially the cast (Piper Laurie! John Travolta!) But Sissy Spacek, in one of her best-known roles, is absolutely stunning in this movie about an abused teenager who develops telekinetic powers. Spacek is all-out terrifying in the movie's final scene in the high school gym, but what's more special is her own expression of fear: fear of her strictly religious mother, of her taunting classmates, of forming relationships, of the painful awkwardness of adolescence. Carrie, like all the best horror movies, takes our innate fear of something normal and realistic and then blows it beyond our wildest imaginations into total nightmare, and it works because of Spacek's believable, heartbreaking, and disturbing performance, from the opening scene to the creepy last scare.

4. Linda Blair as Regan MacNeil in The Exorcist

There has never been a scarier child in horror than the possessed Regan MacNeil, played with all the fearsomeness of a veteran actor many times her age by 13-year-old Linda Blair. The Exorcist is considered by many to be the greatest horror movie ever, and with such a terrifying performance at its center, how could it not be? Once Regan is possessed, Blair delivers sheer fright and nothing but, spasming, shrieking, twisting, and cursing her way into your nightmares. If you believe in demonic possession, Linda Blair's Academy Award-nominated tour de force will shake you to your core; and if you don't, then by the end of this film, you will.

3. Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley in Alien

Sigourney Weaver's most famous role, Ripley is the toughest protagonist in horror and perhaps the most beloved heroine in the movies. When a fearsome extraterrestrial killing machine gets loose in Ripley's ship, she and the rest of the crew have to figure out how to hunt it down before it does the same to them. Weaver makes Ellen Ripley immediately likeable, and her total lack of helplessness or passivity made her a wildly popular feminist icon; she'd square off against the aliens again in the action-heavy Aliens and Alien 3. But if you're looking for great scares and great acting, the first Alien will do some damage: the movie's thrilling conclusion contains both in spades.

2. Mia Farrow as Rosemary Woodhouse in Rosemary's Baby

The story of a newlywed woman who thinks she might be giving birth to the devil, Rosemary's Baby is just as scary as it was fifty years ago, and that's because of Mia Farrow. This movie doesn't rely on special effects, jump scares, or gore like so many modern horror films. All Roman Polanski needed to shock an audience was Farrow's petrified face, eyes wide, completely aghast, and screaming from fear. It's the perfect horror movie performance because Farrow expresses the suspicion, the paranoia, and the terror so authentically that the viewer really feels they're there. More than anything else in the film, it's the acting that haunts you in this American horror classic.

1. Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance in The Shining

Who else could it be? A defining role in a career of defining roles, a horror character with an enduring legacy of fright and a massive influence on pop culture, a villain whose face has become the very meaning of madness and murder, Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance is the height of horror acting. Even in his opening scenes as the soon-to-go-mad writer, there's just something off about Nicholson, as if there's a crazy switch in Torrance that's begging to be flipped. And flip he does, going full-on hallucinating cabin fever murderer in the film's last half as he chases his family around the Overlook Hotel with an axe and an unforgettable grin. He's electric, he's bloodthirsty, he's manic and deadly serious: and he's coming to get you.

Got any other favorite horror movie roles? Let us know in the comments! And don’t forget, all these films and more scary flicks are available to rent at the NYPL.