"And a little child shall lead them… " The BBFC's classification information states that this eerie 1955 classic is rated 12A for "theme of threat to children", a wonderfully quaint phrase which deliciously undersells the brooding evil which pervades Charles Laughton's brilliant directorial venture – his first and only.

James Agee takes screenwriting credit on this adaptation of Davis Grubb's novel, with Robert Mitchum in ghoulish form as the Reverend Harry Powell, a twisted preacher with "love" and "hate" tattooed on his knuckles who inveigles his way into a family's life after the man of the house is hanged.

Unforgettably haunting images (a car submerged in a watery grave; a spider's web view of the children fleeing in a riverboat to the strains of Pretty Fly; a silhouetted angel of death) make this a perennially unsettling masterpiece from which modern chillers could learn much. No wonder it was originally rated X!