The raven was called Sin

Rating: 9/10 (19 November 2009)

Brian De Palma's split-screen shocker, where Grease meets American Gothic, remains as powerful and disturbing as all blazes, thanks to its smarter-than-average source material (Stephen King's debut novel); some powerhouse performances (a pitiful Sissy Spacek in the eponymous role and a bonkers Piper Laurie as her religious maniac of a mom); and its unearthly sense of creeping dread.
Despite its messy climax (fancy a bucket of pig's blood all down your prom dress, lady?), the Godmother of High School Horrors isn't that saturated with red stuff - a salutary reminder to horror makers that haemoglobin isn't the be-and-end-all of the genre. Then, of course, there's that ending: the most notorious jump-scare in the history of cinema. Gets ya every time.