If you’re looking for a great horror flick to watch in theaters this Halloween, your choices are severely limited. Sure, Jennifer’s Body might boast a half-naked Megan Fox, but why not try something a little less gimmicky when you’re in the mood for a scare?

Alfred Hitchcock, the legendary British filmmaker who began making Hollywood films in 1939, made more than 50 films in a career that spanned six decades. Films like Rear Window (1954), Vertigo (1958) and Psycho (1961) earned him the nickname “the King of Suspense,” a title he rightly deserves for all of the nail-biting scenes he's created on film. True, Hitchcock’s films fall more into the “suspense-thriller” category rather than horror, but his flicks will definitely leave you with an unsettling feeling after you watch them. So rather than shell out $8 for the umpteenth installment of Saw, choose a Hitchcock film to get in the Halloween spirit.

Things will probably get a little tense

Hitchcock really had a knack for creating psychological tension in his films. In Notorious (1946), for instance, tension builds between Claude Rains, who plays a Nazi, and Ingrid Bergman, who plays his wife, when Rains discovers his wife is spying on him. The tension keeps viewers on the edge of their seat. “It’s the feeling that the audience knows something the characters don’t,” says Kristen Soper, a Liberty Hall employee who has watched many of Hitchcock’s lesser-known films.

If you’re looking for blood and guts, you won’t find it here

Hitchcock’s films rely on sophisticated cinematography rather than unrealistic gore to shock the viewer. In fact, Hitchcock actually pioneered many film innovations, says Ryan Schirmer, Barrington senior and film buff who gravitates toward Hitchcock’s technological suspense. For example, Rope (1948) appears to be shot entirely in one take but was actually done in ten, an editing feat for Hitchcock. However, not all of his films use complex film tricks to create suspense. Something as simple as showing Norman Bates’ shadow through a shower curtain in Psycho (1960) is enough to chill the viewer.

It could happen to you, too

In North by Northwest (1959), Cary Grant plays an advertising executive who goes on the lam after being mistaken for a government agent. As with many of his films, North by Northwest takes an ordinary character and throws him or her into extraordinary circumstances. “Hitchcock took ordinary situations — like going to a hotel — and makes the story relatable,” says Eric Baker, Derby senior majoring in film. “But something’s just a bit off. That’s what makes it so creepy.”

Don’t be fooled by the antihero

Hitchcock also had a knack for creating likable criminals. We like these psychopaths because they aren’t like normal villains; they’re charming rather than standoffish, and they, like the main characters, seem ordinary, says Maggie Allen, Liberty Hall's resident Hitchcock expert. Despite the murderous tendencies of Robert Walker as Bruno in Strangers on a Train (1951), for example, we nevertheless grow to like the psychotic mama’s boy, even after he kills tennis star Guy Haines’ wife and threatens to frame Haines for the murder.