There’s no escaping it, this month the cinemas of Manchester and the North have embraced the darkness and gone full Halloween mode. With so many great horror movies, past and present, we can’t say we blame them for indulging in a little blood and gore, or a few ghosts and ghoulies this spooky season.

First though, there are a couple of recommendations for those of you who not looking to be scared silly. The BFI London Film Festival returns to Manchester with eight brand new titles from some of the world’s best filmmakers, from Steve McQueen to Sean Baker to Andrea Bird, on show at HOME. While the Royal Northern College of Music looks back to the silent era with live scores to silent cinema masterpieces from Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton.

Now onto the scary stuff. Also at HOME, FilmFear is the cinema’s annual curated collaboration with Film4 and this year’s line-up is as good as ever. At CULTPLEX, there’s a month-long celebration of horror movies that features a frankly mind-boggling number of cult classics, including a Scream marathon and a zombie all-nighter. In Sheffield, Celluloid Screams is back with a host of new horrors, along with a select few celebrating their anniversaries.

Then at Bradford’s National Science and Media Museum, there’s an impeccably assembled line-up of Fatal Femmes in a film season designed to thoughtfully pay tribute to the talented women who have been helping scare us for decades. And don’t forget about Cottage Road Cinema who have the perfect Halloween treat in a 35mm showing of a little-known film, Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho.