It’s Halloween, when things go bump in the night… if you’re a lucky boy.

Ever since the first heroine’s pulse quickened and bosom heaved at the sight of a sinister villain – and you can trace that sort of behaviour back to the Castle Of Otranto by Horace Walpole, published in 1764 and the first true Gothic novel – scary has been associated with sexy.

Witness the smouldering good looks and sex appeal of Count Dracula himself, who had Mina Harker and Lucy Westenra falling at his well-polished shoes.

But it’s not just damsels in distress… in recent years some of the best horror movie bad guys have been bad gals.

Here, for your delectation, we present the Fast Forward guide to the best big screen dream scream queens. Be sure to let us know who your favourite is, or who your suggestions would be for top Halloween terror totty.

Kate Beckinsale (pictured left) as Selene in Underworld

Who would have thought that Godber’s little girl would grow up to become this sexy, leather-clad vampire in the Underworld franchise (due for a third movie in 2009)? As the high-kicking Selene she wages war on those flea-bag werewolves as a gun-toting assassin known as a Death Dealer. Kate also gets extra pumpkin points for her appearance as Anna Valerius in 2004’s homage to the old Universal monster movies Van Helsing, in which she appeared alongside Hugh Jackman and kicked monster butt in, erm, black leather while carrying a big sword.

Salma Hayek (pictured right) as Santanico Pandemonium in From Dusk Till Dawn

Almost too raunchy for a family newspaper, Salma Hayek’s turn as the exotic dancer in the 1996 Tarantino/Rodriguez gorefest From Dusk Till Dawn certainly gets the blood pumping… which is not a good thing, as Santanico and the rest of the staff at the run-down club where George Clooney et al find themselves is a haven for vampires. Ay caramba!

Britt Ekland in The Wicker Man

Forget the 2006 remake, the 1973 original starring Edward Woodward as a virginal policeman summoned to a remote Scottish island for nefarious purposes is an absolute classic. And anyone who has seen it will find it hard to forget witchy landlord’s daughter Willow using her earth magic (and naked bum) to try to entice poor old Callan out of his hotel room. Fact: Britt Ekland had a body double for her skyclad, wall-banging dance. Another fact: We don’t care.

Natasha Henstridge as Sil in Species

If this is what alien invasion is all about, then bring it on. The result of an ill-advised experiment to splice alien and human DNA grows up to be leggy Canadian supermodel Henstridge. When her extra-terrestrial genes kick in she goes on a mission to basically subdue the Earth by jumping into the sack with as many men as possible. We don’t know what demons director Roger Donaldson was exorcising when he made this in 1995, but we hope he felt better afterwards. ET never looked this good.

Simone Simon as Irena Dubrovna in Cat People

You could have picked Nastassja Kinski in the 1982 remake, but we prefer the French-born Simone in Val Lewton’s 1942 original. A real femme fatale in a genuine film noir, Simon believes herself to be descended from a tribe cursed to transform into cats for their devil-worshipping ways. There’s a great scene where Simon is trapped in a pool by a sinister, padding big cat. Miaow indeed.

Cassandra Peterson as Elvira, Mistress of the Dark

More familiar to American TV audiences than us, Elvira shot to fame in the early Eighties as the host of a late-night programme which showcased old horror B-movies. Oh, and for her goth make-up, huge hair and ridiculously tight dress with a vertigo-inducing plunging neckline that left not a huge amount to the imagination. She also had a recording career and had a couple of big hits. If you like that sort of thing.

Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy Summers

Buffy the Vampire Slayer was originally played in the movie version by Kristy Swanson, and while the film had its good points it paled in comparison to the subsequent TV series which ran from 1997 to 2003. Sarah Michelle Gellar was the Slayer, imbued with superhuman powers so she could really stick it to vampires, demons and assorted netherworld entities who threatened her hometown of Sunnydale, which also handily doubled as a gate to hell. Hell, as we know, is hot; so was Buffy. The hottest, we think, on balance, of all our Halloween honeys.

Elsa Lanchester in The Bride of Frankenstein

That black-and-white hair! Those mad, staring eyes! The long, shapeless white gown hinting at something more than a little alluring underneath! It can only be Elsa Lanchester in James Whale’s classic The Bride of Frankenstein from way back in 1935. What a lucky old composite-of-dead-human-body-parts that monster was! What? You don’t agree? It must just be us…