Nicholson shines as scariest

Grinning and wild-eyed, Jack Nicholson smashes a door with an axe before poking his head through to shout at his terrified wife: 'Here's Johnny!' The chilling line, which the actor ad-libbed, from Stanley Kubrick's 1980 film The Shining yesterday topped a poll of scariest screen moments. It pushed The Exorcist (1973) into second place for the stomach-churning scene where Linda Blair's head spins round before she vomits.

The heart-stopping moment in Jaws (1975), when a severed head tumbles from a hole in a boat, came third. The Channel 4 list revealed suspense and psychological tricks to be more chilling than gruesome and realistic modern effects. The newest film was The Blair Witch Project (1999), which came fifth. It did not rely on sophisticated techniques - just a simple fear of the dark and isolation.