"Samara from The Ring is a fashion icon!" Genre-mashing Eurovision star Bambie Thug names the five horror movies that have terrified them the most

Irish nu gen star Bambie Thug made headlines around the world when their delightfully devilish performance at this year's Eurovision Song Contest sparked outrage and fear amongst the more conservative talking heads from within their homeland and beyond. The genre-splicing singer-songwriter is one of the alternative scene's most unique creatives, their dark and subversive aesthetic and thrillingly weird videos adding to a mystique that keeps on building.

It should be of surprise to no one, then, that Bambie Thug is a huge horror fan, with the genre leaving an indelible impact on them growing up and becoming hugely influential to their work. At last month's Download festival , we snuck a quick chat with Bambie and asked them to name the five horror films that have stuck with them the most. Here's what they had to say.

Jeepers Creepers (2001)

"It affected me so much as a kid. My sister used to tell me that the [the Creeper] was gonna steal me because I had pretty eyes, so I would go up to my bathroom at night time and make the ugliest faces I could, and then sit looking out the window because there was a big field across from us where I thought he probably would be, and make really scary faces out the window to make him not want to take me. Haha! It affected me a lot."

The Ring (2002)

"I often say that Bambie Thug is kinda like if Lady Gaga and Samara from The Ring had a baby. It would be me! I also was really scared of the phone ringing after that, and I also think that she's kind of a fashion icon, Samara. That long hair's giving Cousin It from The Addams Family!"

The Conjuring (2013)

"I just love that scene where they're in the cupboard, it claps, scares me, scares the shit out of me. I love jump scares! I don't actually like seeing the creature so much; The Ring is cool because her face is covered. I love a horror movie where it's just jump scares the whole time, never see the creature and then it's a terrible ending. It's a horror movie; it's not really gonna end well, is it?"

Late Night With The Devil (2023)

"Best horror movie I have seen ever, I think, and it's a new one! I went to see it in a cinema in Leicester Square where the seats go up, and it was very in keeping with the way [the film] was shot in 70s style, 70s special effects, I thought it was really clever. I thought the grading was amazing, I love grading. Yeah, amazing, I would watch it again and again."

Alien (1979)

"Oh my god, sorry, this is my favourite actually. Alien , sci-fi horror. Nobody does it like that creature. That creature was built ; there's such an artistry in it, and it makes it more scary because there's obviously a person inside the suit, so you're getting that physical element instead of AI or camera magic. And I love Sigourney Weaver, obviously, and I love all the special effects. That is a costume that I'd love to have one day, actually, the Xenomorph."