Alfred Hitchcock. Christopher Nolan. Ridley Scott. Steve McQueen. Britain is mostly known in the world of cinema for producing talented directors that eventually move out of the United Kingdom and across to the filmmaking big league of Hollywood. Often regarded as a spring board to bigger things abroad, Britain has never had the magnitude of the American film industry or the cinephile culture of France to tend to attract the best and brightest directors from overseas or entice back their exported talents. Rarely is it heard of for filmmakers to choose Britain as the foundation of their careers if they have the choice to be elsewhere.

Of course, there is much to be admired in the British film industry. From such historic studios as Elstree and Ealing to the contemporary likes of Aardman and Film4, globally-acclaimed films have been produced from these shores. Over the last decade in particular there has been large swathes of British films earning high-profile praise at the Academy Awards, such as 2010’s Best Picture winner The King’s Speech and 2015’s Best Picture nominees The Imitation Game and The Theory of Everything. All based on incredible true stories, these films are exemplary of what can be attractive about filming in Britain due to its long, tumultuous history. Furthermore, Britain is home to centuries of great art and literature that has had the power to entice many filmmakers that could not resist the opportunity to adapt an Austen or a Shakespeare.

There are many other reasons that non-British directors choose to shoot in the Isles of Britain. Sometimes they are anglophiles who admire the deep history and culture; sometimes they are critics who wish to scrutinise that very same history and culture; sometimes they are just fascinated by the differences and peculiarities. Some venture over only for their cinematic escapades, such as Michaelangelo Antonioni, whereas others choose to move permanently to live and work, as Stanley Kubrick famously did. For whatever reason foreign filmmakers choose to film in Britain, they provide an interesting outsider’s eye to a nation that is usually defined by the stories and history it has written about itself.

10. Symptoms (Jose Ramon Larraz, 1974)

A self-confessed anglophile, Britain was a first choice shooting location for Jose Ramon Larraz. Location is a key feature of all of Larraz’ U.K. set films as he captures the misty beauty of the British countryside; simultaneously soothing and ghostly that perfectly arouses the atmosphere for his quiet, eerie style of horror. Larraz made his two most celebrated films to this effect: the fantastique erotic-horror Vampyres and the unsettling psychological horror Symptoms. Starring Angela Pleasance and Peter Vaughn, Symptoms follows Helen (Pleasance) as she returns to her British country home with her new friend, Anne. However, the excursion begins to go downhill due to the frequent intrusions of the groundskeeper, Brady (Vaughn), and Helen’s deteriorating psychological wellbeing.

The opening shots of Symptoms immediately establishes the tone of the film to come. A tame, trickling river haunted by a ruminating mist above it, it is a perfect synthesis of the gothic beauty the British countryside is capable of emitting. The narrative from thereon suitably slowly unfolds, rarely increasing the pace from the melancholic establishing scenes. Homoerotic suspense simmers beneath the surface of Helen and Anne’s relationship while long bubbling tension between Helen and Brady begins to boil as their histories concerning Helen’s former friend, the mysterious Cora, are brought up again.

Although it contains no ghosts, Symptoms carries a paranormal air throughout as the increasingly isolated Helen mindlessly drifts around her manor home. Larraz’ film is often compared to Roman Polanski’s London-based psychological-thriller Repulsion due to its similarly paranoid protagonists and increasingly claustrophobic atmosphere. Symptoms constantly threatens the introduction of supernatural themes as Anne becomes concerned that there may be others living in the house after hearing voices and groans throughout the night; however, the origin of these noises transpire to come from closer to home. The scene in which Anne investigates the attic particularly is straight out of the ghost story repertoire and is concluded with a similarly shocking climax.

The first official British film to be entered at Cannes but largely forgotten now, Symptoms deserves a visit from any fans of Robert Wise’s The Haunting or Jack Clayton’s The Innocents.

9. My Summer of Love (Pawel Pawlikowski, 2004)

Pawel Pawlikowski may now be best known for the films he made in his native Poland but his career in feature fiction directing began in the United Kingdom. After fleeing across the Iron Curtain to Britain at the age of 14 with his mother, Pawlikowski went on to study literature and philosophy at Oxford University before going on to a career in documentary filmmaking until, eventually, he began making feature fiction films. His sophomore fiction feature, My Summer of Love, was met with acclaim, highlighting Pawlikowski’s potential as an important, promising director while also establishing Emily Blunt as an exciting acting talent as she makes her debut as the co-protagonist, Tamsin.

One of the only films on this list to take place north of the M25, My Summer of Love follows working-class, Yorkshire teenager Mona (Natalie Press) who lives in her deceased mother’s pub with her older brother Phil (Paddy Considine), a fervent born-again Christian recently released from prison that is still clearly struggling to control the personality that caused his incarceration in the first place. Stuck in a mundane existential crisis, she is not particularly interested in anyone or anything until the arrival of the upper-middle-class, Tamsin, who claims to have been suspended and sent home from her boarding school.

My Summer of Love explores the burgeoning romance between Mona and Tamsin as they bring a release of adventure and excitement to each other’s lives, riding out on Mona’s scooter together and experimenting with drugs and alcohol. However, as forewarned by the title, the love between the two girls is destined to be short-lived as the unpredictable Phil causes strain on their relationship and the truth behind Tamsin’s personal life begins to unravel.

My Summer of Love is a shining journey of nostalgia and reverie that reminds one of the frivolities of past adolescent summers and the formative first relationships that are now crystalised in memory and realised as the most ‘you’ you have ever been allowed to be.

8. 10 Rillington Place (Richard Fleischer, 1971)

In an era where the most gruesome of true crime is treated with fascination and serial killers are portrayed by heartthrob Hollywood actors, 10 Rillington Place is one of the most macabre, depressing depictions of a real-life murder story that has ever been put to film. Dramatising the life of John Christie, who committed at least eight murders over the 1940’s and 50’s from his eponymous flat in Notting Hill, 10 Rillington Place focuses on the most barbaric of his crimes in which he murdered his mother and infant tenants, Beryl and Geraldine Evans, and framed the husband and father, Timothy, for it. Made by the American director, Richard Fleischer, the film depicts one of the grizzliest stories of recent British history that perhaps only one slightly distanced from the horrors could set out to achieve.

It is hard even to recount 10 Rillington Place without getting overwhelmed, it is such an arduous and upsetting watch. There is a mundanity to the evil that takes place across the film that makes it all the more sickening as Richard Attenborough plays the seemingly every-day Christie living in his ramshackle, dusty terraced London house. The film is a self-contained nightmare that rarely lets you escape the walls of the building that the story is trapped within. John Hurt is heart-breaking as the helpless Timothy who is manipulated and blackmailed by Christie after he and his wife accepted Christie’s offer to help with a home abortion after an unexpected pregnancy that they would not be able to afford.

The film almost feels as if it is played out in excruciating real time as Evans is arrested and hanged for the crime of killing his pregnant wife and baby. Although you may know how the story of 10 Rillington Place transpires from the beginning, it is still impossible not to beg for an alternative happier ending to replace the one that inevitably approaches.

Not a film to be chosen for escapism, 10 Rillington Place unsparingly depicts the disturbing horrors that human kind can be capable of and highlights the injustices inherent within capital punishment when the investigation is not thoroughly conducted.

7. The Lobster (Yorgos Lanthimos, 2015)

The leading figure of the Greek Weird Wave, Yorgos Lanthimos gained international recognition following his 2009 surreal drama Dogtooth and has become known for his deadpan dialogue, stilted characters and bizarre narratives ever since. His first film in the English language, The Lobster is indicative of Lanthimos’ style as it takes place in a dystopian alternate reality in which single adults are sent to a hotel and charged with finding a partner. If they do not find a suitable match after forty-five days, then they are transformed into an animal of their choosing.

Lanthimos’ cast is made up of an assortment of high-profile talent that thrive on playing alternative, outsider characters including Lea Seydoux, Ben Whishaw and John C. Reilly. The film’s star, Colin Farrell, never appeared fully comfortable as the “Hollywood Leading Man” that was expected of him at the start off the 21st century and, instead, over the last decade has excelled in heightened character roles, in films such as Horrible Bosses, Roman J. Israel, esq., and Matt Reeves’ upcoming The Batman, in which his depiction of Penguin appears that it will be anything but predictable.

All of the characters in The Lobster are somewhat uniformed to the flat, monotonous manner of the picture, with slight variations of personality seasoned across them. Although it is most definitely a part of his overall style, the awkward interactions between the lonely characters feel perceptively British as they struggle to maintain eye contact while dancing and make small talk about the weather.

The Lobster develops into an affective romance as Farrell’s David flees the confines of the hotel and opts to live in the woods with an outcast community of singles who, conversely, have banned any forms of romance. After David has given up any hope of finding love (or whatever the forced romance that is crafted at the hotel can be named) and has committed himself to a life of celibacy, he falls into a forbidden romance with a fellow member of his new tribe, played by Rachel Weisz. The general emotional sparsity and alienating atmosphere that has been created throughout the film serves to heighten the perception of love between the two characters as it is conveyed as the one authentic feeling that has ever occurred. After their romance is discovered by their cohorts and a tragic punishment is exerted upon Weisz’ nameless character, David cares for her with a truly beautiful tenderness and care. In the land of the unlovable, two errant souls have finally found each other.

6. Deep End (Jerzy Skowlimoski, 1970)

Exiled from his native Poland after the anti-Stalinist themes of is his 1967 film Hands Up!, Jerzy Skowlimowski fled to the U.K. where he made perhaps his most famous film to date, Deep End. The film follows fifteen-year-old Mike (John Moulder-Brown) at the start of his first job as an attendant at the local swimming baths. At first an awkward, anxious boy, Mike quickly becomes infatuated with his assured and beautiful co-worker Susan (Jane Asher). What starts as a light sex comedy, as Mike baffles his way through skirmishes with randy, middle-aged women and loaded conversations with Susan, soon takes a dark plunge as Mike becomes obsessive and possessive over the subject of his affection. Infused with the embers of the Swinging Sixties that were beginning to die around it, Deep End explores the seediness of Britain’s sexual underbelly that it had classically kept so reserved and presents the misogynistic dangers that often accompany pubescent boys’ sexual fantasies.

A lot of first sexual awakenings happen at swimming baths so it is logical that a sexual coming-of-age film about a young, shy virgin should primarily take place at one. A place where you are forced into close proximity with the scantily-clad and confronted by the nudity of strangers, they can be a very exciting yet intimidating place for confused adolescents. Skowlimowski at first pokes fun at this as Mike is, by today’s standards, sexually assaulted by a woman old enough to be his mother as she continually asks him if he likes football and finds great pleasure in recounting when George Best scored six goals against Northampton in one match. Clearly Skowlimowski understood the British passion for The Beautiful Game. When Mike accidentally stumbles into a brothel when escaping a chasing peep-show owner, you clearly see the newly-learnt precaution wave over Mike as he is asked by the prostitute once again if he likes football.

Moulder-Brown’s Mike may be Deep End’s protagonist but Asher’s Susan is the star. Both soft and sharp when she needs to be and unashamed of her sexuality, what easily could have been portrayed as a tease for Mike is presented as a woman who is trying to enjoy herself and lead a normal life while she is persistently objectified and tried to be owned by every man in her life. When Mike stalks her to an X-Rated cinema with her fiancé (who has forced her to go there against her wishes to begin with) and starts to touch her up as a “joke”, she turns around and kisses him in an act of part enjoyment and part frustration. Skowlimowski doesn’t judge Susan’s multiple sexual partners, rather he judges Mike for his extreme jealousy over someone that, for the most part, is largely uninterested in him.

The film’s climactic ending- in every sense of the word- could be read as punishing Susan after she is accidentally killed by Mike with one of the swinging swimming pool lights. However, it is much more an indictment of Mike for causing it by not letting Susan leave after a quick, misguided sexual encounter between the two, which he essentially blackmails her in to in the first place. By the films closing shots, Mike gets what he has wanted all along by having Susan all to himself. Deep End depicts the formation of an abusive, obsessive toxic masculinity as it takes seed in a boy and grows into a man.

The nineties have been described as the last great decade in America; an overall more optimistic time before the September 11th terrorist attacks, invasion of Iraq and 2008 financial crash that have defined the 21st century thus far. The internet was a rising innovation treated with excitement and intrigue and Donald Trump wasn’t even the boss of his own television show yet, never mind of the country.

The nineties were also a great decade for cinema. In particular, the years 1994 and 1999 are often cited as two of the greatest years for film, producing such iconic films as Fight Club, The Shawshank Redemption, Magnolia, Eyes Wide Shut and Forrest Gump to name but a few – and there are still four other entries included on this list. It was the decade when post-modernism became the new normal and when it was more of a twist if your film didn’t, in fact, end in a twist. It produced directors that still cause a stir of excitement when they announce their next feature and actors that still dominate the box office to this day. If you had told anyone leaving a 1997 screening of Titanic that it would be almost two decades until Leonard DiCaprio won an Academy Award for acting, they would have called you a liar. Likewise, there are stars, such as Juliette Lewis and Alicia Silverstone, that are a crystallisation of the era – not particularly lasting culturally past the decade but acting as a perfect representation of their moments in time.

So, sit back, take a chill pill and enjoy the list, and if you don’t agree that the films on this list are da bomb then, like, whatever.

10. Se7en (David Fincher, 1995)

Following the relative disappointment of his 1992 debut Alien 3, many people had already begun to write-off David Fincher’s chances as a feature film director. Mostly known at the time for his stylish music videos for the likes of Madonna and Aerosmith, Fincher’s Hollywood debut flopped both critically and commercially after being entrusted with a $50 million budget – more than double the amount spent on the franchise’s two popular predecessors put together! Perturbed by this experience, Fincher opted towards a smaller-scale project for his sophomore effort with the 1995 psychological, mystery-thriller Se7en. Depressing and dark in every sense of the word, Se7en captured audience’s attention and set the precedent for what is expected from mystery crime-thrillers in both film and television to this day.

The influence of Se7en within the detective genre is ubiquitous across visual media. Immediately after its release, crime-thrillers began to imitate its grizzly, bleak atmosphere and nihilistic view of humanity; some even going so far as to cast Se7en’s own protagonist, Morgan Freeman, who subsequently starred in such films as Kiss the Girls (1997) and Along Came a Spider (2001). Meanwhile, Gregory Hoblit’s Fallen (1998) and Philip Noyce’s The Bone Collector (1999) are both cut from the same cloth as Se7en, starring down-trodden, pessimistic detectives being forced to participate in the disturbing games of a psychotic killer (both played this time by Denzel Washington).

The premise of murder being played as a twisted game has recurred throughout thriller and horror cinema since Se7en, notably in the popular Saw franchise, but none hit the impressive heights or sink to the dark lows as Se7en with the fervently religious John Doe killing his victims based on the seven deadly sins that they represent. Fincher’s masterpiece can even be seen in such crime television programmes as True Detective, Hannibal and Luther with their gritty, cinematic styles and long-form narratives that contain a multitude of twists and turns.

Perhaps the most overlooked effect of Se7en today is its casting of Brad Pitt in the biggest role of his career at that point as the over-eager, up-and-coming Detective David Mills. Pitt stated that he took the role to move on from the “pretty boy” idea that everybody seemed to have of him up to that point and prove that he could take on complex, flawed characters. With Se7en, Pitt transitioned from a heartthrob to a “real”, (still unbelievably good-looking) actor, going on to receive four Academy Award nominations for acting (winning one) and teaming up with Fincher again for his most iconic role as Tyler Durden in Fight Club (1999). No doubt Pitt was always destined to make it big in Hollywood but Se7en can be seen as the start of his career really kicking into gear.

9. Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese, 1990)

Since Martin Scorsese’s comments about his indifference towards superhero films, comic-book fans have hit back out at the director’s credibility by conjuring the myth that he only makes gangster films, and Goodfellas is largely the reason why. Goodfellas largely established the blueprint of the modern-day Italian-American gangster film through the stylish depiction of mob-life that on one hand shows the allure of the criminal lifestyle, while with the other revealing its grotesque violence. Scorsese established the now-common trope of Jekyll-and-Hyde type gangster, here played by Joe Pesci in an Academy Award winning performance, who one minute appears to be a likeable, witty friend and the next an uncontrollable, violent maniac.

Other than the lasting influence of Goodfellas within his own oeuvre in the fast-paced, explosive The Departed and equally profane, whirlwind rise-and-fall story of The Wolf of Wall Street, the most significant impact of Scorsese’s gangster masterpiece has been in television. David Chase has never hidden the influence of Goodfellas on his widely-celebrated television show The Sopranos, casting twenty-seven of the same cast members and creating a similar blend of black comedy and abhorrent violence that both respectively humanise and barbarise the characters.

The depiction of Italian-Americans as wisecracking but utterly unpredictable figures was continued in The Sopranos after being popularly established in Goodfellas, particularly by Joe Pesci’s “Funny How” rant which has been parodied endlessly but is still agonising to watch to this day. Meanwhile, Scorsese’s use of pop and rock music soundtracks over frenetic montages has largely become a staple of the gangster genre, evidenced in the gangster films of Guy Richie and the popular British television series Peaky Blinders.

Running the line between both glorification and condemnation of the criminal life, Scorsese paints a vivid picture of both the allure of mob life and the inherent risk that comes with that way of life. He presents the fun and games that come with the accruement of money and power while always acknowledging the ever-present danger that has to be lived with, whether it is from constant investigation from the authorities or the betrayal of someone that was believed to be an ally. Although none of this was ground-breaking for the genre, Scorsese presented it with a signature energy and flair that has made it not only one of the most influential gangster films of the 1990’s, but of all-time.

8. Terminator 2: Judgement Day (James Cameron, 1991)

Arnold Schwarzenegger was arguably the biggest star in Hollywood in 1991, in both size and status. Armed with such films as Predator and Total Recall on his belt, it was no surprise that when James Cameron decided to make a sequel to his breakthrough hit, The Terminator, he deemed it essential to bring back the man who had played the eponymous character, despite his seeming demise. However, you still can’t imagine either of Schwarzenegger or Cameron knew what a mammoth blockbuster they had on their hands with Terminator 2: Judgement Day. Breaking both production cost and box office records while working with state-of-the-art CGI technology, T2 established the mould for the modern blockbuster that would shape the biggest hits of the 1990’s and beyond.

Schwarzenegger promised us in The Terminator that he’d be back and he was right, to an extent. Shifting from the role as antagonist sent back to kill Sarah Connor in the first movie, the T-800 is sent back in time to protect her son, future-resistance-leader John Connor, from the highly-advanced T-1000 model. The trope of the villain returning as a hero in the sequel may seem fairly common now – so much so that it has become a trope – but in 1991 it was truly an exciting twist. The idea has been used in almost every franchise of the last thirty years from Captain Barbosa in the Pirates of the Caribbean films to almost every character in the Fast and Furious franchise. Even the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which has dominated the box office for the last decade, has much to owe to T2 with the character progressions of Loki and, most recently, the protagonists of WandaVision.

The sheer scale of Judgement Day went on to shape the economic expectations of a blockbuster film, costing a record breaking $102 million dollars – over triple the budget of the average film at the time. This record would go on to be broken three more times during the 1990’s; twice by Cameron himself in between Kevin Costner’s Waterworld, which learnt the hard away that extortionate budgets and high expectations won’t always guarantee success. Much of T2’s vast budget was spent on the creation of computer-generated special-effects of which cinema had never seen before, particularly on the amorphous T-1000 which can melt and mould to its own will. The film solidified James Cameron as one of the biggest directors in the world and gave producers the confidence that they could entrust him with hundreds of millions of dollars, safe in the knowledge that he will reward them with a success.

Finally, Judgement Day established molten lava as the coolest and most 90’s way of concluding a film, the importance of which can never be understated.

7. The Sixth Sense (M. Night Shyamalan, 1999)

It goes without saying that this entry is going to have spoilers but, honestly, if you didn’t already know that The Sixth Sense has one of the most famous twists of all-time then you really haven’t been paying attention for the last twenty-two years. The majority of spectators enter the film already knowing what will be revealed during the course of the film and wait in baited breath for the line that they have heard parodied and referenced so many times before: “I see dead people”. But we don’t truly watch The Sixth Sense for the twist.

When watching in hindsight it is blindingly obvious that – look away now to avoid ruining the end if you have just finished a twenty years hermitage – Bruce Willis’ character, Malcolm Crowe, has been dead all along. It was likely clear to many when watching the film in its virginal state in 1999. We watch it because it is a lesson in good, effective storytelling about trauma and the different ways that people deal with it; whether they ignore it and try to carry on like nothing is wrong, acquiescingly accept help or actively go looking for it. The fact that Malcolm has always been dead is secondary to its enjoyment.

Of course, however, the most influential aspect of The Sixth Sense is the foundation of the “M. Night Shyamalan Twist”. Only since Alfred Hitchcock’s title of the “Master of Suspense” has a film director been so associated to a specific storytelling technique. Twist endings were already in vogue in the 1990’s; audiences had already been shocked by Kevin Spacey twice in 1995 in The Usual Suspects and Se7en before Shyamalan had even made an American picture, but it is really with M. Night that the trope has become synonymous. Most of Shyamalan’s best efforts have been when he has experimented with his storytelling and kept audiences on their toes in films such as The Village, Signs and his Eastrail 177 trilogy. Supernatural thrillers by other filmmakers quickly followed in The Sixth Sense’s suit with films like The Others and The Mist that similarly keep the audience guessing until the last minute about the true nature of what is going on.

The Sixth Sense also established Haley Joel Osment overnight as the brightest child acting star since Macauley Culkin. Acting with an emotional power way beyond his ten years, Osment received an Oscar nomination for his work in this film and would later go on to work under M. Night Shyamalan’s idol, Steven Spielberg, in 2001’s A.I. Artificial Intelligence. Now an adult, Osment continues acting, generally in smaller cameo roles for television comedies, which, although isn’t at the prestigious heights of his earlier work, he is clearly having a lot of fun doing in this period of his career.

6. Titanic (James Cameron, 1997)

Like the boat on which it was based, Titanic was a film the size of which nobody had ever seen. Costing a record $200 million but taking in over $2 billion, Titanic was hailed as the most profitable movie of all time for over a decade until James Cameron, once again, dethroned one of his own films with 2009’s Avatar (which, after a recent re-release in China, has reclaimed its top spot from Avengers: Endgame). It’s only a matter of time until people stop referring to the “box office” and start calling it “James Cameron’s Playground”. Titanic and Avatar are both still the only two films in the top thirty highest-grossing films ever to not (yet) have any sequels or be part of a wider franchise and are only two of five films in general that have grossed over $2 billion.

The cultural impact of Titanic on cinema cannot be underemphasised. It established returning to see the same film in the cinema on multiple occasions as a norm and not just something that “nerds” and super-fans do, meaning much of its vast box-office was accrued from audiences returning to see the film again and again. Whereas most films would get $5 per person for seeing it in cinemas, some people were willing to pay $30, $35, even $40 dollars to be able to re-immerge themselves into Cameron’s dreamworld once again. Now, it is fairly common to hear that people have seen the latest Marvel film multiple times in its opening weekend. It also showed that blockbusters could appeal to all demographics by interweaving a sentimental, romantic storyline into an action-packed disaster film, further boosting its box-office pull. Michael Bay’s Pearl Harbor is a clear attempt to emulate the success of Titanic by making a big-budget, special-effects filled, tragi-romantic, historical, disaster epic, but some very, very specific formulas can only work once.

Perhaps the biggest effect of Titanic was the explosion of Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet into Hollywood stars. The romantic leads were both highly-acclaimed actors prior to 1997, both having already earned Oscar nominations for supporting roles, but Titanic rocketed them to global fame and adoration. DiCaprio became a heartthrob for teens and their mums everywhere for his portrayal of Jack while Winslet gained another Academy Award nomination with her portrayal of Rose. Since Titanic, the pair have worked under such directing talent as Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg and Sam Mendes and starred in some of the most significant films of the 21st century.

Remakes are a divisive area of cinema. On the one hand, they can provide a fresh perspective on classic stories and play with the ideas of previous films to make them more relevant to the world of today. They can also bring their predecessors to the attention of new audiences if they are largely unknown or foreign language. There are famous examples of when remakes have come to eclipse the films on which they were based, such as David Cronenberg’s The Fly (1986) or John Carpenter’s The Thing (1981). On the other hand, remakes can be lazily made, adding nothing to the original concept and disappear into anonymity behind the shadow of its superior predecessor. When remaking classic, beloved films in particular, audience members will have an affection for the original film that it is hard for the remake to live up to.

However, the status of the previous film attracts a lot of attention, often giving the remake a boost in the box office. Even if people hate the idea of a remake of a particular film, they will still often pay to go and see it at the cinema, even if it is just to prove themselves correct. The horror genre is continually guilty of this. Its array of classic cult films and their dedicated followers are sure to gain revenue while the promise of a superior budget and special effects can arouse the curiosity of those who wonder how much scarier this can make them. However, more often than not, these films result as stale, unimaginative imitations of their precursors that lack the same energy and cutting edge. There have now been two attempts at remaking Bob Clark’s seminal 1974 slasher masterpiece Black Christmas and both have paled in comparison.

Although some of the negativity towards remakes is valid, it has also caused many films to be unfairly forgotten or derided. If films don’t reach the critical or cultural heights of their previous iterations, it doesn’t mean that they should be completely abandoned, rather perhaps just seen through a different scope. A scope in which instead of comparing the materials on merit, one examines how they contrast and potentially complement each other and doesn’t see the original as a shadow over the adaptation but rather just a different shade of grey.

10. Last Man Standing (Walter Hill, 1996)

Arguably one of the most underrated American filmmakers of the 20th century, Walter Hill has made a film under almost every possible genre and made a cult classic out of most of them. Whether it is under the umbrella of comedy (48 Hours, Brewster’s Millions), action (The Warriors, Streets of Fire) or the crime-thriller (The Driver), Hill has succeeded in most at which he has attempted. Last Man Standing is also a genre film but has been largely over-looked over the years. Based on Akira Kurosawa’s classic samurai film Yojimbo, which was also the template for Sergio Leone’s Spaghetti Western “A Fistful of Dollars”, Last Man Standing is a prohibition era gangster film in which Bruce Willis plays the mysterious stranger who arrives into a town with two warring gangs. After making pacts with each side, he plays both sides until they both eventually run themselves into ruin.

With a timeless story that is almost impossible to make badly, Hill fills his screenplay with enough cheesy lines to sustain a Cheetos factory, including such lines of dialogue as “That will get you broke and dead, both at the same time” and “I can’t say it went exactly the way I planned, but I was right about one thing: they were all better off dead”. With a supporting cast including Bruce Dern, Christopher Walken and David Patrick Kelly, Last Man Standing has plenty of entertaining colloquial shoot-outs with witty lines fired almost as often as the men’s guns – and there is a lot of gunfire in this movie. Furthermore, in case you weren’t fully sold on the idea of this film, there is a character called Jack McCool and that is reason enough to watch it alone.

Although it is undoubtedly inferior to its classic predecessors, Last Man Standing is a fun action-thriller from a master cult filmmaker.

9. Evil Dead (Fede Alvarez, 2013)

Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead surprised everyone by bursting onto the scene in 1981, immediately cementing itself into the horror Hall of Fame through its depiction of gut-wrenchingly gory special effects combined with a bizarre, comic energy that is still remarkable to this day. Made on a shoestring budget, The Evil Dead is regarded as one of the most successful cult films of all time, making it only a matter of time until it was selected to be remade on a higher budget. With the addition of more money but subtraction of a definite article, Fede Alvarez’s Evil Dead was released in 2013 with the promise of the same extreme gore and violence that is beloved from the original but made even more visceral with the application of updated special effects.

Alvarez substitutes the trademark comedic energy of Raimi’s original film for even more cruor. There are two savage scenes involving the amputations of arms that are particularly excruciating as an electric knife is used in the hope of preventing the spread of the infectious demon after a bite to the hand and a trapped arm is torn from underneath a truck.

Alvarez wisely doesn’t attempt to replicate Bruce Campbell’s infamous Ash as he truly is one of a kind. Instead, Evil Dead focusses on Jane Levy’s Mia, a recovering heroin addict who is taken to the cabin in the woods by her brother and friends to recover after a recent overdose in which she technically died, making her not unfamiliar with the world of the dead. Reversing the idea of the innocence of Carol Clover’s “final girl”, Mia is a flawed character and first to be possessed by the demons but fights her way through and ends up being the sole survivor at the end of the film.

There are nods to Raimi’s The Evil Dead throughout as arms are amputated and chainsaws wielded but Alvarez’ Evil Dead is very much its own film, infused with the spirit of the original but not possessed by it.

8. The Thirteenth Floor (Josef Rusnak, 1999)

Released two months before The Matrix in the era when the internet was green, The Thirteenth Floor has largely been forgotten from the cultural memory due to the former’s better execution of similar themes. Tackling the ideas of computer-based simulations and existential philosophy in a tech-noir, dark sci-fi style, The Thirteenth Floor is a remake of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s World on a Wire (1973), which ironically was also a key influence for The Wachowski’s when making their colossally more celebrated Matrix movie.

The Thirteenth Floor takes place in an alternate 1999 Los Angeles in which a multi-billion-dollar computer company is close to completing a Virtual Reality simulation programme set in 1937, differing from Fassbinder’s original whose simulation is set around the then present-day Germany. Users can enter The Thirteenth Floor’s alternate reality and experience what life was like in Depression Era America for a couple of hours among autonomous citizens that are unaware they are in a simulation, whereas in World on a Wire the simulation is used to track patterns of society and give a rough guide to predict the near future.

When the programme’s inventor is murdered shortly after trial run inside of the system, his protégé Douglas Hall (Craig Bierko) is the case’s prime suspect amidst a plethora of incriminating evidence. As Hall investigates to clear his name by delving into the programme himself, he discovers information from both inside and outside of the simulation that makes him question the true nature of reality.

Although The Thirteenth Floor contains the same major plot points as World on a Wire, it does vary from the original in a few key ways. It is significantly less intellectually challenging than Fassbinder’s film, trading the deep philosophical analysis of the German auteur for more of a science-fiction action-adventure film within a philosophical frame. The Thirteenth Floor is still fully fuelled by the same Descartesian existentialism, Rusnak just saves us the trouble of attempting to misremember the philosopher’s infamous quote “I think therefore I am” by opening the film with it.

Combined with the originals three-and-a-half-hour runtime and German language dialogue, The Thirteenth Floor’s prioritisation of action over ideas makes the film more accessible to wider audiences and may even provide some with the motivation to seek out the original with less worry of getting lost or confused as they are always going to understand somewhat what is going on.

7. Breathless (Jim McBride, 1983)

To remake such an innovative and unbridled film as Jean-Luc Godard’s French New Wave classic A Bout De Souffle (1960) was always going to be a difficult task for Jim McBride pull off. To many film fans and scholars, remaking A Bout De Souffle was as baffling a decision as attempting to remake Citizen Kane it is revered so highly.

In A Bout De Souffle, Jean-Paul Belmondo plays the protagonist Michel in his breakout role that made him one of the defining faces of the nouvelle-vague. Michel idolises Humphrey Bogart, basing his character and behaviour on how he thinks the characters in his movies would act. However, McBride’s Breathless stars genuine Hollywood star of the moment Richard Gere, fresh off the back of one of his most famous performances in An Officer and a Gentleman, who innately oozes charisma and self-satisfaction just in his presence on the screen.

If A Bout De Souffle is about a man who wants to be a Hollywood star, Breathless is about a man who knows that he is one. Gere has a plastered grin and the energy of a puppy as he bounds about Los Angeles trying to convince his French lover Monica (Valerie Kaprisky) to run away with him to Mexico to avoid the law. Impulsive, stylish and contagiously optimistic, he is the dreamy bad boy that girls fantasise about.

Backed by the Rock and Roll beats of Jerry Lee Lewis, The Pretenders and Elvis Presley, McBride’s Breathless effervesces with a youthful playfulness that rivals the cool suavity of Godard’s original.

6. Rebecca (Ben Wheatley, 2020)

Three things in life are inevitable: death, taxes and people hating on perfectly good Ben Wheatley films. Almost all of Wheatley’s films could be argued in one way or another as underrated, but no film of his has got so high-profiled criticism than his 2020 remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca. It takes a brave man to remake one of the most famous films from who many people believe to be perhaps the greatest film director of all time, but Wheatley never shies away from a challenge.

When making his version of Rebecca, Wheatley stated the film was predominantly adapted directly from Daphne du Maurier’s original novel rather than Hitchcock’s 1940 feature and this is fairly evident throughout. The narrative of both films largely remains the same; however, instead of following in the atmospheric, echoing footsteps of the Master of Suspense, Wheatley’s Rebecca is more of a romantic-drama than a mysterious thriller.

The drama of the film comes more from the friction of the relationship between Armie Hammer’s Maxim de Winter and his new bride played by Lily James as she attempts to fill the oppressive void left by the previous lady of the house, rather than the mystery of what really happened to the previous Mrs. De Winter. Repeatedly tricked and manipulated by the fiendish Mrs. Danvers (Kristen Scott Thomas) into causing Maxim anguish over his deceased ex-wife, James’ Mrs. De Winter becomes increasingly distressed as it seems that she cannot do anything right and that she does not belong in her new advanced status. The final act of the film does increase in intensity and suspense as Wheatley does not dare to subvert the infamous twists and turns of the original story. However, Wheatley utilises these twists somewhat differently to Hitchcock, resulting in a very different conclusive atmosphere as the credits begin to roll.

Both poetically and unfortunately, the reception of Wheatley’s Rebecca has mirrored its narrative as it is haunted by the ghost of its predecessor which it doesn’t even wish to emulate.

From global warming and nuclear war threatening the very nature of our planet to the rise of political tyrants and authoritarian governments threatening the welfare of its citizens, it is not hard to imagine a world that only gets worse from here. Dystopian fiction rose in popularity throughout the 20th century as the destructive capabilities of humankind continued to grow. Within the space of mere decades there were two disastrous World Wars, the rise of fascism across Europe and the harnessing of nuclear energy into weaponry, inevitably causing writers and philosophers to question where all of this will eventually lead.

Like the Dadaist artists who saw early on that the blunt logic of industrialism and aestheticism of modern capitalism leads only to irrational acts of social and political violence, writers began to incorporate the confusion and uncertainty of these times into their works of narrative fiction. Some of the most renowned and celebrated novels of all time are works of dystopian fiction, such as George Orwell’s 1984 and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, while it is also currently having somewhat of a renaissance with the popularity of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, which has been adapted into a multi-award-winning television series.

Despite its literary and serial success, dystopian stories have always notoriously been more difficult to adapt for the silver screen. Due to the limited timeframe of the film format, it is often difficult for filmmakers to create a thorough and convincing alternate world that is integral to the success of dystopian stories. Even when done competently, if the story is based on previous literary material, the world created by the director and designers has to not offend or alienate those who imagined the world in their heads when reading or else risk such remarks as: “Just read the book, it’s better”. No matter how much money or talent is thrown at a project, it is often hard to beat the imagination of the audiences’ own mind.

However, when the dystopian film is made effectively, it is engrossing and captivating, creating a world that immediately feels authentic and lived-in, while also heeding a clear warning of the dangerous paths that humankind can take.

1. Hell Comes to Frogtown (R.J Kizer, Donald G. Jackson, 1988)

A number of the films on this list are adaptations of critically-acclaimed works of fiction or written by some of the most respected figures in cinema so it is only right that it begins with a movie that sounds like complete schlock. Hell Comes to Frogtown takes place in a post-apocalyptic Earth where man and mutant amphibian share the land. Nuclear fallout has resulted in low fertility among humans, meaning that when it is discovered that the womanising Sam Hell (Roddy Piper) has functioning sperm, he is seized by the government who take protective custody over his genitalia and plan to use him to impregnate a group of fertile women. However, after they are abducted by a community of frog-people who plan to inseminate the women with their own tiny tadpoles, Hell is sent to infiltrate the mutant town to rescue them.

Hell Comes to Frogtown may sound like it was conceptualised by a pair of stoned teenagers in a college bedroom (which it may well have been) but it is a lot of dumb fun if you are looking for a frivolous film to waste your time with. You can say what you want about Citizen Kane or Vertigo but no “classics” of cinema have had anthropomorphic frogs wearing suits and wielding chainsaws. Not even David Lynch has produced anything to that effect. Rowdy Roddy Piper, in his breakout year as an actor in which he also starred in John Carpenter’s They Live, gives an effectively comical performance as his electrically-charged codpiece won’t allow him to abandon his assignment while having the trained moves from his wrestling days to use during the action performances.

The most notable scene of the film shows Spangle, a nurse sent with Hell to recover the women, perform the “Dance of the Three Snakes” for the amphibians after she has been kidnapped herself, transforming her from a bookish, officious woman to an erotic dancer. Unfortunately for her, her dance seems to please her audience too much.

2. Dead End Drive-In (Brian Trenchard-Smith, 1986)

Very much coming off the success of the Mad Max films, Brian Trenchard-Smith’s Dead End Drive-In is another Australian dystopia based around the importance of motor vehicles after society has been worn away. Set in the near future that appears to be styled on a curious mix of 1950’s American consumerism and 1980’s glam-punk, drive-in theatres are used to lure and trap undesirables and the unemployed to remove them from society. Within the locked gates, the outcasts are perfectly happy to form their own shanty society where they get to party all the time and eat as much junk food as they like. However, after Crabs is locked in with his brother’s borrowed 1956 Chevy, he is compelled to escape by any means necessary.

The future depicted in Dead End Drive-In could equally be seen as heaven or hell depending on the way you want to live your life. Withdrawn from a society which they were struggling in anyway, much of the youth contained in the cinema camp revel in the lack of responsibility or long-term future that they have. In the “real” world jobs are scarce and the law is tight, so why wouldn’t they prefer to live in a place where they can make their own rules and watch movies every night?

Trenchard-Smith’s representation of this rebellious alternative town seems to be constituted of finding whatever clothes and styles he could find and mashing them together. Hair is gelled and hairsprayed in every possible direction and make-up is worn like war paint. Leopard print hats partner leather studded collars and suits are worn inside out with an army officers cap. Even the dogs get a makeover as an Alsatian is shown painted in aboriginal-like patterns from nose to tail.

Already uncomfortable in his surroundings, Crabs is incentivised even more to escape when the Drive-In begins to take a malevolent turn. After the arrival of a small Asian community, large swathes of the youths become aggressive and fearful, expressing concerns for their safety and way of life. Even Crabs’ girlfriend, Carmen, buys into the propaganda that the new arrivals will want to rape and steal from the white inhabitants.

An overtly clear, damning comment on the absurdity of racism in Australian society, Trenchard-Smith could easily be criticised for being too blatant and heavy-handed with this rather random inclusion in what was a rather light, silly film; however, what should be criticised more is that his obvious message is still relevant today as borders become increasingly restricted and the fearmongering of “other” people is perpetuated.

3. Fahrenheit 451 (Francois Truffaut, 1966)

Based on one of the most famous dystopian novels of all time, Fahrenheit 451 supposes a future in which all books have been outlawed by the government to control society and keep their citizens at a tolerable level of intelligence and obedience for them. Made thirteen years after the publication of the Ray Bradbury novel, it is unsurprising that it should have been self-confessed bibliophile Francois Truffaut that adapted the story for the screen.

With obvious heavy connotations towards the Nazi German’s fascistic burning of books, the film stars Oskar Werner as Montag, a “fireman” whose job it is to find and destroy any books that may be in people’s possession. However, after an encounter with Julie Christie’s Clarisse, who also plays Montag’s wife Linda, his curiosity is aroused to keep some of these books and read them himself.

The opening credits of Fahrenheit 451 are narrated to the audience, immediately establishing that nothing will be read in this world. Breaking news is communicated to the population over a loudspeaker atop of a car and comic strips comprised solely of images are the only form of media that is close to being allowed to be read. Fahrenheit 451 is the name of the division of “firemen” who investigate the smuggling of books and promptly destroy them on sight; the name said to derive from the exact temperature that the pages of a book start to burn. The “firemen” are ruthless and thorough as they rummage through people’s houses, even at one point confiscating a tiny book out of a baby’s pocket.

In the best scene of the film, the “firemen” burn a whole library discovered in an old woman’s attic in which we see a copy of Cahiers du Cinema with Jean-Luc Goadard’s Breathless on the cover being doused in lighter fluid – no doubt a joke by Truffaut at the expense of his former friend. The reason given behind the destruction of literature by the chief of the division is that philosophy is only a matter of fashion and the only way to be happy is for everyone to be equal which means the eradication of the elitism that literacy creates- a startlingly familiar train of thought in this current age with the rise of anti-intellectualism and scepticism of experts in some areas of politics.

It is perhaps ironic that a story about the importance of books and subsequent dependence on screens and other forms of media for information was developed into a film; however, it’s message about the importance and integrity of books is maintained while also adding compelling features that are unique to film, such as the heavily Hitchcockian dream sequence.

4. The Hourglass Sanatorium (Wojciech Has, 1973)

A surreal and personal dystopia, Wojciech Has’ The Hourglass Sanatorium presents a strange dreamworld where everything is uncanny and phantasmic. After travelling to visit his dying father in a distant sanatorium, Jozef discovers that the laws of time work differently at the place of his father’s ruined refuge. As he travels from room to room, Jozef encounters memories and figures of his past in a succession of oneiric episodes that take him all the way back to his childhood romances and fantasies of travelling the world. A Polish film starring a Jewish protagonist, The Hourglass Sanatorium is heavily influenced by the plight of Eastern European Jews throughout the 20th century whose realities themselves were as dark and frightening as any dystopian fiction that could be imagined.

Has introduces Jozef as he rides a dilapidated train to the sanatorium, immediately evoking connotations of the Holocaust as gaunt, pale, ragged figures ride along the protagonist to this mysterious, unknown destination. Images reminiscent of the Holocaust are frequent throughout as Jozef’s experiences are populated by destitute Jews in Ghetto-like areas.

The Hourglass Sanitorium’s narrative is non-linear and fluid as Jozef drifts from fantasy to fantasy in a perfect depiction of the seamless logic of dreams. Has creates a world of chaos and confusion; a feeling that would have been correspondent in the Post-Second World War Soviet Poland as the experiences of Eastern European Jews during these years must have been largely unfathomable and disillusioning. Open and expressive, The Hourglass Sanitorium is open to various interpretations as Jozef’s metaphysical journey can be seen as his own farewell voyage from life to death while also depicting his search in life for love and purpose.

Difficult to deconstruct in such few words, The Hourglass Sanitorium must really be experienced to be understood. Even if you feel like you haven’t comprehended any of it at all, it will ruminate in your subconscious like the weird fever dream that it is.

5. The Quiet Earth (Geoff Murphy, 1985)

The Quiet Earth is based on a premise that has been imagined a million times but never fails to intrigue: what if one day you woke up and were the only person left on the planet? Featuring a cast of only five actors, The Quiet Earth stars Bruno Lawrence as Zac, a scientist who believes that he is the only person left alive and is convinced that the experiments of his company might have had something to do with it. Wracked by guilt and loneliness, Zac slides into depression after exhausting all of the possible entertainment that could be had if left completely alone in the world. After finding two fellow survivors, Joanne and Api, Zac begins to try to decipher what has actually happened and what can be done about it.

Zac starts his life on the empty planet as you would imagine many people would – he moves into the biggest mansion that he can find, drinks the most expensive champagne and indulges in all of the highest luxuries that only the select few can usually afford. However, as expected, the gratification of this can only last so long. In the most interesting scene of the film, Zac gathers cardboard cut-outs of various famous figures, from Richard Nixon and Adolf Hitler to Alfred Hitchcock and Marilyn Monroe, to deliver a speech in which he declares himself the President of the Earth and God. More out of self-pity than triumph, he states that he has been condemned to live in this lonely world that he potentially played a role in creating. Zac’s distress somewhat subsides after he meets Joanne and Api and together they deduce what it is that meant they survived – that is, whether they survived at all.

The Quiet Earth offers no concrete answers to what caused the trio to be stranded alone or whether it is possible that the rest of mankind will ever return, encapsulated by the films enigmatic ending in which Zac predicts that “the Effect” is due to happen again and decides that he has to take action. Left standing on a beach where clouds reach down to touch the water and planets fill the sky, we are left to decide whether it was Earth at all that Zac and his friends were living in or a form of purgatory before the transference to a heavenly world.

What is it about gangster movies that we find so cool? If you were to read of most of the crimes that are relished on screen in the newspapers- the murder, the blackmail, the cheating, the violence- you would be appalled, so what is it that makes them so admirable when watching them on a screen? In fact, at arguably the height of the gangster films popularity in the 1930’s, with the releases of Scarface, Little Caesar and Angels with Dirty Faces, the crimes seen on screen directly mirrored reality as prohibition was still enforced across America and Al Capone reigned supreme. Real people were dying and real money stolen, yet people would still flood to the cinemas to live on the perpetrators side for a couple of hours.

There is something about the rogue individual that lives outside and above the law that appeals to our tribal side that doesn’t want to be penned in by society; that demands power and respect despite no official title. Adorned with sharp suits and sharper tongues, the best gangsters are sultry and stylish; oozing an effortless machismo and confidence.

Where there is society, there is crime. Although the quintessential image of the gangster is the snappy, wise-cracking 1930’s New York criminal, dressed in a pinstripe suit and carrying a Tommy gun, the gangster takes many different forms around the world; from Eastend Cockney gangsters to the Japanese Yakuza and Chinese Triads. However, the gangster film is never as dichotomous as “the law is good and criminals are bad” as the gangsters themselves often come from disadvantaged beginnings, climbing the ladder out of poverty into prosperity the only way that is available to them, while the policemen and politicians that are supposed to uphold the law are as corrupt and violent as the outlaws themselves.

10. Get Carter (1971, Mike Hodges)

Mass popularity for the gangster genre arrived comparatively late to British cinema than it did in America; however, when it did, it was similarly derived from its relation to real events. Sparked by the increased notoriety of Eastend gangster twins Ronnie and Reggie Kray in the 1950’s and 60’s, the Cockney gangster became a figure of keen interest and fascination in British popular culture. The Kray’s had a strong influence over much of London through their organised crime syndicate “The Firm” while becoming celebrity figures of the Swinging London movement through their running of the popular Westend nightclub, Esmerelda’s Barn, where they socialised with the likes of Frank Sinatra, Peter Sellers and Shirley Bassey. Stylish and charming characters that could at any time switch into a tirade of abuse and violence, the Kray’s set a precedent for the depiction of the Eastend gangster that is still being continued to this day.

Perhaps second only to the Kray twins, Michael Caine is the iconic Cockney figure; his voice being one of the most recognisable and mimicked across the history of cinema. Caine became known for his sleek style and dry wit throughout the 60’s in films such as Alfie and The Italian Job, making it only a matter of time until he was deployed in the gangster film in 1971’s Get Carter. Caine plays the semi-eponymous Jack Carter, a small-time Eastend gangster who travels to his hometown of Newcastle to investigate the death of his brother. As he becomes increasingly convinced that his brother’s death was linked to a local crime organisation, his investigation turns into vengeance as he violently punishes those who were involved.

Michael Caine’s portrayal of Jack Carter is the dominant “cool” factor in the film. His slick suits and expensive watches completely juxtapose the gritty, industrial Tyneside location and highlights his triumph over the barrier of the class system that he was born in to. Carter deals with the gangsters that threaten him coolly and methodically as he disposes of them one by one in his quest to avenge his brother. He dominates both genders as he seduces and beds numerous women along his way like a nihilistic James Bond.

There are hints to the Swinging Sixties in Get Carter- namely in Glenda’s flat where an LP of The Rolling Stones’ “Let It Bleed” sits beside her retro modernist style bed- but mostly Get Carter adopts a more 70’s attitude to “cool” with Carter’s amorality and cynicism more in line with the likes of Dirty Harry and The Long Goodbye than anything of the fun-loving, vibrant 60’s.

9. City of God (2002, Fernando Meirelles)

The opening to City of God burns with a Brazilian energy that sets the pace for the rest of the film. Meirelles presents life in the suburban favelas as hectic and dangerous, quickly cutting between images of knives being sharpened, food being fried and a runaway chicken being chased by a gang of armed youths, all underscored by a Brazilian drumming beat. We are then introduced to the protagonist, Rocket, who innocently gets trapped with the chicken in the middle of the road between the gang of youths and a squadron of armed police. The camera pans 360 degrees around Rocket in slow-motion as he introduces himself through voiceover. City of God has a lot of fun with form while always making its message clear: life in the City of God is like that of a chicken in line to be slaughtered, death is inevitable unless you dare to escape.

Unlike other films on this list, City of God isn’t cool because it glamorises the gangster lifestyle. In fact, it does the opposite. Its story is tragic and depressing, recounting the true story of the gang warfare that took place in Rio De Janiero throughout the 60’s and 70’s in which thousands of, mostly innocent, people were murdered and child soldiers were forced to die. However, Meirelles does a good job in making the film feel largely light and enjoyable throughout as he masters a very careful balance between the fun and the fear of life in the favelas.

Through the aforementioned directorial and editorial flair, Meirelles always makes City of God feel fresh and exciting as he blisters through Rocket’s tumultuous narrative while allowing mild tangents to become acquainted with side characters and the history of the events that occurred.

City of God is a tour de force of cool filmmaking as it thrives on style and energy in the most delightful of postmodern ways.

8. Hard Boiled (1992, John Woo)

After making a succession of Hong Kong crime films in the 1980’s with A Better Tomorrow and The Killer, John Woo sealed his ticket to Hollywood in 1992 with his most celebrated film to date, Hard Boiled. Chow Yun-Fat’s Inspector Yuen, nicknamed Tequila for unexplained but definitely very cool reasons, embarks on a personal vendetta against a gang of gun smugglers after his partner is murdered in action. While recruiting the help of an undercover cop within the antagonist’s gang, Tequila is prepared to go to any means necessary to serve this mixture of revenge and justice, using the maximum amount of force and bullets possible. Hard Boiled is the only film on this list in which the audience are positioned on the side of the crime fighters rather than the gangsters; however, don’t let that fool you into thinking that our protagonists are going to be any less brutal and violent.

Hard Boiled is like a bingo card of cool action moments. Woo indulges in the stereotypes of the crime and action genre as policemen slide down the handrails of stairs and gangsters jump sideways towards cover while firing guns from both hands. It would not be surprising to discover if 90% of the films budget was spent on blank cartridges and squibs alone as there are more bullets fired in this than in Charlton Heston’s deepest dreams. In any other filmmakers hands the film could easily come across as corny but Hard Boiled retains its intended adrenaline and excitement through Woo’s unashamed direction and Yun-Fat’s committed performance.

Hard Boiled is most famed for its final third in which the police and gangsters battle it out in a city hospital. Woo throws all of the stakes at the audience as new-born babies and vulnerable patients are thrust into a tornado of violence. Infants are swaddled in bullet proof vests to protect them from what is literally a baptism of fire. Hard Boiled sustains its intensity and inconceivable violence for the entire final third of the movie, culminating in an expectedly, but still exhilaratingly, explosive fashion.

Although John Woo’s Hollywood career may not have panned out as successfully as expected, we can all still rejoice in the mayhem of his Hong Kong thrillers.

7. Miller’s Crossing (1991, Joel and Ethan Coen)

Somewhat unsurprisingly, when the punchiest dialogue writers in Hollywood took a crack at the punchiest genre of cinema, it produced one of the funniest and slickest gangster films of all time. The third film from writing and directing duo Joel and Ethan Coen, Miller’s Crossing is the story of two conflicting crime bosses in prohibition-era America. Tom Reagan (Gabriel Byrne), the right-hand man of the dominant crime boss Leo (Albert Finney), tries to keep the peace between the two warring factions. However, after Leo finds out that Tom has been having an affair with his girlfriend, Verna (played by Marcia Gay Harden in quite arguably her best ever performance), Tom is cast out by Leo and becomes divided between the troubles that are ensuing around him. With even more intricacies and events than can be described here, Miller’s Crossing is a perfectly planned and executed postmodern take on the classic gangster/noir genre.

Almost every character in Miller’s Crossing brings vivacity to the screen. From the hot-headed rival mob boss Johnny Caspar (Jon Polito) to the scheming Bernie (John Turturro) that is the cause of all of the mayhem and from the anxious, fast-talking Mink (Steve Buscemi) to the stern, no-nonsense Eddie Dane (J.E. Freeman), every character brings something different. Byrne as Tom seems to be the only unheightened character as our straight-man protagonist. His calmness and wit stand out among the others as he is able to negotiate himself out of any situation and tactfully mocks gangsters with classic “Wiseguy” lines. He uses his brain in a world where people immediately jump to use their brawn.

However, Miller’s Crossing is not just a clever take on the gangster genre, containing enough violence to hold itself against the toughest of mobster movies. In the most classically cool scene of the movie, Leo defends himself against a crew of assailants sent by Caspar to dispose of him. It is impossible to not be in awe of the robed Albert Finney strolling down a street firing a Tommy Gun as his mansion burns behind him.

Foreshadowing the likes of their award-winning later films, Fargo and No Country for Old Men, the Coen Brothers prove in Miller’s Crossing that they are able to competently balance a clever sense of humour with shocking brutality to create a style that is so distinctly their own. No matter what genre you are watching, you always know when you are watching a Coen Brothers film. Don’t give this film the high-hat.

6. Drive (2010, Nicolas Winding Refn)

It now almost seems cliché to think that Nicolas Winding Refn films are cool. Simultaneously heralded and mocked as a “filmbro” filmmaker because of the dedicated following he has from adolescent, male cinephiles, Winding Refn’s films have become a modern stereotype of stylish cinema, featuring gorgeous actors drenched in neon lighting powered by an electronic score. Although his later films may justifiably be accused of style over substance, it is not true with his 2010 picture Drive. Featuring Winding Refn’s first collaboration with Ryan Gosling, Drive details the story of a nameless movie stunt driver who doubles as a getaway driver for bank robbers. After he takes on a job to help the husband of his next-door neighbour that he has befriended while the husband was incarcerated, the driver gets sucked into a spiral of violence as the job transpires to not be as simple as it first seemed.

Ryan Gosling’s Driver is the epitome of the cool leading man. There is something so effortlessly cool and masculine about being good at driving and the Driver is the best in the business. He never speaks too much but emits an air of confidence to show that this introversion is by choice and not anxiety. Whether he is in a high-speed police chase or confronting hardened criminals, he appears completely unflappable and unfazed. Although he is technically an outlaw, you always get the impression that his morals are in the right place as he protects and looks out for those that he cares about above himself. He is the modern iteration of the Man with No Name with a car instead of a horse. Cloaked in a now iconic scorpion jacket, he is as striking and deadly as his attire suggests. Meanwhile, Albert Brooks is magnificently cast against type as the mob boss, Bernie Rose, as his ruthlessness conflicts with the innate amicability of Brooks’ nature.

A modern classic of crime cinema, Drive is sure to be watched with reverence far into the future.

All of Werner Herzog’s films a form of documentary. From his commitment to on-location shooting and inclusion of non-professional actors to his interrogation of the human spirit and nature, even his fiction films reveal more truth about this world than many other filmmakers’ non-fiction works. Herzog plunged himself deep into the Andes to film two of his most iconic films, Aguirre, the Wrath of God and Fitzcarraldo, and cast Bruno S, the protagonist of The Enigma of Kasper Hauser and Stroszek, from a documentary that he had seen about him living his life as a street musician in Berlin.

Despite being arguably most famous for these fiction films, the majority of Herzog’s filmography consists of documentaries. Known for this trademark voice, both in the authorial and vocal sense, Herzog has continually found poetry and beauty within the weird and wonderful of planet earth. Although he is known, and often parodied, for his seemingly bleak and nihilistic outlook, there is also a great sensitivity and compassion in Herzog’s works. He is interested in the strange, peripheral characters of society, making protagonists out of figures that most people would mock or do their best to ignore.

In La Soufriere, Herzog visits a small town at the base of a volcano in the Grenadines that is threatening to erupt to interview a man that is refusing to evacuate his home. In The White Diamond, he becomes fascinated with a local man in Guyana with a surprisingly forthright philosophical view on life who has come to help with the science experiment that they are conducting. Herzog is consistently intrigued by human nature and our relationship with the world around us, often examining cultures that live closer to nature, such as the indigenous peoples of Bakhtia in Siberia in Happy People: A Year in the Taiga, or people from societies more similar to our own that have been forced to survive in nature, such as the survivor of a plane crash in the Peruvian Andes in Wings of Hope.

To Herzog, the natural world is an amalgamation of threat and awe as he films violent volcanoes and unforgiving landscapes with a reverie that inherently connects us as a part of nature ourselves. Dedicated and brave, Herzog continues to throw himself into some of the most dangerous situations imaginable to this day in the name of cinema.

10. Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World (2016)

After introducing this list by describing Herzog’s recurring fascination with the natural world, it may seem ironic that in the first film addressed Herzog investigates the modern computer-age. However, Lo and Behold is not just a documentary relaying the history of the internet and interviewing computer geniuses, Herzog uses it to examine the impact that computer technology is having on different people and questions the direction that it will take us in the future.

Herzog begins at the advent of the internet as he visits the University of California and talks to those involved in its creation, who recount cute anecdotes about the first messages ever sent, owning journals that had the names of all of the people on the internet at the time and the general unpredictable state of computer technology in its adolescent stages.

What is most interesting in these interviews is the emphasis that is put on how far the internet has progressed in such a short space of time. After one of the founders describes their journal, Herzog informs us that today that book would be over 72 miles thick. During their lifetimes, these people have watched as their humble work has completely revolutionised modern life at an unprecedented speed to the extent that much of society is now reliant on it to function.

For hundreds of years, humanity and society functioned essentially the same; a self-reliant system in which most things were manually processed, always having at least some human intervention. However, now everything is becoming ever-increasingly virtual. Lo and Behold reminds us that almost the whole world’s business and information is stored and processed through computers that has the potential to be lost in the blink of an eye and asks us to question what would happen if it all crashed around us. How much would society regress after the belief that we have progressed so far?

The positives and negatives of the internet on everyday life has been a widely discussed topic for many years now. In Lo and Behold, Herzog meets various different communities that have been severely affected by the internet in ways that are lesser known. He visits a community that has out-right rejected any technology over the last number of decades with many claiming to suffer from illnesses directly caused by electronic waves and the internet in a way that won’t be unfamiliar to fans of Better Call Saul. Herzog also visits a rehab centre for internet addicts in which the members, many of whom are concerningly young, have been forced to reject the internet for the worry that it was taking over their lives. No matter the debates around the internet, there are some indisputable concerns about the impact it is has on some people’s lives.

However, it is undeniable that the world is going to continue becoming increasingly computer-centric and Herzog questions what this will entail. He interviews an engineer that has aspirations of creating a robot that can play football as well as Lionel Messi as well as asking Elon Musk whether he thinks computers have the potential to dream. Only time will tell whether the concerns and questions raised in Lo and Behold will go down as profoundly prophetic or be looked back on in jest like the crazy inventions of Tomorrow’s World.

9. Into the Abyss (2011)

Broaching peoples morbid intrigue around terrifying true crime and the ethics of the justice system, documentaries that interview prisoners on death row are not uncommon in film and television. Into the Abyss focuses on the case of Michael James Perry, who was convicted of triple homicide in 2001 and is eight days away from his execution at the time of filming in 2010. By talking to Perry and various other figures that were affected by his crimes, Herzog humanises everybody involved in Into the Abyss to try and create the clearest judgement on whether this man should be killed for his actions.

The most surprising thing about Into the Abyss is the friendliness of Perry’s demeanour. From the start, he presents himself as a polite, unassuming, chatty character that does not seem capable of committing the heinous crimes for which he has been convicted. Conveyed as more of a dim-witted boy rather than a ruthless killer, we hear about Perry’s life and his version of events as he was, in his mind, coaxed into the killings by his peers.

Homeless and struggling with substance abuse at the time of the crimes, Perry details how his then-friends had picked him up in their car with the intention of stealing another vehicle to go joyriding, which tragically ended in murder. Perry’s youth is forefront throughout as he was eighteen at the time of the crimes and twenty-eight in the days leading up to his death, although he still looks much younger. It is hard not to feel an innate sense of compassion for Perry as it is realised that he is just a man, the type of character that you could meet on any day, and not the dehumanised monster that he appears on paper.

Later, Herzog visits the incarcerated father of one of Perry’s fellow perpetrators, Jason, who is also imprisoned but not awaiting death, highlighting the cycles of violence in society. If you are born into an environment that breeds crime and confusion, is it right that the state that allows these conditions to perpetuate can then murder you themselves when you fall prey to it? This does not absolve any of Perry’s guilt but does call to question the morality of capital punishment.

It is clear throughout that Herzog is against capital punishment, describing it as “rather Old Testament”, but he does not force that agenda upon the spectator, mostly allowing the audience to judge for themselves based upon meetings of the different people involved. He brings a sympathy to both sides of the crime, of course always expressing condolences and compassion to the family of the victims while treating the prisoners in an unjudgmental, personal fashion.

Ultimately, Into the Abyss is a story that begins with three deaths and ends with another and we are asked to ponder whether that is justice.

8. Encounters at the End of the World (2007)

In Encounters at the End of the World, Werner Herzog’s bleak, nihilistic persona is matched to his environment as he documents the work of scientists in the desolate Antarctic tundra. Inspired to make it after seeing one of the party’s camera footage in the water beneath the ice, Encounters at the End of the World presents the simultaneously beautiful yet terrifying nature of Antarctica while also examining what attracts scientists from all over the world to this barren, unforgiving wasteland.

Although it is a documentary, at times it is difficult to distance Encounters at the End of the World from a science-fiction film. Aside from parallels with John Carpenter’s The Thing with scientists conducting experiments at the south pole and a likeness in name to Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Antarctica is presented as a completely alien land, resistant to human habitation and home to bizarre and menacing creatures. The outstretched tentacles of a pale starfish looking creature in particular would not look out-of-place wrapped around John Hurt’s face, impregnating him with alien eggs. An almost apocalyptic vision of earth is presented as the despairing white expanse of the Antarctic landscape, where only the most defiant of evolutions creations can survive, really makes it feel as if Herzog is presenting us with “the end of the world”.

Herzog’s Antarctica is a kingdom of oxymorons. As Herzog investigates beneath the ice, the footage is both somehow calming and unsettling as the still serenity of the open water promises that it has beasts somewhere within that could at any time float into view. The water is both claustrophobic yet bottomless as the ice above seals a tight lid over the drowning abyss. There is a grotesque beauty to the appearance of all the weird and wonderful life that somehow continues to survive under there. Meanwhile, the surface appears completely barren and insignificant yet it is of utmost intrigue to the researchers that spend each day trying to find out more about it.

However, Encounters at the End of the World isn’t all desolation and dread. Whether it is intentional or not, there are moments of humour as Herzog, in his typically dry and gloomy way, asks a researcher whether penguins can become depressed by living out their pointless, repetitive lives in such a despairing landscape and describes a penguin’s journey into oblivion as it wonders away from its colony into the Antarctic nothingness. Granted, it is a melancholy form of humour but there is a chuckle to be had at Herzog’s complete pessimism in the face of some of the most beloved animals on earth.

7. Into the Inferno (2016)

Collaborating with Clive Oppenheimer, a volcanologist that he met while filming Encounters at the End of the World, Herzog’s Into the Inferno is, unsurprisingly, a documentary about volcanoes. Providing both a scientific and mythic view of the natural wonders, Herzog and Oppenheimer visit various volcanoes around the world, interviewing different cultures on what the landmarks mean to them while Oppenheimer works to reduce their potential to cause catastrophes.

Volcanoes are evidently a point of fascination for Herzog as he has revolved two other films around them with his 1977 short documentary La Soufreire and his 2016 fiction film Salt and Fire. Herzog’s respect for the phenomenon is clear as he opens this film with images of magma bubbling and dancing to choral music, depicting them with awe while always aware of their capacity for destruction. Despite this, towns and cities all around the world still happily live around them in the knowledge that they could lose everything if they were to erupt.

By visiting volcanoes across the world, Herzog seeks to find out why these people stay so close to such danger and how it impacts their lives. To a village on one of the islands of Vanuatu, the fires of their volcano hold the spirits of their dead. When visiting Indonesia, Herzog and Oppenheimer visit a research station at the base of a volcano that has equipment designed by Oppenheimer to be able to predict eruptions after a deadly blast in 2010. However, Herzog states after this that the real reason for their journey to Indonesia was to chase the “magical side” of the volcano as locals enact a ceremony to appease the demons inside of the volcano.

Into the Inferno is an insightful and intriguing documentary that balances the weight of the science and story behind the magmatic mountains while reminding us that as much as we think that humanity has colonised nature, it is still deeply mysterious and we are still at its mercy.

6. My Best Fiend (1999)

In My Best Fiend, Werner Herzog recounts stories of his tumultuous collaboration with the infamously difficult Klaus Kinski. From the time that they lived together by chance in a small apartment during Herzog’s adolescence to directing Kinski in the depths of the Peruvian jungle, the pair had an antagonistic relationship due to Kinski’s maniacal tirades and unpredictability. However, Herzog clearly had some sort of affection for the actor as they collaborated on five films together and formed something of a semblance of a friendship.

Herzog makes it clear that Kinski was irrefutably a nasty, difficult man with enough shocking anecdotes about their time together to extend the film for another few hours. From smashing bathrooms to shooting extras and from terrorising assistant directors to threatening to quit shooting in the middle of the Andes, Kinski’s unobtainable rage could manifest in many forms. Herzog laughs at the times now but was famously less entertained at the time as he threatened to kill both Kinski and himself if the actor were to leave the shoot for Aguirre, the Wrath of God in the last days of its wrapping up. Also revealed is Kinski’s arrogance as he went on sell-out tours around Germany just to rant at crowds his belief that he was the embodiment of Christ and was certain that the Indigenous people of the Andes were his friends, despite them genuinely asking Herzog if they could kill him because they despised the actor so much.

Despite this, what shines through in My Best Fiend is Kinski’s immense talent. Herzog describes seeing him in a 1950’s war film and remembering it two decades later as he chose to cast Kinski in Aguirre. Kinski was able to filter his energy and passion into unforgettable performances, whether it was as the furiously determined Aguirre, the passionate dreamer Fitzcarraldo or the silent, creeping Nosferatu. There are some fond memories of working with Kinski for Eva Mattes who describes the sensitive and sympathetic side that she knew of him. However, after knowing the further stories and accusations that have come out against Kinski from his children since the making of this documentary, these minor redemptive factors are completely overshadowed.

The horror picture is one of the most concentrated genres within the whole of the film industry because of its ability to attract enough revenue rather cheaply and easily compared to others, largely due to its dedicated, cultish fanbase. For these populous and low-budget movies to stand out and gain attraction, filmmakers often push themselves to the extreme to make as bizarre and shocking content as possible to gain popularity on the cult circuit.

These films don’t need to revolutionise the genre or even often make sense, they just need whatever audience members they can get to think: “This is so weird. I need to show it to all of my friends”. This is where cult horror thrives because not only are filmmakers competing to make increasingly more outlandish films to gain attention but audience members are even competing between themselves to be able to show and one-up each other on who has discovered the most bizarre, often disturbing, horror film yet.

Sometimes these films may be from a debut filmmaker who is mostly self-financed and without the restrictions of a nervous producer limiting them from creating whatever insane passion-project they like; sometimes they come from well-known, respected horror directors who are given money from their producers who trust that they are going to make another successful, commercially-viable film, a decision they often come to regret; and sometimes they come from directors that have made a career specifically catering for people’s perverted taste for the extreme, each film being pushed further and further into madness. This can often be achieved through the graphic exploitation of violence and nudity, the exploration of taboo themes such as incest, cannibalism and necrophilia (prepare for one film specifically on this list that plays with these themes and much, much more), or the dedication to just make as many bug-nuts, crazy creative choices as possible.

Too crazy to be popular but too interesting to be ignored and forgotten, there are some genuine cinematic gems on this list that make bold, interesting thematic and artistic choices, proving that there can be treasure found within the trash and a method found within the madness. Meanwhile, there are others on this list that are not “good” films, and are not even trying to be, but they are fascinating.

10. The Boneyard (James Cummins, 1991)

James Cummins’ The Boneyard is a curious film, attempting both comedy and horror separately rather than being a comedy-horror film. Fashioned as a convincing horror for the opening hour of the film as it follows a guilt-ridden psychic, Alley, who is haunted by her failure to find the body of a missing girl. When contacted by the police to help in another case involving the death of three children, she is at first resistant but ultimately accepts their need for help. After the foreshadowing of an ancient Chinese curse, the psychic and police officers become trapped inside a morgue with the now-undead children and a selection of morgue workers.

For a low-budget, straight-to-video production, the demonic child monsters, named Kyoshi, are effectively scary in design and nature as they terrorise the helpless inhabitants of the mortuary. Furthermore, there is a scene near the beginning of the film that is genuinely morbid as Alley dreams that she sees the undead child corpse that she has spent years searching for grieving over a picture of herself as a happy and alive little girl before getting up and running over to the psychic to hug her.

However, the last half an hour of the film shifts into becoming a silly, comedic romp as the curse that is afflicted on the children infects the morgue receptionist, the already bizarrely named Mrs Poopinplatz, and her poodle. After the impressive make-up applied to the Kyoshi children, Mrs Poopinplatz and her dog are instead replaced by enormous, ridiculous puppets with bulging eyes like something out of the waiting room of hell in Beetlejuice. At the start of The Boneyard, it would have been impossible to predict that the end of this film would end in an attack by a thirty-foot poodle but that is where it takes us. If the comedy and horror had been more successfully blended then it would be a perfectly normal, campy comedy-horror but instead what is created is a bizarre, little film bookended by at first horror and then comedy.

As long as you are prepared for the shift in tone, The Boneyard should be a fun, campy, sometimes scary, sometimes silly horror movie that isn’t to be taken seriously at all. However, if you go into The Boneyard expecting a straightforward horror movie, and are mostly granted that for the opening hour, then the final half an hour is going to baffle and upset you. Fortunately, there is no danger of that for you now.

9. Edge of the Axe (Jose Ramon Larraz, 1988)

Jose Ramon Larraz was an experienced low-budget horror director with little seen but generally fairly well-regarded films such as Symptoms and Vampyres. Known for his Anglophilia and melancholically beautiful depiction of the misty British countryside, Larraz’s horror was often atmospheric and unsettling, opting to chill his audience rather than shock or frighten them. Alternatively, with Edge of the Axe, Larraz attempted more of a stereotypical American slasher set in Northern California but blatantly not completely filmed there. Revolving his narrative around the nascency of computer technology, Larraz follows two computer-obsessed young adults who use their new-fangled technology to try and solve a succession of recent murders that have been happening in their small town.

Despite a change of location and style, Larraz effectively evokes the American slasher style with murderous set-pieces reminiscent of Friday the 13th, heightened by the donning of a Jason-esque white mask, while also establishing a dry, austere atmosphere somewhat reminiscent of Donald Cammell’s White of the Eye. However, it is not Larraz’s depiction of death results in him featuring on this list but his representation of computers and the his completely bonkers ending.

Compared to today’s standards, the technology in a lot of older films can seem bizarre and comical. Even a flip-phone or an iPod in a film from barely ten years ago it can be weird to see. Therefore, the representation of computer technology from the 1980’s today appears almost alien in Edge of the Axe as the black and green digital screens barely manage to display singular words. The actors were also clearly not tech whiz kid’s, nor particularly good actors, as they struggle to work the elementary artificial intelligence. However, easily most bizarre in Edge of the Axe is its twist ending, if you can call such a random inclusion as such. Someone must have told Larraz that all slasher films require a shocking twist revelation of who the killer on the last day of shooting as it doesn’t feel completely thought through at all. Although, admittedly, it is definitely a surprise.

The crazy and needless finale may completely ruin the film for some people or may enhance the dumb fun of it for others but, either way, Edge of the Axe is an intriguing effort of the slasher canon that reminds us of the true horror that was living in a world before the world wide web and fibreoptic speeds.

8. Monkey Shines (George A. Romero, 1988)

Famous for establishing the modern zombie sub-genre and being one of the most influential horror directors of all-time, George Romero doesn’t include any of the undead in his 1988 film Monkey Shines. Instead, Monkey Shines focusses simply on a quadriplegic man, Allan, and his monkey helper, Ella. In many ways the film is a sort of love story between Allan and Ella as the man and monkey bond so closely that he begins to neglect all of his previously healthy human relationships. However, Ella seems to become too attached to Allan, going on homicidal rampages on people that wrong him, creating friction in their own relationship.

Previously a monkey used for animal testing, Ella is accrued with a superior intelligence compared to the average capuchin as she is able to complete complex tasks while also having the sinister cognitive ability to generate fatal schemes. Reducing the gap between man and ape, Ella overcomes one of humanities crowning evolutionary achievements by understanding and utilising the power of fire to devastating effect as she steals a box of matches to enact revenge on Allan’s ex-girlfriend.

Like a calculating, compact King-Kong, Ella unleashes a tirade of violence against various figures in Allan’s life, which quickly runs out-of-control as she identifies his mother and doctor as people requiring disposal. Eventually, Allan becomes aware of Ella’s misdeeds and recognises he must take action. The final showdown between Allan and Ella makes animals out of both of them as Ella regresses to primordial acts by urinating on Allan’s lap while Allan’s eventual method of defeating Ella is barbaric as he has to thrash her around in his mouth like an angry dog.

Somehow running at 113 minutes, Monkey Shines runs for its first hour as a strange, quirky odd couple pairing as Allan and Ella bond before taking an even stranger turn in the final hour when Romero obviously had to remind himself that he was supposed to be making a horror movie. Monkey Shines won’t provide you with many jumps or thrills but it will leave you questioning what on earth just went on.

7. The Legend of Hell House (John Hough, 1973)

Despite a fairly recognised title, The Legend of Hell House is a widely unseen curiosity of supernatural horror. Sounding like a somewhat generic haunted house story, the film follows a team of supernatural researchers who spend a week in a haunted house investigating the possibility of life after death. However, John Hough’s film features a selection of unorthodox creative choices that set The Legend of Hell House apart from many other ghost stories out there.

The team of investigators consists of three sorts of medium; mental, physical and spiritual, and a physicist, Dr Lionel Barrett, who inexplicably brings his wife along with him as well. This turns out to be a vital error from Barrett as the house’s poltergeist, believed to be the buildings previous owner Emeric “the Roaring Giant” Belasco, a six-foot-five millionaire and rumoured murderer, takes a liking to his wife, Ann, who begins to have erotic visions and a reinvigorated sexual appetite. Ann repeatedly undermines her and her husband’s as she sleepwalks around the house like a randy Cesare from The Cabinet of Dr Caligari and makes advances towards physical medium, Ben Fischer, hoping to get some “physical” action of her own.

Fischer, the sole survivor of a previous investigation on the house twenty years earlier, becomes the principal hero figure in The Legend of Hell House as he directly confronts Belasco’s ghost. Fischer’s confrontation is quite literal as he decides the best course of action to take is to enrage Belasco with insults until he reveals himself. Calling him a “son of a whore” and “dried-up bastard”, Fischer finally cracks Belasco when he starts to question his real height. The walls of the house begin to crumble with the spirits rage, revealing the body of Belasco buried within the foundations of the house. Ripping open the corpse’s trousers, Fischer unveils a pair of prosthetic legs attached to Belasco’s body, who in his life had attempted to replace his own short legs with fake longer ones. Ultimately, The Legend of Hell House is rectified by tormenting and bullying the vertically impaired.

The Legend of Hell House is a phantasmagorical treat of seventies special effects and wild cinematography. A bonkers bonanza of the highest order.

6. Beyond the Darkness (Joe D’Amato, 1979)

Think of the most shocking and disgusting things possible to be written into a film, mix them all together and throw them into a script and you still probably wouldn’t get close to the sickness of Beyond the Darkness. In a generation before “edgelords”, Beyond the Darkness challenges its audience to watch as actress Franca Stoppi stated that they were “making a movie to make people throw up”, while the director Joe D’Amato himself admitted to opting “for the most unrestrained gore” as possible. If the filmmaker’s intention is to be considered the mark for a film’s success, then Beyond the Darkness is possibly the most achieved movie of all time as Beyond the Darkness features an array of necrophilia, cannibalism, voodoo, adult breastfeeding, disembowelment, extreme torture and eye gouging, to name but a few. If you were to play a game of taboo bingo with this film then you would very quickly win.

Schlock shock master Joe D’Amato revelled in challenging his audiences by including as shocking themes imaginable as graphically as possible, evidenced in such films as Anthropophagus, Absurd and the nuancedly named Porno Holocaust. Directing with flair and a flourish, D’Amato relishes in presenting what people would have thought to be unimaginable. Beyond the Darkness follows the grieving Francesco as he mourns the recent death of his girlfriend Anna. As a professional taxidermist, this mourning takes shape in a macabre fashion as Francesco digs up and stuffs the woman for his own preservation.

After a local hitchhiker witnesses Francesco with the body, Francesco knows that this hitchhiker can’t be spared and makes the logical decision to needlessly torture her by pulling out her fingernails with a pair of pliers before ultimately choking her to death. Evidently, Francesco has a lot more going on than just the death of his lover. In fact, he clearly wasn’t really that devoted to his diseased fiancé as he then partakes in a twisted sexual relationship with his childhood nurse and housekeeper throughout the rest of the film and picks up several other women which he has sex with before revealing the corpse of his girlfriend to.

The ultimate movie to be able to tell your friends about, Beyond the Darkness is the extreme representative of the time of video nasty cinema, before more modern infamous outrages like The Human Centipede and A Serbian Film, where the films were approached with a certain frivolity; a mixture of sick and silly in which the blood and gore is hyper-exaggerated and the acting even more so.

Almost by its very definition the horror genre has to be bizarre. In order to scare horror must stray in some capacity from the safety of the norm. Whether it is to the extent of creating fantasy worlds and unnatural monsters to presenting human killers based on true events, horror brings a brush with the bizarre to plunge the audience into a world that they either can’t, or don’t want, to comprehend. The outlandish content of the horror genre also gives filmmakers liberty through its form, allowing directors to make bold and shocking creative choices to provoke the most visceral reactions possible in audiences.

Ultimately, as creative boundaries are continually pushed and experimented with, horror films are produced that are more and more bizarre to elicit as extreme reactions in audiences as possible. It is a fine balance for filmmakers to know just how far into the weird to go without alienating or outraging too many people. Even if a filmmaker’s intention is to shock and bewilder their audience, is still has to be somewhat legible to enough people to gain popularity and make money. When they are at their most successful, horror films that could be at first considered confusing and outrageous can become some of the most influential of the genre by revolutionising narratives, establishing new codes and conventions and making a lot of money in the long-run.

The films on this list walk the fine line between revolutionary and nonsense on a razors edge as they are some of the most extreme and crazy films to be hailed by horror fans and accepted by portions of wider mainstream audiences and critics alike.

10. Nightbreed (Clive Barker, 1990)

Despite having only directed three feature films, Clive Barker is undeniably an auteur of the horror genre. His films are so thematically and stylistically unique he can almost be categorised as establishing his own sub-genre of horror of highly-sexualised, sado-masochistic films featuring gruesome monsters, sinister demons and extremely graphic violence. His 1987 feature debut, Hellraiser, is arguably one of the most iconic horror films of all time, with a vast number of even non-horror fans being able to recognise Pinhead and the puzzle cube. Hellraiser itself could easily be included on this list; however, it is Barker’s lesser-known sophomore film, Nightbreed, that, although not competing with Hellraiser as an overall film, gives it a good run for its money in its bizarre content.

Based on his 1988 novella Cabal, Nightbreed follows Aaron Boone, a young man who is led to believe that he is a serial killer by his psychiatrist, Dr Decker, expertly played to a frightening degree by horror-auteur in his own right, David Cronenberg. On the run from the police, Boone hides in an abandoned cemetery where he finds himself among a community of monsters, the Nightbreed, who can only come out at night and have been driven away from society by the violence of man.

The Nightbreed are made up by a troupe of disturbing and sickening looking mutants beyond description, notably a banana-shaped headed man that looks distractingly like Robbie Rotten from the children’s TV show Lazy Town. However, despite their appearance, this tribe of outsiders and misfits are not the villains of the film, instead embodying figures of sympathy who have been victimised and excluded by the hatred and violence of humans. Mankind are the real monsters of the film as they take hyperbolic glee in battling and murdering the mutants in the final act of the film, relishing the opportunity to use as brutal and sadistic weaponry as possible. Considering Barker’s homosexuality, it is interesting and apt to assume a queer reading of Nightbreed with the mutants representing the LGBTQ community who are seen as freaks and monstrosities by mainstream society to the point of violence and murder.

This main narrative involving an underground society of beasts is already bizarre enough to compete with Hellraiser to be included on this list; however, it is the inclusion of Cronenberg’s psychotic psychiatrist that really gives Nightbreed the edge. By gaslighting Boone into believing that he is a serial killer, Decker covers for his own spree of vicious murders that he enacts throughout the film, clad in a terrifying skin-tight mask with buttons for eyes and a zip for a mouth. Decker is a cold, sadistic maniac that relishes in butchery and torture that, after the first half an hour or so of the film, really isn’t integral to the plot of the story until the end, but he forces himself in with an iron will and a steel blade.

Nightbreed could have very easily existed without the character of Decker at all but it is to Barker’s insane brilliance that he is. In the final showdown with the mutants, Decker doesn’t seem to have a particular hatred for the mutants, seeming to just be in it for the blood and carnage of it all, as well as now having a personal agenda to kill Boone. Cronenberg plays Decker perfectly as an ice-cold psychopath almost surpasses any of his own films in its scariness.

Nightbreed is by no means close to being a masterpiece and its extreme campiness can be at times laughable but it is definitely a bizarre experience that is perfect to watch late at night with a group of friends and a bunch of snacks.

9. Phenomena (Dario Argento, 1985)

Dario Argento is one of the most revered cult horror directors of all time, producing such classics as The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, Deep Red and Suspiria. Argento’s films always flirt with the bizarre, featuring covens of witches, psychotic killers and shocking twists, but never before has he gone so successfully crazy than in his 1985 picture Phenomena. Jennifer Connelly stars in her first leading role, having only previously appeared in Once Upon a Time in America (directed by friend and collaborator of Argento, Sergio Leone), as a young girl at a new school in the hills of Switzerland with the ability to communicate with insects. Meanwhile, a series of brutal murders plague the small Swiss community which can only be solved by Connelly and her six-legged friends.

Combining the psychic themes of 70’s Brian De Palma films with his classic Giallo touch, the vague synopsis of Phenomena already sounds like one of Argento’s wackiest pictures yet. Now insert horror acting royalty Donald Pleasance as a paraplegic, Scottish entomologist and his Chimpanzee helper, Inga, and an insane final act that features a decomposing pit, aquatic blaze and the reveal of why the killer’s house has all of its mirrors covered.

There seemed a slight obsession in the mid-to-late 1980’s with monkey butlers helping the disabled in horror films as only three years later another of Argento’s friends and collaborators, George A. Romero, would broach the subject in his equally bizarre Monkey Shines. Meaning no offence to any of the cast involved, which does include a future Academy Award winner, Inga is the real star of the movie as she pushes around the incapacitated Pleasance, clings to the roof of the killer’s car and can be seen as the moral centre of the whole film. Unfortunately, behind-the-scenes troubles with lead actor Connelly stunted Inga’s career as she was consistently uncooperative on the shoot, at one point even reportedly biting Connelly. Another bright acting talent thrown onto the egoic bonfire.

Perhaps most bizarre of all is Phenomena’s soundtrack (yes, more bizarre than the monkey butler) to the point of the film’s detriment. Although a lot of the film is scored suitably by Goblin, Argento insists on littering the film with random and needless heavy metal songs from Iron Maiden and Motorhead. In their own right these songs are perfectly fine but are more than jarring when employed over the footage of a corpse being solemnly stretchered out of a home or Connelly trying to escape from the killer’s house. At least if Argento had used an iron maiden as a form of torture it could have made at least a slight bit of sense. Of course, the narrative never warrants the use of such torture, but when has that ever stopped Argento before?

8. In the Mouth of Madness (John Carpenter, 1995)

Arguably John Carpenter’s most underrated film, In the Mouth of Madness is an existential nightmare in which insurance investigator John Trent (Sam Neill) is hired to look for missing horror author Sutter Cane, whose disappearance is as mysterious as one of his own stories. Convinced that Cane’s disappearance is nothing more than a publicity stunt for his upcoming novel, Trent’s investigation proves that Cane’s book is going to be all the craze. . . in the worst ways possible.

Carpenter combines a Lovecraftian mythos with a Stephen King inspired atmosphere and Clive Barker-esque fantasy to create a literary Frankenstein in which all of the most monstruous parts are stitched together for the screen. Trent’s investigation leads him, along with Cane’s editor Linda, to the sleepy town of Hobb’s End in which the lines of Cane’s pages and reality blur; a place where murders and events from Cane’s fiction suddenly seem to be not-so-fictitious.

Determined not to fall for any tricks, Trent is resistant to any possibilities of the supernatural while Linda begins to assimilate into Cane’s community. However, once resistance is proven futile and evidence that what is happening is real abounds, questions of existence begin to whirl: if John and Linda are existing within a figment of Cane’s imagination, then what does that make them? Both an omnipotent creator and Devilish fiend, Cane reigns supreme over Hobb’s End in his church on the hill, typing his new novel that may be being released a lot sooner than anybody was expecting.

Trent’s return to “normality” coincides with the release of Cane’s new book: “In the Mouth of Madness”, featuring a protagonist and story that seems uncannily familiar. Furthermore, the book seems to be having a rather adverse effect on its readers that starts a breakout violence and carnage starts across America. Everyone loves being absorbed by a good book, but not this much. In the Mouth of Madness ends where it begins: with Trent depicted as the stereotypical image of insanity; his body and asylum cell walls decorated with scribblings warning about the danger of seemingly foolish fear. John has been well and truly chewed up and spat out by the Mouth of Madness and now it is the world’s turn too.

7. Tetsuo: The Iron Man (Shinya Tsukamoto, 1989)

Feeling like it has come straight-off the assembly line and onto the screen with half of the factory fallen inside, Tetsuo: The Iron Man is a kinetic frenzy that follows the development of a man plagued by an affliction that causes his flesh to turn into metal. Presenting little more story than this, Tetsuo is an experiential, experimental film that clunks and scrapes the spectator through its short runtime.

Tetsuo is a post-industrial, nightmarish vision, filled with smoke and a chiaroscurist haze that makes it impossible not to compare with David Lynch’s 1977 masterpiece Eraserhead. The heavy metal soundtrack (in the most literal, non-Argento sense) clanks, whirs and scrapes the spectator through the film that, paired with the chaotic visuals and editing, means it is probably advisable to miss if you are prone to migraines. Combined with a Jan Svankmajer stop-motion style of visual effects, Tsukamoto creates a film that is owing in its experimental artistic influences but in no way can be accused of being derived.

Tetsuo opens with a man credited only as “Metal Fetishist” driving a metal rod into his maggot-infested thigh in one of Tsukamoto’s more subtle examples of metallic, phallic imagery. After being hit by a car and killed by a businessman and his girlfriend, the man’s penchant for metal appears to curse his killer with a twisted Midas touch in which, instead of being turned into gold, he is slowly and agonisingly turned into various metal parts. More phallic imagery ensues as the man’s penis is replaced by a large, whirling drill which he cannot control, much to the horror of his girlfriend. Seen through the scope of a bizarre domestic drama, Tetsuo reveals turning half-metallic and developing a huge drill as a penis can really put a strain on an otherwise healthy relationship.

Predictably yet still fascinatingly, the man continues to evolve into a metallic mess throughout the film until he is confronted by the resurrected, equally-metallic Metal Fetishist. Like Godzilla vs Mothra, the two monstrosities unleash their fury through the streets of Japan, at first on each other until they realise the vision of a post-apocalyptic, metallic utopia in which Earth shall be consumed by metal. You will likely only realise much of the narrative by reading a synopsis after watching it but story was never meant to be the appeal of this charged lightning bolt of a film.

6. Climax (Gaspar Noe, 2018)

The latest film on this list by over two decades, Gaspar Noe’s Climax is a claustrophobic, psychedelic nightmare of a film about a group of young dancers having a party after rehearsals at an isolated school. However, after they discover that their sangria has been spiked by LSD, a hallucinatory hell ensues. This film is an hour and a half long climax, pounding all of your senses so that once it has finished you feel like you are on a comedown.

Noe opens Climax by stating that it is “A French Film and Proud of it”; a bizarre and bold statement that sets the tone for the rest of the film as Noe unflinchingly presents the depraved and disturbing events that occur amongst the young adults’ panic. As they fight to find out who spiked the drink the group of dancers turn on each other while simultaneously turning in on themselves as the psychedelics affect their state of mind. The drugs unleash the madness and cruelty within these so-called partners, exposing people’s true feelings and the fragility of their professional relationships.

Never one to shy away from confronting audiences with brutal and graphic scenes, Noe challenges the spectator with issues of abortion and incest to make the viewing experience as uncomfortable as possible. Forcing the audience to feel as uncomfortable as possible may be thought of as a strange and risky trick for a filmmaker to play; however, Noe’s use of cinematography sucks the audience into the psychological chaos of the film, aligning you with the characters and making you believe that you cannot just turn the film off and escape. By utilising extensive long takes and a dynamic camera that is continually flipping, spinning and snaking through the building, Noe completely traps the audience in a perpetual state of anxiety. Make sure to cut your nails before watching this otherwise you will have very bloody palms.

In the eyes of many the horror genre is a lower form of cinema, often regarded simply as cheap and easy thrills that exploit the most unsavoury tastes of filmgoing audiences. This can even be seen evidenced in recent years with the proliferation of films labelled as “elevated horror”, such as the work of Ari Aster and Robert Eggers, that seem to be presented as “respectable” films still within the horror genre with larger production values and claims to deeper meanings beneath the surface violence and gore.

However, this does a great disservice to the cheaper, B- movie horror film. Of course, the B-movie horror does have a cultish, dedicated fan base surrounding it that love the genres freedom of expression and appreciate its sometimes rough and shoddy edges. A community that love the now cheesy lines, blatantly fake blood and revel in its uninhibited, but to the larger public it is a variety of film that they would only dare venture to at an adolescent slumber party to then laugh off the next morning. No matter the budget nor the subject matter, when the horror movie is made well it is perhaps the most expressive and malleable of genres for a filmmaker; allowing an expansive range of creative choices to be made in performance, cinematography, editing and mise-en-scene.

Throughout the twentieth century Europe produced a vast array of B-movie horror films that were largely overlooked at the time and forgotten about today. Relaxed censorship laws across the continent were passed in the nineteen-sixties that allowed more sex and violence on screen which filmmakers and producers recognised could attract a fair audience for a feasible price. This resulted in what is often regarded as “Eurotrash” cinema, which also at times overlaps with the infamous cycle of “video nasties” in the seventies and eighties. However, within this there was still creativity and art at play; where effective filmmaking was exhibited and interesting practical and thematic choices were made.

The Giallo is perhaps the most famous of the European horror sub-genres which were a cycle of Italian slasher films, famous for their numerous twists on the traditional slasher form and admired for their savage set-pieces, hyperstylised imagery and scintillating soundtracks. Noted directors of this cycle include horror icons such as Mario Bava (Black Sunday, Black Sabbath) and Dario Argento (Suspiria, Deep Red, Tenebrae). As Italy focussed more closely on the freshly allowed graphic violence, much of the rest of Europe’s horror films were marketed on the basis of sex and nudity made by transcontinental directors such as: the French Jean Rollin and Alain Robbe-Grillet (the same Robbe-Grillet that wrote Last Year in Marienbad and spearheaded the nouveau roman); the Polish Walerian Borowczyk and the Spanish Jess Franco and Jose Ramon Larraz.

1. Spirits of the Dead (Roger Vadim, Louis Malle, Federio Fellini, 1968)

One needs little more reason to visit this unique gem than the list of names involved in its production: Federico Fellini, Louis Malle and Roger Vadim directing Alain Delon, Brigitte Bardot, Jane and Peter Fonda and Terence Stamp in an anthology of three short films based on stories by the Grandfather of Gothic-fiction Edgar Allan Poe.

The strongest chapter of this film is undeniably Toby Dammit from Federico Fellini- a filmmaker no one could ever accuse of being “Eurotrash”. Loosely based on Poe’s “Never Bet the Devil your Head”, Toby Dammit stars Terence Stamp as the eponymous lead; a brattish, British movie star who is plagued by visions of a little girl in white that he believes to be the devil. Fellini’s depiction of the girl is particularly disturbing as her ghostly-pale face smiles sinisterly through her hair, piercing through the camera and straight to the spine; reminiscent in manner to what has popularly become associated with Japanese horrors like Ringu and The Grudge. However, Fellini admitted that the origin of the demon girl was a homage to Mario Bava’s Kill, Baby… Kill. Even the poster boy of Italian art cinema had to admire the talents that lay within B-movie horror picture. These visions, along with the troubles of alcohol and stardom, take their toll on the psyche of Dammit as he descends furiously into insanity.

Toby Dammit is disorienting, dazzling and delusive; perhaps unsurprising from the maestro who created the likes of La Dolce Vita and 8 ½ which similarly address the struggle of stardom and fame. Fellini has his finger on the pulse of the youthful, chaotic energy of the times in 1968, possibly predicting the unravelling and demise of the egotistical, excessive stars of the sixties like Jim Morrison and Janis Joplin. Ironically in Spirits of the Dead, Fellini very much presents us with the spirit of the living while also revealing the darkness behind much of the glitz and the glamour of fame.

Although overshadowed by Dammit, Vadim’s Metzengerstein and Malle’s William Wilson are by no means poor efforts. Metzengerstein presents Jane Fonda as a medieval queen who plays with human life at her whim to a degree that Caligula would be proud of. Despite the somewhat lagging narrative, Vadim presents the story in a way that feels similar to Roger Corman’s takes on Poe classics as he depicts an excessive and seductive vision of medieval life with skimpy costumes adorning large performances in even larger castles. It is also worth watching to witness the curious incestual chemistry between Jane and Peter Fonda playing conflicting cousins that flirt with the taboo.

In Louis Malle’s segment Alain Delon stars as William Wilson, a sadistic narcissist who is tormented at different stages of his life by his doppelganger with the same name. Throughout the story, William Wilson #1 enjoys gambling, cheating and torturing women for his pleasure, only to be thwarted at every turn by his double in what can only be a metaphor for his own conscience. This is also worth watching to see archetypal blonde-bombshell Brigitte Bardot turn brunette and go toe to toe with Delon at a game of cards.

2. The Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh (Sergio Martino, 1971)

A dark horse of the Giallo genre in the shadow of Argento and Fulci, Sergio Martino produced some of the most accomplished and interesting Italian slashers of the twentieth century. Martino mastered the mix of ambition and madness that many other horror directors of the period struggled to balance, competently conveying the chaos within his film with style and flourish. In the space of just two years Martino directed five of the most noteworthy Giallo’s with Torso, All the Colours of the Dark, Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I have the Key, The Case of the Scorpion’s Tale and The Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh.

The Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh is a Freudian frenzy of a film in which the icon of Italian horror, Edwige Fenech, stars as Julie Wardh, a masochistic socialite caught between a boring husband, a passionate boyfriend and the cruel goading of an ex-lover. Mrs Wardh is said to be excited and repelled by blood at the same time; much like the horror audience that watches. As numerous murders terrorise the community and Julie receives increasingly threatening letters, she can only suspect that her sadistic ex-lover is behind it all.

Martino controls spectator interest through this intriguing mystery and intense set-pieces. Particularly notable is the killing of one victim in a public garden as she waits at dusk for an agreed meeting with an anonymous tipster. Martino utilises the parks paths and trees to create a tense concern for the woman as he emphasises her isolation and vulnerability in long shots, dwarfing her in the surrounding greenery, and from within the bushes themselves in the point-of-view of the killer. The film eventually builds to a thrilling climax in a rural manor in which a gas leak, an ice cube and a lever handle lock are cleverly used to trap the incapacitated Mrs Wardh.

However, The Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh still includes Martino’s trademark madness such as the leap of an assumed dead killer across the room like Michael Myers on springs and so many twists in the final third that you will you become unsure whether the film will ever really end. One can say what they want about Sergio Martino’s films but they are never bland and they are never boring.

3. The Red Queen Kills Seven Times (Emilio Miraglia, 1972)

The plot of The Red Queen Kills Seven Times rests on a century’s old family legend in which every hundred years the Red Queen rises and claims seven new victims. Forever quarrelling sisters Kitty and Evelyn learn about this when they are children but years later, after Kitty believes Evelyn to be dead, is her sinister sister committing multiple murders in the guise of the Red Queen and saving Kitty until last?

Themes of haunting and guilt perturb through this stylish mystery thriller from Emilio Miraglia who had previously directed The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave, seemingly having some sort of a fascination with this name. Miraglia delves into the seedy underbelly of upper-class society as the outwardly well-to-do characters partake in blackmail, drugs and prostitution, examining the dark universal truth of humanity: that people, no matter how much of what they already have, will do whatever they can to get more. The only character that seems to be above suspicion throughout is Barbara Bouchet’s Kitty who drives the film with her incredibly emotive face and wide eyes of pure innocence. Surely, she cannot harbour the dark past that she so believes.

There are some magnificent sequences in The Red Queen Kills Seven Times including an oneiric montage in which the ghost of the Red Queen strokes Kitty’s hair as she sleeps and then tortures her and a wincing death in the vein of Hot Fuzz in which a spike penetrates through the chin of a victim.

4. Who Saw Her Die? (Aldo Lado, 1972)

The opening to Aldo Lado’s Who Saw Her Die? is almost perfect cinema; atmospheric and intriguing filmmaking that immediately captures your attention and draws you in. Lado opens in the 1968 French countryside as a little girl, Nicole, and a nun play in the snow. As Nicole sets off on a sled to be chased by the woman, the camera’s gaze is cloaked by a black veil. Cutting to a long shot of the girl sliding down a hill, a dark, veiled figure approaches her destination from the left of the screen. The creepily considered yet everyday execution of this action, coupled with the anticipation of the intentions of the cloaked figure, grants this image an intangibly eerie quality.

The minute that Nicole has been out of the nun’s sight, she is dead. Once again, we are positioned behind the veil of the killer as the nun approaches and discovers the corpse of the little girl. She looks directly at the camera, the killer, and the image freezes the look of realisation upon the nun’s face in the snow. It is clear that she is next. Cut to the title and the soundtrack of a choir of chanting children, scored by the late, great Ennio Morricone, and you are ready for the next 90 minutes of cinema ahead of you.

While Who Saw Her Die? is able to keep up this momentum for a while, it unfortunately struggles to hold on to the strength all the way to the end and somewhat gets lost in the twists and turns of its own labyrinthine plot. However, it is still a fascinating watch. After the opening, the rest of the action takes place in Venice, making it impossible to not relate to Nicolas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now despite it actually being made the year prior to Roeg’s masterpiece. Meanwhile, a lead performance by former Bond, George Lazenby, adds a further layer of interest to this little-known film.

5. The Iron Rose (Jean Rollin, 1973)

Jean Rollin occupied the space somewhere between poetry and pornography, making Gothically gorgeous films fascinated by vampires and the undead. Rollin’s films don’t sit perfectly in any exact genre as their tenderness equals their terror and their subtlety equals their sleaze. Rollin himself categorised himself within the “fantastique”; a subgenre of fantasy where time is non-linear and logic is defied. Prioritising atmosphere and imagery over story, Rollin’s pictures can polarise audiences who expect a conventional, narrative-driven film. Rollin is most famous for his succession of vampire pictures including The Shiver of the Vampires, Requiem for a Vampire and, arguably most of all, Fascination (despite technically not being a vampire film, it does include a cult of blood-drinking women).

However, The Iron Rose is not a vampire picture and instead is a fairly simple story that follows two lovers who become lost in a cemetery overnight. As the nocturnal hours pass, the girl becomes enamoured with the cemetery and begins to identify with the world of the dead over the world of the living. Slow and atmospheric, The Iron Rose is not filled with gore or scares but rather penetrates the psyche of the spectator and creates a calm eeriness as if you were really accompanying the young couple on that dark Autumn night.

In typical fashion, Rollin imbues the film with beautiful imagery that supports the tone of the film and represents his examination of the boundary between life and death. A clown lays flowers at a grave; a visual oxymoron of joy and solemnity. The two lovers embrace in a grave surrounded by skulls; simultaneously juxtaposing and combining the ideas of love and death in a succinct Gothic image. The titular Iron Rose itself representing the theme of immortal beauty and importance after death.

The Iron Rose has the energy of an early childhood memory in which you can no longer remember if it was real or just a dream but either way it had profound effect on your soul.