It's 1941 and the golden days of Tinsel Town. Seriously earnest New York scriptwriter Barton Fink is lured to Hollywood with an offer to write a wrestling movie. Stricken by writer's cramp and seeking inspiration, Barton finds it in real life events. This witty drama was a Cannes Film Festival multi-award winner. find out more...

A grim and harrowing account of the daily life of a serial killer. If you can stomach the violence, it is well worth watching. The main criticism is that things are seen only from one point of view, which can be limiting. Now available uncut. find out more...

Critically maligned on its release, this tale of a twisted lens-man who lures unsuspecting female victims to their grisly death is an interesting study in the voyeuristic implications of cinema. The killer is an eternal victim whose crimes are cries of rage against his father and stepmother and, at the same time, pathetic rehearsals for his own inevitable death. A Freudian script of notable maturity teases limitless implications from this premise, while maintaining a healthy sense of humour. find out more...

We start with compulsive liar Roberto picking up a teenage girl in a disco and we follow his affair with her while he carries on robbing and murdering. A powerful adaptation of the real life serial killer that documents more than just his dark achievements but gives a wholly believable insight into the man's damaged world and the chaotic ineptitude of the society upon which he preys. Harsh but utterly hypnotic. find out more...

One of the first horror movies, about a hypnotist who uses a somnambulist to do his murders, and a landmark in the history of cinema. The dark shadows, crazy angles and doom laden atmosphere of German Expressionism and the film's extraordinary use of painted light have rarely been copied, and its influence, on film noir in particular, is indisputable. find out more...

Director Weir started an illustrious career with this bizarre and apocalyptic tale of a small outback town that lures passing drivers, cannibalises their cars and uses the survivors for strange medical experiments by the town doc. Mad, witty, surreal..superb! find out more...

When the desperate, obese Martha meets handsome Ray, who leeches off rich widows, she falls madly in love and teams up with him as he scours the lonely hearts clubs, but her jealousy is to lead to murder and betrayal. A bleak, unsentimental thriller loosely based on the real-life 'lonely hearts killers' Martha Beck and Ray Fernandez. find out more...

Hitchcock's third feature is basically a variation on the Jack the Ripper story adapted from a novel by Anne Belloc Lowndes. A serial killer is on the loose in London, singling out blonde haired chorus girls and, as the hunt for him hots up, a stranger turns up seeking lodgings at the Bunter family's house. Mysterious he certainly is, but is he the murderer? Menacingly effective camera work, but lighter in tone than his later thrillers. Especially interesting is the way the younger Hitchcock is find out more...

On holiday in France Rex and Saskia stop at a garage, she walks to the shops and disappears. Three years later Rex starts receiving postcards from her abductor promising to reveal her fate. Reminiscent of Blue Velvet, the understated direction creates a sinister and shocking atmosphere. find out more...

A case history of a middle-aged man with an urge to commit insane and violent murders, well OK he just liked to top people, as we all feel like doing from time to time, but in this case the police could never catch him. A flashback goes some way towards explaining how he developed such a disdain for authority, and the film takes an almost doco-style approach to the crimes of its protagonist and takes great pains to examine the impact his behavior had on his mother, father and wife. A rare insigh find out more...