Much imitated but never equalled, this is the definitive space nightmare. The crew of a commercial spacecraft are stalked by a stowaway, mutating monster of veracious appetite. Weaver puts in a splendidly believable performance as the resourceful Ripley. Taut script and awesome special FX. find out more...

Harvey Pekar lives the life most of us dream of avoiding, a filing clerk by day, a man at odds with, and lost in, the world he inhabits the other sixteen hours. Harvey begins to write down his disgruntled observations and with the help of equally cantankerous illustrator, Harry Crumb, ‘American Splendor' is born. This movie of the man's life is an inspired mixture of animation, documentary and dramatisation, with Paul Giamatti finally getting a role worth his talent. Funny, sad, sharp and hip to find out more...

One of the best horror movie ever made, an innocent American tourist runs in to a spot of trouble when he goes hiking on the Yorkshire moors and finds that he's going all hairy. A new terror stalks the streets of London town; includes the now classic and much imitated metamorphosis scene. find out more...

Japan is reaching a point of economic and social meltdown, school kids are revolting and teachers fear for their lives. In order to make an example the government introduces The Battle Royale Act - a problem class of teenagers are picked and sent to a secluded island where they are each given one weapon and must to fight to the death, with only one survivor permitted, and this year's choice, because one pupil knifed a teacher, is Class B from Zentsuji Middle School. Battle Royale had rave review find out more...

A frustrated, highly strung, spectacularly unsuccessful puppeteer inadvertently finds a passage way into the mind of John Malkovich and, uniquely skilled as he is in the art of manipulation, this seems like the perfect opportunity to escape his dead-end life and dull wife. There is little point in trying to explain the story further, you'll just have to watch this fantastically surreal, absurd, dark, gobsmackingly original comedy - the brainchild of a quite obviously seriously warped puppy. G find out more...

Selma is an immigrant factory worker in America, whose only form of escape is through the Hollywood musicals of old, her young son is going blind and she is struggling to scrape together enough money for an operation to reverse his condition; But Selma's grim existance is on an ever darker path and as her world escapes from her control it spirals into a relentless and unavoidably doomed finale. Visually stunning, surreal and unflinchingly tragic, Dancer In The Dark won the Palme D'or at Cannes find out more...

Hailed as the best film debut since Eraserhead, Donnie Darko's instant cult status and mainstream success are well deserved. find out more...

A family reunion is the setting for this dark and inventive film from Denmark. When the eldest son gives a speech for his father, Helge's sixtieth birthday, Helge and the guests are taken aback by what they hear. There's also a missing daughter and a party of revellers keen to pretend the speech never happened! The fantastic cinematography from Lars von Triers as well as the richly textured plot makes this a unique film. Highly recommended. find out more...

Following the success of his indie debut "Welcome To The Dollhouse" Todd Solondz has created another dark and decidedly uncomfortable film. Whilst the title may suggest this is a light-hearted comedy, be warned that it is anything but. This is a film about the depraved and depressing lives of a bunch of unlikeable characters. Loosely centred around three sisters, it cleverly follows their bizarre relationships, encounters and failures. Solondz is establishing a reputation for intelligent scripts find out more...

PC Nicholas Angel is the best of the best, in fact he's so damn good he's making his fellow Metropolitan colleagues look inept, there's only one answer, ship him off to a sleepy West Country village. It soon becomes clear however that the market town of Sandford is a den of genteel psychotics, the number of ‘accidental' deaths reaching a frenzy that even Midsomer Norton would deem preposterous. It's time for PC Angel to take it up a gear and along for the ride is his immensely keen but dim witte find out more...