griggs's - Horror Films (Available on Cinema Paradiso) Everyone Should Watch Once List

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In a mesmerising career best, Matt Dillion plays failed architect turned serial killer Jack, who over the span of 12 years leads us through his thought processes behind his increasingly depraved acts of murder which he names 'incidents'.

With a supporting cast that includes Bruno Gantz, Uma Thurman, Riley Keough and Sofie Grabol, Lars von Trier returns to the directors chair with the original uncut version of his most daring and shocking film to date.

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An ultra dark, deeply unsettling, extreme psychological thriller from the director of ‘Audition’, ‘Ichi the killer’ is probably the most arresting and controversial movie of the last decade.

Based on the ultra-violent ‘manga’ comic of the same name, this ‘delirious cinematic vision in freefall’ painfully unveils a dark canvas on which is played a terrifying battle of wits between the ultimate sadist and the ultimate masochist.

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In 1971, a young Lucie Jurin (Jessie Pham) manages to escape from a slaughterhouse in which she has been subjected to unspeakable torture. Placed in an orphanage, she forms a strong bond with Anna (Erika Scott), who tries to help her to recover from her trauma.

Fifteen years later and now in adulthood, Lucie (Mylene Jampanoi) breaks into the isolated home of the Belfond family, believing that they were involved in the horrific abuse she suffered in childhood. When she receives a call from Lucie, Anna (Morjana Alaoui) rushes to her aid - but soon comes to regret ever having set foot in the Belfond house, where she will experience things beyond human comprehension.

Set in the holy city of Mashhad, Ali Abbasi's haunting latest feature follows journalist Rahimi (Zar Amir Ebrahimi), as she investigates the murders of several sex workers by the 'Spider Killer', who believes he is on a divine mission to cleanse the city of sinners.

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A group of teenage friends are found dead, their bodies grotesquely contorted, their faces twisted in terror.

Reiko (Nanako Matsushima), a journalist and the aunt of one of the victims, sets out to investigate the shocking phenomenon, and in the process uncovers a creepy urban legend about a supposedly cursed videotape, the contents of which causes anyone who views it to die within a week - unless they can persuade someone else to watch it, and, in so doing, pass on the curse...

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The gloriously grotesque second feature directed by John Waters (Hairspray) is replete with all manner of depravity, from robbery to murder to one of cinema's most memorably blasphemous moments.

Made on a shoestring budget in Waters' native Baltimore, with the filmmaker taking on nearly every technical task, this gleeful mockery of the peace-and-love ethos of its era features the Cavalcade of Perversion, a traveling show mounted by a troupe of misfits whose shocking proclivities are topped only by those of their leader: the glammer-than-glam, larger-than-life Divine (Pink Flamingos), out for blood after discovering her lover's affair. Starring Waters beloved regular cast the Dreamlanders (including David Lochary, Mary Vivian Pearce, Mink Stole, Susan Lowe, George Figgs, and Cookie Mueller), 'Multiple Maniacs' is an anarchic masterwork from an artist who has doggedly tested the limits of good taste for decades.

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Pacific Northwest. 1983 AD. Outsiders Red Miller (Nicolas Cage) and Mandy Bloom (Andrea Riseborough) lead a loving and peaceful existence.

When their pine-scented haven is savagely destroyed by a cult led by the sadistic Jeremiah Sand (Linus Roache), Red is catapulted into a phantasmagoric journey filled with bloody vengeance and laced with fire.

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The near future: eXistenZ is the ultimate game, brainchild of the hip, hyper and sexually alluring Allegro Geller (Jennifer Jason Leigh). Once downloaded via a bioport implanted into the players' spine, eXistenZ promises an experience that will shatter forever the line between fantasy and reality.

At its launch armed fanatics burst in, determined to destroy the game and its creator. Forced to run for her life, Allegra's sole ally is a young security guard (Jude Law). Together they seek refuge in the only place the gaming goddess feels safe - the world where existence ends and eXistenZ begins.

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Khoma (Leonid Kuravlyov), a young novice Monk, travels across the Ukrainian countryside whilst on a break from his seminary, and stays for one night in a barn belonging to a seemingly harmless old woman. Whilst sleeping the old woman attacks him, displaying supernatural strength.

The scared novice fatally wounds her while fending her off. But before dying, she transforms into a beautiful young woman. Some time later Khoma, is called to the estate of a rich Kosack landowner, grieving the death of his daughter. Khoma has been personally requested to attend, and against his wishes taken by force to the estate. There he must pray for three nights in the chapel until the body of the landowners daughter is buried. On the first night, the woman Khoma had killed rises from the coffin and tries to kill him. Khoma must use every skill he knows for the next 3 nights to prevent this from happening.

Based on true events, 'The Conjuring' tells the thrilling story of ghost hunters Lorraine and Ed Warren (Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson), who help a family terrorised by an evil spirit in their mysterious farmhouse.

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An alien entity inhabits the earthly form of a seductive young woman who combs the Scottish highways in search of the human prey it is here to plunder. It lures its isolated and forsaken male victims into an otherworldly dimension where they are stripped and consumed.

But life in all its complexity starts to change the alien. It begins to see itself as 'she', as human, with tragic and terrifying consequence. 'Under the Skin' is about seeing ourselves through alien eyes.

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Hotshot attorney Kevin Lomax's 64-0 case record has brought him a tempting offer from an elite New York firm. But the job Lomax accepts isn't what it seems. The Devil is in the details.

In this gleeful, modern gothic fable, Keanu Reeves plays eager Lomax and Al Pacino is the charismatic firm founder who knows there are cases to be won…. and soul to be lost. From Lomax's court triumphs and skyrocket rise to its double-twist ending, "The Devil's Advocate" is red-hot entertainment. Lomax's life, wife (Charlie Theron) and soul are on the line. He's landed a job that's Heaven on Earth.. which can lead him straight to Hell.

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From its seemingly placid opening, "Village of the Damned" keeps piling one eerie and disquieting detail upon another, creating that rarest of achievements - an utterly believable masterpiece of horror! Starring the ever-imperturbable George Sanders (who does not remain that way for long), this

classic, havoc-filled tale of mind reading and hypnotism will have you completely hypnotized...and shaken to the core! The "monsters" of this film are a band of innocent-faced platinum-blond children, all of whom are born in a small, peaceful village on the same day. Their rapid physical development is matched by their fast-growing mental powers and with calm, blood-curdling efficiency, they are soon terrorizing the tiny hamlet. They can read the thoughts that are forming in your mind...which makes them an altogether unstoppable enemy!

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Boris Karloff stars in one of his most chilling roles as the sinister 'resurrection man' of old Edinburgh. Medical student Donald Fettes (Russell Wade) is apprentice to Dr. 'Toddy' MacFarlane (Henry Daniell), greatest anatomist of the age.

But, as Fettes learns, MacFarlane is not scrupulous how he obtains the bodies he uses for dissection: he buys them from sinister cabman John Gray (Boris Karloff), who robs the graves of the recently deceased. But Gray's grim work has attracted attention and the cemeteries are under watch. Unwilling to give up his lucrative trade, Gray finds another source of corpses - the bodies of people he has killed himself...

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Michael Haneke takes on America with an English language remake every bit as shocking as his brilliantly conceived original 1997 Funny Games.

In this exploration of our violent society Haneke retells the story through the eyes of a middle-class family who arrive at their secluded holiday home in the Hamptons for a two-week vacation. Soon after, a young man makes a surprise call, and asks to borrow some eggs. When the man is joined by his 'charming' friend (Michael Pitt), what initially appears to be an innocuous visit by their neighbour's guests, soon turns into a horrifying ordeal for all concerned as the two men embark upon a twisted campaign of torment and raw terror.