Fritz the Cat (1972)

Fritz the Cat is a 1972 American adult animated comedy film written and directed by Ralph Bakshi. It was Bakshi's feature film debut and is loosely based on the Fritz the Cat comic strips by Robert Crumb. It was the first animated feature film to receive an X rating in the United States.

Release date: January 25, 1972 (New York)
Director: Ralph Bakshi
Film series: Fritz the Cat
Budget: 1 million USD

Slackers (2002)

Dave (Devon Sawa), Sam (Jason Segel) and Jeff (Michael Maronna) are about to graduate from Holden University with honors in lying, cheating and scheming. The three roommates have proudly scammed their way through the last four years of college and now, during final exams, these big-men-on-campus are… MORE

Release date: February 1, 2002 (USA)
Director: Dewey Nicks
Screenplay: David H. Steinberg
Distributed by: Screen Gems
Initial DVD release: May 28, 2002

Poughkeepsie Tapes (2007)

Hundreds of video tapes of torture, murder and dismemberment show a killer's decadelong reign of terror.

Release date: 2009 (USA)
Director: John Erick Dowdle
Screenplay: John Erick Dowdle
Producer: Drew Dowdle
Story by: John Erick Dowdle, Drew Dowdle

Begotten (1990)

God Killing Himself (Brian Salzberg), Mother Earth (Donna Dempsey) and Son of Earth-Flesh on Bone (Stephen Charles Barry) are players in a myth of primal gore.

Release date: June 5, 1991 (USA)
Director: E. Elias Merhige
Film series: Begotten
Budget: 33,000 USD
Initial DVD release: February 20, 2001

Sightseers (2013)

An innocent tour of Britain's countryside turns into a disturbing odyssey when Chris whisks his girlfriend away on a cross-country road trip.

Release date: May 10, 2013 (USA)
Director: Ben Wheatley
Box office: 2.1 million USD
Production companies: StudioCanal, Film4 Productions, UK Film Council
Screenplay: Alice Lowe, Steve Oram

Lost River (2014)

A single mother is swept into a dark underworld while her son discovers an underwater town.

Release date: April 10, 2015 (USA)
Director: Ryan Gosling
Box office: 615,500 USD
Cinematography: Benoît Debie
Screenplay: Ryan Gosling

Proxy (2013)

After a vicious attack, a young woman gradually realises nothing in her life is as it appears.

Release date: 2013 (USA)
Director: Zack Parker
Music composed by: The Newton Brothers
Screenplay: Zack Parker, Kevin Donner
Producers: Zack Parker, Faust Checho

Nuit Noire (Black Night) (2005)

In a world overtaken by eternal darkness, the buttoned down entomologist abandons his phantoms to embrace the unknown. Oscar is a conservator at the Natural Science Museum, and spends most of his days surrounded by bugs. When Oscar isn't tending to the tiny specimens that line his home and workplace, he can frequently be found reflecting on his childhood traumas in the psychiatrist's office. One day, Oscar returns home from work to find an African woman from the museum lying in his bed.

Initial release: October 3, 2005
Director: Olivier Smolders
Screenplay: Olivier Smolders
Cast: Fabrice Rodriguez, Yves-Marie Gnahoua, Marie Lecomte, MORE
Editors: Olivier Smolders, Philippe Bourgueil
Producers: Olivier Smolders, Michel De Kempeneer, Claude Haïm

Midsommar (2019)

A couple travel to Sweden to visit their friend's rural hometown for its fabled midsummer festival, but what begins as an idyllic retreat quickly devolves into an increasingly violent and bizarre competition at the hands of a pagan cult.

Release date: July 3, 2019 (USA)
Director: Ari Aster
Budget: $8–10 million
Screenplay: Ari Aster
Box office: 42.3 million USD

Mother! (2017)

A young woman spends her days renovating the Victorian mansion that she lives in with her husband in the countryside. When a stranger knocks on the door one night, he becomes an unexpected guest in their home. Later, his wife and two children also arrive to make themselves welcome. Terror soon strikes when the beleaguered wife tries to figure out why her husband is so seemingly friendly and accommodating to everyone but her.

Release date: September 15, 2017 (USA)
Director: Darren Aronofsky
Screenplay: Darren Aronofsky
Budget: 30 million USD

Who's Watching Oliver (2017)

A mentally unstable loner wanders the streets committing a shocking killing spree. His only possible way out of a life he is desperate to escape comes in the form of the eccentric Sophia, naive to the danger she has put herself in.

Release date: July 3, 2018 (USA)
Director: Richie Moore
Screenplay: Russell Geoffrey Banks, Richie Moore, Raimund Huber
Producers: Raimund Huber, Aki Komine

Man Bites Dog (1992)

The activities of rampaging, indiscriminate serial killer Ben (Benoît Poelvoorde) are recorded by a willingly complicit documentary team, who eventually become his accomplices and active participants. Ben provides casual commentary on the nature of his work and arbitrary musings on topics of interest to him, such as music or the conditions of low-income housing, and even goes so far as to introduce the documentary crew to his family. But their reckless indulgences soon get the better of them.

Release date: January 15, 1993 (USA)
Directors: Benoît Poelvoorde, Rémy Belvaux, André Bonzel
Budget: BEF1 million (USD$33,000)
Language: French

Kids (1995)

Amoral teen Telly (Leo Fitzpatrick) has made it his goal to sleep with as many virgin girls as possible -- but he doesn't tell them that he's HIV positive. While on the hunt for his latest conquest, Telly and his best friend, Casper (Justin Pierce), smoke pot and steal from shops around New York. Meanwhile, Jenny (Chloë Sevigny), one of Telly's early victims, makes it her mission to save other girls from him. But before she has a chance to confront him at a party, everything goes horribly wrong.

Release date: July 28, 1995 (USA)
Director: Larry Clark
Initial DVD release: June 11, 1997
Screenplay: Harmony Korine
Budget: 1.5 million USD

Pink Flamingos (1972)

A bizarre fat woman (Divine) and her misfit family compete with a Baltimore couple (David Lochary, Mink Stole) to be named the filthiest people alive.

Release date: March 17, 1972 (USA)
Director: John Waters
Budget: 12,000 USD
Screenplay: John Waters
Box office: 7 million USD

MirrorMask (2005)

Helen is fed up with life at her parents' circus and desperately wants to get away. One day she loses her temper and wishes her mother dead - and is mortified to see her cruel wish seemingly begin to come true. She realises that she'd do anything to retract her `curse', but instead finds herself thrown suddenly into a surreal landscape that's by turns beautiful, sinister and scary.

Release date: September 30, 2005 (USA)
Director: Dave McKean
Music composed by: Iain Ballamy
Budget: 4 million USD
Screenplay: Dave McKean, Neil Gaiman

A Scanner Darkly (2006)

In the near future, as America virtually loses the war on drugs, Robert Arctor, a narcotics cop in Orange County, Calif., becomes an addict when he goes under cover. He is wooing Donna, a dealer, to ferret out her supplier. At the same time, he receives orders to spy on his housemates, one of whom is suspected of being Donna's biggest customer.

Release date: July 7, 2006 (USA)
Director: Richard Linklater
Box office: 7.7 million USD
Budget: 8.7 million USD
Screenplay: Richard Linklater, Philip K. Dick

Akira (1988)

In 1988 the Japanese government drops an atomic bomb on Tokyo after ESP experiments on children go awry. In 2019, 31 years after the nuking of the city, Kaneda, a bike gang leader, tries to save his friend Tetsuo from a secret government project. He battles anti-government activists, greedy politicians, irresponsible scientists and a powerful military leader until Tetsuo's supernatural powers suddenly manifest. A final battle is fought in Tokyo Olympiad exposing the experiment's secrets.

Release date: January 1, 1988 (USA)
Director: Katsuhiro Otomo
Japanese: アキラ
Budget: 1.1 billion JPY

Paprika (2006)

Dr. Atsuko Chiba works as a scientist by day and, under the code name "Paprika," is a dream detective at night. Atsuko and her colleagues are working on a device called the DC Mini, which is intended to help psychiatric patients, but in the wrong hands it could destroy people's minds. When a prototype is stolen, Atsuko/Paprika springs into action to recover it before damage is done.

Release date: March 24, 2007 (USA)
Director: Satoshi Kon
Featured song: The Girl in Byakkoya - White Tiger Field
Music composed by: Susumu Hirasawa

Slipstream (1989)

In a futuristic world savaged by the slipstream wind, bounty hunter Matt snatches a murderer with a price of his head from lawman Will Tasker.
Initial release: June 22, 1989 (Australia)

Director: Steven Lisberger
Screenplay: Tony Kayden
Music composed by: Elmer Bernstein
Producer: Gary Kurtz

Barton Fink (1991)

Set in 1941, an intellectual New York playwright Barton Fink (John Turturro) accepts an offer to write movie scripts in L.A. He finds himself with writer's block when required to do a B-movie script. His neighbor tries to help, but he continues to struggle as a bizarre sequence of events distracts him.

Release date: August 21, 1991 (USA)
Directors: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Cinematography: Roger Deakins
Awards: Palme d'Or, Cannes Best Actor Award, MORE
Screenplay: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen

Alice (1988)

In Czech director Jan Svankmajer's surreal adaptation of Lewis Carroll's classic children's book, Alice (Kristyna Kohoutova) follows her stuffed rabbit through a portal inside her dresser to be whisked away to Wonderland. While the White Rabbit, Mad Hatter and Cheshire Cat are still present, the familiar magical world and bizarre characters have undergone an unsettling transformation in the director's vision through the stop-motion animation of dead animals, puppets and other assorted objects.
Release date: August 3, 1988 (New York)

Director: Jan Švankmajer
Distributed by: First Run Features
Cinematography: Svatopluk Maly
Producer: Peter-Christian Fueter
Cast: Camilla Power

Destino (2003)

A woman becomes entranced with the image of a man and undergoes surreal transformations.

Release date: December 19, 2003 (USA)
Director: Dominique Monféry
Nominations: Academy Award for Best Short Film (Animated)
Languages: English, French, Spanish
Producers: Roy E. Disney, Baker Bloodworth

Un Chien Andalou (An Andalusian Dog) (1929)

Co-written by Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali, this silent film was made completely according to surrealist principles and includes some of the most searing and memorable images ever filmed.
Release date: January 30, 2004 (USA)

Director: Luis Buñuel
Budget: 100,000 FRF
Story by: Luis Buñuel
Screenplay: Luis Buñuel, Salvador Dalí

Angel-A (2005)

André, a small-time ex-convict, owes money to a crime boss who promises to kill him if he doesn't repay him by midnight. After failing to find protection from the American embassy and the French police, a despairing André scrambles onto a bridge over the Seine, intending to leap to his death. He is surprised to see a tall, beautiful girl clinging to a rail on the same bridge, apparently preparing to end her life as well.

Release date: May 25, 2007 (USA)
Director: Luc Besson
Language: French language
Budget: 1.2 million USD
Screenplay: Luc Besson

The Girl on the Bridge (1999)

One chilly night, on a Paris bridge, a girl leans out over the Seine with tears in her eyes, contemplating the icy waters below. Suddenly, a stranger with a penetrating gaze emerges out of the darkness, a man who will change her life. It is Gabor, a once brilliant but now fading performer in need of a partner. He has set his sights on this luckless but oddly alluring Adele, a girl with nowhere to go who is shifting nervously on the edge of a decision.

Release date: July 28, 2000 (New York)
Director: Patrice Leconte
Screenplay: Serge Frydman
Box office: 1.709 million USD

5 FIngers of Death / King Boxer (1972)

A student (Lieh Lo) of kung fu meets resistance on his way to a major Chinese tournament.

Release date: March 21, 1973 (USA)
Director: Jeong Chang-Hwa
Box office: 4 million USD (USA/Canada rentals)
Producer: Run Run Shaw
Initial DVD release: June 19, 2007

Sword of Doom (1966)

Merciless swordsman Ryunosuke Tsukue (Tatsuya Nakadai) is a government assassin in feudal Japan who has no remorse and no moral code. When he is scheduled to participate in a friendly fencing contest, he ends up killing his competitor. Next, after a fight with his own mistress, he murders her and deserts their infant son. Later, while spending the night in a haunted geisha house, he sees the specters of all of his victims and spirals into madness, leaving a bloodbath in his wake.

Initial release: February 25, 1966 (Japan)
Director: Kihachi Okamoto
Cinematography: Hiroshi Murai
Screenplay: Shinobu Hashimoto
Distributor: Toho Co., Ltd.

Blade of the Immortal (2017)

Cursed with immortality, a highly skilled samurai in feudal Japan promises to help a young woman avenge the death of her parents. Their mission leads them into a bloody battle with a ruthless warrior and his band of master swordsmen.

Initial release: April 29, 2017 (Japan)
Director: Takashi Miike
Japanese: 無限の住人
Language: Japanese
Box office: 8.4 million USD

From Beyond (1986)

Obsessive scientist Dr. Pretorius (Ted Sorel) successfully discovers a way to access a parallel universe of pleasure by tapping into the brain's pineal gland. When he is seemingly killed by forces from this other dimension, his assistant, Dr. Crawford Tillinghast (Jeffrey Combs), is accused of the murder. After psychiatrist Katherine McMichaels (Barbara Crampton) and detective Bubba Brownlee (Ken Foree) take the case, the trio risks a return to the other world in order to solve the mystery.

Initial release: October 24, 1986
Director: Stuart Gordon
Box office: 1.261 million USD (US)
Budget: 4.5 million USD
Screenplay: Stuart Gordon, Brian Yuzna, Dennis Paoli

Videodrome (1983)

As the president of a trashy TV channel, Max Renn (James Woods) is desperate for new programming to attract viewers. When he happens upon "Videodrome," a TV show dedicated to gratuitous torture and punishment, Max sees a potential hit and broadcasts the show on his channel. However, after his girlfriend (Deborah Harry) auditions for the show and never returns, Max investigates the truth behind
Videodrome and discovers that the graphic violence may not be as fake as he thought.

Release date: February 4, 1983 (USA)
Director: David Cronenberg
Screenplay: David Cronenberg
Budget: 5.952 million USD
Box office: 2.1 million USD