5) The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)

Sally and Frank Hardesty take three of their friends to visit their old family home, only to discover that it is already occupied. And the inhabitants are eager to put these interlopers to good use - especially the youngest among them, a hulk of a man who wears a mask made of human skin…

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was one of the first horror films to be marketed as a “true story”, and unlike many later examples it never strays into the supernatural, instead relying on the low-effect spectacles of deformity, psychopathy, and cannibalism. It’s almost like watching a home video made by the villains rather than something with a script and director. As a result, violence that would have seemed cheap and gratuitous in a lesser film here has urgency and impact, even decades after the original release.

“Let’s put a smile on that face!”