10 Actors Who Gave Their Best Performances In Movies Nobody Saw

Ashley Judd was a hot property throughout the 1990s, though her stardom cooled considerably at the turn of the millennium, before she made a mesmerising comeback with her astonishing, Oscar-worthy performance in William Friedkin's low-budget 2006 psychological horror Bug.

After appearing in almost a straight decade of poorly-reviewed movies, Judd turned critics' heads with her performance as Agnes, a lonely, haunted waitress who embarks on a relationship with a mysterious drifter, Peter (Michael Shannon).

To call Judd's performance fearless would be an understatement - she goes to places here her previous work would never have implied possible, absolutely giving herself over to Friedkin's skin-crawling vision.

Working opposite an actor of Shannon's caliber, and free of the embellishments which a larger budget might've allowed, Judd makes it painfully, brilliantly clear the level she's able to climb to with the right script and collaborators.

Despite near-universal praise for Judd's performance, any wider awards potential was scuppered by its "F" CinemaScore, making it just one of 22 films in history to receive the box office-annihilating audience grade.