1. Cannibal Holocaust
Throw together murder, rape, torture, castration, animal slaughter, and, of course, cannibalism - and you're roughly about halfway to accurately picturing the hugely infamous Cannibal Holocaust. The final film itself is impossible to imagine without seeing it. Director Ruggero Deodato was promptly arrested upon the film's release in Italy in 1980. Although the director was found not guilty of obscenity charges - his film was denied release, and was subsequently banned in countries all over the world. Cannibal Holocaust tells the story of a film crew who vanish in the Amazon, and the rescue team who come to search for them. The footage recovered is some of the most profoundly disturbing you're ever likely to see on film, with both the natives and film team engaging in gruesome, vile, and thoroughly animalistic behaviour. A seemingly immortal exploitation movie, Cannibal Holocaust was re-released in 2011, and is arguably the King of the Video Nasties. Is that a commendable title to have? In a decidedly warped way, it kinda is. Between the volume of Nasties produced, the increasingly vile content within them, and the intense squeeze of the censorship boards, Cannibal Holocaust had no right to survive as anything other than a small footnote in a bizarre chapter of film history. But as it so happens, the film remains an enormous cult classic: often topping horror film lists and still being heatedly debated even to this day.