10 Movies You Should Never Watch Alone

This 1999 shocker thrust prolific Japanese director Takashi Miike into the international consciousness, and it might be said that the world has never quite recovered.

The macabre beauty of Audition is just how unexpectedly the film turns in a sinister direction. Centred on a lonely, wealthy widower (Ryo Ishibashi) who decides to hold bogus auditions for a movie role, when it is in fact a new wife he's after, the film seems an entirely straight drama for much of the early action.

However, when things get dark, they get very dark indeed, as Eihi Shiina's Asami goes from dream woman to girlfriend from hell, revealing herself as a brutal sadist with some very creative ways of making her victims suffer.

Audition was arguably one of the key films to spark the extreme, torture-based horror wave of the 2000s. However, while it has been widely imitated (notably in the foot-severing climax of Saw, and the surgical get-up of American Mary), very few films have come close to being as genuinely unnerving.

Plus, with its complex gender politics (is the real villain the violent, vengeful woman, or the deceitful, exploitative man?), Audition leaves you with plenty to think about: a vital component of any film that aims to mess with your head.