7. Scanners (1981)
Odd ball cinema legend David Cronenberg is Canada's answer to David Lynch, but with more productivity (more on that later). In this, his 5th movie, he serves up an X-Men/Blade Runner-esque sci-fi which is notable for perhaps the most paused moment in 80s VHS history: the exploding head scene. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YI3NoBeNwfk Featuring a young - but still menacing - Michael Ironside, this film was written by Cronenberg as he filmed it, due to the strange Canadian film tax structure at the time. Given only 2 weeks pre-production time, Cronenberg had to have the movie written, shot and edited in 2 months. And he had to blow up a guy's head! Roger Ebert gave it 2 out of 4 stars, so that's telling you something right there. Love it or hate it, it's still a cult classic.