25 Cult Movies You Must See Before You Die

3. Eraserhead

The Big Lebowski
Libra Films International

A list of cult films wouldn't be complete without the appearance of David Lynch. The experimental director has been ploughing the field of bizarre, unsettling films which follow an eerie dream logic for a good forty years, including divergences into cult TV work like Twin Peaks in between films such as Wild At Heart and Mullholland Drive.

The latter two are relatively well known, produced with Hollywood budgets and stars. His debut, meanwhile, is a singularly well-realised vision with no discernible name actors that will haunt your nightmares for years after. Produced over several years in Lynch's home city of Philadelphia, it explores fears of parenthood and work in nightmarish fashion.

Jack Nance is the towering-coiffured “hero” who wanders a hellish industrial landscape, accompanied with a constant hiss of noise, who falls into a relationship and has a creepy hell baby whilst a moon-faced woman in his radiator serenades him at night. It's mind-bending and you'll never have seen anything like it before. In good and bad ways.

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Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/