66 Essential British Films To Take Your Mind Off The World Cup

40. Theatre Of Blood (1973)

Vincent Price gives one of his most memorable and macabre performances as much-maligned Shakespearean actor Edward Lionheart. Lionherat uses methods of killing culled from the Bard himself to repay the critics who ruined his career. With death scenes that are as sick and inventive (but less convoluted) than anything in the Saw series, Theatre of Blood is one of the very best British horrors of the seventies, with a cast of long departed British talent from Arthur Lowe to Michael Horden and Robert Morley.

39. Snatch (2000)

Guy Ritchie's follow up to Lock Stock is an altogether more satisfying and visually inventive film. It exists in the same kind of world as the earlier film but is held together by a stronger script, more accomplished cast, and Ritchie developing further his frenetic stylistic trademark. It would be interesting to see him return to this world after his successful (Sherlock Holmes) and not so successful (Swept Away) forays into Hollywood.

38. Kill List (2011)

Kill List represents everything a good contemporary British film should be. To simplify in high concept terms: it is kind of like seeing The Wicker Man gene-spliced with The Long Good Friday but that description doesn't come close to doing it justice. Like the Wicker Man it has a coal black darkness at its centre but it plays with genre conventions by introducing disparate elements, not just from the aforementioned gangster film, but also from Wheatley's background in comedy. This is most apparent in the use of similar surreal touches from Wheatley's TV work on Ideal, and the performance of Michael Smiley, who is slowly becoming Wheatley's Harvey Keitel.