The British censor suppressed this intense tale of sexual obsession for nearly 15 years. It was finally passed by the BBFC, uncut, in 1991. Despite its extremes, Ai No Corrida (aka In The Realm Of The Senses) isn't exploitation cinema; rather it's a rarefied, hardcore slice of arthouse (or arty porn) that is about the obsessive eroticism as escapism. In 1930s Japan, the bourgeois Kichi (Eiko Matsuda) begins an affair with a prostitute, Sada (Tatsuya Fuji). The two spend more and more time with each other, their passion for one another resulting in marathon sessions of experimental sex and erotic exploration. It can only end in tears.

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When boffin Jeffrey Combs starts experimenting in his lab with some strange gooey green stuff that makes his dead cat come back to life, you just know that no good will come of it. In no time at all, he's up to all sorts with bodies galore. Played absolutely straight, this is a non-stop zombie Hon that is hilariously funny. Loony, but a fantastic gore-fest all the same.

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Few directors have maintained a career more dedicated to artistic excess than Ken Russell and this is an excellent example of the man's extraordinary aesthetic. Cheerfully indecent throughout, The Devils finds room for masturbating nuns, plague-ridden corpses, orgiastic religious ecstasy and a characteristically huge performance by Oliver Reed. Scandalously, the censors cut the film to pieces - the BBFC were rather unimpressed by the ‘rape of Christ' scene. Mark Kermode may have rediscovered the lost footage but, so far, the studios have been unwilling to re-released the film uncut.

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Home Improvement meets The Texas Chainsaw Massacre in one of the original, and funniest, video nasties. The film's grisly reputation, while not entirely unwarranted (there's one particularly graphic moment), ignores a macabre sense of humour and what appears to be Ferrara's own conviction: that modern urban life is worthless and many living it are quite, quite mad. Banned for years in Britain, it was branded as one of the original video nasties.

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A family of middle-class holidaymakers head off the beaten track in their luxurious Winnebago and meet their wild counterparts - a group of cave-dwelling cannibals who prey on unsuspecting travellers, in this brutal 1970s shocker from Wes Craven. Unflinching in its nastiness - classic scenes centre on one of the group being crucified then burnt alive, a canary being eaten alive and a baby being snatched for the cooking pot ("Look Pa, we brought you a juicy Thanksgiving turkey!" announces one of the cannibals when he arrives home with his prize) - The Hills Have Eyes assembles a picture of civilised individuals pushed to such extreme limits that they rediscover their instinct for survival.

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