When the Italian director Pasolini was murdered in 1975, this ambitious adaptation of Marquis De Sade's mammoth study of spiritual corruption, updated to Italy in 1944, became the filmmaker's final screen testament. The film is unsparing in its depiction of the various humiliations and tortures inflicted on a group of handpicked youths by a cartel of monstrous libertines, in an effort to expose the moral vacuum of fascism. Featuring some of the most brutally sadistic scenes imaginable, Salo is incredibly provocative and deeply disturbing.

Read our review  |  Read feature  |  Buy the DVD

A gang of bikers, in thrall to a demonic guru, target the pregnant wife of a film director in this notorious shocker. Directed by grindhouse auteurs Michael and Roberta Findlay, Snuff is one of those feature films whose title has entered the English language. The film's infamy is provided by its final scene, in which the terrified screams of a murder victim continue after the screen has faded to black, giving the movie a horrible realistic quality. Snuff was expertly marketed by its creators, who leaked stories about the authorities wanted to prosecute them to the press to build up the hype.

Read our review  |  Read feature  |  Buy the DVD

There are many pretenders to banned cinema's throne, but Sam Peckinpah's psychological tour de force of murder and horror is a genuine contender. Dustin Hoffman and Susan George move to Cornwall to escape from the violence of American society, but find that the British countryside has equally malevolent forces lurking within it. This long-banned masterpiece of shock cinema is full of controversy. George is violently raped by an old flame, only to rediscover her feelings for the perpetrator during the scene and Hoffman's character reacts murderously when backed into a corner by the locals.

Read our review  |  What the censors did  |  Buy the DVD