Reservoir Dogs (1992) Director: Quentin Tarantino Starring: Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Steve Buscemi, Michael Madsen, Chris Penn
Calling cards don't come any louder than Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs, which knocked the filmgoing and filmmaking community on their collective arse and proved that liberal swearing and chopping bits off policeman could be considered art. Incredibly simple in basic plot - a heist goes wrong and the surviving crims know one their number is to blame - it turns the heist genre inside-out by ignoring the actual crime and focusing on the paranoia that seeps in when things go wrong. By closing credits the world knew that the strongest new cinematic voice of the decade had arrived.
The Exorcist (1973) Director: William Friedkin Starring: Ellen Burstyn, Max Von Sydow, Jason Miller, Linda Blair
Not only is The Exorcist a perfect example of a great 18 movie, it's also one that fought tooth and nail for no less than 26 years just to attain that rating in the first place. It brought gore, blasphemy, violent pubescent self-abuse and chilled viewers to the core with a horror so deeply rooted in the religious psyche. This is not a film that was banned from videos for more than two decades for being some dodgy nasty, but one that was so good, so convincing and so soul-twistingly terrifying, the censors were reluctant to unleash it on a god-fearing public.
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