Eraserhead

David Lynch's first feature, made over five years on almost no money, is a black-and-white industrial nightmare about a man in a decaying city caring for a monstrous, mewling infant. Its dread, its sound design and its imagery, the baby, the radiator lady, have haunted viewers for decades.

It ran at midnight screenings for years and built Lynch's reputation entirely through word of mouth. It resists all interpretation and works purely as sustained unease. One of the most singular debuts in film, and a cornerstone of the midnight-movie tradition.