Dario Argento’s bravura masterpiece is better known than most films on this list but there are still a lot of people out there who have never heard of Argento’s movies, let alone seen them.

For many more, their acquaintance begins and ends with Suspiria.

The second of the ‘Three Mothers Trilogy’ – bracketed by Suspiria (1977) and Mother Of Tears (2007) – Inferno is set in New York as student Rose Elliot (Irene Miracle) discovers a book telling of three witchy mothers: Sighs, Darkness and Tears.

Darkness, it transpires, dwells in the neo- Gothic mansion where Rose is living, and no sooner does she relay this creepy information to her brother in Rome than she disappears...

Written by Argento as he holed up in a Central Park hotel suffering from a repeat bout of hepatitis, Inferno started shooting on 21 May 1979.

The director clashed with studio 20th Century Fox throughout the 14-week shoot (“It was like being trapped in a Russian prison camp!”) and the finished movie received tepid reviews and was shelved in America.

Hard to credit, really: Inferno is a nightmare plucked whole from the director’s damaged (well, fevered) brain and splashed onto celluloid in vivid Technicolor.

Like much of Argento’s output – and Italian horror in general – it has no time for plot or logic, instead unspooling as an elliptical, nonsensical, swirling, blaring, shattering terrorvision that’s 100 degrees proof and spiked with OTT set-pieces, oozing style, hosing blood.

“I wanted to evoke the magic moment that makes us shake with fear,” Argento explained. “First me as I direct it and then you as you watch it unfold like a slow-motion dream.”

Argh! A crippled bookseller is attacked by rats while attempting to drown some kittens in Central Park. A man runs to his aid but suddenly pulls out a huge knife and hacks him to pieces.

Remake rights: PTA’s There Will Be Bloodseethed with comparable insanity. Failing that, Zack Snyder. No one could do Inferno justice, but Snyder did a good job on the Dawn Of The Dead remake and Watchmen has style to spare.