15. We Need To Talk About Kevin (2011)

Although ostensibly a drama, Lynne Ramsay’s We Need To Talk About Kevin is a nightmare from start to finish. Tilda Swinton plays Eva, a former travel writer who puts her career on hold when she becomes a mother, yet somehow can’t form a bond with her young son Kevin. As Kevin grows up (here played by Ezra Miller, who’s terrifying) he’s first distant and then downright psychotic, as a childhood fascination with archery and Robin Hood leads to a horrifying massacre.

Ramsay’s handling of Lionel Shriver’s book is superb, and she gives the film an atmosphere of quiet, astute observation rather than melodrama. The climax is all the more striking because of its restraint, and the scene where Eva finds the bodies of her husband and young daughter is utterly shocking because of the subtle way it’s handled. Swinton’s performance is stunning throughout, but never more so than in the concluding scene, where Eva visits her son in prison. They sit opposite one another, Eva’s eyes full of torment: all she wants to know is why her son grew up to be the maniac that he is. What did she do wrong as a parent? Kevin has no answer, no insight into the moment of madness which has wrecked dozens of lives, including his own. The lack of a cosy resolution makes the film’s final scene all the more chilling.

14. AI: Artificial Intelligence (2001)

Steven Spielberg’s AI, based of course on the film Stanley Kubrick would have made of it, has enjoyed something of a critical turnaround in recent years. Derided by some on its original release, the focus of much ire aimed at the film was the ending, where Haley Joel Osment’s David is still sat, 2000 years after we last saw him.

To a degree, this is a happier ending than the one the film could have had. Had Spielberg rolled the credits 2000 years earlier in the story, then David would have lost everyone and everything. The hope in his eyes would have been surrounded by doom. Instead, in spite of the years that have passed, he’s still sat there, hoping.

Yet that’s arguably even more tragic. That in 2000 years, he’s still sat there, hoping for things that haven’t come, and show little sign of coming. Whilst he’s been removed from the immediate aftermath of the film just minutes before, his unconditional hope – that he’s held on to for so long – feels fruitless. Of course, there’s another interpretation, that he’s been found and things will get better. But there’s no certainty of that, and those final moments, for us, make a creepy, tragic character all the more haunting.

13. The Blair Witch Project (1999)