Blue Velvet (1986)

Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle MacLachlan) returns from school to visit his father who is gravely ill. On his way to the hospital he finds a human ear which leads him to the dark world of nightclub singer (Isabella Rossellini) and her sadistic tormentor (Dennis Hopper).

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When David Lynch was an art student in the mid/late 60s he had an idea to make a painting that moved. This  resulted in the mixed-media piece Six Men Getting Sick (Six Times). Apparently he was pleased with the result, because nearly 50 years later he is still cranking out grotesquely mesmerizing motion-paintings. Paintings with unforgettable images and vivid colors. Paintings that are able to rumble and dance to a meticulously designed soundtrack. Paintings simultaneously repugnant and beautiful. And lastly, paintings that move while also being - moving. Not bad for an Eagle Scout from Montana.

Hour of the Wolf (1968)

Alma (Liv Ullmann) watches helplessly as her artist husband (Max von Sydow) slowly descends into madness.

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The "hour of the wolf" (roughly 3am to 4am) is the hour between night and day. It is a limbo which belongs to neither the morning nor the evening. It is also the time when the line between sanity and insanity starts to blur.

While contemporary audiences might disagree with this movie being labeled as a "horror film", I'd be hard-pressed to think of things more horrific than what the characters in this film endure. This is horror in the German Expressionist sense of the word. Not only is it a film about the horror of losing your own sanity, but also the horror of watching someone you love descend into madness. Both in terms of subject-matter and imagery, this film fits perfectly among horror classics like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Nosferatu.