The Killing Hour | 1982 | USA | Armand Mastroianni

Released amongst a whole slew of slashers, this moody and darkly evocative murder mystery refines the formula with a return to classic tropes from the Italian thriller and emphasis on tension. Known sometimes as The Clairvoyant, the film follows the discovery of a handcuffed victim found drowned and nude in the Hudson River, after which a mysterious assailant begins targeting seemingly random victims by utilising a set of handcuffs as the murder weapon. As the bodies begin to pile up and with the resident police officers stumped for a suspect, they soon come across student Virna who has been enduring visions of the killer’s actions, depicting elements of the killings in her charcoal drawings. One of the few video nasties to have blood and gore almost entirely absent, the film nevertheless has some unbearable death sequences that prey heavily on our own fears of being trapped. One of the film’s more shocking sequences involves a restrained woman being raped by a group of men, which is likely the reason for the film’s inclusion on the lists.