Returning protagonists Billy (Zach Galligan) and Kate (Phoebe Cates) are now employees of Trump-esque property tycoon and media mogul Daniel Clamp (John Glover), whose “smart building” becomes ground zero for a new outbreak. Their aversion to sunlight keeps the meddlesome mogwai contained during the day, but if the building is not sealed before nightfall, New York could face a citywide epidemic.

Gremlins 2 strikes a more anarchic, playful tone than its predecessor and its inflated budget allowed Dante to introduce a host of new critter designs, after a visit to Christopher Lee’s genetic research lab leaves many of them amusingly mutated. A bat gremlin, spider gremlin, even an intellectually superior talking gremlin wreak havoc in the corridors and stairwells, crashing Clamp’s TV studio to take to the airwaves.

Dante also uses the film to satirise ’80s yuppie culture and other movies like Rambo and The Wizard of Oz, while deconstructing the very nature of filmmaking, sequels, and the movie-going experience.

2. Shivers (1975)

For his first full-length feature film, Canadian provocateur David Cronenberg shocked audiences and critics alike with this visceral tale of lust-fuelled infection.

The residents of Starliner Island, a luxurious apartment complex on the outskirts of Montreal, become unwitting guinea pigs in a horrifying experiment when they are exposed to a man-made parasite that is “part aphrodisiac, part venereal disease”, designed to reintroduce humanity to their primal urges.

At the time of its release, Shivers – also released as The Parasite Murders and They Came From Within – had conservative critics up in arms, not least because it was financed largely by taxpayer-funded grants.

The controversy only fuelled public interest, and Shivers went on to become the most successful Canadian film of its day.

A cautionary rebuttal to the promiscuity of the free love generation, Shivers foreshadows many of the body horror elements that would become synonymous with Cronenberg’s oeuvre, as he explored the biological threats to, and limitations of, the human form in such celebrated works as Videodrome, The Fly and Crash.

3. High-Rise (2015)

The isolation of affluent living becomes an escalating threat to domestic harmony in Ben Wheatley’s prefab dystopian thriller.

Adapted from the novel by J.G. Ballard, High-Rise stars Tom Hiddleston as a new resident in Jeremy Irons’ 40-storey, state-of-the-art tower block that epitomises the stylish, aspirational validation he so desperately craves.

With the rich inhabiting the upper floors, while poorer tenants fill out the rest, the vast array of facilities and amenities eradicate any desire to leave the building. But when the power, water and other utilities begin to fail, social unrest festers between the haves and the have-nots.

Brilliantly interlacing the chic and drab aesthetics of the film’s faux-’70s setting, Wheatley furnishes this claustrophobic purgatory of material success with flourishes of absurd decadence and genuine horror.

An accomplished cast including Sienna Miller, Luke Evans and Elisabeth Moss all suffer through their self-imposed proximity to the neighbours they simultaneously emulate and abhor, as Hiddleston gleefully defiles his immaculately turned-out image.

4. The Raid (2011)

Gareth Evans’ no-holds-barred action thriller follows an Indonesian Swat team on a daring raid into an apartment building in the slums of Jakarta with the aim of arresting the landlord, a local drug kingpin.

As the team makes its way from floor to floor, their target puts the building on lockdown and places a bounty on the officers’ heads. This turns the residents, many of whom are addicts, against the cops, and a breathless fight for survival erupts.

Evans originally emigrated from the UK to shoot a documentary about the traditional martial art of Pencak Silat, which introduced him to the film’s stars Iko Uwais, Joe Taslim and Yayan Ruhian, all of whom have since appeared in major Hollywood action films.

What 2011 global action hit The Raid meant for Indonesian cinema

What unfolds is a blistering, adrenaline-fuelled throw down showcasing one of the world’s most vicious forms of close-quarter combat. Alongside the efforts of Tony Jaa in Thailand, The Raid has proved instrumental in propelling Southeast Asian action cinema onto the world stage.

5. The Towering Inferno (1974)

The grandaddy of all American disaster movies, The Towering Inferno remains the template for any grand-scale production of epic destruction. Produced by Irwin Allen, the film sees Paul Newman and Steve McQueen compete for top-billing as, respectively, the architect responsible for designing the world’s tallest building and the fire chief who must rescue its residents when it all goes up in flames.

An all-star cast including William Holden, Faye Dunaway, Fred Astaire and OJ Simpson congregate to celebrate the opening of the “Glass Tower” in San Francisco, only for an electrical short to spark a fire that ultimately engulfs the entire building.

What follows is a vertiginous roller coaster of nail-biting set pieces, spectacular special effects and wonderfully loathsome behaviour from the hysterical and selfish guests.

Also worth mentioning: Kim Ji-hoon’s 2012 film The Tower takes the exact same premise and gives it a uniquely Korean spin to great effect.

Want more articles like this? Follow SCMP Film on Facebook