The Silence of the Lambs

"A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti."

It's a tale as old as time: a rookie FBI agent is tasked with tracking down a serial killer who skins his victims, and the best way she can find said peeler-of-humans is to forge an unholy alliance with another incarcerated serial killer who is dangerously charismatic and an unrepentant cannibal.

Seriously though, there is nothing old or rote about director Jonathan Demme's masterful horror thriller. It stormed the box office in 1991 and rightfully made a clean sweep at the Academy Awards that year, picking up Oscars for Best Picture, Actor, Actress, Adapted Screenplay, and Director – one of only three films to ever manage such a coup.