Shallow Grave (1994)

Danny Boyle's first feature, from an original script by John Hodge, is a nasty, gleeful thriller about three Edinburgh roommates who find their new roommate dead beside a pile of cash. It is where a then-unknown Ewan McGregor first showed the cocky charm Trainspotting would make famous, and it won the BAFTA for best British film. Watch it for the way the friendship rots scene by scene; the apartment itself does more work than any chase. It is lean, cruel and darkly funny, and it has aged better than many bigger films of the decade. The team behind it would go on to define the era's next two years.