Power, sex and violence are three themes that go back to ancient times, but they are also the obsessions for of-the-moment storytellers like Homer. Together though, they can examine the extremes of the human condition, and force us to look at who we are, what we want, and what we’re willing to do for it.

This week, Film Independent is hosting Jane Schoenbrun, along with Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma stars Gillian Anderson and Hannah Einbinder, for a sold out Live Read of the 2002 classic Secretary. Both films are two-handers dealing with sexual dynamism and the kink of violence. But Secretary isn’t the only other film to wade into those waters.

We’re sharing five other classics that are having similar conversations, and are great watches before this week’s Live Read and Camp Miasma’s release on August 7^th.

Jennifer’s Body (2009)

Diablo Cody and Karyn Kusama teamed up for this now cult classic where a possessed Megan Fox turns the tables on the boys of her small town, and leaves a trail of blood in her wake. Her best friend, played byAmanda Seyfried, still desperate for her approval, learns she has to pull herself away from the evil force that is Jennifer.

The Duke of Burgundy (2014)

An art-house slow burn from writer/director Peter Strickland (Berberian Sound Studio) where a woman who studies butterflies and her protégé/maid embark on a BDSM relationship. The power quickly shifts as the young Evelyn’s expectations for being dominated grow and she begins to play her own power games.

Sunset Boulevard (1950)

The immortal Billy Wilder film whose influence can be felt across so many other classic films, Sunset Boulevard set the standard for age-gap relationships that turn into fever dreams. Gloria Swanson plays Norma Desmond, who pulls writer Joe Gillis (William Holden) into her orbit. The work and the personal mix, jealousy becomes violent, and the delusion it takes to create art is taken to the extreme in a film that’s always due for a rewatch.

Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994)

Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma acts as a meta commentary on the ability to remake a horror film ad infinitum. Another director who explored this idea was one who felt it acutely, Nightmare on Elm Streetand Scream director Wes Craven. Sick of the demands to make more Nightmare movies, he made a left turn with the underrated New Nightmare, and had Elm Street star Heather Langenkamp play herself being dragged into another sequel, and finding the production and her life being cursed by a “real” Freddy Kruger, as the retelling of the Freddy myth increases his power.

Peeping Tom (1960)

Some call Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom the original slasher film. It was undoubtably ahead of its time as it was panned by critics for dealing with unseemly themes. In it, a shy young filmmaker pathologically mixes arousal with violence, as he films himself murdering young women in first-person POV. The film acts as a dark mirror for the audience, who thanks to the filmmaking and the inherently voyeuristic nature of cinema, can’t help but be thrilled themselves.