October is right around the corner, and you know what that means. That’s right: Halloween season is nearly upon us, and the Criterion Channel is once again getting in on the festivities! The streamer has shared the trailer for an upcoming collection of Japanese horror movies set to be added to the service on Tuesday, Oct. 1, along with an accompanying collection of films focused on Hollywood creature features with an emphasis on practical special effects.
If you’ve been meaning to brush up on Japanese horror movies, the addition of this new collection is the perfect opportunity to gain a grasp of the genre’s origins and history. There’s some terrific titles here: foundational films like Kaneto Shindo’s striking historical horror drama Onibaba and his supernatural folktale Kuroneko, as well as offbeat cult classics like Nobuhiko Obayashi’s psychedelic horror comedy House and Shinya Tsukamoto’s Tetsuo: The Iron Man, several of which you might remember from past installments of our yearly Halloween Countdown series.
There’s plenty of terrific films to choose from across this whole collection. If you’re trying to decide what to watch, though, I highly recommend Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Cure, a favorite of mine which I personally feel is his magnum opus and perfect pick for fans of Longlegs; Tetsuo: The Iron Man, a body horror romance nightmare; and Kuroneko, a chilling and tragic ghost story about a family torn apart by the cruelty of a mob of ronin bandits. Truthfully though, you can’t go wrong with any of the movies in this collection if you’re looking for a spooky good time!
Criterion Channel’s Japanese Horror collection premieres on the streamer on Oct. 1.
