Criterion Channel’s October Line-Up Includes John Carpenter, 2000s Horror, Body Horror

The Criterion Channel has announced its October streaming line-up, which includes 14 films from John Carpenter, collections dedicated to 2000s horror and body horror, and more.

John Carpenter

A master at turning B-movie premises into dazzlingly artful nightmares, horror legend John Carpenter mixes pulse-pounding thrills and subversive social commentary into some of the smartest, most stylish, and electrifying genre films of all time. From the atmospheric terror of The Fog and Christine to the dystopian world-building of Escape from New York and They Live to the apocalyptic metaphysics of Prince of Darkness and In the Mouth of Madness, Carpenter infuses propulsive action with deep existential dread, amplified by his synth soundtracks that have become classics in their own right.

Dark Star, 1974
Assault on Precinct 13, 1976
The Fog, 1980
Escape from New York, 1981
Christine, 1983
Starman, 1984
Big Trouble in Little China, 1986
Prince of Darkness, 1987
They Live, 1988
Memoirs of an Invisible Man, 1992
In the Mouth of Madness, 1994
Escape from L.A., 1996
Vampires, 1998
Ghosts of Mars, 2001

2000s Horror

The first decade of the early 2000s saw a chilling resurgence of horror cinema, with a wave of low-budget films proving that atmosphere, imagination, and thematic intelligence could produce profound dread with the most minimal of resources. Featuring unsettling new takes on the classic haunted-house movie (What Lies Beneath, The Others), innovative found-footage nightmares ([REC], Lake Mungo), visceral shockers (Trouble Every Day, Toolbox Murders), intense psychological mind-benders (May, Triangle), and more, this survey of DVD-era cult favorites finds both veteran masters and provocative new voices pushing the genre toward edgier, more disturbing extremes.

What Lies Beneath, Robert Zemeckis, 2000
Ghosts of Mars, John Carpenter, 2001
The Others, Alejandro Amenábar, 2001
Trouble Every Day, Claire Denis, 2001
Dahmer, David Jacobson, 2002
May, Lucky McKee, 2002
Toolbox Murders, Tobe Hooper, 2004
[•REC], Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza, 2007
Rogue, Greg McLean, 2007
Stuck, Stuart Gordon, 2007
Lake Mungo, Joel Anderson, 2008
Triangle, Christopher Smith, 2009

Body Horror

Transformation, infection, contagion, and mutation run rampant in these fleshy nightmares that render the human form unstable, uncanny, and sublimely grotesque. While David Cronenberg established himself as the reigning king of body horror with gloriously gooey, thematically provocative cult favorites like The Brood and The Fly, master directors ranging from Ken Russell (Altered States) to Claire Denis (Trouble Every Day) to William Friedkin (Bug) have each put their own stamp on a genre that posits the body as a site of trauma, desire, and uncontrollable change.

Eyes Without a Face, Georges Franju, 1960
Matango, Ishiro Honda, 1963
The Face of Another, Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1966
Shivers, David Cronenberg, 1975
Eraserhead, David Lynch, 1977
The Brood, David Cronenberg, 1979
Altered States, Ken Russell, 1980
Possession, Andrzej Żuławski, 1981
The Fly, David Cronenberg, 1986
Trouble Every Day, Claire Denis, 2001
Bug, William Friedkin, 2006
Teeth, Mitchell Lichtenstein, 2007

Scary Sexy: 6 Films by Jean Rollin

Dreamlike, hauntingly atmospheric visions of sex, blood, and existential ennui, the poetic-erotic fantasies of French art-horror master Jean Rollin exist on a hypnotic wavelength all their own. Frequently employing the figure of the female, often lesbian, vampire as a vessel for Rollin’s symbol-laden explorations of desire, outsiderhood, and mortality, these films—including revered cult works like Requiem for a Vampire, Fascination, and The Living Dead Girl—drift languorously through dark forests, decaying castles, and desolate graveyards, melancholic landscapes suffused with a sublimely eerie beauty.

Requiem for a Vampire, 1972
Lips of Blood, 1975
The Grapes of Death, 1978
Fascination, 1979
The Living Dead Girl, 1982
Lost in New York, 1989

Hong Kong Ghost Stories

When the feverishly over-the-top imagination of Hong Kong genre cinema meets the supernatural, anything can happen. Featuring hopping vampires (Encounters of the Spooky Kind, Mr. Vampire), demonic felines (Evil Cat), seductive ghosts (A Chinese Ghost Story), and all manner of otherworldly mischief-makers, these outrageous fantasies blend horror, comedy, action, melodrama, and awesomely old-school special effects with the gleeful abandon that only the Hong Kong film industry in its prime would have dared to attempt.