The Criterion Collection is celebrating Halloween with a brand new lineup of horror releases this October, and we’ve got the full scoop straight from Criterion’s website.
Coming this October, “three Pre-code chillers from a master of the morbid; a gothic supernatural tale; & a haunting modern-day fable of cultural dislocation in NYC.”
Those films are Freaks, The Unknown and The Mystic, packaged together in Tod Browning’s Sideshow Shockers; The Others (2001); and Nanny (2022). Tod Browning’s Sideshow Shockers will first be added to the Criterion Collection on October 17, followed by Alejandro Amenábar’s The Others on October 24 and Nikyatu Jusu’s Nanny on October 31.
Tod Browning’s Sideshow Shockers:
“The world is a carnival of criminality, corruption, and psychosexual strangeness in the twisted pre-Code shockers of Tod Browning. Early Hollywood’s edgiest auteur, Browning drew on his experiences as a circus performer to create subversive pulp entertainments set amid the world of traveling sideshows, which, with their air of the exotic and the disreputable, provided a pungent backdrop for his sordid tales of outcasts, cons, villains, and vagabonds. Bringing together two of his defining works (The Unknown and Freaks) and a long-unavailable rarity (The Mystic), this cabinet of pre-Code curiosities reveals a master of the morbid whose ability to unsettle is matched only by his daring compassion for society’s most downtrodden.”
The Others:
“A remote manor; hushed, candlelit atmosphere; and shivery, supernatural menace. With his first English-language feature, Chilean Spanish writer-director-composer Alejandro Amenábar resurrected the classic gothic chiller to create a ghost story of uncommon emotional resonance. Nicole Kidman stars as a World War II–era mother whose imperiousness masks a terrifying pain, as she keeps her light-sensitive children enshrouded in darkness on her country estate. The arrival of three new servants punctures her insular world—and seems to disturb the balance between the living and the dead. With each stunning twist and turn, Amenábar immerses us more deeply in a realm haunted not only by spirits but also by guilt, trauma, and repression.”
Nanny:
“A spellbinding blend of social observation and artful shocks, the debut feature from Nikyatu Jusu plunges into the increasingly fractured consciousness of Aisha (Anna Diop), a Senegalese immigrant who takes a job as a nanny for a wealthy white family in New York City. Separated from her own son and casually exploited by her employers, Aisha finds herself consumed by unsettling visions and a growing rage—one that could either destroy or empower her. This visually captivating tour de force—the first horror movie to win the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival—distills complex ideas about motherhood, inequality, and cultural dislocation into a work of dreamlike dread.”
Additionally, Nicolas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now is getting a brand new 4K Ultra HD upgrade on October 3, while David Cronenberg’s Videodrome hits Criterion 4K on October 10.
Pre-order your copies and learn more on Criterion’s website.
