October’s here and it’s time to get spooked. After last year’s superb “’70s Horror” lineup, the Criterion Channel commemorates October with a couple series: “Universal Horror,” which does what it says on the tin (with special notice to the Spanish-language Dracula), and “Home Invasion,” which runs the gamut from Romero to Oshima with Polanski and Haneke in the mix. Lest we disregard the programming of Cindy Sherman’s one feature, Office Killer, and Jennifer’s Body, whose lifespan has gone from gimmick to forgotten to Criterion Channel. And if you want to stretch ideas of genre just a hair, their “True Crime” selection gets at darker shades of human nature.
It’s not all chills and thrills, mind. October also boasts a Kirk Douglas repertoire, movies by Doris Wishman and Wayne Wang, plus Manoel de Oliveira’s rarely screened Porto of My Childhood. And Edgar Wright gets the “Adventures in Moviegoing” treatment, choosing films that “reflect his omnivorous embrace of art house and grindhouse alike”—Belle de jour and Bava both.
See the full list of October titles below and more on the Criterion Channel.
10 Rillington Place, Richard Fleischer, 1971
After Life, Hirokazu Kore-eda, 1998
Angst, Gerald Kargl, 1983
Arsenic and Old Lace, Frank Capra, 1944**
The Bad and the Beautiful, Vincente Minnelli, 1952
Bad Influence, Curtis Hanson, 1990
Beat Girl, Edmond T. Gréville, 1960
Beautiful Thing, Hettie MacDonald, 1996**
Between You and Milagros, Mariana Saffon, 2020
The Big Sky, Howard Hawks, 1952
The Black Cat, Edgar G. Ulmer, 1934
Black Christmas, Bob Clark, 1974
Blind Alley, Charles Vidor, 1939
Blood and Black Lace, Mario Bava, 1964
Bride of Frankenstein, James Whale, 1935
Bright Future, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 2003
The Brotherhood, Martin Ritt, 1968
Bustin’ Loose, Oz Scott, 1981
The Anderson Tapes, Sidney Lumet, 1971
The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, John Korty, 1974
Champion, Mark Robson, 1949
Chan Is Missing, Wayne Wang, 1982
Coffee and Cigarettes, Jim Jarmusch, 2003
Come Back to the 5 & Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, Robert Altman, 1982
The Comedians, Peter Glenville, 1967
Coming Out Under Fire, Arthur Dong, 1994
Creature from the Black Lagoon, Jack Arnold, 1954
Creepy, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 2016
Cul-de-sac, Roman Polanski, 1966
The Day of the Jackal, Fred Zinnemann, 1973
Deadly Weapons, Doris Wishman, 1974
The Delta, Ira Sachs, 1996
Demon Seed, Donald Cammell, 1977
The Desperate Hours, William Wyler, 1955
Detective Story, William Wyler, 1951
Devil in a Blue Dress, Carl Franklin, 1995
The Devil’s Disciple, Guy Hamilton, 1959
Diary of a Mad Housewife, Frank Perry, 1970
Dillinger,John Milius, 1973
Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart, Wayne Wang, 1985
Doctor X, Michael Curtiz, 1932
Don’t Look Now, Nicolas Roeg, 1973
Double Agent 73, Doris Wishman, 1974
Dracula (Spanish-Language Version), George Melford, 1931
E•pis•to•lar•y: Letter to Jean Vigo, Lynne Sachs, 2021
Eat a Bowl of Tea, Wayne Wang, 1989
Escape from New York, John Carpenter, 1981
Family Fundamentals, Arthur Dong, 2002
A Father . . . A Son . . . Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Lee Grant, 2005
Film About a Father Who, Lynne Sachs, 2020
The Fly, Kurt Neumann, 1958
Forbidden City, USA, Arthur Dong, 1989
From Hell, Albert Hughes and Allen Hughes, 2001
From Here to Eternity, Fred Zinnemann, 1953
Girl Is Presence, Lynne Sachs and Anne Lesley Selcer, 2020
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, Robert Ellis Miller, 1968
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, John McNaughton, 1986
Hollywood Chinese, Arthur Dong, 2007
I Walk Alone, Byron Haskin, 1947
In Cold Blood, Richard Brooks, 1967
Indecent Desires, Doris Wishman, 1968
Inside, Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo, 2007**
The Invisible Man, James Whale, 1933
Is Paris Burning?, René Clément, 1966
Island of Lost Souls, Erle C. Kenton, 1932
Jennifer’s Body, Karyn Kusama, 2009
Kagemusha, Akira Kurosawa, 1980
The Killing Fields of Dr. Haing S. Ngor, Arthur Dong, 2015
Klute, Alan J. Pakula, 1971
The Last Happy Day, Lynne Sachs, 2009
Last Train from Gun Hill, John Sturges, 1959
Let Him Have It, Peter Medak, 1991
Let Me Die a Woman, Doris Wishman, 1977
A Letter to Three Wives, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1949
Licensed to Kill, Arthur Dong, 1997
Lonely Are the Brave, David Miller, 1962
The Love Parade, Ernst Lubitsch, 1929**
Lust for Life, Vincente Minnelli, 1956
Man on a Swing, Frank Perry, 1974
Maya at 24, Lynne Sachs, 2021
Miss Minoes, Vincent Bal, 2011
Monte Carlo, Ernst Lubitsch, 1930
The Mummy, Karl Freund, 1932
The Naughty Nineties, Jean Yarbrough, 1945
Nude on the Moon, Doris Wishman and Raymond Phelan, 1961
Office Killer, Cindy Sherman, 1997**
One Hour with You, Ernst Lubitsch, 1932
Only Lovers Left Alive, Jim Jarmusch, 2013**
Out of the Past, Jacques Tourneur, 1947
Park Row, Samuel Fuller, 1952
Please Speak Continuously and Describe Your Experiences as They Come to You, Brandon Cronenberg, 2019
Polytechnique, Denis Villeneuve, 2009**
Porto of My Childhood, Manoel de Oliveira, 2001
Posse, Kirk Douglas, 1975
Private Property, Leslie Stevens, 1960
A Raisin in the Sun, Daniel Petrie, 1961
Rat Film, Theo Anthony, 2016
The Raven, Louis Friedlander, 1935
Reversal of Fortune, Barbet Schroeder, 1990
Robinson Crusoe on Mars, Byron Haskin, 1964
Sewing Woman, Arthur Dong, 1982
Short Eyes, Robert M. Young, 1977
The Smiling Lieutenant, Ernst Lubitsch, 1931
Smoke, Wayne Wang, 1995**
Sparkle, Sam O’Steen, 1976
The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, Lewis Milestone, 1946
Stuffed, Erin Derham, 2019
Them, David Moreau and Xavier Palud, 2006
There Was a Crooked Man . . ., Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1970
The Time of Their Lives, Charles Barton, 1946
To Die For, Gus Van Sant, 1995
To Sleep with Anger, Charles Burnett, 1990
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, John Huston, 1948
Try and Get Me!, Cy Endfield, 1950
Two Weeks in Another Town, Vincente Minnelli, 1962
The Valachi Papers, Terence Young, 1972
The Vikings, Richard Fleischer, 1958The Visitors, Elia Kazan, 1972
The Washing Society, Lizzie Olesker and Lynne Sachs, 2018
The Way West, Andrew V. McLaglen, 1967
When We Were Kings, Leon Gast, 1996
Which Way Is East, Lynne Sachs, 1994
White Echo, Chloë Sevigny, 2019
Wind in Our Hair, Lynne Sachs, 2010
The Wolf Man, George Waggner, 1941
Wombling Free, Lionel Jeffries, 1978
Young Man with a Horn, Michael Curtiz, 1950
Zodiac, David Fincher, 2007
**Available in the U.S. only