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Though occasionally considered stuffy by effortless moving-picture show fans , the Criterion Collection also includes lots of populist kickshaw that total a dash of fun to their mostly highbrow depository library . This may be best exemplified by the company ’s selection of revulsion films , which encompasses everything from B - Movie schlock to experimental weirdo shows andKaiju classics . Below , we name ten such off - the - ticktack - path repugnance gem just begging to be pelt on the Criterion Channel .
The Golem (1920)
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligariis inarguably the most famous case of German Expressionist film , butThe Golem , which was released the same year ) , is a worthy comrade to that bonafide horror classic .
base on an ancient Hebrew legend , thespian - director Paul Wagener stars as the titular goliath . make by a 16th - one C rabbi ( Albert Steinrück ) to protect his people against the cruelties of Rudolf II of Prague , the golem is an indestructible force that , fall into the incorrect hands , spell doom for the very multitude he ’s blaspheme to serve . A spellbinding vortex of religious belief , magic , and neat effects workplace , The Golem is an early chef-d’oeuvre of silent horror picture palace whose paper ringing out even more loudly carry World War II .
Sisters (1973)
Brian De Palma is well known for his fashionable and sleazy suspense pictures , andSisterswas his first raid into a Hitchcockian style of movie slyness . Starring Margot Kidder ( Black Christmas , Superman ) in a duel role as model Danielle and her separated conjoined twin , Dominique , Sisterskicks off with a reporter , Grace ( Jennifer Salt ) see a filthy murder for which she believes Dominique to be responsible . With small to go on besides what she understand with her own eyes , Grace strives to disencumber the complex web that links Dominique and Danielle … risking her own life in the summons .
De Palma ’s scarey first dip into the horror genre is packed with the director ’s trademark ( voyeuristic violence , snag - screenland effects ) and topped off with an recherche score by fabled Hitchcock partner in crime , Bernard Hermann .
The Haunted Strangler (1958)
This UK production , starring all - time horror great , Boris Karloff ( Frankenstein ) , concerns a nineteenth - century novelist appoint James Rankin ( Karloff ) who begins an probe into what he believes to have been a wrongful execution twenty years prior . In Rankin ’s reckoning , the serviceman put to destruction for the crimes of " The Haymarket Strangler " was n’t the culprit , and the Strangler got off scot - free , changed his name , and is still living . But , of trend , things are never so simple , and , as Rankin begins to uncover the true fact of the case , he discover a personal connectedness with the Strangler beyond his wildest imaginings .
The Haunted Strangleris an atmospheric whodunnit that takes its cue fromThe foreign Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hydefor a boffo Boris Karloff fomite .
Hour of the Wolf (1968)
Cinema caption Ingmar Bergman ’s sole pure horror elbow grease , Hour of The Wolfis a subconscious nightmare as bone - temperature reduction as its Norse setting . of late - depart screen titan Max von Sydow star as Johan Borg , an artist eaten up by repressed dreams and desires . While on vacation on a distant island with his wife , Alma ( Liv Ullmann ) Borg ’s grip on reality start out to slip , direct to an explosion of nightmarish visions both tangible and imagine .
With enough indelibly weird imagination to give David Lynch the jitters ( for example a cleaning woman pulling her own face off ) and a strong marrow of ambiguous psychology , Hour of the Wolfisn’t easily forgotten .
Spirits of the Dead (1968)
Horror omnibus films are a dime a XII , but few have the pedigree of this 1968 feature . blend the talent of Federico Fellini , Louis Malle , and Roger Vadim , this fashionable and delightfully eldritch anthology features three tales by Edgar Allen Poe conceive in each director ’s inimitable panache .
Though not quite on par with something likeCreepshoworTwo malevolent Eyes , Spirits of the Deadis a fascinating mathematical product of an all - too - rarified quislingism by three of picture palace ’s most beloved artist .
Equinox (1970)
This charmingly hand-crafted beast feature of speech boast one unbelievable citation : its effects were created by Dennis Muren before he became a nine - meter Oscar winner for films likeStar WarsandJurassic Park .
When a group of teens goes on vacay in California , the foursome disclose an ancient book that allow loose a coterie of amuck beasties . The favorite project of an ambitious crowd of amateur filmmakers , this love - letter of the alphabet to giant monster movies of the fifties was made for a mere $ 6,500 and has bear witness to be one of the most influential films ever made for the repugnance and sci - fi crowd .
God Told Me To (1976)
Writer / Producer / Director Larry Cohen is well - loved for his New York brand of guerilla - mode filmmaking , but even professed fans often ignoreGod severalise Me To , his most ambitious and far - out work .
When a rooftop sniper is question by NYPD detective Peter Nicholas ( Tony Lo Bianco ) , he claims that God secernate him to kill before leaping to his destruction . As the same mania begins to sweep the city , Nicholas lead off to unearth a shadowy underground cabal tie in to an ostensible stranger messiah ( Richard Lynch ) , who he may be more closely related to than he realize .
A germ - eyed stare into the cosmic void , God Told Me Tois speculative sci - fi at its grubbiest and most unsettling .
I Was A Teenage Zombie (1987)
This sendup on theI Was A Teenage … motion-picture show of the fifties and Brat Pack - style mellow school love story concerns a group of teen who accidentally off a drug dealer in a scuffle for mickle . cast aside of the body , they unintentionally drip him in toxic waste , from which he emerges as an irradiated soma - feeder . A rough - hand-hewn comedy place to the rockin ' melody of the Fleshtones , Los Lobos , and the Violent Femmes .
Baxter (1989)
And you thought Cujo was a bad son ! Based on the novel " Hell Hound " by Ken Greenhall , this pitch - dark drollery assure the story of a bloodthirsty bull terrier and his search for the perfect owner . When he settles upon a Hitler - haunt boy , the real playfulness get !
Director Jérome Boivin ’s cinema has been critiqued for its deadening human characters , but , with a canine performance this goodness ( voiced by Maxime Leroux ) , his two - legged counterparts can only pale in comparison !
Cronos (1993)
age before he became an Academy Award victor , Guillermo Del Toro began his filmmaking vocation with this maverick lamia tarradiddle . When old-timer trader Jesús Gris ( Federico Luppi ) inherits a bizarre machine with sinister king , he becomes possessed by an consuming bloodlust that makes him the target of a deranged American man of affairs key out Angel ( Ron Perlman ) . Though smaller in scale than Del Toro ’s subsequent work , Cronosremains an sexual and enchantingly modern take on immortality and dependency .
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