It's never too early to get ready for spooky season - so just as well that the Criterion Collection have today announced their exciting new releases that'll be heading up every horror fan's favorite time of the year.
Criterion describe the upcoming batch of features as “three pre-code chillers from a master of the morbid; a gothic supernatural tale; & a haunting modern-day fable of cultural dislocation in NYC.” Kicking off the lineup on October 17 is Tod Browning’s Sideshow Shockers, a package of Freaks, The Mystic and The Unknown, shortly followed by Alejandro Amenábar’s The Others on October 24 and Nikyatu Jusu’s Nanny on October 31. Nicolas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now will also see a brand new 4K Ultra HD upgrade on October 3, while David Cronenberg’s body horror classic Videodrome hits Criterion 4K on October 10.
Here's the full details of the exciting lineup (start making room on that Blu-ray shelf now):
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.”
SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
- New 2K digital restoration of Freaks, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- New 2K digital reconstruction and restoration of The Unknown by the George Eastman Museum, with a new score by composer Philip Carli
- New 2K digital restoration of The Mystic, with a new score by composer Dean Hurley
- Audio commentaries on Freaks and The Unknown and an introduction to The Mystic by film scholar David J. Skal
- New interview with author Megan Abbott about director Tod Browning and pre-Code horror
- Archival documentary on Freaks
- Reading of “Spurs,” the short story by Tod Robbins on which Freaks is based
- Prologue to Freaks, which was added to the film in 1947
- Program on the alternate endings to Freaks
- Video gallery of portraits from Freaks
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by film critic Farran Smith Nehme
The Others (2001) dir. Alejandro Amenábar
“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.”
DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
- New 4K digital restoration, approved by director Alejandro Amenábar, with Dolby Atmos soundtrack
- In the 4K UHD edition: One 4K UHD disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
- Audio commentary featuring Amenábar
- New conversation between Amenábar and film critic Pau Gómez
- New making-of program featuring Amenábar, actors Nicole Kidman and Christopher Eccleston, and producer Fernando Bovaira
- Archival programs about the film’s production, costume design, soundtrack, and visual effects, featuring interviews and footage recorded on the set
- Audition footage of actors Alakina Mann and James Bentley and photography from the “Book of the Dead”
- Seven deleted scenes
- Trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by scholar Philip Horne
Nanny (2022) dir. Nikyatu Jusu
“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.”
DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
- New 4K digital master, approved by director Nikyatu Jusu, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio and uncompressed stereo soundtracks on the Blu-ray
- New program featuring Jusu, actors Anna Diop and Michelle Monaghan, and director of photography Rina Yang
- Trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing and English descriptive audio
- PLUS: An essay by critic Angelica Jade Bastién
Don't Look Now (1973) dir. Nicolas Roeg
"Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie mesmerize as a married couple on an extended trip to Venice following a family tragedy. While in that elegantly decaying city, they have a series of inexplicable, terrifying, and increasingly dangerous experiences. A masterpiece from Nicolas Roeg, Don’t Look Now, adapted from a story by Daphne du Maurier, is a brilliantly disturbing tale of the supernatural, as renowned for its innovative editing and haunting cinematography as for its naturalistic eroticism and its unforgettable climax and denouement—one of the great endings in horror history."
4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
- 4K digital restoration, supervised by director of photography Anthony Richmond, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
- Conversation between editor Graeme Clifford and film writer and historian Bobbie O’Steen
- “Don't Look Now”: Looking Back, a short documentary from 2002 featuring Clifford, Richmond, and director Nicolas Roeg
- “Don't Look Now”: Death in Venice, a 2006 interview with composer Pino Donaggio
- Program on the writing and making of the film, featuring interviews with Richmond, actors Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland, and coscreenwriter Allan Scott
- Program on Roeg’s style, featuring interviews with filmmakers Danny Boyle and Steven Soderbergh
- Q&A with Roeg from 2003 at London’s Ciné Lumière
- Trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by film critic David Thompson
Videodrome (1983) dir. David Cronenberg
"When Max Renn goes looking for edgy new material for his sleazy cable TV station, he stumbles across the pirate broadcast of a hyperviolent torture show called “Videodrome.” His attempts to unearth the program’s origins send him on a hallucinatory journey into a shadow world of right-wing conspiracies, sadomasochistic sex games, and bodily transformation. Starring James Woods and Deborah Harry, Videodrome is one of the most original and provocative works from writer-director David Cronenberg, and features groundbreaking makeup effects by Academy Award winner Rick Baker."
DIRECTOR-APPROVED 4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
- 4K digital restoration of the unrated version, approved by director David Cronenberg, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
- Two audio commentaries, one featuring Cronenberg and director of photography Mark Irwin, the other actors James Woods and Deborah Harry
- Camera (2000), a short film by Cronenberg
- Forging the New Flesh, a short documentary by filmmaker Michael Lennick about the creation of Videodrome’s video and prosthetic makeup effects
- Effects Men, an audio interview with special makeup effects creator Rick Baker and video effects supervisor Lennick
- Bootleg Video: the complete footage of Samurai Dreams and seven minutes of transmissions from “Videodrome,” presented in their original, unedited form, with filmmaker commentary
- Fear on Film, a roundtable discussion from 1982 with Cronenberg and filmmakers John Carpenter, John Landis, and Mick Garris
- Original theatrical trailers and promotional featurette
- Stills gallery featuring rare behind-the-scenes production photos and posters
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: Essays by writers Carrie Rickey, Tim Lucas, and Gary Indiana
Don't forget to head over to the Criterion Collection official site for more info and to pre-order your copies!
