Here’s What’s Streaming on The Criterion Channel in October 2025
As usual, it’s an embarrassment of riches on The Criterion Channel in October, with new additions featuring 2000s Horror, the films of John Carpenter, a huge selection of Hong Kong action classics, and perfect for us sickos, a Body Horror collection.
Here’s the full breakdown:
*Indicates programming available only in the U.S.
TOP STORIES
Directed by 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.
FEATURING: 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.
Programmed by Clyde Folley
FEATURING: What Lies Beneath (2000), Ghosts of Mars (2001), The Others (2001), Trouble Every Day (2001), Dahmer (2002), May (2002), Toolbox Murders (2004), [•REC] (2007), Rogue (2007), Stuck (2007), Lake Mungo (2008), Triangle (2009)
Hong Kong Action Classics
At its peak in the 1980s and early ’90s, the Hong Kong film industry was unmatched when it came to action spectacle, offering up dazzlingly choreographed, operatically stylized thrill rides that electrified genre fans around the world. From the bullet-riddled underworld odysseys of John Woo (A Better Tomorrow, The Killer) and Ringo Lam (City on Fire, Full Contact) to the eye-popping martial-arts comedies of Jackie Chan (Police Story, Miracles) and Sammo Hung (Pedicab Driver, The Magnificent Butcher) to the sweeping wuxia epics of Tsui Hark (Once Upon a Time in China, Swordsman), these films explode with some of the most inventive and furiously entertaining action mayhem ever captured on film.
FEATURING: Last Hurrah for Chivalry (1979), The Magnificent Butcher (1979), Dreadnaught (1981), Heroes Shed No Tears (1984), Police Story (1985), A Better Tomorrow (1986), A Better Tomorrow II (1987), City on Fire (1987), Prison on Fire (1987), As Tears Go By (1988), Police Story 2 (1988), School on Fire (1988), A Better Tomorrow III: Love & Death in Saigon (1989), The Killer (1989), Miracles (1989), Pedicab Driver (1989), Bullet in the Head (1990), Swordsman (1990), Once a Thief (1991), Once Upon a Time in China (1991), Prison on Fire II (1991), Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky (1991), Full Contact (1992), Hard Boiled (1992), Once Upon a Time in China II (1992), Swordsman II (1992), The Heroic Trio (1993), Once Upon a Time in China III (1993), Executioners (1993), The East Is Red (1993), Once Upon a Time in China and America (1997), Infernal Affairs (2002), Infernal Affairs II (2003), Infernal Affairs III (2003), PTU (2003), Breaking News (2004), Throw Down (2004), Election (2005), Exiled (2006), Life Without Principle (2011), Drug War (2012), Blind Detective (2013)
PLUS: Collections showcasing three of Hong Kong’s most essential directors!
Directed by John Woo
Directed Tsui Hark
Directed by Ringo Lam
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.
FEATURING: Eyes Without a Face (1960), Matango (1963), The Face of Another (1966), Shivers (1975), Eraserhead (1977), The Brood (1979), Altered States (1980), Possession (1981), The Fly (1986), Trouble Every Day (2001), Bug (2006), Teeth (2007)
EXCLUSIVE PREMIERES
Milisuthando
Filmmaker, writer, and poet Milisuthando Bongela’s youth in South Africa was untouched by the horrors of apartheid—at least that’s how it seemed. The Transkei, an unrecognized Black independent region established by the regime, created the illusion for Black South Africans that separate could be equal. And paradoxically for Bongela, life in the Transkei proved as idyllic as the propaganda claimed. Until it was over. The fall of apartheid ushered in a new life, one that included, for the first time, whiteness. Milisuthando is a deeply intimate portrait of past, present, and future South Africa, blending poetry, film, and photography into a striking cinematic essay. Bongela explores love, friendship, and belonging in a South Africa stratified by racism—proving that only if we understand its tentacles can we begin to extricate ourselves from its clutches.
CRITERION COLLECTION EDITIONS
Hard Boiled (John Woo, 1992)
Criterion Collection Edition #9
Chow Yun-fat stars in John Woo’s dizzying odyssey through the Hong Kong underworld—violence as poetry, rendered by a master.
SUPPLEMENTAL FEATURES: A student film by Woo and audio commentary by Woo, producer Terence Chang, filmmaker Roger Avary, and critic Dave Kehr
The Killer (John Woo, 1989)
Criterion Collection Edition #8
Chow Yun-fat is a killer with a conscience in John Woo’s explosively stylized dissection of the meaning of morality in a corrupt society.
SUPPLEMENTAL FEATURES: Deleted scenes and audio commentary by Woo and production executive Terence Chang.
My Winnipeg (Guy Maddin, 2007)*
Criterion Collection Edition #741
Guy Maddin’s docu-fantasia on his hometown blends personal history, mythology, and surrealist interludes into a one-of-a-kind work of autobiography.
SUPPLEMENTAL FEATURES: A conversation between Maddin and art critic Robert Enright, four cine-essays by filmmaker Evan Johnson and Maddin on various Winnipegiana, short films by Maddin, and more
The Others (Alejandro Amenábar, 2001)
Criterion Collection Edition #1195
In this gothic ghost story of uncommon emotional resonance, Nicole Kidman stars as the mother of two light-sensitive children kept secluded in darkness on her country estate.
SUPPLEMENTAL FEATURES: Audio commentary by director Alejandro Amenábar, a conversation between Amenábar and film critic Pau Gómez, making-of programs, deleted scenes, and more.
To Sleep with Anger (Charles Burnett, 1990)
Criterion Collection Edition #963
Danny Glover is a devilish drifter who turns a family’s life upside down in this singular work of American mythmaking from director Charles Burnett.
SUPPLEMENTAL FEATURES: A program featuring interviews with the cast and crew, a conversation between Burnett and filmmaker Robert Townsend, and more.
Pierrot le fou (Jean-Luc Godard, 1965)
Criterion Collection Edition #421
Jean-Paul Belmondo and Anna Karina hit the road in Jean-Luc Godard’s stylish mash-up of anticonsumerist satire, au courant politics, and comic-book aesthetics.
SUPPLEMENTAL FEATURES: Interviews with Godard, Karina, and Belmondo; a video essay by filmmaker Jean-Pierre Gorin; and a documentary about Godard and his work and marriage with Karina.
A Woman Is a Woman (Jean-Luc Godard, 1961)
Criterion Collection Edition #238
Jean-Luc Godard is at his warmest and most accessible in this sly, playful tribute to—and interrogation of—the American musical comedy.
SUPPLEMENTAL FEATURES: Godard’s early short film All the Boys Are Called Patrick and excerpts from a 1966 French television interview with actors Anna Karina and Jean-Claude Brialy.
Altered States (Ken Russell, 1980)
Criterion Collection Edition #1284
In Ken Russell’s hallucinogenic freak-out, a psychological researcher (William Hurt) uses himself as a test subject, embarking on a dangerous, substance-fueled odyssey from humankind’s primordial past to the outer limits of consciousness.
SUPPLEMENTAL FEATURES: Audio commentary by film historian Samm Deighan and interviews with Russell, Hurt, and special-visual-effects designer Bran Ferren.
REDISCOVERIES AND RESTORATIONS
The Annihilation of Fish
Virtually unseen for years only to reemerge as a lost gem of American independent cinema, this surprising, ineffably tender romantic comedy from master director Charles Burnett (Killer of Sheep) features unforgettable performances from James Earl Jones and Lynn Redgrave as two lost souls who find an unexpected home in each other. Fish (Jones) is a gentle Jamaican immigrant wrestling (quite literally) with his inner demons, while Poinsettia (Redgrave) is a brash eccentric with delusions of her own. When they meet as neighbors in a Los Angeles boardinghouse, a tentative relationship offers them both an escape from their shared loneliness. Touching on themes of mental illness, aging, and race with supreme delicacy, Burnett brings Fish and Poinsettia’s troubled but colorful world to life with boundless grace and compassion.
No Fear, No Die
Inspired by the writings of anticolonialist philosopher Frantz Fanon, Claire Denis’s thrillingly intense second feature is a moody exploration of immigrant alienation. Two young men living in France, Dah (Isaach De Bankolé) from Benin and Jocelyn (Alex Descas) from the Caribbean, make money through illegal cockfighting. As Pierre (Jean-Claude Brialy), the French owner of the restaurant where the fights take place, pushes them to make the events more violent, the disillusioned Jocelyn begins looking for a way out from the sordid dealings that surround him.
Nightshift
A gorgeously photographed work of surreal, somnambulant cinema, Robina Rose’s singular snapshot of London’s early 1980s art scene casts a hypnotic spell all its own. Over the course of a single nightshift, a West London hotel clerk plays silent witness to a nocturnal constellation of guests ranging from punk rockers and scenester magicians to seemingly staid businessmen and old-world gentry. As the hours march deeper into night and the varied clientele depart the waking world, the hotel transforms into an otherworldly liminal space swaying between the everyday and the enchanting.
Christiane F.
Adapted from actor and musician Christiane Felscherinow’s harrowing account of her teenage years, Christiane F. depicts the impact of West Berlin’s 1970s heroin epidemic on one of its youngest and luckiest survivors. On the cusp of fourteen, David Bowie–worshipping Christiane (Natja Brunckhorst) begins slipping out from under the watch of her divorced mother and spending time at the trendy discotheque Sound. There she falls in love with Detlev (Thomas Haustein), whose recent experiments with heroin soon have her hooked. Working with first-time actors and shooting on location with real-life regulars of Zoo Station’s notorious drug scene, director Uli Edel unflinchingly captures the degradation of each phase of junkie life, from the brutal withdrawals to the seemingly endless vows to “go straight.” Bowie himself appears in a concert performance of “Station to Station,” and the film’s soundtrack is both a virtual compendium of the epochal musician’s celebrated Berlin period and a perfect sonic evocation of nightclubbing’s dark side.
DIRECTOR SPOTLIGHTS
Directed by Kira Muratova
Few filmmakers have forged a voice as singular and uncategorizable as that of Ukrainian iconoclast Kira Muratova. Working on the margins of Soviet and post-Soviet cinema, she withstood decades of censorship to realize her uncompromising vision in fascinatingly fragmented, expressionistically heightened works that employ melodrama, satire, and absurdism to explore the psychic toll of life under oppressive political, social, and domestic systems. Her films—including the impressionistic family portrait The Long Farewell, her radical glasnost-era masterpiece The Asthenic Syndrome, and the dark con-artist comedy The Tuner—delight in disorder and contradiction as they deconstruct the very language of cinema itself.
FEATURING: Brief Encounters (1967), The Long Farewell (1971), Among Grey Stones (1983), Change of Fate (1987), The Asthenic Syndrome (1989), Three Stories (1997), The Tuner (2004)
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.
FEATURING: 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)
Directed by Charles Burnett
Featuring A Walk with Charles Burnett, a portrait by Robert Townsend
A true trailblazer of independent cinema, Charles Burnett has brought images of Black American life to the screen with authenticity, empathy, and stirring poetry. Bringing together landmarks like Killer of Sheep and To Sleep with Anger, lesser-known gems such as The Glass Shield and The Annihilation of Fish, thought-provoking documentaries like Nat Turner: A Troublesome Property, and rarely seen shorts, this collection highlights the versatility and singular lyrical sensibility of this essential artist, a master at conveying emotional interiority whose work overflows with deep compassion.
FEATURES: Killer of Sheep (1977), My Brother’s Wedding (1983), To Sleep with Anger (1990), The Glass Shield (1994), The Final Insult (1997), The Annihilation of Fish (1999), Nat Turner: A Troublesome Property (2003)
SHORTS: Several Friends (1969), The Horse (1973), When It Rains (1995), Quiet as Kept (2007)
Directed by Edward Yang
Featuring an introduction by critic Dennis Lim, part of Criterion’s Spotlight series
Edward Yang made films on a monumental scale, bringing novelistic depth to sprawling stories of human connection, alienation, and self-discovery set in a rapidly changing Taiwan. Capturing intricate webs of criss-crossing social relationships with his masterful long takes, Yang’s films—including his crowning achievements, the epics A Brighter Summer Day and Yi Yi—reflect on both the universalities of the human condition and the specific social and cultural upheavals that transformed his country across the twentieth century.
FEATURING: Taipei Story (1985), A Brighter Summer Day (1991), A Confucian Confusion (1994), Mahjong (1996), Yi Yi (2000)
MORE HORROR!
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.
FEATURING: Encounters of the Spooky Kind (1980), Mr. Vampire (1985), Mr. Vampire II (1986), Evil Cat (1987), A Chinese Ghost Story (1987), Mr. Vampire III (1987), Rouge (1987), Mr. Vampire IV (1988), A Chinese Ghost Story II (1990), A Chinese Ghost Story III (1991)
The Descent
A caving expedition becomes a harrowing journey into claustrophobic terror in one of the most intense horror films of the twenty-first century thus far.
Ganja & Hess
Straining blaxploitation and horror conventions through a singular avant-garde sensibility, Bill Gunn’s revolutionary independent landmark is a boldly stylized, utterly original treatise on sex, religion, and Black American identity.
Daughters of Darkness
The vampire myth gets a disturbingly seductive psychosexual spin in one of the most exquisitely mesmerizing erotic horror films ever made.
SHORT FILMS
Two Short Films by Sofía Camargo
The complex dynamics between mothers and daughters is at the heart of these beautifully understated shorts by Colombian director Sofía Camargo. In By the River, an unspoken grief hovers in the household of a newly single mother and her two daughters, while in Nostos, a young girl acts out in defiance of her pregnant mother. With naturalistic performances, careful attention to framing and sound, and a feeling for the mysterious dimensions of nature, Camargo creates immersive sensory worlds attuned to subtle emotional shifts.
FEATURING: By the River (2019), Nostos (2024)
DOCUMENTARIES
Two Documentaries by David Weissman and Bill Weber
Vivid, stirring portraits of San Francisco’s gay life and psychedelic counterculture, these documentaries from director David Weissman—made in collaboration with Bill Weber—tell essential stories of queer community, creativity, and resilience. A joyous celebration of the eponymous gender-bending burlesque collective who took the city by storm in the late 1960s and early ’70s, The Cockettes brings a colorful chapter of hippy history to life in all its anarchic glory. In We Were Here, Weissman movingly recounts the coming of AIDS to San Francisco in the 1980s, capturing not only the fear and devastation of the era but also the inspiring courage and compassion of those who came together to fight for survival.
FEATURING: The Cockettes (2002), We Were Here (2011)
Hooligan Sparrow
A work of startling courage that had to be smuggled out of China, Nanfu Wang’s gripping documentary follows a fearless activist as she goes up against a corrupt system in her fight to bring justice to victims of sexual abuse.
NEW ADDITIONS TO PREVIOUS PROGRAMS
Premiering October 1 in Directed by Jean-Luc Godard
Witness the young Jean-Luc Godard rewrite the rules of cinema over and over again in these ’60s essentials: an exuberant musical, a stark political satire, and a road movie like no other.
FEATURING: A Woman Is a Woman (1961), Les carabiniers (1963), Pierrot le fou (1965)
Coming to VOD next month…