If you’ve never heard of the Criterion Collection, this is a perfect time to.
The Criterion Collection specializes in the restoration and release of sometimes classic, sometimes foreign and sometimes relatively unknown films. I, myself, have collected a few of these films, most notably ones of a certain genre.
If you’ve never read this column before, now is also a perfect time to start.
Hi, I’m Daniel and I like horror movies.
And after this column, you’re going to go out and buy some Criterion edition horror films and you’ll be adequately superior to all of your friends.
There. How do you like that, Criterion? Can I have a top ten list on your website?
Can I come to your office and pick out movies that I want from your vault like Bill Hader did one time?
I swear that I deserve to. I’m very funny.
We all know what Godzilla is, so I don’t need to explain it in depth. Ishiro Honda. Haruo Nakajima. Tokyo. Classic. There you go.
This release though, has one of the all time best commentary tracks that I’ve ever heard on it, by film historian David Kalat, who not only does one for Gojira, but for Godzilla, King Of The Monsters too.
Isn’t there a law against something that awesome? It’s almost inhuman.
Criterion, why do I smell goat’s blood and sulfur? What have you done?!
Eyes Without A Face
Eyes Without A Face is a 1959 French film that deals with an obsessed doctor trying to restore his daughter’s face after an accident, and resorting to malicious and murderous tactics in the process of doing so. Featuring an iconic white mask that the daughter wears and being extremely beautifully shot and written, Eyes Without A Face is…..Oh man, I nearly sounded legitimate for a second. I’ll cut that out.
This release is kickass. It has an interview with director Georges Franju and, if you can stomach it, the director’s 1949 documentary, Blood of the Beasts, which takes a look inside a Paris slaughterhouse.
And the booklet inside the casing has an interview with David Kalat, who, if you’re not an idiot, you can recall having done the commentaries on Godzilla.
House
A lot of people will go out of their way to describe certain films as insane, but almost 100% of the time, those films don’t include a blood spitting cat painting, an animated carnivorous piano and Asian girls having a sing-a-long in a beautiful field.
This release has an earlier experimental film by the director, Nobuhiko Obayashi on it, along with a video appreciation by Ti West, who directed the phenomenal House Of The Devil. You should watch that movie too.
Repulsion
Roman Polanski is a fantastic director and, if it wasn’t for the charges brought against him in the 70’s, I believe that he would have notoriety that filmmakers such as Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese have today.
Repulsion, made in 1965, is sometimes described as the British Psycho, but I like Repulsion a little more.
It deals with Carol, played by Catherine Deneuve (go Google her. She’s insanely attractive. Don’t try anything funny though), who is left alone in her apartment when her sister goes on vacation. What follows is her loss of sanity and a spiral into the horrors of loneliness and psycho-sexual violence.
The film has commentary by Polanski and Deneuve and includes two documentaries, both of which are awesome.
The Honeymoon Killers
Why haven’t more people seen this movie? Some will say that it isn’t horror but it’s close enough for me. So hysterical that it borders on being a black comedy and utterly unforgettable, The Honeymoon Killers is an amazing treat for anyone looking to see what true love looks like, and then have what they thought true love is trampled into the ground, blended and then shoved back into their faces.
While lacking in the sheer amount of extras that some of these discs have, Honeymoon Killers gets points because you’re just not going to find a better transfer than this one. So do yourself and favor, and Google Catherine Deveuve. And then buy The Honeymoon Killers.
Island Of Lost Souls
Released in 1932 and directed by Erle C. Kenton, Island Of Lost Souls is a fantastic pre-code horror film based of H.G. Well’s The Island Of Dr. Moreau.
It stars Charles Laughton as Moreau and even features Bela Lugosi as the leader of the beast men. The Criterion edition has a great commentary by film historian Gregory Mank and interviews with horror film historian David J. Skal and director Richard Stanley, who wrote and attempted to direct the 1996 adaptation of the novel before getting fired three days into filming and replaced by John Frankenheimer, resulting in a movie so bad that he would’ve been closer in preserving Wells’ legacy by digging up the deceased author and making a puppet out of him.
The highlight on the disc though is the discussion between filmmaker John Landis (who his impossible to dislike. I’m serious, try to dislike him. Sorry about your exploded head, fool), make-up artist Rick Baker and genre expert Bob Burns who, I believe, also appeared on a documentary on the creation of 1933’s King Kong. What did I just say? I couldn’t hear me over the sound of me nerding so hard.
Diabolique
I love Henri Clouzot.
He’s one of my top three favorite directors.
Okay, since you asked, Clouzot, Ingmar Bergman and Takashi Miike.
Diabolique, while not as impressively made as his earlier film, Wages Of Fear (also on Criterion), is just as effective. It deals with an abused wife who makes a plan with a fellow school teacher to murder her husband. Telling you anymore would legitimately ruin the film.
The Criterion edition has a pretty good commentary by film scholar Kelley Conway and a fantastic essay by Terrence Rafferty.
Sorry about your bank account, readers. You’ll find out that it’s all worth it soon enough, though.
And Criterion?
How about getting me one of those badass orange House shirts? I won’t tell a soul.
