Directed by Benjamin Nicolas | 11 mins | 2021
While the opening of this Expressionistic short film—depicting a perfunctory exchange between a rideshare driver and his passenger about Christmas shopping—gives little indication as to the direction it’s headed in, then the ominous title is rather mo...

Directed by Roger Corman | 74 mins | 1961
Billed as a monster movie, Corman’s horror comedy actually begins as a spy caper, starring future Chinatown scribe Robert Towne as Agent XK150. Riffing on Castro’s then-recent revolution in Cuba, the bonkers story reels in a cutthroat mobster (Antony Carb...

Directed by Harry Kümel | 87 mins | 1971
Profoundly inspired by the spirit of Belgian Surrealist and Symbolist painting, Kümel’s darkly poetic horror film begins with a young newlywed couple waylaid at a grand hotel en route to England, where they fall under the spell of the elegant Hungarian Cou...

Directed by Jan Švankmajer | 92 mins | 1994
Drawing on a cluster of iterations of the Faust legend but faithful to none, Švankmajer reimagines the tale of a man’s compact with the Devil through flights of dark, deranging fancy. The inimitable Czech surrealist deploys his trademark combination of ...

Directed by Bruce D. Clark | 81 mins | 1981
The Corman tradition of riffing on genre trends rode strong into the 1980s with this cross between "Alien" and "Solaris" that anticipates "Nightmare on Elm Street". Rescuers sent to the planet Morganthus soon discover that their worst fears are taking p...

Directed by Park Chan Wook | 115 mins | 2005
The capper of Park’s “Revenge Trilogy” follows a woman wrongfully imprisoned for kidnapping and killing a six-year-old boy, as she meticulously lays the groundwork for an elaborate plan of retribution, then sets it into merciless motion on her release....

Directed by Andrzej Zulawski | 124 mins | 1981
Banned upon its original release in 1981, Andrzej Żuławski’s stunningly choreographed nightmare of a marriage unraveling is an experience unlike any other. Professional spy Mark (Sam Neill) returns to his West Berlin home to find his wife Anna (Isabe...

Directed by Park Chan Wook | 116 mins | 2002
Fired from his factory job, the deaf, gentle Ryu finds work in the underworld—and begins on a path that will end in an explosion of visceral violence. A brutal, claustrophobic film of escalating desperation, illustrating with grim logic how an ordinary...

Leaving January 1

Directed by Manoel de Oliveira | 97 mins | 2010
When a photographer is asked by a grieving family to shoot a funeral portrait of their deceased daughter, she miraculously appears to come alive. So begins a typically enchanting and richly detailed ghost story from Oliveira—one o...

Directed by Stephanie Rothman | 80 mins | 1971
Directed by Roger Corman protégé Rothman and laced with an addictive psych score, this cult item remains endearing five decades after its initial release. Dune buggies, rattlesnakes and hippies aren’t common staples of your average vampire movie, but...

Directed by Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cociña | 73 mins | 2018
One of the most stunning animated debuts of the past decade, this cracked fairy tale follows a young woman fleeing a cult and settling into a transmogrifying house inhabited by two pigs. Shot frame by frame and melding painted animati...

Directed by Michael Haneke | 108 mins | 2003
A family flees to the countryside because of an unexplained crisis in the world and finds that societal breakdown is well underway. Haneke’s lacerating, under-seen portrayal of civilization collapse was a bellwether for the cinema’s all-consuming 21st-...

Directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul | 113 mins | 2010
Winner of the 2010 Palme d’Or at Cannes, Apichatpong’s film follows its fatally ill title character (Thanapat Saisaymar) on a final pilgrimage of sorts, traveling the countryside of Thailand’s rural northeast where he encounters long-lost lo...

Directed by Roger Corman | 61 mins | 1959
Corman’s lo-fi corporate twist on "The Fly"–style metamorphosis shifts the focus to the beauty standards inflicted on women with this tale of a cosmetics company executive desperate to stay on top. Susan Cabot plays the steely exec who experiments with a ...