The Criterion Channel, like the Criterion Collection that inspired it, has a certain, unavoidable reputation in the eyes of the film geeks who are aware of its existence. The original Criterion Collection was established some 40 years ago with an eye toward cataloging and preserving films of great artistic merit–movies that populate historic “best of” lists, which usually trend toward arthouse dramas, love stories, beloved noirs…well, you get the idea. These are the kinds of “adult,” grown-up films one tends to associate with the Criterion brand name, which leads to the perception that the Criterion Channel is only meant to play host to stuffy “films,” while eschewing more bombastic or strange genre fare.
The truth of the matter, though, is this: Criterion customers love weird, zany or tawdry movies just as much as everyone else. Probably more, in fact, provided they’re obscure enough to pique a collector’s instance. And as a result, The Criterion Channel isn’t nearly as full of staid old dramas as a detractor might expect–rather, it plays host to some of the more oddball genre movies even made. Hell, it can even boast a rather broad selection of trashy horror and softcore pornography. Bet you didn’t expect that, huh?
Here, then, are some of the Criterion Channel’s weirdest, but highly enjoyable picks–including an entire collection dedicated to the martial arts movies of newly minted 2023 Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh!
1. Hausu, aka House
Year: 1977
Director: Nobuhiko Obayashi
Stars: Kimiko Ikegami, Miki Jinbo, Ai Matubara, Kumiko Oba, Mieko Sato, Eriko Tanaka
Runtime: 88 minutes
Oh, how to describe Hausu? Anyone who has seen this crazed Japanese mishmash of horror, comedy and fantasy knows this is no easy task—it’s simultaneously as simple as saying “It’s about some girls who go to a haunted house,” and much more complicated. Hausu has often been described as being “like Jaws, but with a house,” but the comparison isn’t exactly accurate—where Spielberg’s film is classic adventure, Obayashi’s is like a bad acid trip, sporting trippy, day-glo color schemes and mind-bending visuals. Animated cats, disembodied flying heads and stop-motion monsters are all par for the course as Hausu goes for the jugular, seemingly trying to overwhelm the viewer with an all-out assault on the senses. As a piece of modern camp spectacle it’s top tier, but it would be a shame to overlook the genuinely imaginative visual effects and how they would seem to presage the likes of Evil Dead 2 in the years to come. If there’s another film where a woman is eaten by a living, evil piano, I haven’t yet seen it. —Jim Vorel
2. The Heroic Trio
Year: 1993
Director: Johnnie To
Stars: Michelle Yeoh, Maggie Cheung, Anita Mui, Damian Lau
Runtime: 83 minutes
An absolutely deranged fusion of science fiction, martial arts, fantasy and comic book superhero tropes all mashed up into one unforgettable genre stew, early ’90s Hong Kong actioner The Heroic Trio isn’t quite like anything else. Newly minted Oscar-winner Michelle Yeoh stars as an invisible, baby-snatching henchwoman who turns against her evil master, joined by Anita Mui as “Wonder Woman”–no relation to the DC mainstay–and Police Story series co-star Maggie Cheung as the shotgun-toting “Thief Catcher.” Look no further than Cheung’s costuming and character–fishnets and leather, Tank Girl goggles, chomping a cigar as she fires a double-barreled shotgun–to illustrate the level of campy parody being executed here. The comic book comparisons are inevitable, as the three protagonists possess undeniable superpowers, but the balletic martial arts and dreamy, unrealistic wirework recall wuxia classics more than anything in the Western superhero arcana, albeit transplanted into a modern cityscape evocative of something like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. This film is simply ludicrous in all the right ways–Yeoh even has a full fight scene at one point while holding a crying infant. You can’t go wrong. —Jim Vorel
3. Brain Damage
Year: 1988
Director: Frank Henenlotter
Stars: Rick Hearst, Jennifer Lowry, Gordon MacDonald
Runtime: 86 minutes
Surely no one signing up for the Criterion Channel would be expecting to find not one but multiple films from director Frank Henenlotter on the service–we have not only the “I keep my mutant brother in a wicker basket” classic of Basket Case, but also the more deeply symbolic Brain Damage as a bonus. It’s the latter that stands out as Henenlotter’s most complete exploitation classic, a seedy junkie parable that stands up there with the grimy oeuvre of William Lustig or Larry Cohen. Our protagonist is a fresh-faced young man named Brian, who wakes up one morning to find that he’s acquired a new tagalong–a parasitic, worm-like creature named Aylmer who not only speaks perfect English, but can dispense a highly addictive, euphoric fluid directly into the brain, referred to throughout as “juice.” Deeply sexual, squirmy and nasty, Brain Damage and its phallic little puppet–voiced by legendary horror host John Zacherle, in fact–contains an intoxicating depiction of not only physical addiction, but the emotional abuse and cruelty wielded by pushers against those who are made to surrender their will. It’s a trash classic that deserves every bit of the cult it’s garnered over the decades. —Jim Vorel
4. The Cars That Ate Paris
Year: 1974
Director: Peter Weir
Stars: John Meillon, Terry Camilleri, Kevin Miles
Runtime: 91 minutes
Director Peter Weir was a pioneering figure in the Australian New Wave cinema movement, eventually making it big in Hollywood with well-received and award-winning films in a bevy of genres, from Witness and Dead Poets Society to The Truman Show and Master & Commander. His 1974 Australian debut, on the other hand … well, it’s a whole lot stranger than any of the more conventional work that would follow. The Cars That Ate Paris is a pitch black comedy, an odd little piece of Australiana that evokes The Wicker Man at the same time as it presages the likes of Mad Max. The tale of a town that has descended into madness, living off the stolen goods of visitors who they murder in a series of staged car accidents, it has a tone of absurdity brought back down to earth by grisly violence. The ridiculous title sounds as if it would imply killer cars come to life, some kind of setting in the vein of Maximum Overdrive, but the reality is that of an outsider thrust into a generational clash between young hooligans and the rigidly paternal ruling class, albeit in a setting where everyone is profiting from a protracted campaign of murder. And yes, there are plenty of outlandish death vehicles–including the spiked Volkswagen Beetle that would later reappear prominently as an homage in Mad Max: Fury Road. —Jim Vorel
5. Nude on the Moon
Year: 1961
Director: Doris Wishman, Raymond Phelan
Stars: Marietta, William Mayer, Lester Brown, Pat Reilly, Ira Magee
Runtime: 83 minutes
Criterion Channel also isn’t afraid of straying into more risque–campy risque, that is–territory, with farcical offerings such as 1961’s classic “nudie cutie” Nude on the Moon. Included as part of a collection celebrating the long, influential and undeniably garish career of writer-director Doris Wishman, Nude on the Moon is a perfect example of the state of screen nudity in the early 1960s, as filmmakers challenged the weakening Hays Code by steadily pushing the boundaries of what they could get away with putting on screen. In the years leading up to the nudie cutie boom, nudity in film had been confined to wink-wink “educational” films about nature, science and “nudist lifestyles,” but the new generation of lighthearted comedies and genre parodies (of which Nude on the Moon is clearly one) led to films like this one, filled with easygoing nudity but not necessarily the depiction of actual sex acts. It’s a wry little bit of cynical profit-making, taking a zero-budget space adventure of its day and simply making all the martians, you know … naked. Director Wishman would go on to push into full-blown softcore pornography in the 1970s, including two features starring renowned burlesque performer Chesty Morgan, Double Agent 73 and Deadly Weapons. Both appear on Criterion Channel right alongside the more enjoyably campy Nude on the Moon, again highlighting the service’s oddly eclectic library. —Jim Vorel
Jim Vorel is a Paste staff writer and resident genre geek. You can follow him on Twitter for more film writing.