Directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa • 1997 • Japan
Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s arresting international breakthrough established him as one of the leaders of an emerging new wave of Japanese horror while pushing the genre into uncharted realms of philosophical and existential exploration. A string of shocking, seemingly unmotivated murders—each committed by a different person yet all bearing the same grisly hallmarks—leads Detective Takabe (Koji Yakusho) into a labyrinthine investigation to discover what connects them, and into a disturbing game of cat and mouse with an enigmatic amnesiac (Masato Hagiwara) who may be evil incarnate. Awash in hushed, hypnotic dread, CURE is a tour de force of psychological tension and a hallucinatory journey into the darkest recesses of the human mind.
Up Next in Art-House Horror
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Donnie Darko
Directed by Richard Kelly • 2001 • United States
Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, James DuvalDescribed by director Richard Kelly as “‘The Catcher in the Rye’ as told by Philip K. Dick,” this cult classic is a mind-altering experience whose metaphysical enigmas are still being unraveled. T...
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Trouble Every Day
Directed by Claire Denis • 2001 • France
Starring Vincent Gallo, Tricia Vessey, Béatrice DalleClaire Denis’s poetic take on the body-horror genre is an atmospheric reverie of blood and lust that lays bare the filmmaker’s core artistic concerns around power, desire, and delirium. Newlyweds Shane...
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Antichrist
Directed by Lars von Trier • 2009 • Denmark
Starring Willem Dafoe, Charlotte GainsbourgLars von Trier shook up the film world when he premiered ANTICHRIST at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. In this graphic psychodrama, a grief-stricken man and woman—a searing Willem Dafoe and Cannes best actress...