Directed by Juraj Herz • 1969 • Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovak New Wave iconoclast Juraj Herz’s terrifying, darkly comic vision of the horrors of totalitarian ideologies stars a supremely chilling Rudolf Hrušínský as the pathologically morbid Karel Kopfrkingl, a crematorium manager in 1930s Prague who believes fervently that death offers the only true relief from human suffering. When he is recruited by the Nazis, Kopfrkingl’s increasingly deranged worldview drives him to formulate his own shocking final solution. Blending the blackest of gallows humor with disorienting expressionistic flourishes—queasy point-of-view shots, distorting lenses, jarring quick cuts—the controversial, long-banned masterpiece THE CREMATOR is one of cinema’s most trenchant and disturbing portraits of the banality of evil.
Up Next in Horror
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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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Cure
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, s...
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Don’t Torture a Duckling
Directed by Lucio Fulci • 1972 • Italy
Starring Florinda Bolkan, Barbara Bouchet, Tomas MilianFrom Lucio Fulci, the Godfather of Gore, comes one of the most powerful and unsettling giallo thrillers ever produced. When the sleepy rural village of Accendura is rocked by a series of murders of yo...
