Near Dark returns to streaming with Criterion Channel’s fantastic October ’80s horror lineup

Criterion Channel is kicking off the Halloween season with an avalanche of great horror movies as part of its ’80s Horror series. The lineup arrives on Oct. 1 and includes classics from all over the world and under-the-radar gems. The big get? Near Dark, a movie that’s notoriously difficult to stream.

Near Dark is a 1987 horror-action vampire movie from Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker). Despite this cult-classic movie starring Bill Paxton and Lance Henriksen, and coming from a lauded American action director, it’s rarely been available on streaming platforms for one reason or another. The series will also include another vampire-classic in Tony Scott’s The Hunger, which will join the lineup on Nov. 1.

Along with those vampire movies, the series also includes films like John Carpenter’s Prince of Darkness, about a group of college students discovering something worse than the devil, Larry Cohen’s Q: The Winged Serpent, about a dragon terrorizing Manhattan, Dario Argento’s Inferno, Tobe Hooper’s The Funhouse, Paul Schrader’s Cat People, Michael Mann’s The Keep, and a dozen more great horror movies from the ’80s.

Here’s a full list of all the movies Criterion Channel will be adding to its streaming service on Oct. 1 (with the exception of The Hunger which arrives a month later):

• Inferno, Dario Argento, 1980
• The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Miss Osbourne, Walerian Borowczyk, 1981
• Dead & Buried, Gary Sherman, 1981
• The House by the Cemetery, Lucio Fulci, 1981
• The Funhouse, Tobe Hooper, 1981
• Strange Behavior, Michael Laughlin, 1981
• Wolfen, Michael Wadleigh, 1981
• Scanners, David Cronenberg, 1981
• Road Games, Richard Franklin, 1981
• The Fan, Ed Bianchi, 1981
• Basket Case, Frank Henenlotter, 1982
• Next of Kin, Tony Williams, 1982
• Cat People, Paul Schrader, 1982
• Q: The Winged Serpent, Larry Cohen, 1982
• The Slumber Party Massacre, Amy Holden Jones, 1982
• The Keep, Michael Mann, 1983
• The Hunger, Tony Scott, 1983*
• Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, John McNaughton, 1986
• The Hidden, Jack Sholder, 1987
• Prince of Darkness, John Carpenter, 1987
• White of the Eye, Donald Cammell, 1987
• Near Dark, Kathryn Bigelow, 1987
• The Vanishing, George Sluizer, 1988
• Brain Damage, Frank Henenlotter, 1988
• Dream Demon, Harley Cokeliss, 1988
• The Blob, Chuck Russell, 1988
• Lair of the White Worm, Ken Russell, 1988
• Vampire’s Kiss, Robert Bierman, 1989
• Society, Brian Yuzna, 1989
• Tetsuo: The Iron Man, Shinya Tsukamoto, 1989