The Big Picture

Get ready for a spooky back-to-school season with Criterion Channel’s new category, ‘High School Horrors,’ featuring iconic teen horror films. The new promo gives a sneak peek at the chaos ahead, with clips from classic high school horror movies like Prom Night and Suspiria. Embrace your inner geek, werewolf, or alien as you dive into the nostalgic and Halloween-ready world of high school nightmares.

It’s about time to take a stab at another school year, and really, is there anything scarier than high school? The Criterion Channel doesn’t think so. And to celebrate back to school, Criterion has unveiled a new category, called ‘High School Horrors’ which will premiere on September 1. The new category will showcase some of the most iconic high school and teen horror films, and maybe help you to embrace your inner geek, werewolf, or alien.

A Teenage Nightmare Coming to Your to Screen
And ahead of the category’s debut, a new promo has been released, giving us a glimpse at all the scholastic chaos ahead. Featuring spooky music and clips from some of the most iconic high school horror movies of all time, the new promo will have you eager to peruse the back-to-school aisle. Some of the films previewed as a part of the new category include millennial werewolf cult classic Ginger Snaps, which draws a cutting comparison between lycanthropy and teenage girlhood, Dario Argento’s classic 1977 film Suspiria, and the Jamie Lee Curtis-led 1980 slasher classic Prom Night.

Aside from these films, other films debuting as a part of the new category on September 1 include Massacre at Central High, Slumber Party Massacre, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, The Craft, I Know What You Did Last Summer, The Faculty, Battle Royale, Donnie Darko, and Battle Royale II: Requiem. Another film, the 2014 Levan Gabriadze film Unfriended, will be added to the channel on October 16.

The new channel is a delightfully frightening combination of high school nostalgia and Halloween preparation. And though pumpkin spice lattes are still on the other end of the horizon, and it’s still too hot to pull your favorite chunky knit sweater from storage, you can always sink back into the spooky world of K-12 education. Films like Robert Rodriguez’ The Faculty, which adds a body-snatching alien twist to the usual miseries of high school, will help ease you into the Halloween season.

The Criterion Channel is a paid streaming service that showcases outstanding films from around the world. The streaming service is brought to you by The Criterion Collection, which focuses on restoring, licensing, and distributing culturally important films. The new High School Horrors’ category will showcase the best (and worst) that high school has to offer. The new category is set to debut on the streaming service starting on September 1, 2023. Until then, you can check out the new promo below.