Criterion Collection: Jigoku [Subtitled] (DVD), Criterion Collection, Foreign

Shocking, outrageous, and poetic, Jigoku (Hell) is the most innovative creation from Nobuo Nakagawa, the father of the Japanese horror film. After a young theology student flees a hit-and-run accident, he is plagued by both his own guilt-ridden conscience and a mysterious, diabolical doppelganger. But all possible escape routes lead to Hell - literally. In the gloriously gory final third of the film, Nakagawa offers up his vision of the underworld in a tour-de-force of torture and degradation. A striking departure from traditional Japanese ghost stories thanks to it's truly eye-popping (and gouging) imagery, Jigoku created aftershocks that are still reverberating in cinema around the world today. (Criterion Collection)