The best 4K and Blu-ray releases coming out in June 2025
New physical media must-haves include a modern horror classic, J-horror obscurities, and films from Paul Schrader, Terry Gilliam, and William Friedkin.
Each month The A.V. Club does our part to keep you up to date on the best of what’s coming out on Blu-ray and 4K UHD, which is especially important as streaming services become less and less reliable homes for films worth watching. June, though, is the domain of Criterion, as the boutique’s offerings this month are some of the strongest yet this year. June 2025’s Blu-ray and 4K releases include upgrades to J-horror obscurities, feel-bad horror nightmares, and all-time sci-fi classics. Read on and find films from Paul Schrader, Terry Gilliam, William Friedkin, Sam Peckinpah, and more.
The bleak, brutal Argentinian-American co-production When Evil Lurks got a minor theatrical release before heading to Shudder a few years ago, so this 4K home video upgrade is a boon in a few ways. Not only is it the best way to watch one of 2023’s best horror movies, it’s the rare kinda-straight-to-streaming film to get a physical release. The special features are lacking, to be sure, from Demián Rugna’s tale of a demon-strewn land, but the film itself is worth it: Some truly nasty kills, a pervading sense of doom, and just enough narrative detail to piece together what’s going on in this near-literal hellscape makes this a deeply compelling possession story.
Epic yet minimal, seemingly a departure but fully immersed in the themes that would consume its filmmaker, Mishima: A Life In Four Chapters remains one of Paul Schrader’s most acclaimed works even after his late-career surge. The story of Yukio Mishima (Ken Ogata), the queer, far-right Japanese author/would-be terrorist unfolds as if falling inevitably towards death—something not uncommon for Schrader’s characters. Filled with flashbacks and fantastical set pieces, Mishima highlights Schrader’s creative collaborators, including designer Eiko Ishioka, composer Philip Glass, and cinematographer John Bailey.
Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia 4K
Available June 3, 2025
One doesn’t come to a Sam Peckinpah for the good vibes. Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garciasees the acclaimed Western filmmaker at his most grim, an oddball Warren Oates road movie masquerading as a hunt-’em-down bounty quest. Traversing Mexico (and mostly shot by a Mexican crew), the film is another existential one from Peckinpah, who by this time was on the outs with Hollywood and himself—it’s a nihilistic and violent careen, a final pulpy hurrah from a man who’d also spent years drinking himself to death south of the border.
Brazil 4K
Available June 3, 2025
Not only is there a new 4K restoration of Terry Gilliam’s cut of Brazil, his sci-fi dystopian stunner, but it also includes the studio-shredded happy-ending cut, dubbed the “Love Conquers All” version. Should make for a fun compare-and-contrast, even though the latter hasn’t been shined up like the former. With plenty of extras (a making-of doc, an unmaking-of doc about its studio edit, and a collection of interviews and video essays), this looks to be the definitive version of the absurd, bureaucratic nightmare that is Gilliam’s masterpiece.
J-Horror Rising Blu-ray box set
Available June 10, 2025
This collection of hard-to-find Japanese horror films—including the acclaimed found footage pseudo-doc Noroi: The Curse and the completely strange video game adaptation St. John’s Wort, which this critic has only seen via terrible DVD rip—is one of the coolest things coming out from Arrow this month. The set also includes the obscure films Shikoku, Isola: Multiple Personality Girl, Inugami, Carved: The Slit-Mouthed Woman, and Persona (no, not that one). The sheer lack of distribution for these films might make this a box to check out sight unseen, but the inclusion of Noroi (which always ranks highly among those who’ve seen it) could make it worth the price alone.
Dark City 4K
Available June 24, 2025
If ever there was a film that deserved to be seen in 4K, it’s Alex Proyas’ Dark City. The noirish sci-fi, which feels like it’s set in Hot Topic hell, features one of Kiefer Sutherland’s best performances and production design that’s a fittingly huge step forward from a filmmaker who’d just proven himself with The Crow. Because the restoration is coming from Arrow, it means it includes a 60-page book of essays, a poster, postcards, a new hour-long documentary, visual essays, and commentaries—they really pull out all the stops over there, and this twisty little ’90s oddity deserves the love.
Sorcerer 4K
Available June 24, 2025
The Wages Of Fear got an update befitting its trippy-freaky Tangerine Dream score with Sorcerer, one of William Friedkin’s best films. The tension was unbearable when this movie—about desperate ex-pat bums trucking nitroglycerin through the jungle and, of course, across a shaky rope bridge—hadn’t yet been restored. Now every drop of sweat and every pothole is going to leap off the screen. Good luck exhaling for a few hours. Alongside the 4K version, the disc includes a Friedkin documentary and a new interview about the movie with filmmaker James Gray.
