Diehard fans of legendary American maverick director Samuel Fuller—myself included—were thrilled to learn that one of his final films, White Dog, was going to get the Criterion treatment. First released in 1982, this entry was apparently misinterpreted by some audiences as a racist film, something that’s hard to believe watching it, as it seems so obviously an anti-racist diatribe.

Kristy McNichol, then a teen sensation, stars as a struggling actress who inadvertently hits a dog with her car. She rushes him to the vet’s, nursing him back to health and falling in love with the seemingly sweet German Shepherd. Not only is he cuddly, this pup attacks the vicious rapist who mounts McNichol late one night. Little does she realize, however, that this adorable pup has been trained as a white biting dog, a canine that will attack black people.

This is not, as some have suggested, a great movie. But it is at times truly fascinating, and does pack a large dose of that trademark Fuller strangeness. There’s McNichol, who, in keeping with the times, looks utterly anorexic. That means she looks like she’s about 14, lending the impression that this is an After-School Special—something that clashes with the script’s heavy themes. Then there’s Paul Winfield, the animal expert who decides it’s his mission to deprogram the pup, exorcising him of his learned racism. (After the dog has actually killed someone, wouldn’t you just opt to have it put down?) And Ennio Morricone’s haunting score snowballs with all of the above to push the entire affair into the realm of the absurd and surreal. Worth the rental is seeing Burl Ives shooting darts at a cardboard cut-out of R2D2—Fuller’s barely-subliminal shot at the George Lucasification of cinema.

If that’s not quite surreal enough for you, do check out the CBC made-for-TV-movie rendition of the life of Ms. Dion, Céline. Her story is weird enough on its own, but watching body doubles act it out is quite fun in its own kitschy way.