Know a weird movie? Something strange that glued you to the screen with awe, amazement or reverence, while your more mundane minded friends left the room (or theater) in boredom, confusion or disgust? A movie whose omission from a list of the 366 weirdest movies of all time would offend you on a personal level? Something even I haven’t heard of or considered? There are potentially thousands of forgotten films, critically dismissed films, foreign or independent films that never got a proper release, or misplaced oddities hiding out there that may deserve a place at the table. One man can’t be expected to track them all down. Here is the place to mention those treasured curios that no one else seems to have even heard of. Nominate a movie in the suggestion box and I’ll move it up on my review queue, or at the very least, explain why I’m not going to review it.
NOTICE: The “Suggest of Weird Movie!” feature has become a victim of its own success. At the time of this update, we have about 250 reader suggestions (!) in queue. Since we can only do 1 or maybe 2 reviews a week, be aware there may be a huge delay—currently, possibly over a year!—between the time you make a suggestion and the point at which it’s actually reviewed. I considered shutting down the suggestion box as of 2011, but I decided to let you keep your suggestions coming (if nothing else, it tells us what types of movies readers are interested in seeing reviews of). Just be aware that when you make a suggestion, it may not receive the promptest of attention.
If you can’t wait for one of our staff to review your movie, why not review it yourself and submit it to us via the contact form? We can’t swear we’ll publish every submission we receive, but we want reader participation and we are fairly liberal.
To prevent spam, commenting require registration. We will not share your email with third parties. All serious suggestions will receive a response, as well as all most non-serious ones.
Here’s the review queue of reader suggestions that have yet to be reviewed, in alphabetical order. You can always see this list ordered according to intended order of publication in the weekly “What’s in the Pipeline” column (published on Sundays).
Be aware that, given the number of titles here, there will be a (long and ever-growing ) delay between suggesting a title and its eventual review.
1 (2009); 1Day; 3 Dev Adam; 3 Women; The 7 Faces of Dr. Lao; 8 1/2; 2001: A Space Odyssey; 2012 Aficionado DVD Zine Issue #0; The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T; Abnormal: The Sinema of Nick Zedd; The Adventures of Baron Munchausen; The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension; The Adventures of Mark Twain; The Adventures of Picasso; L’Âge d’or; Aguirre, the Wrath of God; Air Doll; Akira; Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams; Allegro Non Troppo; Alphaville; Amazon Women on the Moon; Amelie; Amanece, que no es poco; The American Astronaut; L’Ange; Angelus; Anguish [Angustia]; The Annunciation; La antena; Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters; Arrebato; At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul; The Atrocity Exhibition; Audition; Avida; Bad Taste; Barbarella; Battle in Heaven; Beauty and the Beast (1978); The Bed Sitting Room; Bernie (depending on availability); Big River Man; Birth of the Overfiend; Black Cat, White Cat; Black Devil Doll ; Bliss; Bloodsucking Freaks; Blood Tea and Red Strings; Blue (1993, Jarman); Blue Velvet; The Bothersome Man; The Boxer’s Omen [aka Mo]; Brain Damage; Brain Dead (1990, d. Adam Simon); The Brave Little Toaster; Breakfast of Champions; The Bride of Frank; Britannia Hospital; “Broken Glass”; Bubba Ho-Tep; Buddy Boy (1999); Buffalo ’66; Buffet Froid; Bunny & the Bull; Cafe Flesh; Candy (1968); Careful; The Cars That Ate Paris; Cat Soup; Celine and Julie Go Boating; The Cell; “Charleston Parade”; Charly: Dias de Sangre; Un Chien Andalou; Chingsao the Clown; Christmas on Mars; Chronopolis; La cicatrice intérieure; Cinema 16: European Short Films; Clean, Shaven; Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs; Color of Pomegranates; Conspirators of Pleasure; The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover; Coonskin; Crash (Cronenberg); La Cravate; Crimewave; Cutie Honey; Dark Arc; Dark Waters; Daisies; Dark City; Decasia; Dellamorte Dellamore [AKA Cemetery Man]; The Devils; Django Kill!; A Dog Called Pain; Dogville; La Dolce Vita; The Doom Generation; Dororo; The Double Life of Veronique; The Drifting Classroom; Drowning by Numbers; Electric Dragon 80,000 V; Even Dwarves Started Small; Evil Ed; Executive Koala; Eyes Wide Shut; The Fall; The Falls; Fando y Lis; Fantastic Planet; Fast, Cheap and Out of Control; Feherlofia; Felidae; Fellini Satyricon; Fido; The Films of Kenneth Anger, Vol. II (for Lucifer Rising, among others); Final Programme; Finisterrae; Forbidden Zone; The Fountain; “Foutaises” (short); The Fox Family; “Franz Kafka’s It’s a Wonderful Life;” Freaked; From Beyond; Fudge 44; Funeral Parade of Roses; Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus; Gahjini; Gainsbourg (Vie héroïque); Garden State (official review); Genius Party; Glen or Glenda?; The Godmonster of Indian Flats; Goke, Body Snatcher From Hell; Goodbye Uncle Tom; La Grande Bouffe; Grendel Grendel Grendel; Haggard; Hair Extensions; Happiness; Hard Candy; Head; Heart of Glass; Heavenly Creatures; Hedwig and the Angry Inch; Hell Comes to Frogtown; Horror Express; The Hour-glass Sanatorium [Saanatorium pod klepsidra]; I Am Here Now; Ichi the Killer; ID; The Idiots; I [Heart] Huckabees; “I Killed My Lesbian Wife, Hung Her on a Meat Hook, and Now I Have a Three-Picture Deal at Disney” (assuming I can find it); The Illustrated Man; Innocence (2004); I Will Walk Like a Crazy Horse; Jack and the Beanstalk (1974, Japan); Johnny Suede; Julien Donkey-boy; Kairo [AKA Pulse]; Killdozer; Killer Condom; Labyrinth; La Razon de Mi Vida; The Last Days of Planet Earth; The Last Sunset; Last Year in Marienbad; Leolo; Let the Right One In; Liquid Sky (re-review); Lisa and the Devil; Litan; Little Deaths; Little Otik; Lost Highway; Love Me If You Dare; Lovers on the Bridge; Lucky; Lust in the Dust; Mad Detective; The Magic Christian; Marquis; Master of the Flying Guillotine; May; Me and You and Everyone We Know; Meet the Feebles; Meet the Hollowheads; Memento Mori; Mermaid in a Manhole; “Meshes of the Afternoon”; Metropia; Midnight Skater; Moebius (1996);p Monty Python and the Holy Grail; Mr. Nobody; Multiple Maniacs; Murder Party; Mutant Aliens; My Dinner with Andre; Mystics in Bali; Natural Born Killers; The Neverending Story; Nightdreams; Night of the Hunter; The Ninth Configuration; Noroi; Northfork; No Smoking; Nuit Noire; One Eyed Monster; On the Silver Globe; Orpheus; The Ossuary; Parents; Perfect Blue; Persona; Phantasm IV; Piano Tuner of Earthquakes; Picnic at Hanging Rock; Pink Flamingos; The Pit; Porcile [AKA Pigpen]; Portrait of Jennie; “Premium” (if it can be found); Prospero’s Books; The Quiet; The Quiet Earth; Rampo Noir; Rat Pfink a Boo Boo; The Real McCoy; Reflections of Evil; Repo Man; Revolver; Robo-Geisha; Robot Monster; The Room; Rubber’s Lover; Rubin & Ed; The Ruling Class; Run Lola Run; Russian Ark; Safe; The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea; Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom; Santa Claus(1959); The Saragossa Manuscript; Savages; Save the Green Planet; A Scanner Darkly; Schizopolis; Schramm; Screamplay; The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb; Seom [The Isle]; A Serbian Film; “Serial Experiments: Lain” (TV show); Session 9; Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band; The Shape of Things; Sheitan; Shock Treatment; The Shout; The Signal; Sir Henry at Rawlinson End; Skeletons; Slacker; SLC Punk; Sleepaway Camp ; A Snake of June; Society (official review); Spermula; Spirited Away; Spirits of the Air, Gremlins of the Clouds; Strange Circus; Strings; Stroszek; Suicide Club (re-review); Svidd neger (depending on availability); Sweet Movie; Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song; Symbol; The Tale of the Floating World; Tales from the Quadead Zone; Tampopo; Tank Girl; The Taste of Tea; Teeth; The Ten; The Tenant; La Teta y La Luna; That Deadwood Feeling; Themroc; Things; This Filthy Earth; Three Crowns of the Sailor; Thundercrack!; Time Masters; Titicut Follies; Der Todersking; Tokyo Gore Police; Tommy; Tourist Trap (1979); The Trial [Le procès] (1962); The Triplets of Belleville; “Turkish Star Wars” [Dunyayi Kurtaran Adam]; Tuvalu; “Twin Peaks” (TV series); Twister (1989); Uncle Meat; Underground; Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (official review); Vase de Noces; Vera; Vermillion Souls; Versus; Videodrome; Visitor of a Museum [Posetitel muzeya]; Waiting for Godot; The War Zone; Watership Down; Weekend; Weirdsville; Wicked City (1992 live-action version); Wild at Heart; Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory; Wool 100%; Yesterday Was a Lie; Yokai Monsters, Vol. 1: Spook Warfare [AKA Big Monster War]; Zachariah; A Zed and Two Noughts; “Zombie Jesus” (if we can locate it).
Ken Russell is dead, and the world is smaller for his passing. I suggest that, as a mark of respect, any of his movies currently under consideration be immediately moved to the top of the queue, and at least one added to the list. You’ve already got The Lair Of The White Worm, but I don’t think he ever made a film that wasn’t at least partly weird.
May I suggest Lisztomania? Whatever you think of the movie, Ken deserved some sort of award for persuading the studio to let him make it! Why do people make such a big deal out of the boring old Rocky Horror Picture Show, an amateurish mess with one good song, when they could have midnight Lisztomania dressing-up parties instead?
I like to imagine that, a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, a young, obscure, thin James Cameron was watching that film, and when Zombie Vampire Frankenstein Hitler rose from the grave and started shooting everybody with his electric guitar (if you haven’t seen the film – yes, really!), he had the epiphany that resulted in The Terminator, and his subsequent career as the world’s most successful director.
And a certain scene featuring Roger Daltrey in, shall we say, a surprising state of excitement is one of those rare ultra-weird movie moments that, if people describe it to you in advance, you automatically assume that they must be wildly exaggerating, or flat out lying, because there’s just no way that scene is going to be in what was supposed to be a mainstream movie made several decades ago – but it is!
Incidentally, am I wrong in thinking that the acid trip in The Big Lebowski is a direct homage to that scene, with Jeff Bridges’ entire body standing in for a certain part of Roger Daltrey? Watch them back to back – see what I mean?
Ken Russell was in his later years reduced to literally filming members of his family on video in his back garden in a desperate attempt to make some approximation of the movies he loved – a sad coda to the career of one of the all-time greats of weird cinema. Doubtless the entire movie industry will claim to be huge fans of Ken’s work, now that he’s sagely dead and they don’t have to put their money where their mouth is. I hope this site will see fit to pay its own humble but sincere tribute to a man who was a true cinematic giant in all respects except, unfortunately, the ability to make vast sums of money.
RIP Ken. We shall nor see your like again.
It’s a good suggestion Doc, but we’ve already got a lot of irons in the fire and by the time we could get around to adding a new Russell movie his passing would be “old news.” We did put up a meager, spur-of-the moment tribute to Russell here. Don’t worry, we’re not done with the “old reprobate” (as Kat Doherty once lovingly called him), and he won’t be forgotten by 366.
Hi again Dwarf Oscar,
I definitely want to consider multiple Kusturica movies and will put Underground in queue. I am a little disappointed to hear Arizona Dream may be his weirdest, though, I was really hoping to see weirder from him!
Well, according to the list your site is making, we have a slightly different definition of “weirdness”, so maybe you will find happiness by checking other Kusturica movies. I personally think Arizona Dream is his weirdest, but Underground or Life is a Miracle are better, even if (a very little) more conventional.
I can’t imagine that no one suggested this yet but I’ve tried using the site’s search engine and got no results. So I suggest Caligula.
Hi Michael, you were right, Caligula hasn’t been suggested yet—mentioned, I’m pretty sure, but not officially suggested. Into the queue it goes.
You’re work is never finished is it? lol I guess that’s whats good about it too. Good luck with the list! You’re doing a great job here.
What about these two I saw recently:
“Hotel” – http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0415855/
Really tense feeling throughout this movie… and the whiff of David Lynch about it all.
“Estigmas” – http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1454462/
A big fat, hairy man with stigmata wanders around doing stuff. Gets very odd at the end indeed.
Shane:
Will put Hotel (2004) in queue, sounds good.
How about Hard Gore from 1975? Porn counts right? Cause that was a weird one.
Hi Cletus, hardcore porn movies are OK to review if they’re intended as real narrative films (like the “Golden Age” films were). I think they’re at a significant disadvantage to make the List, though. But we do have one or two in the queue and I will give the awful-sounding (in a good way?) Hardgore a whirl.
Everything by Andrey Iskarov- At this moment specifically “Philosophy of a Knife” 4.5 hour half documentary half art film. Very very weird. It is also very violent so it might be good to put a warning in when it makes the list. The best part- from what I’ve read he’s toned DOWN the weird for this one… All his other movies are even more surreal.
Two japanese films that should probably be at least checked out
Survive Style 5+
Uzumaki
Hi dtea: Good suggestions. We reviewed Uzumaki here. Kat recommends it go on the List, but I haven’t seen it yet to approve or disapprove it. Based on reputation I think it has a great shot.
Survive Style 5+ has been mentioned before and is on our watch list. We’d prefer it to be available on DVD before reviewing it (though lack of a DVD release wouldn’t keep it off the List ultimately). We keep hearing rumors that it’s going to be released on Region 1 DVD, and then nothing ever seems to come of it. I need to do some research on it to see what the deal is. I’ll add it to the queue, though, just because.
Taking a risk here, I suggest Fantasia.
I don’t think that’s too much of a risk, Jim. In fact I’m surprised Fantasia hasn’t been a more popular nominee. It’s got psychedelic musical notes, dancing mushrooms, Mickey Mouse practicing witchcraft, dinosaurs, and the Devil himself. It belongs in the queue.
In some of the abstract scenes they even have a Georgia O’keefe thing going on…. People probably didn’t suggest it because they assumed it was already suggested.
Everything by Andrey Iskarov- At this moment specifically “Philosophy of a Knife” 4.5 hour half documentary half art film. Very very weird. It is also very violent so it might be good to put a warning in when it makes the list. The best part- from what I’ve read he’s toned DOWN the weird for this one… All his other movies are even more surreal.
And to illustrate my point-
Yea… The whole movie is weird like this and weird in disgusting medical experiment sort of ways, and weird in style, weird in choice of music. It has relatively little dialogue, it is uneven, it switches from black and white to color. There is a love story thrown in.
The embed didn’t copy… http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=-NyfgHncaWo
Also- “Nails” has been described as a mix between Eraserhead and Tetsuo: The Iron Man
I would love to see a review for “A Serbian film”. Very bizarre and well made.
Cletus: that clip is intriguing and very weird indeed, but 4.5 hours of that may be a little much even for me… hopefully it calms down a bit for some passages. I’ll still put Philosophy of a Knife in queue…
Jake: A Serbian Film is already in queue, we hope to have a review up by the end of the year… no promises, though.
It has some decent breaks. The last half hour or so is mostly just interviews. There are also several breaks throughout. It keeps up the weird and violent throughout, and the little calm moments are great contrast
I would also like to recommend: The Trip (1967) Directed by Roger Corman and Written by Jack Nicholson. It is about Peter Fonda taking acid.
Also: The Tripper (2006) A completely different movie directed by David Arquette. It is about a bunch of people going to a woodstock type festival and being attacked by a man in a Reagan costume. It features Paul Ruebens trying to distance himself from his Pee-Wee role.
Neither of which are the weirdest I’ve ever seen. They are much weirder than a few that have already been certified weird on here.
Cletus: We can look at The Trip. I do think there are weirder, more obscure LSD-sploitation movies out there, but in a way it’s sort of the classic of the genre.
I think Brewster McCloud and Lord Love A Duck should be on there.
Hi Joseph: We have reviewed Brewster McCloud, here. Pamela recommends it, and I agree it as a great chance to make the List, but I haven’t found the time to watch it again (it’s been decades now since I’ve seen it!) for final approval. Lord Love a Duck is something no one has suggested yet and I can add it to the review queue. Thanks!
Wonderful! Yeah I think they’e both exercises in how to incorporate every genre into one film while still somehow maintaining a very specific theme. Also, not to nitpick, but Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (film) is technically way ‘weirder’ than the tv series. Just sayin’. Most hardcore TP fans freaked out (in a bad way) when that one was released precisely because it eschews the main roster of characters form the series and basically just takes the viewer on an ever-deteriorating spiral of dread and wtf moments. It’s one of my favorites.
How about looking into Fellini? Amarcord was pretty weird.
Joseph: No back-to-back suggestions are allowed, so come back later for Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (or wait to see if we get to it on our own).
Cletus: There is some Fellini already in the queue (8 1/2 and Satyricon), but we could always use more. I’ll add Amarcord.
I can save you some time with 8 1/2. It is one of the best movies I have ever seen and is not conventional in a hollywood sense. It is not however truly weird in any significant way.
And forget about The Trip… I just remembered how weird Last Movie was- definitely beats The Trip in a way that is similar enough to overshadow it.
Cletus: You’ll just have to wait to see if we agree with you on 8 1/2. But I will gladly swap out The Trip (which I’m lukewarm about) for Dennis Hopper’s The Last Movie (which I’ve wanted to check out for years).
Seems kind of futile at this point, as it will probably take a few years to get to this, but as my recent comments suggest… I’d love to read an official 366 take on The Swimmer.
Aw, I wouldn’t say it’s futile… I’ve always intended to swing back around and hit The Swimmer , and this is a good reminder, if nothing else.
I’m still holding out hope it gets a decent Region 1 release, in which case we would review it right away.
How about Damage, starring Jeremy Irons, Juliette Binoche and Miranda Richardson, how weird it is this man fell in love with his (massochistic ?) son´s daughter? The whole relationship is so twisted, the whole idea of such a relationship to exist… Are you talking weird as regards image only, or topics dealt with as well??
Mercedes: Ah, the philosophy of the weird… I would certainly never say we would only consider movies with strong weird imagery. Movies that explore extremely unusual, but real, subject matter could make the List: for example, we are strongly considering Dead Ringers, another drama starring Jeremy Irons. But if the movie is a real life drama with no elements of experimentalism in the presentation, it has a much harder journey to make the List. That said, although I haven’t seen Damage, I think I would need some extra convincing to put that one in the queue—if you insist it’s “weird,” I’ll add it.
G., you’re probably right and the movie does not fit the weird criteria, but there are some elements in the relationship established that make me think it is not the way most people would establish a relationship (think blue velvet, perhapsa little bit more mainstream?), so you’re probably right, it’s not weird, highly recommendable, though, there’s something about it that says art.
I could probably suggest The Wayward Cloud, a magnificent tale of a Hong Kong with water shortage, weird (beautiful) imagery, lots of watermelons, even musicals in the making, totally worth the time it lasts!!
Mercedes: Aw, I hate shooting down people’s suggestions, but I’m going to have to nix The Wayward Cloud. Not because it’s a bad choice, but because we’ve already reviewed it.
I Married A Strange Person
Rare, psychedelic… incredibly strange. I suggest someone dig this up and give it a look. It definitely belongs on the list but I’m not motivated to write more, so give it a watch.
Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale
This one is an excellent movie and very strange to say the least. This one will be certified weird by you guys at some point.
Chris: I Married a Strange Person is right on target with what we’re looking for. If you haven’t seen it yet check out Plympton’s latest, the sadly overlooked Idiots and Angels.
Paul Singleton: Rare Exports is definitely on our radar screen. In fact we came close to making it our Christmas Day review, but I chose an older, more obscure movie instead. Maybe we can squeeze in a review before Christmas (less than 2 weeks away!), but I won’t promise anything. We’ll still get around to it—hopefully before next Yule.
Thanks for the suggestion. Needed a movie to drink to tonight ;) Glad the movie piqued your interest. Cheers
Ive got a nice little short suggestion you might like. Paul Driessen – The End of the World in Four Seasons (1995). Here’s a youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpwNv0Xojao
Hi Steven: We’ll do your suggestion one better (provisionally) and put the entire Driessen collection “The Canadian Films of Paul Driessen” in queue. (I say “provisionally” because the DVD’s in PAL format which I can’t currently view, but I can probably find a European to cover it).
I’ve just been following the controversy on this thread regarding “The Trip”, and I agree that it isn’t really all that weird. I think the fact that it’s almost entirely about the experiences of some guy on acid, which should automatically result in a weird movie, obscures the fact that it could more accurately be retitled “Peter Fonda Behaves Slightly Oddly For An Hour And a Half”. And speaking personally, if I found myself trapped in a dimly-lit room with Bruce Dern telling me everything was cool while trying to give me furniture I didn’t want for no reason at all, I’d run away, whether I was on drugs or not!
You’ve already got “Head” under consideration, and any film (especially one co-written by Jack Nicholson) in which the Monkees are transformed into Victor Mature’s dandruff surely had more druggy influence, at least in the script-writing phase, than “The Trip” ever did – check out that scene with the eye in the mirror!
However, for an alternative to “The Trip” also directed by Roger Corman, how about “The Terror”? That’s the one he shot in a few days to take advantage of leftover sets and actors from some other film he’d brought in ahead of schedule and under budget (accounts vary as to which, but it looks to me as though it must have been “The Raven”), with the result that while they were making it, there was no script at all, and nobody had the slightest idea what it was actually about.
Corman only finalised the plot while trying to edit the film in such a way that it sort of made sense. When he couldn’t, he shot an extra scene in which a very bewildered Jack Nicholson grabs Dick Miller and demands an explanation of the entire plot or else! The story he’s given came as a shock to Boris Karloff, who had played his entire part under the impression that his character was somebody completely different. Jack Nicholson himself admits that it’s the only film he’s ever made which had no plot whatsoever. And in fact, due to its genuine incoherence, it’s more dreamlike, and therefore more trippy, than “The Trip”, which tried to be incoherent on purpose and failed miserably.
Also, in Peter Bogdanovich’s slightly weird “Targets”, the last film Boris Karloff made that isn’t an insult to his memory, “The Terror” is the film-within-the-film showing at the drive-in.
Orloff: OK, we can look at The Terror in some capacity—I think Alfred may have expressed an interest in it. Your comments about The Trip made me chuckle, by the way. If you’re looking for a great (if campy) trip sequence be sure to check out the one in our latest Certified Weird movie, Skidoo.
“Skidoo”, which I’d love see, unfortunately seems to be unavailable on DVD at the moment – I may be wrong, but I think the studio has deliberately blocked its release for a very long time out of sheer embarrassment.
Just to set the record straight, I consider LSD to be neither an instrument of the devil, nor a short-cut to enlightenment. But in my youth I did take a fair amount of it, and my reaction to “The Trip” is that Roger Corman probably dropped acid precisely once and had the classic bad trip. And going by my experience, it wasn’t a particularly strong dose.
Hey, I’m not recommending it to anybody here, it’s just one of those things you do. No more, no less. And the reason I don’t do it any more is not that it’s evil, but that I’ve grown out of that sort of thing. But I promise you that I did go through a phase in which I took way, way more recreational acid than anybody who has ever made a movie about it ever has. If that last statement is untrue, I stand to be corrected, but given that a close friend of mine had 1,500 tabs in his fridge, we were taking it about as far as we possibly could.
Every acid movie I’ve ever seen strikes me as “Took acid one time, got scared, made a movie.” I’d like to emphasize once again, because I think it matters, that I’m not in any way recommending the recreational use of psychedelic drugs. I took a frankly massive amount of the stuff over a fairly short period of time, and I stopped because, although I genuinely had some frankly mind-blowing experiences, that whole thing of swallowing pills in a room and hoping that my hallucinations were more interesting than reality soon got boring.
I’m not confessing this in an evangelical way, I’m simply advancing the theory that acid movies tend to be bad because of the extremely limited experience the director has of the drug. And if he actually has taken such massive amounts of LSD that his life revolves around it, the plot is probably about as interesting as somebody else’s dream.
I have not taken LSD for almost 20 years because it is irrelevant to my life-style and totally non-addictive. But I know people who took less of this extremely dangerous drug than I did who went completely mad. Frankly, I’d take acid again now if there was some reason, because I know I can handle it, but I know I must be getting less out of it than some people, because I’ve never felt sufficiently moved to start a religion, or kill anybody, or end up in a mental hospital as some people I know have.
But I promise you this: if Roger Corman ever truly dropped acid, he got a hell of a lot less out of it than I ever did. I’m kind of in the middle – I know what a “Trip” actually is, right down to its incredibly mind-warping ability to distort time, which actually happens if you drop a serious dose of acid. That’s probably the best way to describe it. All acid movies which do not include this feature are automatically wrong – care to suggest any good ones?
Good thoughts Orloff. Off topic but that’s OK. There’s a big difference between movie LSD and real-life LSD. In movies, particularly for a brief period there in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the LSD trip was just a good excuse for the director to break out the body paint, strobe lights and fisheye lenses and go wild and weird. Because of the wild claims made both pro and con for this substance, it’s been the most exploitable drug in cinema.
Skidoo is now available here in the US from Olive Films, and I hope you’ll get it overseas someday. Meanwhile you can enjoy stuff like Institute Benjamenta while we wait patiently on this side of the pond.
I want to know if “E la nave va” [AKA "And The Ship Sails On"] (1983) by Fellini is already into the queue.
Not yet, Wormhead, but I can add it.
How about Desperate Living, or Mondo Trasho by John Waters, as i’m sure you reviewed Pink Flamingos. I would also suggest to add Little Otto to the queue, as well as Yaji & Kita, and Meet the Feebles. Loving the site by the way
Hi Tal, actually, we have given Desperate Living a first look, and Pink Flamingos, Little Otik and Meet the Feebles are already in the queue. I can add Mondo Trasho, however. Come back later for Yajoi & Kita (we don’t take back-to-back suggestions; the queue is ridiculously long as it is).
I recently watched Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Teorema and it was the most psychotically Catholic flick I’ve ever seen. I highly recommend it for the weird list.
Hi lo-fi jr., I’m a little surprised Teorema got overlooked until now. I’ll add it to the queue.
Recently came across Peter Brook’s Marat/ Sade. It was pretty strange, to say the least of my first impressions. I recommend it.
Caleb, we can list it, but only under its full and proper title: The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade.
Come to think of it, from now on we’ll just give in like everyone else and refer to it as Marat/Sade.
Regarding drug movies, I suppose every list of weird movies needs at least one, because the concept is intrinsically weird. The trouble is, being permanently stoned distorts your perception in ways that don’t translate very well to film. I suppose that’s why most of the classic “trippy” movies aren’t actually about drugs, and usually don’t even mention them – “2001 – A Space Odyssey” has the trippiest sequence ever, and LSD isn’t mentioned once! “The Magical Mystery Tour”, on the other hand, was made by people on powerful drugs with access to an almost infinite budget, and it’s an incoherent mess that doesn’t really entertain on any level, despite having Ivor Cutler in it. (Off-topic note to everybody reading this who doesn’t know who Ivor Cutler is, or has only seen him in this terrible movie – buy all his albums right now! By the way, I met him several times, and he was a really nice guy.)
The funniest drug movies, such as the notorious “Reefer Madness”, or the in my opinion vastly superior “The Cool And The Crazy”, are funny precisely because they were made by people who thought that one joint would turn you into Charles Manson and/or make your head explode. But there doesn’t seem to be a druggy equivalent of “Glen Or Glenda”. Transvestism is something I simply do not get (which is probably just as well, because I’m 6’7″ and would be absolutely terrible at it), but Ed Wood clearly put his heart into this picture, and despite all his well-known failings, there’s something genuinely heartwarming about it.
Incidentally, if you watch it on a DVD that includes the theatrical trailer, you can see that Ed Wood initially filmed a version of the iconic scene where the shapely but talentless Dolores Fuller gives him her sweater which was nowhere near as good as the one in the final cut of the movie, which is at odds with the prevailing opinion that he genuinely didn’t know a good scene from a bad one, but reinforces the theory that by the time he made “Plan Nine From Outer Space” he was drinking so much that he just didn’t care.
Anyway, returning to topic, what’s the definitive drug movie that deserves to be on this list? “Up In Smoke” is probably the most famous, but apart from the fact that it’s entirely about drugs, it’s a crude low-budget comedy with no weird elements other than Stacey Keach getting stoned (which is admittedly quite a big one). Given that, at a rough guess, there are more people in the USA who have smoked quite a bit of dope than are gay or black, or indeed both, it’s odd there are so few watchable movies that deal with the topic. I suppose coke is Hollywood’s drug of choice, and that one doesn’t alter reality in a visual way at all (yes, I know what it does from personal experience, but I could never afford very much of it, and in the absence of endless supplies and a habit, I found it a bit underwhelming). Look at the stoned guy in “True Romance” – Tarentino’s smoked just enough joints to know that you get a bit goofy, but nowhere near enough to know that if an armed stranger bursts into your room and threatens to kill you while you’re seriously stoned, you will instantly become even more paranoid than you normally would – you certainly won’t offer him a bong!
And the idea of a stoner automatically using every bit of paper in the house, including important letters, as rolling papers because he’s too lazy to go to the store, yet somehow not too lazy to score massive quantities of dope every day? Skinning up with random bits of paper because you’ve run out of Rizlas is something the average real stoner does precisely once, because the joint inevitably tastes horrible and falls apart.
So what is the drug movie that truly belongs here? I’ve never even heard of “Institute Benjamenta” (though obviously I’ll have to check it out now), so maybe that’s the one. If not, the rules are that the movie must explicitly be about drugs, as opposed to just being trippy, and the drug it’s about has to be a real one – Larry Cohen’s “The Stuff” doesn’t count for that reason, even though it takes the “drugs make your head explode” trope as far as it can possibly go. Suggestions, people?
Institute Benjamenta isn’t a drug movie, I just used it as an example of a movie that’s available overseas but not in the U.S. For weird drug movies, my top pick would be Altered States, and I’m sure Enter the Void would get a lot of votes from people as well. I’m open to suggestions for other movies.
I am so on board with the other Awful Doctor Orloff… For one thing 2001 and Tommy both need to be on the list just for you guys to be taken seriously… Tommy is weird a neon blue shit and 2001 is possibly the best movie I have ever seen in my entire life. Of course, since I actively looked for this website- I must think it is at least a little weird. Orloff- I have been looking forward to seeing the movie your username references and am going to check it out this week.
Ok… I’m only a third of the way through Tommy… It is depressing that it is not immediately on the list… It is easily weirder than The Wall, which I sorta disagreed with adding in the first place. It is weirder than Altered Stares or Lair of the White Worm, both of which blew my mind (Altered States more than most movies already on the list). Ken Russel is a genius in the purest sense of the word and his spirit demands recognition.
Ok… Seriously… Tommy makes The Wall, The Killer Eye, and The Beast of Yucca Flats look very f*ing normal… And I already thought they were average at best…
Speaking of those three… Do you ever downgrade movies that are already on the list? Killer Eye and Beast are woefully pedestrian and dramatically degrade what you are trying to do here.
i would suggest the darjeeling limited (2007). it is not as overtly strange as some of the movies on this list however there is a certain surreal aspect to the story telling that makes this a masterful cinematic oddity. i knonow natural born killers is under consideration, but frankly i am astounded it wasn’t on the list from the begging. it is a fantastic movie in my opinion, albeit a bizarre one.
bill: I can add Darjeeling Limited into the queue.
In general I’d say it’s good for us not to have all the obvious choices put on the List at once. If we did that it would leave us with nothing but the most obscure movies to fill up the final spots; this way people have something to look forward to down the road that they already know.
Cletus: Not sure who you’re confusing us with but we haven’t ever discussed Killer Eye. It’s possible something could be taken off the List—never say never—but I have no plans along those lines. 366 movies allows space for a lot of questionable calls, which is as it should be when dealing with weirdness. If I was going to take something off, though, it wouldn’t be The Beast of Yucca Flats. Coleman Francis managed to accidentally be weird in a way no one could manage deliberately, and I think more people find the film strangely fascinating than you may realize.
I don’t see it making the list, but it would be interesting to read a 366 take on the original Casino Royale. It is very uneven and there is some very strange dialogue throughout. Weird enough for a review, even though it isn’t list-worthy.
As for the Killer Eye… I have no idea how that happened… I would have sworn on my life it was on here. Anyways… It was weird maybe if you were making a 1001 weird movie list- certainly not in the top 366.