Our weekly look at what’s weird in theaters, on hot-off-the-presses DVDs, and on more distant horizons…
Trailers of new release movies are generally available on the official site links.
IN THEATERS (LIMITED RELEASE):
A Fantastic Fear of Everything (2012): Simon Pegg stars as a children’s author turned crime writer undergoing a hallucinatory nervous breakdown in this paranoid black comedy. Early reviews are poor, but we hope that’s just because it’s too weird. Also available to watch on demand
A Field in England (2013): Ben Wheatley‘s latest movie sounds like it may be his weirdest yet: the story of soldiers during the English Civil War who accidentally eat psychedelic mushrooms while searching for buried treasure. Naturally, this is releasing on demand
Vic+Flo Saw a Bear (2013): A couple of lesbian ex-cons hole up in a backwoods cabin but are besieged by strange visitors. Written and directed by a reformed film critic. Vic & Flo ont vu un ours [Vic + Flo Saw a Bear] Facebook page.
SCREENINGS – (Cinefamily, Los Angeles, CA, Feb. 11 & 12):
Diamonds of the Night [Démanty noci] (1964): This nearly dialogue-free debut from the Czech New Wave’s Jan Nemec concerns two harassed Jews, escaped from a concentration camp, fleeing through the countryside. “Rarely screened” doesn’t even begin to cover it for this obscure but intriguing film that kicks off a month-long Nemec retrospective. More information on the Los Angeles screening can be found at Cinefamily’s Jan Nemec: Master of the Czech New Wave page, and check out Jan Nemec Retrospective Tour for upcoming dates in other cities (including Atlanta, Seattle, Chicago and more as we move into spring).
IN DEVELOPMENT:
Kiki’s Delivery Service (2014): A Japanese live-action remake of the Hayao Miyazaki animated classic about a young witch in training. Actually, you could say its a new adaptation of the underlying source material, Eiko Kadono’s 1985 novel, but who are we kidding? Comparisons to the world-famous anime are inevitable. J-horror maestro Takashi Shimizu directs, giving this one a little more weird credibility (although we expect that in the end it will be more the Japanese version of Harry Potter than anything truly bizarre). You can check out the trailer where we first found it, at 24framespersecond.
NEW ON DVD:
Banshee Chapter (2013) – Read our review. Although we recommended this horror/conspiracy thriller only to Art Bell types and viewers looking to add another portrayal of Hunter S. Thompson to their viewing collection, most critics seemed to like it a good deal better than we did. Buy Banshee Chapter
Night of the Demons (1988): Available in a Blu-ray combo pack only. See description in Blu-ray below.
NEW ON BLU-RAY:
Night of the Demons (1988): Horny teens see their Halloween party at the abandoned Hull House wrecked when one of them is possessed by a demon. Scream Factory gives the deluxe treatment (complete with director’s commentary!) to this slightly sleazy cult flick that was a sort of apex of the 1980 teen horror cycle; the infamous “lipstick” sequence puts it over the top. Buy Night Of The Demons (Collector’s Edition) [Blu-ray/DVD combo]
What are you looking forward to? If you have any weird movie leads that I have overlooked, feel free to leave them in the COMMENTS section.