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 at the official site links.
IN THEATERS (LIMITED RELEASE):
My Entire High School Is Sinking Into the Sea (2016): A crudely animated story that literally describes the disaster of its title. We’re a little surprised to see this offbeat, moderate festival hit picked up for distribution, by GKIDS, no less. My Entire High School Is Sinking Into the Sea official site.
NEW ON VIDEO ON DEMAND:
Neil Stryker and the Tyrant of Time (2017): Sci-fi adventure spoof about a super secret agent fighting a time-traveling mad scientist and an army of goblin puppets. This microbudgeted triumph of persistence was ten years in the making (!), and Major Winchester (David Odgen Stiers) and Chekov (Walter Keonig) lent their talents along the way. Check it out exclusively on-demand
CERTIFIED WEIRD (AND OTHER) REPERTORY SCREENINGS:
We’re changing the way we’re compiling this section (formerly called just “Screenings”). Simply noting the venues with minimal commentary will allow us to list more screenings across the country (and the world). If you know of an upcoming screening of a Certified Weird film, please drop us a line or mention it in the comments section of this post.
- Chicago, IL, Apr. 15 – Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. At Music Box Theater.
- Los Angeles, CA, Apr. 16 & 17 – Donnie Darko (theatrical cut). At Cinefamily.
- New York City, NY, Apr. 14 & 15 – Eraserhead. At IFC Center.
- New York City, NY, Apr. 14-20 – Mulholland Drive. At IFC Center.
IN DEVELOPMENT (IN PRODUCTION):
Insects (est. 2017) – Legendary animator and Czech Surrealist Jan Svankmajer, now 83 years old, has announced that Insects will be his last movie before a well-deserved retirement. The news here is that this week he released some notes from his production diary. No bombshells here, but fascinating stuff for fans, with plenty of behind-the-scenes stills to whet your appetite. “Jan’s diary from the Insects film” on Facebook.
NEW ON DVD:
“Dead or Alive” Trilogy: Takashi Miike‘s yakuza trilogy starts out extreme with 1999’s Dead or Alive, turns surreal in the 2000 sequel Dead or Alive: Birds, and moves into post-apocalyptic territory for the 2002 installment appropriately titled Dead or Alive: Final. Arrow Video releases the whole deal in a 3 DVD or Blu-ray set, for only a slight premium over what you’d pay for a single film. Buy “Dead or Alive Trilogy”.
NEW ON BLU-RAY:
“Dead or Alive” Trilogy: See description in DVD above. Buy “Dead or Alive Trilogy” [Blu-ray]
“House: Two Stories”: 1985’s original horror cult film House is about a Vietnam vet/writer who inherits a haunted house after his aunt’s suicide; the barely-related 1987 sequel House II: The Second Story has a new owner moving onto the titular locale, looking for an Aztec skull. The first installment is in our reader-suggested review queue, but not to be confused with the Japanese weird classic House [Hausu]. Buy “House: Two Stories” [Blu-ray]
“The Phantasm Collection”: All five Phantasm movies, from the Certified Weird original to 2016’s surreal finale Phantasm: Ravager, with a bonus disc containing four hours of supplemental material. Maybe this will supply the motivation we need to finally get off our butts (or rather, to stay on our butts, but with a fully-loaded Blu-ray in the player) and review Ravager. Buy “The Phantasm Collection” [Blu-ray]
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.