A 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):
Reversion: Speculative sci-fi about mutants who lack a sense of time; the filmmakers describe it “as if Alain Resnais were to awaken in a Vons Supermarket, unable to find his way out.” Why is Vons always considered the surreal-est of west coast grocery store chains? From writer/director Mia Trachinger, who was last seen filming Eastern European immigrants in pink Easter Bunny suits on L.A. street corners for Bunny (2000). Reversion official site.
Road to Nowhere (2010): A psychological thriller about a filmmaker making a true crime story who gets sucked into a web where fiction and reality are hard to tell apart: is his lead actress actually the femme fatale from the story? Reviews are good, but the even better news is that this is “existential” cult director Monte Hellman‘s first feature film in 22 years (we’re thrilled to find out he’s still alive, much less churning out good movies!) Road to Nowhere official site.
Trollhunter [Trolljegeren] (2010): A Norwegian “found footage” film about a man who literally hunts trolls for the government. We’re not sure it qualifies as fully weird (we’re pretty picky when it comes to weirdness), but its been getting a lot of good press and “midnight movie” type buzz ever since succeeding at Sundance. Playing larger cities and college towns across the US through the Summer, and also available on numerous video-on-demand outlets like our partner Amazon. Trollhunter official site.
IN DEVELOPMENT:
Two Darren Aronofsky projects: Coming off the success of Black Swan, the Certified Weird (Pi) auteur is being linked to two upcoming films. The first, scheduled for a 2012 release, is Machine Man, an adaptation of Max Berry’s sci-fi novel about a postmodern bionic man. Max is excited but still starlet-free. Apparently, DA has also been shopping a script he wrote called Noah, which Deadline describes as “an edgy re-telling of the Noah’s Ark story.” Did you ever think you see the words “edgy” and “Noah’s ark” together in the same sentence? The mind boggles.
FILM FESTIVALS: BLOODFEST FANTASTIQUE (Melbourne, Australia Jun 10 – 18):
This is an offshoot of the Melbourne Underground Film Festival (MUFF—no titters about the acronym, please), focusing on science fiction and horror films. They will be screening several cheesy cult canon pictures like Roger Corman’s “Seven Samurai in Space” opus Battle Beyond the Stars (1980), and the seldom-screened psychedelic conspiracy flick The Committee (1968) (with songs by Pink Floyd), about a freak who’s persecuted by The Man for decapitating himself. The inaugural fest already seems to be a destination of choice for low-budget filmmakers with weird predilections, as can be seen from some of the new films playing there:
- Hellacious Acres: The Case of John Glass (2011) – Pat Tremblay debuts his second feature, a minimalist post-apocalyptic comedy about a man who wakes from a cryogenic slumber to discover the world has been devastated by nuclear war followed by an alien invasion.
- The Potato House (2011?) – described as “an avant-garde, experimental horror film” about a pickle factory that harvests human organs.
- Someone’s Knocking at the Door (2009) – there are reportedly some brutal and transgressive images in this weird grindhouse drug/gore movie premised around a pair of serial killers who “mysteriously return from the 1970s, and bring horrifying psychedelia with them.”
Aussies down Melbourne way should check out the Bloodfest Fantastique Film Festival home page.
NEW ON DVD:
Rubber (2010): Read our capsule review. The French—art? exploitation?—movie about the a telekinetic tire serial killer joins the video ranks. Buy Rubber
The Stunt Man (1980): Steve Railsback plays a criminal who pretends to be a stunt man on director Peter O’Toole’s movie set. The Stunt Man has oddball characters, a reality vs. illusion theme, and was selected by Danny Peary as one of his 300 “cult movies.” The DVD and Blu-ray are loaded with extras (so many that they won’t fit on a single DVD). Buy The Stunt Man (2 Disc Special Edition)
NEW ON BLU-RAY:
Rubber (2010): See description in DVD above. Buy Rubber [Blu-ray]
The Stunt Man (1980): See description in DVD above. This is an unusual case where the Blu-ray release is actually cheaper than the DVD release (due to the fact that only a single Blu-ray is needed to hold the content that took up two DVDs, apparently). Buy The Stunt Man [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.