There were some surprising results in our annual readers’ choice poll. Despite spreading the voting among more than 60 movie candidates scattered across three groups, we ended up with two ties in the voting. In Group A Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny easily ran away from the competition (and we can’t complain about that; this is a truly bizarre Florida-set Christmas movie about Santa getting his sled caught in the sand and telling the assembled children the story of Thumbellina, all designed to promote a rather sad-looking theme park). Despite over two hundred votes being cast in the Groups B and C races, both somehow ended at the voting with two movies tied. In Group B it was Godfrey Ho‘s cut-n-paste disaster Ninja Champion (1985) (a movie which stands in for Ho’s entire body of work), knotted up with Paul Thomas Anderson‘s black comedy Punch Drunk Love (2002) (in what other poll would Ho and Anderson possibly receive equal billing?) A similar standoff occurred in Group C, where incipient cult-comedy Scott Pilgrim vs. the World came from nowhere at the last minute to tie with Cattet and Forzani‘s surreal sophomore giallo tribute, The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears.
In a normal contest where we were just elevating two movies onto the List of the 366 Best Weird Movies ever made, we would probably just honor the tie and enshrine both flicks. Since we were already allowing for an extra movie this year and taking three votes rather than the usual two, we’re going to have a special runoff election here rather than put five reader choices on the List. (We’ll give special consideration to the runners-up when we consider new additions in the future).
We’re really biting our tongues on some of the choices here but we promise we’ll honor our obligation to Certify whichever movies you guys pick as weird. This runoff vote will last for one week, ending at midnight on Nov. 6. Same rules for the runoff as for the main vote—you are allowed to cast a vote once every 24 hours. Okay, start voting… now!
What I want to know is why you never include The Butcher’s Boy in your reader’s choice polls; it’s a List candidate, and it includes a boy who’s pals with the Virgin Mary getting sent to borstal after crapping on a friend’s floor, killing his friend’s mother Manson-style, and hallucinating surviving a nuclear holocaust. How does this deserve less of a chance at The List than Jesus Christ Superstar?
Hi Derek, I appreciate your passion for a great weird movie, but your premise is somewhat faulty. Butcher Boy was included in our second readers’ choice poll, where it finished tied for fourth in the voting in its group. That doesn’t mean Butcher Boy won’t eventually make the List—there are over 100 spots left open—but if it does it will be an editor’s decision, not a readers’ choice pick.
Okay, Mea Culpa. That said, I only started reading this blog in 2012.
The vote ended in a tie again. I suspect that’s not by chance; I suspect someone was logging in at the last minute to ensure that happened. When I shut down the computer last night the leaders were Ninja Champion and Scott Pilgrim, and I hereby cast my tiebreaking vote to declare those two the winners. We’ll give strong consideration to the runners-up.