As the title states, our first Amazon Prime Watch Party—Human Lanterns (1982)—starts in fifteen minutes.
You’ll need to be an Amazon Prime member in the US (we think) to participate.
There will be no pausing or rewinding except for technical reasons.
We are offering no technical support, so help each other out if needed.
Here is the link to join: https://amz.onl/91FzIe9
See you soon!
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Our weekly look at what’s weird in theaters, on hot-off-the-presses DVDs and Blu-rays (and hot off the server VODs), and on more distant horizons…
Trailers of new release movies are generally available at the official site links.
IN THEATERS (LIMITED RELEASE):
Saint Maud (2019): A young and devout hospice nurse seeks to save souls—then the body horror sets in. A hit at last year’s Fantastic Fest that got picked up by A24: those are good credentials. Rotten Tomatoes reports it’s opening this week, but A24 still lists the release date as “coming soon.” We’ll provide more info when we hear something. Saint Maud official site.
IN DEVELOPMENT (in production):
Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass (202?): Previously adapted (and canonized here) by Wojciech Has as The Hourglass Sanatorium (1971), none other than stop-motion mavens the Quay Brothers will take their turn at adapting Bruno Schulz’s surreal novel. They have been at work on the project for ten years now, and have released six minutes of preview footage to whet your appetite. Yes, there are creepy puppets. Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass entry at Cinando.
https://youtu.be/cNkfQGkAIgo
NEW ON HOME VIDEO:
“12 Monkeys: The Complete Series” (2015-2018): A 4-season TV series adapted from Terry Gilliam‘s canonically weird time travel fantasia. Individual seasons had been previously released, but this is the complete run (including webisodes), on DVD or Blu-ray. Buy “12 Monkeys: The Complete Series”
Bacurau (2019): Read our review. Perhaps sensing that they have an outside shot with this outluer during awards season, Kino Lorber releases this genre mashup about soldiers-of-fortune hunting Brazilian villagers in a lavish Blu-ray or DVD. Buy Bacurau
Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941): Read the Canonically Weird entry! Finally, a break for us suckers: W.C. Fields‘ crazy final film had not been available (outside of box sets) in the U.S. before this Kino Lorber Blu-ray release. Includes a commentary track by film historian Eddy Von Mueller and a contemporary Fields documentary originally broadcast on Canadian TV. Buy Never Give a Sucker an Even Break
Starfish (2018): Read our review. This apocalyptic drama was released on DVD last year, but this Blu-ray upgrade pulls out all the stops with tons of special features and a bonus soundtrack CD. Buy Starfish
Tokyo Gore Police (2008): Read the Canonically Weird entry! Our favorite Japanese splatterpunk film gets a new “Lethal Force Edition” Blu release from Media Blasters; no word on what differentiates the “Lethal Force” from previous releases, though. Buy Tokyo Gore Police: Lethal Force Edition
VHYes (2019): Read our review. This fun little compendium of erstaz-VHS retro sketches is now out on VOD, DVD, or Blu-ray. Sadly, there’s no VHS release. Buy VHYes
CANONICALLY WEIRD (AND OTHER) REPERTORY SCREENINGS:
Independent theaters are cautiously starting to reopen across North America at diminished capacity, although the big chains (and Alamo Drafthouses) remain shuttered. That said, we have a dribble of new screenings to announce this week. We expect this section to continue to grow slowly throughout the summer, although we wouldn’t predict things to return to anywhere near normal until the fall, at the earliest. You’ll have to use your own judgment as to whether it’s safe to go to movie theaters at this time.
WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE: After a tight back and forth battle, our first Amazon Prime Watch Party poll ended in a tie, so host As usual, we’ll drop the link here and on our Facebook and Twitter pages shortly before the show begins (of course, if you subscribe to 366 Mail you’ll get a notice by email as well). Don’t worry, Netflix-only subscribers, we’ll return to Netflix screenings next week, and plan to alternate between the two services as long as readers are interested.
It’s been a while, but next week, we’ll announce another DVD/Blu-ray giveaway. Then it’s on to a full slate of reviews: Pete Trbovich tackles some Mexican nunsploitation with Satanico Pandemonium (1975); Giles Edwards looks at (and listens to) the latest visual album to make our radar, Spindrift’s Haunted West (2020); and Gregory J. Smalley checks out the recently-restored Japanese expressionist fantasy The Mad Fox (1962). Onward and weirdward!
What are you looking forward to? If you have any weird movie leads that we have overlooked, feel free to leave them in the COMMENTS section.
Here’s the poll to vote in our first weird Amazon Prime watch party, scheduled for Saturday, July 18, at 10:15 PM EST. If you plan on virtually attending, please vote for the movie we’ll be watching below. We’ll screen the movie that gets the most votes. Your host, Gregory J. Smalley, will personally break any ties. Note that unlike our other polls, you can only vote once. Poll closes at midnight EST on Thursday, July 16. You may vote for multiple movies, but not for every movie (because that would be pointless).
Now vote!
With the announcement that Amazon Prime is joining the Watch Party bandwagon, the catalog of available movies for us to communally screen just grew significantly. In our streaming service interest check poll, Prime even slightly beat Netflix, so we’re going to try it out. Since not everyone has both services, we won’t be abandoning Netflix; as of now, we’re provisionally planning to alternate weeks between the two.
The procedure will be the same as with our Netflix parties: we’re looking for five people (not counting your host G. Smalley) to comment on this post if you are interested in attending. Likely attendees may also make a nomination from the Amazon Prime catalog for a movie to watch. After we cross the five attendees threshold, we’ll put up a poll with all the nominations and start voting to select which film we’ll screen. The Watch Party will tentatively be scheduled for Saturday, July 18 at 10:15 PM ET; feel free to suggest a different time in the comments.
Amazon Prime’s catalog of movies is larger (and less exclusive) than Netflix’s. Ed Dykhuizen’s availability spreadsheet is a good resource to check for Canonically Weird movies (look for ones marked “free w/ Prime” in the “Amazon” column). Or, do your own research and come up with a title from Amazon. Eligible movies will have a “watch party” button on their Amazon page. You must be a Prime subscriber; you don’t have to download an extension or additional software.
We will not provide tech support; you’re on your own. Help each other. Since this is our first try with this service, there may be bumps in the road.
When the party is set to begin we’ll announce it in three places:
Now, RSVP and make your nominations in the comments below.
As the title states, our latest Netflix Party—Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971)—starts in fifteen minutes.
Please install the Netflix Party extension if you haven’t already. You must have a U.S. Nextflix account (we think) and a Chrome-based browser (including Brave) to participate.
There will be no pausing or rewinding except for technical reasons.
We are offering no technical support, so help each other out if needed.
Here is the link to join: https://www.netflix.com/watch/60020949?npSessionId=6abaf7d863ee67f9&npServerId=s65
Be sure to click on the red Netflix Party icon to sync up and join the chat room.