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WEIRD HORIZON FOR THE WEEK OF 2/22/2019

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.

NETFLIX EXCLUSIVES:

Paris Is Us (2019): A woman wanders through Paris in an ambiguous haze of memory and imagination after missing a plane flight that crashes. Crowdfunded for under 100,000 euros and snapped up by Netflix as cheap international inventory, there’s little to go on here besides the description and the trailer below. In an Oscar week without much new on the horizon, this looks like your oddest gamble.  Debuts on Netflix Feb. 22.

CERTIFIED WEIRD (AND OTHER) REPERTORY SCREENINGS:

The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975). We won’t list all the screenings of this audience-participation classic separately. You can use this page to find a screening near you.

FREE MOVIES ON TUBI.TV:

Why Don’t You Play in Hell? (2013): Read the Certified Weird review! A yakuza boss hires a group of underground filmmakers to chronicle his raid on a rival’s headquarters; things get weird (and bloody). Watch Why Don’t You Play in Hell? free on Tubi.tv.

WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE: On Sunday we’ll announce the winners of the 9th annual Weirdcademy Awards race—a few hours before the Oscars announce their Most Conventional Picture awards—and there’s still time to get your votes in for features or shorts. There are a couple of races that are still close…  Then, we’ll have a trio of regular reviews. From the reader-suggested review queue, Pete Trbovich chows down on ‘s classic black comedy Eating Raoul (1982), while Simon Hyslop investigates the uncanny dystopian animation Metropia (2009). On the new release front, Giles Edwards catches us up on ‘s latest star vehicle, Best F(r)ineds (Vols. 1 & 2), now available (exclusively) on Blu-ray. Onward and wierdward!

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.

WEIRD HORIZON FOR THE WEEK OF 2/15/2019

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):

Mega Time Squad (2018): Read Giles Edwards’ mini-review and listen to his interview with director Tim Van Dammen. A New Zealand set time-travel caper comedy. Unknown where it is playing, but Rotten Tomatoes assures us it’s going up on a screen somewhere this week. Mega Time Squad official site.

Ruben Brandt, Collector (2018): A psychotherapists commissions thefts of famous paintings, believing he will stop having nightmares about the artworks once he owns them. Intellectual, mildly surreal adult animation from Hungary. Ruben Brandt, Collector official site.

IN DEVELOPMENT:

Big Shark (2019): attempts to extend his 15 minutes of fame to the 18-minute mark with this effort exploiting 2013’s hot topic, sharks. It is pretty much guaranteed to be awful, but since Tommy’s mumbling his way through it, it will still probably be better than The Meg. The Big Shark official site currently redirects to a site selling Wiseau-branded boxer shorts with no mention of Big Shark.

Cristina (est. 2019): A woman is plagued by the demon raised by her Satanist father. Per the director, it’s a “fascinating and terrifying amalgam of classic theological horror films like Rosemary’s Baby and The Exorcist, but armed with a hefty dose of surrealism.” Set to begin principal photography in the spring. No official site yet.

Kung Fu Hustle 2 (20??):  has announced that he has begun work on the sequel to 2004’s Canonically Weird Kung Fu Hustle. The sequel will take place in the present day, and Chow, now 56, will not star (but may appear in a cameo). “Martial Arts Action Cinema” appears to have broken the news in the English-speaking world, based on a Chow interview (in Chinese).

NEW ON HOME VIDEO:

Audition [Ôdishon] (1999): Read the Certified Weird review! ‘s terrifying masterpiece of anti-erotic extremity comes to Region A Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video, from a 2016 restoration, with most of the same features on the old Shout! Factory release plus  a new commentary track by Tom Mes, a new introduction from and interview with Miike, and more (first pressing includes an exclusive booklet, too). Buy Audition.

Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980): A prisoner is released in 1926 Weimar Germany and vows to go straight, but is sucked back into a life of crime. Rainer Weiner Fassbinder’s 15-hour miniseries is told straight for most of its running, but ends with a surreal epilogue. A Criterion Collection upgrade from DVD to Blu-ray. Buy Berlin Alexanderplatz.

Horror Express (1972): Read Otto Black’s review. A frozen “ape-man” turns out to be a body-possessing alien who causes trouble on the trans-Siberian express. Although this horror is (famously) in the public domain, true fans may want to purchase this Arrow Blu-ray for the restoration, commentary track, interviews, and first-pressing collectible booklet. Buy Horror Express.

Possum (2018): A puppeteer returns home to face his stepfather and secrets from his past. The script is from a short story the British director originally wrote for an anthology exploring Freud’s notion of the uncanny. On DVD or VOD. Buy Possum.

CERTIFIED WEIRD (AND OTHER) REPERTORY SCREENINGS:

The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975). We won’t list all the screenings of this audience-participation classic separately. You can use this page to find a screening near you.

FREE (LEGITIMATE RELEASE) MOVIES ON TUBI.TV:

Night Train to Terror (1985): Read the Certified Weird entry! If everybody’s got something to do—everybody but you—then maybe you can watch this to horror anthology, made from three unreleased features cut down to the point of incoherence and linked by a framing story about God and Satan arguing about the fate of the characters while a teenage lipsynching New Wave band practices in the next train compartment. Watch Night Train to Terror free on Tubi.tv.

WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE: Next week we’ll announce the winner of 366 Weird Movies’ biggest fan contest (still time to enter!) In terms of reviews, Pete Trbovich will go into the reader-suggested review queue for 1973’s Lemora: A Child’s Tale of the Supernatural, while G. Smalley brings you a long-delayed review of ‘s psychedelic flop The Last Movie (at last!) plus The Greasy Strangler ‘s  ‘s sophomore feature (a romantic comedy, of all things), An Evening With Beverly Luff Linn. And, we’ll reveal the winners of the 9th Annual Weirdcademy Awards (there’s still time to vote in that, too, although the only contests that are actually competitive are Weirdest Short Film and Weirdest Scene).

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.

99 YEARS OF WEIRDNESS, IN NUMBERS

This article was submitted by Aki Vainio.

Introduction, Methodology, and Breakdown by Year

A warning: all the data used here comes from the IMDb, so it’s user-submitted, and not always that well thought-out. I mean, according to the IMDb, 212 of these movies are dramas. If you call everything drama, does that designation even have any meaning anymore? There’s also some problems with country or origin, because they always list all the countries that have participated in any way. Anyhow, that’s what I have easily and automatically available, so that’s what I’m using. All the data is from January 16th of 2019. Obviously, much of it will change over time.

Note on the methods used: I did the research by using a list of the movies I’ve maintained over on IMDb. IMDb gives you a CSV export of that data, which is good start, but did not contain everything I wanted. For the rest of the data, I used the API provided by the good folks at OMDb, which enabled me to get the countries and languages. On top of that, I used a little bit of coding and some Excel action.

The earliest movie on the list is from 1920 (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari) and the newest movie is from 2018 (Sorry to Bother You ), which covers 99 years. However, 20 of those years failed to provide the List with any movies at all.

Perhaps 1921 has the excuse of not knowing any better, but come on 1930s, your latter half (1935-1939) has a grand total of zero (0) movies. Or maybe the writers on this site have a prejudice against the 1930s.

Weird movies by year

The last year not to have a single movie on the list was 1956. After that there have been some poor years (like 1978, with only one), but the combination of moviemaking becoming cheaper and distributors finding new sources of income has made making movies for niche audiences possible.

The biggest years were 1968 and 1971, each of which produced 13 Canonized movies. 2006 wasn’t far behind with 12, while 1973 made it all the way to 11, and both 2004 and 2009 were in there with 10.

Personally, I’ve always believed that creativity is in no way dead, despite the influx of recent franchising attempts with sequels, prequels, reboots, remakes, and so forth. The list seems to support this belief. There’s still plenty of weird things going on, even if the drug-fueled highs of late 60s and early 70s might be behind us.

Who Comes Up with this Stuff?

Apparently, and , with a total of eight movies each. It’s also worth noting that they both share credits with others. comes up a bit short with seven, although with a total of ten features under his belt, 70% rate is not bad. and each have six, although Gilliam only directed one segment of Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life. Still within this higher echelon of directors, we have and Continue reading 99 YEARS OF WEIRDNESS, IN NUMBERS

WEIRD HORIZON FOR THE WEEK OF 2/8/2019

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):

Lords of Chaos (2018): Read Giles Edwards’ review. Biopic/docudrama, appropriately narrated from beyond the grave, covering the scandalous rise of “True” Norwegian Black Metal, featuring church burning and, eventually, murder. Lords of Chaos official Facebook page.

NEW ON HOME VIDEO:

All the Colors of Giallo (2018): For dedicated giallo fans: this three disc set contains the title documentary on the genre, a second doc (The Case of the Krimi, with film historian Marcus Stiglegger), a trailer collection, and a CD of soundtrack cuts. Via Severin films, it’s a multi-format set (Blu-ray, DVD, and CD). Buy All the Colors of Giallo.

The Cloverfield Paradox (2018): Scientists in a satellite orbiting the Earth accidentally open a portal to another dimension when experimenting with a particle accelerator. While we liked the other two Cloverfield movies (one a monster flick and one a thriller), we skipped this sci-fi themed one on Netflix because nothing about the initial installments led us to suspect there would ever be a weird movie in the bunch; the Internet (not the most reliable source, admittedly) suggests we may be wrong in that assumption. It’s now out on DVD or Blu-ray for those without a Netflix subscription. Also available in a “Cloverfield 3-Movie Collection” DVD or Blu-ray pack Buy The Cloverfield Paradox.

The Fifth Cord (1971): Franco Nero stars as an alcoholic reporter tracking a serial killer while simultaneously becoming a suspect. Maybe not 100% weird, but it has the psychedelic visual sensibility and alienated atmosphere of the period. Another neglected giallo exhumed by Arrow Video, now on Blu-ray. Buy The Fifth Cord.

Lu Over the Wall: Little Mermaid variation in which the fish-girl joins a teen rock band. This kids’ movie that carefully describes itself as “joyously hallucinogenic but family-friendly” comes from Masaaki Yuasa—the mind behind the Canonically Weird Mind Game (2004). Blu-ray, DVD, VOD. Buy Lu Over the Wall.

The Possessed (1965): A depressed novelist goes looking for his lost love, a waitress at a remote lakeside resort who has disappeared mysteriously. A “proto-giallo” co-scripted by the curious , who would go on to direct a pair of Canonically Weird films. Another Arrow Video Blu-ray release. Buy The Possessed.

Shame (1968): Read Alfred Eaker’s review. ‘s surreal tale of war coming to Fårö is largely overlooked. The Criterion Collection hopes to change that with this single-disc release including both new and archival interviews. Buy Shame.

St. Bernard Syndicate (2018): A Danish businessman partners with an investor who’s just been diagnosed with A.L.S. in a scheme to sell St. Bernards to the Chinese. Sounds subtly strange at best, but Brian Orndorf of Blu-ray.com did claim it is “very funny at times, but also chilling and always interested in weirdness…” Now on VOD (only, for the present time). Buy or rent The St. Bernard Syndicate.

Zachariah (1971): Read Pete Trbovich’s review. This hippie comedy-Western-musical billed itself as the “first electric Western”; Kino Lorber grabbed the rights and upgraded the featureless MGM DVD to a sparkling new Blu-ray with a commentary track and everything. Buy Zachariah.

CERTIFIED WEIRD (AND OTHER) REPERTORY SCREENINGS:

The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975). We won’t list all the screenings of this audience-participation classic separately. You can use this page to find a screening near you.

FREE MOVIES ON TUBI.TV:

Dogville (2003): Read the Canonically Weird review‘s dark, misanthropic fable is like de Sade’s “Justine” played out on the set of Wilder’s “Our Town.” Listed as “leaving soon” on the service. Watch Dogville free on Tubi.tv.

WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE:

Next week, look for a review from the reader-suggested queue: Simon Hyslop on 2004’s Lovecraftian J-horror, Marebito. We’ll also have Giles Edwards with late-ish coverage of and ‘s latest, last year’s Let The Corpses Tan, and a reader-supplied statistical analysis of the List. And maybe we’ll even have a mystery pop-up review (though if we promised one for certain and told you what it was, it wouldn’t be a mystery… forget we said anything, OK?)

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.

CONTEST: 366 WEIRD MOVIES’ BIGGEST FAN GETS A COPY OF “TRUE STORIES”

Time for another giveaway! This one is for true fans only, though all are welcome to try. All you have to do is convince us that you’re 366 Weird Movies’ Biggest Fan, and therefore deserving of this fine prize. We know a couple of you have gone the extra mile to promote this project; now is your chance to show us what you’ve done. Pimp your own creativity while pumping our egos; everyone benefits. (Or just compliment us really, really well). We’ll pick the most impressive submission provided in the comments below. Even if you’re ineligible to win the prize (for example, because you live outside the U.S.), please let us know about your fandom. And even if you think you’re a Pretty Big Fan, but not the Biggest, let us know. Our pride needs it.

Even though, in a way, you’re all winners, the choice of an actual prize winner is solely at the discretion of 366 Weird Movies’ staff.

Eligibility rules: You must comment on this post. To receive the DVD, you must supply us with a mailing address in the United States. (Don’t publish your address in your comment! We’ll contact the winner through email). 366 contributors are not eligible for the prize. You are eligible for this prize even if you have won a contest here in the last six months. We’ll stop accepting entries Wednesday, February 20, at midnight EST. If the winner does not respond to our request for a mailing address within 48 hours we’ll email a runner-up, and so forth, until the prize is given away.

True Stories Criterion DVDAs for the prize: it’s the Criterion 2-disc DVD edition of the Canonically Weird True Stories‘s celebration of eccentricity and “Specialness” set in the fictional town of Virgil, Texas. Note that this DVD edition does not include the film’s soundtrack, which is an exclusive bonus feature of the Blu-ray. But it does include the second disc of bonus features (four documentaries, plus deleted scenes) and the cool tabloid-style booklet with essays by Rebecca Bengal and Joe Nick Patoski.

So go to it! Show us what you got!