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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.

NEW ON NETFLIX:

“Midnight Gospel” (2020): Comedian Duncan Trussell reimagines his podcast as the story of multiverse-hopping alien Clancy, with the conversations animated in a psychedelic style by “Adventure Time”‘s Pendleton Ward. Netflix’s latest venture into adult animation is getting rave reviews, and sounds very weird. “Midnight Gospel” at Netflix.

FILM FESTIVALS – South by Southwest (Online: Amazon, 4/27-5/6):

The canceled South by Southwest festival went ahead with their plans to host an online version. The bad news is that most filmmakers opted out; only four narrative features are participating, and none of them are weird. A couple of shorts, however, might be worth checking out:

• “Blocks” – An “existential comedy” about a woman vomiting blocks
• “The Voice in Your Head” – A “surreal comedy” about the voice in an office worker’s head.

This will be free for all with an Amazon account (a separate Amazon Prime subscription not needed). Full list of streaming titles here.  Here’s the streaming link to bookmark for the 4/27 release.

IN DEVELOPMENT (completed):

We Are Little Zombies (2019): Four Japanese orphans form a rock band. U.S. Distributor Oscilloscope says it will be released stateside “sometime in 2020” and dropped a cool little initial trailer yesterday. We Are Little Zombies official site (in English, with a link to the expansive Japanese home page).

NEW ON HOME VIDEO:

Blood & Flesh: The Reel Life & Ghastly Death of Al Adamson (2019): Read Giles Edwards’ festival review. Out on Blu-ray this week, though dedicated fans may want to wait for the June box set, which includes this along with all of Adamson’s movies. Buy Blood & Flesh: The Reel Life & Ghastly Death of Al Adamson.

Carnival Magic (1983): An animal trainer plots to ruin the career of his sideshow rival, a mind reader, by getting rid of his talking chimp. Severin Films is releasing this ultra-rare (ignoring the MST3K version), unintentionally surreal Al Adamson kiddie flick as a standalone ahead of their big Adamson box set. Also includes Adamson’s last film, Lost. On DVD or Blu-ray. Buy Carnival Magic.

The Cremator (1969): Read the Canonically Weird entry! Criterion inaugurates this character study of a very odd mortician/Nazi collaborator into their Collection, with director Juraj Herz‘s short film debut “The Junk Shop” among the numerous extras. DVD or Blu-ray. Buy The Cremator.

Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (1951): The Flying Dutchman (James Mason) is doomed to sail the seas until he finds a woman willing to die for him; will femme fatale nightclub singer Pandora (Ava Gardner) be the one? Cohen Media Group releases Albert Lewin’s strange film—Surrealist Man Ray was on set as a photographer—in a new 4K restoration on Blu-ray, with the adventure programmer The Living Idol (1957, co-directed by Lewin and Santa Claus‘ René Cardona) as a bonus feature. Buy Pandora and the Flying Dutchman.

Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967): Read Alfred Eaker’s review. Warner Archives releases a 2-disc Blu-ray of John Huston‘s story of repressed sexuality at an army base; it includes the full color version released to theaters along with the gold-tinted cut Huston preferred. Also on VOD (we’re assuming in theatrical color only). Buy Reflections in a Golden Eye.

Secret Ceremony (1968): A prostitute (Elizabeth Taylor) who’s lost her daughter and an orphan girl (Mia Farrow) start a strange relationship that’s complicated by the arrival of the girl’s stepfather (Robert Mitchum). Joseph Losey’s eerie psychological thriller is in our reader-suggested queue, and now on DVD or Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. Buy Secret Ceremony.

Time Warp: The Greatest Cult Films of All Time, Vol. 1: Midnight Madness (2020): Read our review. If you need a primer on cult films (not all of which are weird), or just want to see some cool guests like John Waters, Jeff Goldblum, and Pam Grier yakking about their faves, this is for you. Rent Time Warp: The Greatest Cult Films of All Time, Vol 1: Midnight Madness.

Why Don’t You Just Die! (2018): Read Giles Edwards’ review and listen to his interview with director Kirill Sokolov. Arrow releases this ultraviolent Russian black comedy on Blu-ray only. Buy Why Don’t You Just Die!.

FREE (LEGITIMATE RELEASE) MOVIES ON YOUTUBE:

Welcome to the Rubber Room (2017): A poetry venue is closing; aliens may offer a solution. Another rarely-seen freebie from Trent Harris (Rubin & Ed, The Beaver Trilogy). A pandemic special, available for a limited time.

https://youtu.be/tyeloeC9Wl8

WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE: Although there’s still a little time left to vote, it looks like our weekly weird Netflix party showing will be Under the Skin.  Please tune in tomorrow, Saturday April 25, at 10:30 PM EST for that screening (we’ll drop the exact link 15 minutes beforehand).

Hark Triton, because next week, Giles Edwards presents the by-your-command re-review of The Lighthouse (2019). El Rob Hubbard chips in to let you know about the underground feature Small Talk (2016), a contemporary satirical riff on “Alice in Wonderland.” And Gregory J. Smalley dives into the reader-suggested review queue for a look at James Ivory’s early surrealist (!) movie, Savages (1972), about a primitive tribe of “mud people” who follow a croquet ball and turn into civilized dandies. There’s also potential for us to throw a surprise featurette or review in there, so check back every day (every hour would probably be better). 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 latest weird Netflix watch party, scheduled for this Saturday, Apr. 25, at 10:30 PM EST. First order of business: voting on the movie to watch. If you plan on virtually attending, please vote for the movie we’ll be watching below.

There are two sets of instructions: one for the poll, and then the instructions for joining the Netflix Party.

POLL

Vote for which movie you’d like us to watch from the selections below. We’ll screen the movie that gets the most votes. Your host, G. Smalley, will personally break any ties. Note that unlike our other polls, you can only vote once. Poll closes at midnight EST on Friday, Apr 24. You may vote for multiple movies, but not for every movie (because that would be pointless).

NETFLIX PARTY

You must have a subscription to Netflix and a browser running Chrome. You must install the Netflix Party extension (from this site).

We will not provide tech support; you’re on your own.

When the party is set to begin we’ll announce it in three places:

• On this site (if you’ve signed up for regular email alerts via the sidebar you’ll also get a notice that way)
• On our Facebook page
• On Twitter

You will then receive the link to join the stream. Follow the instructions and be sure to have your Netflix Party extension active.

Once you join, you can customize your avatar and give yourself a screen name.

Now vote!

This might just be a quarantine thing, or it may turn into a regular feature of the site, but interest in the weekly weird Netflix screening has remained steady so far, so going to go for number five.

We’re asking for nominations for a movie to watch partly because we love making polls, but mainly as a means to gauge interest. If we get five suggestions from people planning to attend, then we’ll know it’s worth hosting.

You can nominate something you nominated before, but not something we watched in a previous party: so no The Platform, April and the Extraordinary World, The Bad Batch, or Skins [Pieles].

We’ll set aside April 25 at 10:30 PM EST for this one. If you have feedback suggesting a different start time we’ll listen.

Just like previous weeks, we’ll open it up to reader suggestions until we get five or more candidates, then put up a poll to vote on which movie to screen. Only films in Netflix’s catalog are eligible. We don’t have to watch a Canonically Weird movie together, but just for your convenience, we’re reasonably sure these are all the (previously unscreened by us) ones available on the service at the moment: Enemy (2013), The Lobster (2015), Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion (1997), Pan’s Labyrinth (2006), Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010), A Serious Man (2009), Sin City (2005), Swiss Army Man (2016), Under the Skin (2013), and The Wicker Man (1973). Feel free to nominate any of these, or ignore them in favor of other selections.

To join, you’ll need a U.S. Netflix account, a Chrome-based browser (Brave works) and the Netflix Party extension.

Make your nominations in the comments below.

366 Weird Movies may earn commissions from purchases made through product links.

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 DEVELOPMENT (pre-production):

The True Tale of Ole Splitfoot vs. the Lesbian Warrior Nuns of the Great White North (est. 2021): OK, you sucked us in with the title. We’ll just cut and paste the synopsis: “set in a remote Canadian town, whose only industry is the local maple syrup processing plant, a group of lesbian warrior nuns, posing as strippers, stand guard, vigilant; the last defense against the hordes of Satan.” Good luck, gals. They’ve got a title, a poster, a director, and a dream. The True Tale of Ole Splitfoot vs. the Lesbian Warrior Nuns of the Great White North on Facebook.

NEW ON HOME VIDEO:

Butt Boy (2019): Read our review. This absurdist tale of an anal serial killer can be found on VOD or Blu-ray. Buy Butt Boy.

Der Todesking (1990): Read our review. Cult Epics is re-releasing Jörg Buttgereit‘s episodic movie about death on gritty VHS (!), with two limited-edition offerings, including a deluxe version for super-fans that comes with a t-shirt and art prints. Available for pre-order at Cult Epics.

“Seijun Suzuki’s Taisho Trilogy”: Full of eroticism, ghosts, and mysterious widows, this set collects three surreal period films from Japanese maverick Seijun Suzuki: Zigeunerweisen (1980), Kageroza (1981), and Yumeji (1991). All are set during the Taisho era (1912-1926). Arrow Academy released these in a 6 disc Blu-ray/DVD combo limited edition in 2017, which is now a collector’s item fetching ridiculous prices; this Blu-ray only reissue is far more affordable. Buy “Seijun Suzuki’s The Taisho Trilogy.”

She’s Allergic to Cats (2016): Read our review! Six years after its debut, this video-art essay about a pathetic dog groomer who wants to make an all-cat remake of Carrie made it to video-on-demand—and immediately went onto our apocryphally weird list. Buy or rent She’s Allergic to Cats.

CANONICALLY WEIRD (AND OTHER) REPERTORY SCREENINGS:

Sorry, nothing here. Maybe we’ll have news in the coming weeks. Based on recent White House guidance, it will be two weeks—at the absolute minimum—until American theaters are tentatively allowed to re-open (and even then, they will be limited to half capacity).

FREE (LEGITIMATE RELEASE) MOVIES ON YOUTUBE:

Wrong (2012): Read our review. Quentin Dupieux‘s followup to Rubber is the comically surreal tale of a man searching for his missing dog. Watch Wrong free on YouTube.

READER MAIL: This isn’t going to be a regular feature (we hope), but someone wrote us, on our contact form, with no return address, “Great site! But you should drop the 366 and make it simply weirdmovies.com.” Since we can’t answer them directly, we’ll print a response here, for anyone else who’s wondered: we’ve tried to purchase the domain “weirdmovies.com” but haven’t gotten a response from the owner. We suspect they’re holding out for much more than we’re able to pay.

WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE: First up, there’s still a few hours left to vote for a movie to watch at our fourth weird Netflix Party scheduled for tomorrow, April 18, at 10:30 PM EST. Vote here if you plan on attending. As for next week, we’ll bring you a couple of new-release reviews: Giles Edwards covers the dream thriller Impossible Monsters, while G. Smalley gives you the lowdown on the doc Time Warp: The Greatest Cult Movies of All Time, Vol. 1 – Midnight Madness (and yes, there is some overlap there with our own list).  We’ll also drop an interview and a bit of bonus content for the ultraviolent Russian black comedy Why Don’t You Just Die?, to get you excited for its Blu-ray release next week. Stay safe, wash your hands, and 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.