Here’s the poll to vote in our latest weird Netflix watch party, scheduled for this Saturday, Apr. 18, 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 17. 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!

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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 RELEASES (STREAMING):

Porno (2019): Read Giles Edwards’ festival review. Christian teens accidentally release a sex demon when they play a Kenneth Anger-style film. Side note: you have to respect the filmmakers for sticking with their preferred title even though it makes their movie impossible to find using Google. Fortunately, we have the link. Coming on wider VOD release in early May. Stream Porno via your favorite local independent theater.

FILM FESTIVALS – Postponements:

Fantasia International Film Festival, originally scheduled in Montreal starting on July 16, has joined the list of festivals bearing the status “postponed indefinitely.” Fantasia is our favorite destination for discovering new weird films; fingers crossed, it will be successfully rescheduled for later in the summer. Look for updates on the Fantasia Film Festival home page.

IN DEVELOPMENT (announced):

Night of the Hunter (202?): Universal has announced plans to remake the canonically weird classic expressionist/film noir in what is “expected to be a contemporary version.” Matthew Orton (Operation Finale) will script. Absolutely no one is excited by this announcement, and classic film fans are Universally outraged; but remember, the final product will not be marketed to cinephiles, but to people who never heard of Robert Mitchum or Charles Laughton. Variety has the scoop from an evil time of hunger and depression in our land.

Southland Tales prequel (202?): Richard Kelly announced via Twitter that a) he has completed a restoration of his original Southland Tales director’s cut (not seen in its complete form since its 2006 debut at Cannes) and b) he’s finished a script for a Tales prequel that he hopes to direct. His vision sees it as a part live-action, part-animated opus. Since we haven’t seen anything from Kelly since 2011’s The Box, we wouldn’t hold our breaths; but it’s nice to have dreams. More info at The Film Stage.

IN DEVELOPMENT (completed):

Time Warp: The Greatest Cult Films of All Time (Vols. 1, 2 & 3) (2020): A documentary on cult films so comprehensive that they split it into three parts. Volume 1 covers “Midnight Movies” and releases April 21; Volume 2 explores horror and sci-fi and starts streaming May 19; and Volume 3, “Comedy and Camp”, drops on June 23.  All three will be video-on-demand offerings (for the time being, at least). Joe Dante, John Waters, Ileana Douglas and Kevin Pollak host, and expect more cult celebrities to show up for interviews. We’ll be watching specifically with an eye as to how much these selections overlap our own canon, and plan to report on each volume as it rolls out.

https://youtu.be/IIHRTJSyJV0

NEW ON HOME VIDEO:

Cats (2019): Read Giles Edwards’ apocrypha candidate review. You avoided it in theaters! Now you can buy this deluxe Blu-ray/DVD combo full of “making of” features detailing the creation of the uncanny feline monstrosities that haunted Tom Hooper‘s version of Andrew Lloyd Webber‘s musical version of what would surely be T.S. Eliot’s biggest regret, were he alive to see his light verse turned into kitschy nightmare fuel. Also available on a standalone DVD or on demand. Buy Cats.

Knives and Skin (2019): Read Giles Edwards’ festival report. A high school girl’s disappearance affects a small town in a vaguely Lynchian way.  Buy Knives and Skin.

She’s Allergic to Cats (2016): Read our festival review. After four years, this odd piece of underground video art about an aspiring movie director turned dog groomer and his allergic dream woman comes to VOD. A full review will be forthcoming. Buy or rent She’s Allergic to Cats.

CANONICALLY WEIRD (AND OTHER) REPERTORY SCREENINGS:

With everything shut down for the pandemic, a few repertory theaters are holding on with “virtual screening rooms” in partnership with art-house distributors like Kino Lorber, Oscilloscope, Magnolia, Grasshopper Films, and others. There’s not a lot that looks especially weird (our weirdest recommendations are Bacurau, and the above-mentioned Porno); but your digital ticket purchase will be supporting the theater in hard times. We’ll keep you up to date as events develop and the industry adapts.

NEPOTISM CORNER:

“Brother Cobweb”: Longtime contributor Alfred Eaker has been working on various incarnations of this semi-autobiographical novel about an artistic boy growing up in a repressive Pentecostal family since before he started writing for 366 Weird Movies way back in 2009. It’s now finally set for publication on Easter Day, April 12, 2020. Congrats to Alfred on the achievement! There’s a short interview with El Ermitorio to whet your appetite reproduced  here, and copies can be pre-ordered here.

WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE: We have another weird Netflix Watch party scheduled for tomorrow, April 11, at 10:30 PM EST. If you’re considering attending but haven’t weighed in on the movie we’ll be screening, then you still have until midnight tonight to cast your vote. As far as next week’s reviews go, G. Smalley will address a pair of new VOD releases with the deadpan thriller Butt Boy (about a man addicted to placing objects—and people—into his rectum) and the long-awaited official release of She’s Allergic to Cats (2016). Giles Edwards chips in with a look at Philip Ridley‘s hallucinatory The Reflecting Skin follow-up, The Passion of Darkly Noon (1995), now out on Blu-ray for the first time ever thanks to Arrow Video. 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 third weird Netflix watch party, scheduled for this Saturday, Apr. 10, 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.

There’s a short turnaround on the poll this week; you’ll only have a little more than 24 hours to make your decision.

POLL

Just vote for which movie you’d like us to watch from the selections below. We’ll screen the movie that gets the most votes. This week’s host, Giles Edwards, will personally break any ties. Note that unlike our other polls, you can only vote once. Poll closes at midnight EST on Friday, Apr 10. 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!

Our second Netflix watch party (April and the Extraordinary World) was as well attended as the first. This might just be a quarantine thing, or it may turn into a regular feature of the site, but we’re going to go for number three.

We have had requests to move the time back to accommodate viewers who must put small children to bed, so we’re going to suggest starting next week’s showing at 10:30 PM EST, although we’ll consider different suggestions if mentioned in the comments.

Do note that next week’s April 11 showing will be the night before Easter and plan accordingly. (Maybe we can even find a weird Easter-themed movie to watch?)

Just like previous weeks, we’ll open it up to reader suggestions for a day, 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 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), Skins [Pieles] (2017), 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.

Giles Edwards will host; G. Smalley is not 100% sure he’ll be able to attend this one.

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. You have 24 hours [ed. … from now!]