On March 28, 2020, at 9:30 PM EST time, history was made as a band of intrepid weird movie fanatics gathered in a virtual screening room to watch the Spanish capitalism allegory The Platform (review forthcoming?), making keen observations and tasteless wisecracks in equal measure.
A good time was had by all… at least, by all who spoke up. So we’re extending the experiment for one more week.
We’ve reached the final showdown in our irregularly scheduled annual March Mad Movie Madness tournament. The winner of this year’s contest will be elevated onto our Apocryphally Weird list.
It’s the juggernaut that has been The Lighthouse (2019) versus underdog Big Man Japan (2007), originally seeded #10 overall. The classic clash of unspeakable monsters from the depths of the briny seas vs. big guys in giant suits stomping scale-models of Tokyo, as it were.
Vote for the film you’d prefer to be honored as Apocrypha. If you haven’t seen both (which may well be the case), go ahead and vote for the movie you’ve heard of, if you think it would be a good representative. You could even vote your preference based on the film’s reputation, or because the description of it in our review amuses you. We’re not checking up on you, and wouldn’t judge your vote if we could.
You may vote once per day, until this round of polling closes at midnight EST on April 5. The movie with the most votes will officially become Apocrypha (though we won’t be posting an official entry page immediately).
Links in the polls below go to 366 Weird Movies’ review.
As the title states, our first Netflix Party—The Platform—starts in 10 minutes.
Please install the Netflix Party extension if you haven’t already. You must have a U.S. Nextflix account and a Chrome browser to participate (although there are rumors a “Brave” browser may work.)
There will be no pausing or rewinding except for technical reasons.
We are offering no technical support, so help each other out if needed.
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 THEATERS:
You know the drill. You’ll probably hear when theaters reopen as soon as we do. But we do have some positive news below…
NEW RELEASES: STREAMING:
Bacurau (2019): A Brazilian village is sold to big human game hunters; they fight back with psychotropic drugs in what TIFF programmers called “a wild, weird, and politically charged revisionist western.” Kino Lorber picked it up for distribution and released it to theaters in early March. The new development, however, is that they’ve decided to offer it for streaming—in a revenue split with independent and repertory theaters we normally follow like Arizona’s The Loft, Ontario’s The Apollo, Boston’s Coolidge Corner, and many more. The revenue from these screenings can help these vital niche cinematic resources, who operate on small margins, keep going during these troubled times. (Kino is also screening Ken Loach’s Sorry We Missed You and plan on releasing more “upcoming Kino Lorber and Zeitgeist first run and repertory titles”). It’s a great way to see a weird movie and to support a small business at the same time. Theaters are requesting that you support your local cinema, but we doubt there’s any kind of enforcement, and suspect the Texas Theater won’t turn down your money if you’re ordering the movie from Idaho. Still, we leave the ethics of the matter up to you. This week, theaters in twenty-one North American cities are participating, with more to come. Rentals are good for five days and require registration with the “Kino Now” service. List of participating theaters and dates for streaming Bacurau.
FILM FESTIVALS – Ann Arbor Film Festival (Online, Mar 24-29):
Ann Arbor is the destination of choice for experimental filmmakers whose work is too academic, obscure and/or weird to screen at mainstream film festivals.This year, the entire Festival will be streamed live on Vimeo, including some Q&As with filmmakers. As usual, we recognize almost none of the featured titles (almost all of them are shorts). You might try checking out Dream Journal 2016–2019 at 8 P.M. CST on March 28; it stars “Xanax Girl” in a (animated?) feature that “weaves together deep-web imagery with detective story tropes and repressed fantasies to create a nightmarish vision of an internet addict’s unconscious.” Or just tune in at 3 PM CST on March 29, when the Festival will start screening all the award winners.
Beyond the Door (1974): A pregnant woman gets possessed by Old Nick. Starring Hayley Mills’ sister, it’s an Italian Exorcist ripoff with a small cult following; the ad copy describes is as “gloriously bonkers.” From Arrow, it’s a two Blu-ray limited edition with the uncut version, theatrical version, the feature-length documentary Italy Possessed, and more. Buy Beyond the Door.
Come to Daddy (2019): Read Giles Edwards’ review. This father and son reunion story is merely quirky up until “a plot spasm of strange violence brought the weird levels up to floodgate-breaking point.” DVD or Blu-ray. Buy Come to Daddy.
The Passion of Darkly Noon (1995): An orphaned fundamentalist develops an erotic obsession for the married woman who nurses him back to health. Philip Ridley‘s followup to the Canonically Weird The Reflecting Skin (1990) has been hard to find for a while; Arrow to the rescue, with a new commentary track from Ridley and the usual bells and whistles. Blu-ray. Buy The Passion of Darkly Noon.
Suburban Birds [Jiao qu de niao] (2018): An engineer investigating a sinkhole discovers a diary what seems to contain prophecies about his own life. A 5.8 on IMDB and 82% positive on Rotten Tomatoes; that’s the kind of spread that suggests a movie is either really boring, or really weird (or both). Blu-ray or DVD. Buy Suburban Birds.
Vivarium (2019): Read Giles Edwards’ review. A young couple find themselves trapped in an empty, endlessly repeating suburban hellscape. Originally scheduled for a theatrical + VOD release this week, it will have to make do with digital only. Buy or rent Vivarium.
CERTIFIED WEIRD (AND OTHER) REPERTORY SCREENINGS:
See “IN THEATERS” and “NEW RELEASES: STREAMING” above. To our knowledge, all North American theaters are currently closed. We did see one Memphis theater advertising a showing of Wild at Heart (1990) on April 2, but it was probably either wildly optimistic projection or (more likely) a misprint.
FREE MOVIES AND BONUS CONTENT FOR ISOLATED WEIRDOS:
Delightful Water Universe (2008): Trent Harris (Rubin & Ed) releases another one for free—temporarily—to help us weirder folk endure their social distancing. This link is unlisted and only up for a short time, so please don’t share without permission, and it goes without saying do not copy or download it—if you want a permanent copy, Harris sells them directly from his own website. In the writer/director’s own words, Delightful Water Universe is a “movie about a nincompoop president and the demise of the world as we know it! And Big Foot is in it too!” Fun for the whole family, although there is a fully-clothed sex scene with hula hoops. And remember, “It is possible for very weird people to get themselves into powerful positions.”
https://youtu.be/dVQ9nXO8JIc
“VCR Party Presents: Quarantine Qlassics, Ep. 1”: The folks at Found Footage Festival have been forced to cancel their tour of curated VHS curiosities. In this special quarantine edition of their regular webcast, they open packages of weird stuff their national correspondents have sent them. Some of the tapes screened include a hambone instructional video, a “video souvenir” from a cruise line, and an offer to speak to your person gaurdian angel for only $3.99 minute (this was in the 90s, rates are probably higher today). There are more video clips and tidbits at the Found Footage Festival website.
WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE: Lots going on ’round here, including our first 366 Netflix Party tomorrow, Saturday March 27, at 9:30 PM E.S.T. Details here, and we’ll announce the link tomorrow (almost certainly, the feature presentation will be The Platform). Who knows, if it goes well and isn’t too buggy, it could become a regular event. You can also still vote for the finalists our March Mad Movie Madness tournament until Sunday at midnight—vote here. And we’ll bring you a pair of new movie reviews, too. Giles Edwards reports on the black comedy Seven Stages to Achieve Eternal Bliss by Passing Through the Gateway Chosen by the Holy Storsh (we refuse to call it by its shortened name). Meanwhile, G. Smalley is considering taking Kino Lorber up on their offer to see Bacurau (see above) but has a backup plan for a different review if need be. Wash your hands, stay safe, and stay weird. 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.
Based on this probe of interest, we’ve decided to go ahead and schedule a Netflix watch party for 366 readers on Saturday, March 28, at 9:30 PM EST (time subject to change; feel free to suggest alternatives).
There are two sets of instructions: one for the poll, and then the instructions for joining the Netflix Party.
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. 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 Friday, March 27. You may vote for multiple movies, but not for every movie (because that would be pointless).
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, which would be tremendously helpful.
Then, we’ll see how it goes. This is our first time trying this so it could be a disaster, or it could be a blast that we repeat weekly or monthly. No way to know until we try it! Looking forward to getting to meet some of you in the virtual theater.
Celebrating the cinematically surreal, bizarre, cult, oddball, fantastique, strange, psychedelic, and the just plain WEIRD!
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