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 HOME VIDEO:

Gutboy: A Badtime Story (2015): An (almost) all-marionette feature about a flayed puppet who fights the Man that proudly advertises itself as “the weirdest movie in the world.” Finally on Blu-ray after being exclusive to Troma’s streaming service for years. Buy Gutboy: A Badtime Story.

The Man Who Haunted Himself (1970): A pre-007 Roger Moore stars as a man who senses he has a doppelganger running around after a near-death experience in a car crash. A somewhat obscure mindbender, now out on DVD or Blu-ray from Kino Lorber. Buy The Man Who Haunted Himself.

Rhinoceros (1974): An adaptation of Eugene Ionesco’s quintessential absurdist play about a town where everyone is slowly turning into rhinoceroses (rhinoceri?) We had no idea that a film version of this existed—starring The Producers‘ Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder! Via Kino Classics, DVD and Blu-ray only. Buy Rhinoceros.

Sex Madness Revealed (2018): The (fictional) “Film Dick” podcaster (Patton Oswalt) interviews (fictional) experts about the (real) sexploitation film Sex Madness (1939) as it plays, and discovers (fictional) shocking secrets about the production. From the producer of Room 237, this appears to be another satire about people who read too much significance into cult movies. Released straight to DVD and Blu-ray. Buy Sex Madness Revealed.

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.

• Boston, MA, 5/11 – Synecdoche, New York (2008). At Coolidge Corner Theatre.
• Los Angeles, CA, 5/11 (midnight) – The Love Witch (2016). At the New Beverly Cinema.
• New York City, NY, 5/11 & 5/16 – The Tin Drum (1979). At the Museum of Modern Art.
• New York City, NY, 5/10 & 5/11 (midnights) – Female Trouble (1974). At IFC Center.
• New York City, NY, 5/10 & 5/11 (midnights) – Fight Club (1999). At IFC Center.
• New York City, NY, 5/12 – The Milky Way [La Voie Lactee] (1969). At the Museum of Modern Art.
• Oakland, CA, 5/10 – Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992). At the New Parkway Theater.
• San Diego, CA, 5/12 – Vertigo (1958). At Ken Cinema.
• Santa Ana, CA, 5/15-5/16 – Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998). At the Frida Cinema.
• Toronto, Ont., Canada, 5/11 – The Tin Drum (1979). At the Royal.
• Toronto, Ont., Canada, 5/12 – Shock Corridor (1963). At the Royal.
• Toronto, Ont., Canada, 5/12 – How to Get Ahead in Advertising (1989). At the Royal.

WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE: Next week, Giles Edwards gives you his impressions of the brand-new eldritch German art-house horror Hagazussa. Meanwhile, G. Smalley finally got around to viewing Bill Morrison‘s decayed-footage fantasia Decasia (Alfred Eaker’s original review is here), and will bring you his (redundant?) opinions on that one. We’re also aware that, once again, we’re way overdue on the print version of the annual Yearbook, but we wanted you to know that it’s all done but the final proofing—you should see an announcement soon! 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.

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 HOME VIDEO:

Khrustalyov, My Car! (1998): Read Giles Edwards’ review. This nightmarish Stalinist satire has long been hard-to-find; Arrow Academy to the rescue with another “special edition” Blu-ray with a new restoration and Criterion Collection-style extras. Also now on VOD. Buy Khrustalyov, My Car!

Serenity (2019): A commercial fisherman accepts a noirish bargain to bump off an ex-flame’s current husband, and then things get weird. Bombed at the box office, where it confounded viewers expecting a less metaphysical twist, but made it into our “reader suggestion” queue—so expect a review soon. On DVD. Blu-ray, and VOD. Buy Serenity.

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.

• Boston, MA, 5/3 (midnight) – The Black Cat (1934). At Coolidge Corner Theatre.
• Chicago, IL, 5/3 & 5/5 – The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T (1953). At Gene Siskel Film Center.
• Los Angeles, CA, 5/4 (midnight) – The Love Witch (2016). At the New Beverly Cinema.
• Los Angeles, CA,  5/5 – The City of Lost Children [La cité des enfants perdus] (1995) with Delicatessen (1991) (double feature), with Q&A with Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Ron Perlman. At the Aero Theatre.
• New York City, NY, 5/3-5/4 (midnights) – El Topo (1970). At IFC Center.
• New York City, NY, 5/3-5/4 (midnights) – Female Trouble (1974). At IFC Center.
• New York City, NY, 5/3-5/4 (midnights) – Fight Club (1999). At IFC Center.
• Oakland, CA, 5/9 – Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992). At the New Parkway Theater.
• Santa Ana, CA, 5/5 – Time Bandits (1981). At the Frida Cinema.
• Toronto, Ont., Canada, 5/6 – How to Get Ahead in Advertising (1989). At the Royal.
• Vancouver, BC, Canada, 5/4 & 5/9 – Perfect Blue (1997). At the Rio Theatre.

WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE: Next week, Pete Trbovich considers the psychedelic screensaver aesthetic of the 2019 assassin-in-a-coma flop Against the Clock, and Gregory J. Smalley fishes into the depths of the reader-suggested review queue and comes out with 1976’s mystery drama The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea. Of course, you’ll also get a new Saturday Short tomorrow and this column one week from today. Who knows, we might just throw something else in there, too. Onward and weirdward!

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.

And your winner, and “official” Weirdest Movie of All Time is…

We must say, readers showed tremendous taste and knowledge in voting throughout the entire tournament. We feared there might be significant recency bias towards films released in the late 2010s, but you guys really went for the deep cuts. There were some surprises—we didn’t expect to see Suspiria (1977) in the Freaky 4—but the final Eraserhead (1977) vs. The Holy Mountain (1973) matchup was exactly what we would have hoped for.

You can see the entire progress of the tournament (play-in rounds excepted) here.

We’re not going to count up the total number of votes cast during the tournament, but with 292 votes in the finals and 388 in the semifinals, we’d conservatively guess we tallied over 10,000 mouse clicks and mobile taps during the entire tournament (well over 1,000 votes were cast in the play-in rounds alone). That’s a pretty significant amount of data.

We can use that data to create a very unofficial ranking of the popularity of all 366 movies in our Canon. Of course, we realize this enterprise is silly and ultimately somewhat arbitrary—but people love to list things, organize and rank them, and then argue about the results. That human tendency is sort of the basis for this site’s very existence.

So, after awarding the winner and runner up, we placed each movie in the tier it was eliminated in, and then rank them by number of votes cast in their favor, breaking any ties by the movies’ initial seeding (which was itself determined by a combination of number of page visits to our site and  IMDB rankings). And here’s the way they turned out, ranked from #1 to #366 in reader preference (remembering that the “least popular” movie here is still more interesting than 90% of what’s currently playing at the cineplexes):
Continue reading MARCH MAD MOVIE MADNESS TOURNAMENT RECAP AND FINAL RANKINGS →

What you’re about to see below is probably the single most impressive fan-inspired content this site has ever seen. We have mentioned Val Santos before thanks to his complete Letterboxd list of the 366 Canon (which saved us the trouble of composing one). His latest project blows that contribution out of the water, however. Mr. Santos has taken four or five clips from every one of the 366 Caonically Weird movies and arranged them into a “supercut” that runs for over an hour. Sure, it’s a long time, but the parade of surreal imagery (expertly edited and scored to Michael Nyman) will make for great video wallpaper at your next gathering of weirdos. Give it a watch and be sure to give Val some appreciation here and on his YouTube page.

This is the final matchup G. Smalley personally was hoping for. Good job, readers.

                                             vs.

Here’s how they got here:

The Holy Mountain (1973): defeated Playtime (1967), 135-33; defeated The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), 105-36; defeated Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), 108-45; defeated Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (1970), 107-46; defeated Spirited Away (2001), 78-55; defeated 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), 106-65; defeated Suspiria (1977), 123-69.

Eraserhead (1977): defeated Evil Dead II (1987), 99-29; defeated A Clockwork Orange (1971), 102-33; defeated The Exterminating Angel [El àngel exterminador] (1962), 117-30; defeated The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), 112-41; defeated Häxan [Witchcraft Through the Ages] (1922), 111-34; defeated Mulholland Drive (2001), 151-51; defeated Un Chien Andalou (1929), 149-47.

We are expected a close and hard-fought battle between these two titans who have demolished all of their competition.

You can see how the entire tournament has played out here (but you must vote on this page, in the poll below).

Voting lasts until Wednesday, April 24 at 12:00 midnight EST. You may vote once a day. As always, no wagering, please.