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:

Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988): Read our review. Minor, but kulty, spoof of 50s alien invasion horrors, with klowns replacing little green men. Arrow Video puts out a typically lavish Blu-ray with numerous interviews, deleted scenes, and new transfers of the Chiodo brothers’ early 8mm shorts. Buy Killer Klowns from Outer Space.

Scanners (1981): This horror about telepaths who can explode your head with a though is not one of David Cronenberg‘s weirder efforts; we actually mention this release more because of the inclusion of his experimental student film Stereo (which is set at the “Canadian Academy for Erotic Inquiry”) as a bonus feature. Criterion released the DVD in 2014; four years later, here’s the Blu-ray. Buy Scanners.

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.

• Dallas, TX, 3/30-3/31 – Belle de Jour (1967). At the Texas Theater.
• Los Angeles, CA, 3/30 (midnight) – Belladonna of Sadness (1973). At the Nuart Theater.
• Los Angeles, CA, 4/5 – Nostalghia (1983). At the Egyptian Theater.
• Silver Spring, MD, 3/31, 4/1, 4/3, 4/5 – Donnie Darko (2001). Theatrical cut, thankfully. At AFI Silver Theater.
• Nashville, TN, 4/3 – Persona (1966). At the Belcourt Theater.
• Nashville, TN, 4/4 – Hour of the Wolf [Vargtimmen] (1968). At the Belcourt Theater.
• New York City, NY, 3/30-4/1 – The Wicker Man (1973). The “final cut” version. At the Metrograph.
• New York City, NY, 4/1 – The Company of Wolves (1984). At the Metrograph.
• New York City, NY, 4/1-2, 4/4 – Vertigo (1958). At the Metrograph.
• Seattle, WA, 3/30-4/5- Howl’s Moving Castle (2004). At Ark Lodge Cinemas.
• Tuscon, AZ, 4/5 – Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012). At the Loft Cinema.
• Yonkers, NY, 4/3 – Vertigo (1958). Free screening for Victory program members (only?). At the Alamo Drafthouse.

FREE MOVIES ON TUBI.TV:

Pi (1998): Read the Certified Weird review! A corporation and the world’s toughest gang of Hasidic Jews try to keep a mathematics genius from revealing the God number. Watch Pi free on Tubi.TV.

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.

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 (in production):

The Missing Films: Documentary about two-time Certified Weird director Lars von Trier, with footage shot by his collaborators as he worked on his latest, the serial killer story The House That Jack Built. Preliminary footage was shown at a Danish industry forum, to positive buzz. Read more at Screen Daily.

Unicorn Wars: Birdboy is barely out, and Alberto Vázquez is already at work on his next feature film, which will be an expansion of his short “Unicorn Blood,” about a bloody fantasy war between unicorns and teddy bears. We’re adorably excited. Watch “Unicorn Blood” again and get excited too.

NEW ON HOME VIDEO:

Ichi the Killer (2001): A masochistic yakuza hitman discovers a mysterious sadist while searching for his latest target in this ultraviolent hit from Takashi Miike. In our reader-suggested review queue, and now on Blu-ray in a remastered, uncut and “definitive” release from Arrow Academy. Buy Ichi the Killer.

Images (1972): A pregnant children’s author goes insane while wondering if her husband is having an affair in this pyschodrama from Robert Altman‘s brief 1970s “weird” period. Arrow Academy’s restored Blu-ray is full of the usual extensive extras, including an expert commentary track. Buy Images.

Paradox (2018): The Man in the Black Hat hides out with Jail Time and the Particle Kid in this western/musical/fantasy starring Neil Young and directed by—Daryl Hannah?? A quick turnaround from its March debut at SWSX film festival to an exclusive Netflix contract (it is also screening a few dates in New York and Chicago).

Welcome the Stranger (2018): Alice visits her estranged brother, his strange girlfriend shows up, hallucinations ensue. Direct to video-on-demand is the new direct-to-video. Buy or rent Welcome the Stranger on-demand.

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.

• Bloomington, IN, 3/24 – 3 Women (1977). At Indiana University Cinema.
• New York City, NY, 3/25 – Blue Velvet (1986). At the Metrograph.
• New York City, NY, 3/26 – Millennium Actress (2001). At Videology Bar & Cinema.
• Yonkers, NY, 3/29 – The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension (1984). At the Alamo Drafthouse.

YOU LINK US! YOU REALLY LINK US!:

366 WEIRD MOVIES: Alfred Eaker’s Fringe Cinema: Val Santos has added to his Letterboxd guide to 366 Weird Movies.

Miracles for Sale: David Kalat cited Alfred Eaker‘s Miracles for Sale article as a source for his latest essay for Turner Classic Movies (the Tod Browning classic will be featured on the channel in May). Unfortunately, he misspelled Alfred’s last name and forgot to make the link clickable. This is how you do it, guys.

FREE MOVIES ON TUBI.TV:

Wild at Heart (1990): Read the Certified Weird entry! It’s weird on top. Watch Wild at Heart free on Tubi.TV.

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.

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):

Apocalypsis (2018): We’ll let the producer-supplied synopsis speak for itself: “Set in a parallel universe entering a black hole, a woman reading the book of Revelation has visions of regeneration during Anthropocene.” That’s a pitch you don’t hear everyday. Apocalypsis official site.

Vertigo (1958): Read the Certified Weird entry! Turner Classic Movies and Fathom Events team up to bring you Alfred Hitchcock‘s deceptively weird classic thriller of doubles on the big screen. Thanks to Matt (See comments) for the heads up. Mar 18 and 21, all across the United States—check for a theater near you here.

NEW ON HOME VIDEO:

The Shape of Water (2017): Read our capsule review. This interspecies fish-man love story was not as weird as we might have hoped (it won an Oscar, after all), but we did dig the musical number. Available on any format you could want: DVD, Blu-ray, on-demand, or even 4K. Buy The Shape of Water.

The Soultangler (1987): An 80s mad scientist discovers a way to allow living souls to possess corpses, with hallucinatory side effects. Distributor American Genre Film Archives says “[t]his epic of outsider filmmaking is a dream-like wasteland…” Buy The Soultangler.

A Trip to the Moon (1902): Read our mini-review. Georges Méliès‘ fantasy classic, restored to its original colors, on Blu-ray for what we believe is the first time. The film itself is only twelve minutes long, but it’s presented here by Flicker Alley in both color and black and white with five different soundtrack options, and also offers a 65-minute documentary and two additional Méliès shorts. A Blu-ray/DVD combo pack. Buy A Trip to the Moon.

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.

• Chicago, IL, 3/16-3/17 (midnights) – The Dark Backward (1991). At the Music Box Theater.
• Nashville, TN, 3/16, 19 – Hour of the Wolf (1968). At the Belcourt Theater.
• Nashville, TN, 3/18-19, 22 – Persona (1966). At the Belcourt Theater.
• New York City, NY, 3/16-3/17 (midnights) – The Holy Mountain (1973). At IFC Center.
• New York City, NY, 3/17 – Death Laid an Egg (1968) with short  “The Memory of the Future” (1960). At the Museum of Modern Art.
• New York City, NY, 3/18 – Dementia (1955) with shorts “My Name is Oona” (1969) and “Variations on a Cellophane Wrapper” (1970). At the Museum of Modern Art.
• New York City, NY, 3/18 – Blue Velvet (1986). At the Metrograph.
• New York City, NY, 3/19 – The Woman in the Dunes (1964) with short “Jose Torres” (1959).  At the Museum of Modern Art.
• Oakland, CA, 3/16 – The City of Lost Children (1995). At the New Parkway Theater.
• Seattle, WA, 3/16-22 – Metropolis (1927). At Ark Lodge Cinema.

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.

FILM FESTIVALS – SWSX (Austin, TX, Mar. 9-17):

If you can’t get your indie film into Sundance, the massive SXSW festival in Austin, Texas is your next best bet. With the continued mainstreaming of Sundance, and the increasingly homogenized “indie” product spotlighted there, if your movie’s a bit on the weirder side, SWSX may even be a better fit. There are a few repeats from other festivals, such as Bruno Dumont‘s rock opera Jeannette: The Childhood of Joan of Arc and the alternate-reality telemarketing satire Sorry to Bother You, but here are some of this year’s weirder-looking “new to us” offerings:

• Being Frank: The Chris Sievey Story – The true story behind the giant-headed performance artist responsible for the character depicted in Frank. Screens Mar 13, 14 & 17.
• The Field Guide to Evil – An anthology horror film, so who knows? But it features directors who’ve gone weird in the past like Peter Strickland, Agnieszka Smoczynska and Calvin Reeder. Screening near midnight on Mar 11, 12 & 16.
• Paradox– The Man in the Black Hat hides out with Jail Time and the Particle Kid in this western/musical/fantasy starring Neil Young and directed by—Daryl Hannah?? Screens Mar. 15 only.
• Perfect – Set in a “vaguely science fictional world,” a boy uses implants to seek perfection; executive produced by Steven Soderbergh and Flying Lotus. Mar 11, 13 & 15.
  

SWSX home page.

NEW ON HOME VIDEO:

Barbarella: Queen of the Galaxy (1968): Read the Certified Weird review! Jane Fonda tramps across a campy universe; this new Paramount release is not remastered or filled with extras, but does come in the popular steelbox format. In a Blu-ray/DVD combo pack. Buy Barbarella: Queen of the Galaxy.

Donnie Darko (2001): Read the Certified Weird review! With two editions in 2017 and one (so far) this year, it seems like we’re announcing a new Special/Limited/Definitive release of Donnie Darko every six months. Are we caught in some kind of time loop? On Blu-ray via Arrow Video. Buy Donnie Darko [Special Edition].

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.

• Bloomington, IN, 3/9 – The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971). At Indiana University Cinema.
• Dallas, TX, 3/16 – Hour of the Wolf [Vargtimmen] (1968). At the Texas Theater.
• Denver, CO, 3/10 – Fantastic Planet [La Planète Sauvage] (1973). At the Alamo Drafthouse.
• Los Angeles, CA, 3/10 – The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension (1984) with Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) (double feature). At the Aero Theater.
• Nashville, TN, 3/13 – Brazil (1985). At the Belcourt Theater.
• New York City, NY, 3/10-11 – Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012). At Nitehawk Cinema.
• New York City, NY, 3/11 – Blue Velvet (1986). At the Metrograph.
• New York City, NY, 3/14 – Dementia (1955).  At the Museum of Modern Art.
• New York City, NY, 3/14 – Death Laid an Egg [La morte ha fatto l’uovo] (1968).  At the Museum of Modern Art.
• New York City, NY, 3/15 – The Woman in the Dunes (1964). At the Museum of Modern Art.
• Vancouver, BC, Canada, 3/9 – Perfect Blue (1997). At the Rio Theater.
• Yonkers, NY, 3/10 – Alice [Neco Z Alenky] (1988). At the Alamo Drafthouse.

FREE (LEGITIMATE RELEASE) MOVIES ON TUBI.TV:

Dogville (2003): Read the Certified Weird entry! Lars von Trier‘s anti-American, perverted version of “Our Town,” on a minimalist set with no walls and sex slaves. Listed as “leaving soon.” Watch Dogville free on Tubi.TV.

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.

In just a few hours, the telecast of the Oscars (or, as we refer to them, the “Weirdcademy Awards for squares”) will begin. We are happy to steal the Academy’s Thunder by announcing cinema’s weirdest winners of 2017 now.

In the category of “Weirdest Short Film,” the winner is Kirsten Lepore for her strangely erotic (?) “Hi Stranger.” It’s OK, you can look at his butt.

In the category of “Weirdest Scene,” the Weirdcademy Award goes to mother! for the scene where Jennifer Lawrence’s unwanted houseguests send her newborn baby crowd surfing. No clip, because we wouldn’t want to spoil this for anyone who has yet to see the movie.

In the category of “Weirdest Actress,” the Award goes to… Jennifer Lawrence, for drinking a urine-colored beverage, flushing a heart, and generally risking her entire career in a transgressive environmentalist psychological horror movie that’s also a Biblical allegory.

In the category of “Weirdest Actor,” the Award goes to Casey Affleck, for performing almost all of A Ghost Story under a sheet with eyeholes cut out.

And, completing a dominant showing that was almost the first clean sweep in Weirdcademy Award history, the award for Weirdest Movie of 2017 goes to mother!, the most divisive film of 2017.

Thanks to all members of the Weirdcademy, and see you again next year!