Our weekly look at what’s weird in theaters, on hot-off-the-presses DVDs, and on more distant horizons…

Trailers of new release movies are generally available on the official site links.

IN THEATERS (LIMITED RELEASE):

Da Sweet Blood of Jesus (2014): A professor becomes a vampire-like creature, then strikes up a romantic relationship with a woman. The background to this movie may be stranger than the actual film: this is Spike Lee’s crowdfunded remake of the minor 1970s black vampire romance cult film Ganja and Hess.  Da Sweet Blood of Jesus Facebook page.

IN DEVELOPMENT:

Endless Poetry (Poesia sin Fin): Alejandro Jodorowsky really is back. In his typical extravagant fashion, he’ll be announcing his next project in a live YouTube address tomorrow, Feb. 15th (no word on whether he’ll be wearing clothes), and a Kickstarter campaign will be launched at the same time. There are few firm details: the press release explains the movie will explore “the magic reality underlying our surrounding world,” while Screen Daily says that this will be another autobiographical effort starring sons Brontis and Adan, focusing on Alejandro’s time as a poet in Santiago. Tune in to Endless Poetry‘s official site tomorrow for the live address!

NEW ON DVD:

Don’t Look Now (1973): Read the Certified Weird entry! The Criterion Collection gets their hands on Nicolas Roeg‘s psychological horror of parental grief, compiling an entire disc’s worth of extra features for fans. Buy Don’t Look Now [Criterion Collection 2-disc].

Nekromantik 2 (1991): The female necrophile from the original must choose between her dead lover and a new beau, one who lacks that certain putrescence she so adores. A sticker on the front cover explains that this is a limited edition of 2000 copies with collectible artwork. Buy Nekromantik 2.

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

An American Hippie in Israel (1972): A Vietnam vet founds a nudist utopia on a deserted island while being hunted by mimes with machine guns. Grindhouse Releasing calls it a “one of cult cinema’s legendary lost classics” and “the most psychedelic movie ever made.” Although this was released last year, this is the first time it is available on Blu-ray alone (as opposed to the more expensive 3-disc DVD/Blu-ray combo pack special edition). Buy An American Hippie In Israel [Blu-ray].

Don’t Look Now (1973): See description in DVD above. Buy Don’t Look Now [Criterion Collection Blu-ray].

Nekromantik 2 (1991): See description in DVD above. There are 5000 copies of the limited edition Blu, making it less than half as rare as the DVD. Buy Nekromantik 2 [Blu-ray].

Vampire’s Kiss (1988)/High Spirits (1988): Vampire’s Kiss, wherein a literary agent believes he has been bitten by a vampire, is the movie with the unhinged losing-it performance that first convinced the world that Nicolas Cage might actually be mentally ill. This cult curiosity is paired with the far less interesting Steve Guttenberg/Daryl Hannah comedy High Spirits, about a man’s love affair with a ghost. Buy Vampire’s Kiss/High Spirits [Blu-ray].

FREE MOVIES ON SHOUT TV:

Dreamscape (1984): A psychic tries to rescue the President of the United States, who’s trapped inside his own nightmares. Watch Dreamscape free on Shout 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 on more distant horizons…

Trailers of new release movies are generally available on the official site links.

IN THEATERS (LIMITED RELEASE):

The Voices (2014): Marjane Satrapi‘s first American feature is a tale of murder involving an unbalanced factory worker who takes advice from his talking cat and dog. Ryan Reynolds’ performance is drawing universal praise, but the bad news is that means even weird-hating troll critic Rex Reed liked it. The Voices Facebook page.

SCREENINGS – (Cinefamily, Los Angeles, CA, Feb 6, 8, 12):

The Peanut Butter Solution (1985): Read our capsule review (and the many comments from the movie’s scarred adult survivors). Cinefamily always brings the cool, and now they break out a 35mm print of the much-remembered, unintentionally horrifying story about a boy who loses his hair from fright, then gets a recipe from ghosts to regrow it. Friday night’s screening begins at 7:30 PM PST and is hosted by Solution producer Rock Demers. We always hope these screenings herald an upcoming DVD release, but we’re usually disappointed. Maybe this time will be an exception. The Peanut Butter Solution at Cinefamily.

SCREENINGS – (Spectacle, Brooklyn, NY, Feb 8):

Help! Help! The Globolinks (1969): Read the Certified Weird entry! Spectacle, who screened Final Flesh just last week, once again feature an ultra-rare one with this psychedelic German television production of Giancarlo Menotti’s children’s opera about an invasion of music-hating aliens. Part of their “Rockuary” series.  Globolinks may be the least seen of all the Certified Weird movies, so you owe it to yourself to catch it in a crowd of your fellow proud weirdos if you possibly can. Help! Help! The Globolinks at Spectacle.

NEW ON DVD:

ABCs of Death 2 (2014): Sequel to the sporadically good, sporadically weird original; the second-string lineup of directors still includes a couple of fascinating names like Bill Plympton and Vincenzo Natali. The buzz on this installment was understandably not as big as the first time around, so we doubt we’ll be seeing ABCs 3. Buy ABCs of Death 2.

Scavenger Killers (2013): A renegade judge and a sexy defense attorney team up for a torture killing spree, trailed by oddball FBI agents including a psychic with Tourette’s Syndrome (played by–naturally—disgraced “Saved by the Bell” geek Dustin Diamond). This just came out in July 2014, and now the “Director’s Cut” is already out (released by a different distributor); the difference in listed run times between the two editions amounts to 2 minutes. Buy Scavenger Killers (Director’s Cut).

Starry Eyes (2014): Horror about Hollywood; a young actress lands a big part, and finds her body and mind transformed. Is Satan the casting director? Time suggested this is what might result “if David Lynch and David Cronenberg came together to craft a gory, psychological mindbender…” Buy Starry Eyes.

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

ABCs of Death 2 (2014): See description in DVD above. Buy ABCs of Death 2 [Blu-ray].

Pom Poko (1994): Magical shapeshifting racoons struggle to save their forest home from urban encroachment. Having finally Blu-ed all the most popular Hayao Miyazaki titles, Disney turns their attention to releasing the second-tier Studio Ghibli titles. Buy Pom Poko [Blu-ray].

Porco Rosso (1992): Speaking of Miyazaki, Disney’s other Ghibli release this week is his tale of the adventures of a WWI flying ace who is under a spell that turns him into a talking pig. Not as big a crossover hit as his other films, but true Miyazaki fans treasure this oddity as much as any of the master’s more lucrative films. Buy Porco Rosso [Blu-ray].

Starry Eyes (2014): See description in DVD above. Buy Starry Eyes [Blu-ray].

FREE (LEGITIMATE RELEASE) MOVIES:

A Boy and His Dog (1975): Read the Certified Weird entry! Move over YouTube; ShoutFactory TV is on! Yes, cult TV and movie specialists Shout! Factory are rolling out their catalog online, for free (commercial-supported, but still…) Shout! owns the rights to “Mystery Science Theater 3000,” “Elvira’s Movie Macabre,” Roger Corman‘s 1970s exploitation films, and more! Sadly, their impressive horror catalog, hosted on sub-label Scream Factory, does not appear to be part of this online package… yet. This announcement could mean some very big weird titles coming online for free very soon. Keep an eye out in this space for details. For now, we’ll start you out with the screen adaptation of Harlan Ellison’s crazy post-apocalyptic tale about a roving wasteland rapist and his sarcastic telepathic pooch, A Boy and His Dog. Watch A Boy and His Dog free on ShoutFactory TV (rated R).

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 on more distant horizons…

Trailers of new release movies are generally available on the official site links.

IN THEATERS (LIMITED RELEASE):

Hard to Be a God (2013): Future Earth scientists land on a planet stuck in its own version of the Middle Ages, and are treated like gods. Director Aleksei German, who died in 2013, worked on this adaptation of a novel by the Strugatsky brothers (who also wrote the source material for Stalker) for the last 13 years of his life. U.S. distributor Kino Lorber’s Hard to Be a God site.

“Oscar Nominated Short Films 2015”: As usual, this annual shorts event is divided into three programs: animated, live action, and documentary. Although years past have seen multiple experimental movies make the slate, this year looks to be a regression towards the conventional: the only thing of potential weird interest we spotted was Bill Plympton‘s latest, “Footprints,” on the animated un-nominated undercard. These bite-sized mini-masterpieces are usually worth taking a chance on, however. The Oscar Nominated Short Films 2015 official site.

SCREENINGS – (Television, Turner Classic Movies, Sat. Jan 31, 2:15 AM EST):

Twice Upon a Time (1983)/The 5,000 Fingers of Dr T (1953): TCM Underground just keeps digging up the rarities. We half expect The Day the Clown Cried to screen next month. This week, however, we get Twice Upon a Time, the never-on-DVD and rarely screened animated feature written and directed by John Korty using George Lucas’ Star Wars money. The chaotic plot involves warring tribes who deliver sweet dreams and nightmares, respectively, and parts of the dialogue were improvised by a comedy troupe (in two versions: one more kid-friendly, and one full of mild profanity). The movie utilized a painstaking, unique and never-again attempted form of animation whereby translucent cells were laid over a light table and filmed to give the movie a “stained glass” appearance. If that’s not enough to entice you, consider that they’re following that screening up with a showing of The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T, Dr. Seuss’ Certified Weird musical fantasy about boys enslaved by a musical tyrant and forced to play a giant piano. Set your DVRs! Thanks to 366 contributor and TCM Underground monitor L. Rob Hubbard for pointing this one out (he writes much more about the film on his personal blog). Lots more Twice Upon a Time background (the movie’s backstory is maybe even more convoluted than its plot) on TCM’s official blog, “Movie Morlocks”.

SCREENINGS – (Spectacle, Brooklyn, NY, Sat. Jan. 31):

Final Flesh (2009): Read the Certified Weird entry! We don’t know exactly who’s behind Spectacle—we just discovered them this week—but anyone who publicly screens Vernon Chatman‘s DVD-only prank project wherein four amateur porn troupes enact an absurdist script about the apocalypse is OK in our book. We notice they’re hosting some more screenings of rare Certified Weird movies later in the season, so if you’re in Brooklyn or thereabouts you’ll want to bookmark their site. Final Flesh at Spectacle.

NEW ON DVD:

Miss Meadows (2014): Katie Holmes stars as a Marry Poppins-like schoolmarm with a vigilante streak. The irony here seems a little on-the-nose. Buy Miss Meadows.

Why Don’t You Play in Hell? (2013): A movie-within-a-movie is the setting for Shion Sono’s latest; the early teaser trailer featured samurai fighting yakuza and ran literal rivers of blood. We’ve been anxiously waiting on this release for some time now. Buy Why Don t You Play in Hell?

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

Why Don’t You Play in Hell? (2013): See description in DVD above. Buy Why Don t You Play in Hell? [Blu-ray].

FREE (LEGITIMATE RELEASE) MOVIES ON YOUTUBE:

Lazy Stoners Descending (2014): An amateur psychedelic documentary chronicling three stoners’ pro-pot musings. Is the title a play on Lucifer Rising, or am I just high? Obviously, this movie contains profanity and graphic images of legal-in-Colorado drug use. Watch Lazy Stoners Descending on YouTube.

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.

Dear readers, in the past week we have been under intermittent attack by an idiot botnet trying to brute-force admin passwords so it can insert spam links that would take us a few hours to clean up. There were over 15,000 login attempts over night!

The situation is as if I had a car with two separate keys (username and password), one for the door and one for the ignition. The botnet is like a car thief with a massive keyring of thousands of keys (password guesses). He tries out each key hoping it will magically work. If by some miracle he finds the right key (username) to open the door, then he would need to go through the whole thing again to get the car to drive (by guessing the password). Then, I would recover the car a few hours later with LoJack anyway.

Unfortunately, despite having no chance of success, this moronic behavior taxes our server resources. Therefore we’ve taken some extra security steps to try to keep the scripts from ever reaching the login page in the first place.

The TLDR point of all this is that if you find the site behaving oddly (especially in regards to logging in or commenting) due to the defensive maneuvers we’ve been forced to take, we’d appreciate it if you’d contact us and let us know.

Thanks brave readers!