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):

Rhymes for Young Ghouls (2013): A young girl on the Canadian Crow Reservation in the 1970s sells pot to afford to pay a “truancy tax” that keeps her out of the prison-like Indian school, but when the sadistic government agent who runs the reservation betrays their deal, she decides to strike back. We will review this one on Monday. Rhymes for Young Ghouls official site.

SCREENINGS – (Lawrence Arts Center, Lawrence, KS, Thurs., Oct 30):

Phantom of the Paradise (1974): Read the Certified Weird entry. The University of Kansas celebrates Halloween with a screening of Brian De Palma‘s crazed rock-n-roll satire. Pay no credence to the rumor that the “unnamed band”  that will play live after the show is the Undeads. Phantom of the Paradise at Lawrence Arts Center event on Facebook.

IN DEVELOPMENT:

“Pee-Wee Herman Movie”: In an interview with Rolling Stone, Paul “Pee-Wee” Reubens says a new Pee-Wee Herman movie (or at least an official announcement) is “very imminent.” We’ve been hearing rumors of a new Pee-Wee for years but this is the most definitive statement from the man himself. Read what Entertainment Today has to say about the tidbit.

NEW ON DVD:

“Boobs, Babes & Belly Laughs: The Sex Comedy Collection”: Okay, we suspect horny buyers will get two out of three (or in one case, one out of three) of the things the box cover promises. The movies here are Space Girls in Beverly Hills, Nipples and Palm Trees, Hookers Inc. (which is rated PG1-3!), and the flick that prompts us to mention the set: the absurd-sounding Orgies and the Meaning of Life, an arthouse flop with stick-figure animation about a group-sex obsessed author searching for God. Buy “Boobs, Babes & Belly Laughs: The Sex Comedy Collection”.

La Dolce Vita (1960): A celebrity photographer encounters the meaninglessness of modern existence. A superlative masterpiece, to be sure, but hardly the weirdest of Federico Fellini‘s movies; still, it’s in our reader-suggested review queue. The Criterion Collection gives the film its due respect with 2 DVDs or 1 Blu-ray (sold separately). Buy La Dolce Vita.

“Pee-Wee’s Playhouse: Seasons 1 & 2”: See description in Blu-ray below. The complete series run isn’t available on one DVD set—at least not at present. Buy “Pee-wee’s Playhouse: Seasons 1 & 2”.

The Scribbler (2014): A woman with multiple personality disorder uses an experimental machine to scrub away various identities. Reviews were generally negative, but Mike McGranaghan thought it was “gloriously bonkers.” Hope you’re right, Mike. Buy The Scribbler.

Snowpiercer (2013): Read James Harben’s review. All aboard the weirdest train in the frozen post-apocalypse! Buy Snowpiercer.

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

La Dolce Vita (1960): See description in DVD above. Buy La Dolce Vita [Blu-ray].

“Pee-Wee’s Playhouse: The Complete Series”: The secret word is “weird” in Pee-Wee’s anthropomorphic playhouse with talking chairs and Laurence Fishburne as a jheri-curl cowboy. The show has some fans ’round these parts. Includes the Christmas Special and comes on 8 Blu-rays courtesy of Shout! Factory. Buy “Pee-Wee’s Playhouse: The Complete Series” [Blu-ray].

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

Snowpiercer (2013): See description in DVD above. Buy Snowpiercer [Blu-ray].

“The Vincent Price Collection II”: Nothing too weird, but nice Halloween viewing. Features two from the Roger Corman Poe cycle (The Raven and The Tomb of Ligea), along with the underrated morbid mirth of The Comedy of Terrors, The Last Man on Earth, House on Haunted Hill, and the sequels The Return of the Fly and Dr. Phibes Rises Again. Buy “The Vincent Price Collection II” [Blu-ray].

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):

Young Ones: Family melodrama set on a parched post-apocalyptic ranch. Critics seem unable to figure out exactly what to make of this strange melange of genres from Jake (brother of Gwyneth) Paltrow, but they acknowledge it’s unique. Young Ones official site.

NEW ON DVD:

Witching and Bitching (2103): Alex de la Iglesia’s latest sounds like From Dusk Till Dawn with witches; bank robbers fleeing a heist run into a coven in the woods. The Village Voice says it’s “the rare wannabe cult hit that smears the screen in grade-A craziness.” Buy Witching & Bitching.

Wonderland (2011): A serial killer employs a drug that allows those who take it to enter other peoples’ consciousnesses to cause a wave of suicides. Co-written by Jimmy ScreamerClauz (not a misprint), director of Where the Dead Go to Die. Buy Wonderland.

You and the Night (2013): A couple and their transvestite maid throw an orgy: the invited guests are known only as “the Slut,” “the Star,” “the Stud,” and “the Teen.” This being an avant-garde French film, they talk a lot. Cahiers du Cinéma listed it in their top ten of 2013, for what that’s worth. Buy You And The Night.

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

Cauldron of Blood (1970): Read our review. We also like an Amazon reviewer’s summary: “a movie this strange can only be a product of really poor decision making.” Buy Cauldron of Blood [Blu-ray].

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.

Now that we’ve Certified 182 of an eventual 366 movies as Weird, we’re now officially almost halfway through the List of the Best Weird Movies ever made. We’re very near the Point of No Return, about to go over the hump and get on the downhill slope. We’d like you, the loyal (and even the not-so-loyal) readers to chose the movies to celebrate this milestone.

As observant readers notice, some movies make the List on a first screening, while we nominate others as “List Candidates.” Sometimes these films are lovable classics with powerful imagery, but they’re only a little bit weird. Sometimes they’re amazingly bizarre, but utter crap. Sometimes the reviewer was in a bad mood when they screened it and didn’t give it a fair chance. And, although we’d never admit it, sometimes a movie was good enough to make the List on the first ballot, but we were too busy to write up a full Certified Entry that week and dashed off a List Candidate review instead. The end result is that any of the films listed below could have been placed on the List of the 366 Best Weird Movies, but we chickened out and made each of them “List Candidates” instead.

Although these movies arrived at this point by different routes, they’re all in the same boat now. They all need your help to ensure their rightful spot on the List! Usually we only allow readers to vote two films on the List: in celebration of reaching the midway point (and because we have a lot more candidates than usual), we have split the voting into three groups. Please select one candidate from Group A (movies from 1932-1975), one from Group B (1979-2008), and one from Group C (2008-present). You can vote once per day. Voting closes at midnight (EST) on October 29, 2014.

Past Reader Choices that made the List were Alice, Visitor Q, Pink Floyd: The Wall, Trash Humpers, The American Astronaut, Dead Ringers, Keyhole, and Sweet Movie.

Comments are encouraged: maybe you can sway others to vote for your favorite?

You may vote once per day until the poll ends on October 29.

Vote below: Continue reading 5TH IRREGULARLY SCHEDULED READERS’ CHOICE POLL →

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 Canal: A film projectionist suspects his wife of cheating, then discovers archival footage of a murder that took place in the house he now lives in. Another psychological horror in the “descent into madness” genre, this time from Ireland. Reviews have been favorable. The Canal official site.

Giuseppe Makes a Movie: Documentary about Giuseppe Andrews’ vulgar, boozy, super-low budget movies, cast with trailer-park residents and the homeless. This may be both the best, and the only, way for most people to see this Korinesque footage. Giuseppe Makes a Movie official site.

IN DEVELOPMENT:

“Twin Peaks” Season 3 (2016): We’re sure you’ve heard this already, but in case you’ve been in a coma the past week, but David Lynch and series co-creator Mark Frost announced that the cult TV series that brought surrealism into American homes in the form of a police-procedural soap opera will return. Pay network Showtime will be the series’ new home. Lynch will direct all the episodes, producing his first significant film work after a decade of semi-retirement. Sorry we’re late reporting the news, but if Lynch/Frost can wait 25 years between series, we can delay a few days before announcing it. Empire has a nice write-up.

NEW ON DVD:

Choking Man (2006): A shy, possibly schizophrenic Ecuadorian immigrant dishwasher falls in love with a pretty Chinese-American waitress and has animated hallucinations. Not sure why this forgotten indie from the director of that famous “a-ha” video  is suddenly being re-released on DVD, but here it is. Buy Choking Man.

Cult (2013): Three cute female pop idols end up battling a demon when they attend an exorcism as part of a reality show. According to the Twitch quote on the boxcover, it’s a “wacky found footage horror oddity,” which is the kind of thing we tend to look kindly on around here. Buy Cult.

“The Female Gaze: Contemporary Films by Women from Around the World”: Box set of seven international female directed movies, from Film Movement. This is not the sort of thing that would normally catch our attention except for the inclusion of Madeinusa (2006), the story of an isolated Peruvian village where every year sins may be freely committed in the three days leading up to Easter—it’s sort of a Catholic arthouse version of The Purge. Buy “Female Gaze: Contemporary Films by Women from Around the World”.

Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart (2013): A child has his heart replaced by a cuckoo-clock at birth and is told he will die if he falls in love. This Burton-esque animated fairy tale from France is available from Shout! Factory in a DVD/Blu-ray combo pack (neither format sold separately). Buy Jack and The Cuckoo Clock Heart [Blu-ray/DVD Combo].

Sharknado 2: The Second One (2014): This time, the tornado full of sharks is in New York City, and the movie reportedly is more forthright in its comic intentions. The Sharknado movies (and SyFy’s seafood horrors in general) tend to be popular with people who discovered the concept of “so bad it’s good” five minutes ago; but will they have staying power? Buy Sharknado 2: The Second One.

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

Billion Dollar Brain (1967): M1 secret agent Harry Palmer (Michael Caine) goes up against a renegade Texas oil billionaire with a supercomputer who wants to incite a revolution in Latvia. If you ever wondered how a young Ken Russell would handle an assignment to helm a James Bond ripoff , this is your chance to find out. Buy Billion Dollar Brain [Blu-ray].

From Dusk Till Dawn (1996): Criminal lowlifes on the run hide out in a Mexican biker bar that just happens to be home to a tribe of vampires.  Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino‘s first collaboration was a cult success, but no word on how this Lionsgate Blu release differs from the previous Echo Bridge version (if at all). Buy From Dusk Till Dawn [Blu-ray].

Iguana (1988): After a shipwreck, a disfigured whaler makes himself king of the island and tyrannizes those who formerly mocked him. An nearly forgotten ( now out-of-print on DVD) drama-horror from the always unique Monte Hellman. Buy Iguana [Blu-ray].

Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart (2013): See description in DVD above. Buy Jack and The Cuckoo Clock Heart [Blu-ray/DVD Combo].

Nekromantik (1988): Read our review. Seriously: the cheap grime of Nekromantik needs hi-def treatment? Stick to VHS if you just have to watch this trash. Buy Nekromantik (Blu-ray)

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.

VIDEO ON-DEMAND:

The Demon’s Rook (2013): A young man must embrace his demonic heritage to fight off an invasion from Hell. Tribeca Films picked up this over-saturated tribute to early 1980s horror flicks up for distribution, but we haven’t heard anything about a theatrical or DVD release yet—this is the only way to see it, for now, at least. The Demon’s Rook on-demand.

FILM FESTIVALS – Sitges Film Festival (Sitges, Catalan, Spain, Oct 3-12):

Although Sitges as always has a fine slate of fantastic films, they’re more into quantity than exclusivity. We’ve seen most of the offerings at other film festivals (a handful of the features, like the just-Certified Weird The Double, are already out on DVD here in the U.S.). Here are a few notable films we noticed that appear to be debuting there (along with some special screenings of older cult films):

• Accion Mutante (1993) – Spanish horror weirdo Alex de la Iglesia‘s first film was about a group of deformed terrorists who kidnap and mutilate the beautiful. Catch a screening Oct. 5.
• The Distance – An artist imprisoned in a Siberian power plant hires three magical dwarfs to steal “The Distance.” Screens Oct. 5.

• Kiki’s Delivery Service – The live-action version of the Hayao Miyazaki animated classic about a young witch in training looks more like the Japanese version of Harry Potter than anything truly bizarre, but you may want to judge for yourself. Take a chance on Oct. 4.
• Pierrot Lunaire – Provocateur Bruce La Bruce brings his transgressive (and in this case, transsexual) touch to this avant-garde adaptation of Arnold Schoenberg’s atonal composition that now involves a girl’s quest for a penis transplant. Oct. 4.
• Show Pieces – Five short films written by comics god Alan Moore; one involves a stripper and a clown in Purgatory. Screens Oct. 5.

• The Pinkie – An “ugly” girl clones a DIY boyfriend from her would-be lover’s severed pinky in this heavily stylized Japanese exploitation romantic comedy. Oct. 3 only (that’s today, so you probably missed it – sorry!)

NEW ON DVD:

“Betty Boop: The Essential Collection, Volume 4”: Olive Films’ fourth collection of Boop toons is another unthemed jumble of pre-code and post-code shorts, but it does contain her surreal take on “Snow White” (with guest voice Cab Calloway singing a dirge as Betty is borne away in a glass coffin). We do love our Boop ’round here, and it’s gratifying to see restored versions of these classics. Buy “Betty Boop: The Essential Collection Volume 4”.

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.