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 (WIDE RELEASE):

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For: Old characters (like anvil-faced Marv) mix with new in this second set of stories from Frank Miller’s pulpy Sin City. This much belated and surprisingly underhyped sequel to the Certified Weird original arrives to a chorus of critical mehs. Sin City: A Dame to Kill For official site.

IN THEATERS (LIMITED RELEASE):

Winter in the Blood: An alcoholic Native American wakes up in a ditch, then returns to his home on a Montana reservation to discover his wife has left him, taking his beloved rifle with her. We’re not sure where this modest vision quest film is actually playing, but rest assured, it’s out there. Winter in the Blood official site.

SCREENINGS – (Cinefamily, Los Angeles, 8/23-24, 26-27):

“The Early Surrealism of Buñuel”: You missed the opening night martini party (held yesterday, you poor saps), but Los Angelinos can still attend one of the four remaining screenings pairing the Surrealist classics Un Chien Andalou and L’Age D’Or. An exhibit of some of Luis Buñuel‘s personal artifacts will also be on display, on loan from the Luis Buñuel Film Institute. Make a pilgrimage and suck on the master’s cinematic toe! “The Early Surrealism of Buñuel” at Cinefamily.

IN DEVELOPMENT:

The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (est 2015): In his review of The Zero Theorem James Harben prayed aloud that Terry Gilliam would get the chance to make his long-gestating Don Quixote film before death or dementia set in for the 73-year old director. The latest info says he’s on the project again, although we’ve heard this song before. He has financing, and a new script that sets the story in the modern era and makes the film (at least partially) about a filmmaker making a film about Don Quixote. It’s set to begin shooting sometime after Christmas. Our fingers are crossed that Gilliam can break the curse and end his Quixotic quest to adapt Cervantes’ classic novel. More details at the Wrap.

NEW ON DVD:

Only Lovers Left Alive (2013): Read our review. Jim Jarmusch‘s slow and stately vampire movie is a low-key hit for a certain set, though it’s not tremendously weird. Buy Only Lovers Left Alive.

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

Only Lovers Left Alive (2013): See description in DVD above. Buy Only Lovers Left Alive [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.

It’s officially the summer doldrums, with no new weird releases daring to challenge the hegemony of Guardians of the Galaxy and its ilk. Even DVD releases have dried up. If you live in L.A., you’re golden; otherwise, just hold on until next week and hope things get better. Here’s what we’ve got to report on:

SCREENINGS – (Cinefamily, Los Angeles, CA, Fri. Aug 7):

Motel Hell (1980): “It takes all kinds of critters to make Farmer Vincent’s fritters.” Those critters apparently include chainsaw wielding pig-men in this cannibal comedy cult classic with a couple of truly outrageous scenes. This is a midnight advance-release party/screening for the Blu-ray that comes out next week; the filmmakers will be in attendance. Motel Hell at Cinefamily.

FILM FESTIVALS – (Sundance NEXT Fest, Los Angeles, CA, Aug 8-10):

NEXT Fest is sort of “Sundance on tour”: the venerable Park City festival takes some of its greatest hits from the past year (and years past) to LA for special screenings, sometimes paired with a musical act. Of this year’s seven featured films, one is already past and three are already listed as “sold out” at the time of this writing, but the only one we’d be interested in still has tickets available for its Saturday afternoon screening. That film is Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter, the Zellner brothers character study about a backwards Japanese woman mistakenly concludes that the movie Fargo is a documentary and sets out for Minnesota to discover the lost ransom money. Indiewire called it a “bizarre joy.” The brothers will be there to talk about their latest effort, joined by a very special guest fan: Werner Herzog.

Sundance NEXT FEST homepage.

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

Phantom of the Paradise (1974): Read our review. Shout! Factory releases Brian De Palma‘s glam-rock version of the Phantom as a Blu-ray special edition with loads of supplements; confusingly, a separate disc of extras is included on DVD format rather than Blu—but the main feature is not on the DVD. Buy Phantom of the Paradise [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.

L. Rob Hubbard will kick things off next week at 366 Weird Movies championing Charms, a nearly-forgotten 1973 counterculture mish-mash about early bikers encountering witches. We’ll follow that up by dipping into the reader-suggested review queue for a look at 1967’s avant-garde actioner Point Blank (which has just seen a Blu-ray release), and head out to the theaters to see what’s the deal with Luc Besson’s Scarlett Johansson-fronted fantasy Lucy.

This week in weird search terms was dominated by people looking for movies so strange that they may or may not exist; if they do, and are not just mangled memories emweirdened by forgetfulness, imagination, and/or unfortunate spelling, then we want to see them. An example of that last category of weird movie memories is “that movie were an indian surfeczts that guy wiht a pillow” (if you’re reading, kind searcher, we assume you are looking for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest—but “surfeczts”?) Next up is “1950 movie about a fat groundhog dressed like a lady,” which speaks for itself in its weirdness. We’ll give the trophy for Weirdest Search Term of the Week—which, not coincidentally, is also the movie we’d most like to see if it really does exist—to “older movie with alien caveman splitting woman in half glowing arrows.” The image this description draws up in the mind’s eye is mind-bogglingly cool.

Here’s how the ridiculously-long-and-ever-growing reader-suggested review queue stands: Point Blank (1967) (next week!); Abnormal: The Sinema of Nick Zedd; Rubin & Ed; The Real McCoy; Themroc; Candy (1968); The Fox Family; Angelus; Cloudy with a Chance of  Meatballs; Yokai Monsters, Continue reading WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE →

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 Strange Little Cat (2013): Strangely framed scenes of domestic life from a Berlin apartment. It’s hard to get a sense of what this comedy is actually like, but one reviewer’s opinion that it may be “the weirdest most seemingly normal movie I’ve ever seen” is hopefully telling. Playing at Lincoln Center in New York City this week, future U.S. theatrical dates likely to be scant. The Strange Little Cat official site.

NEW ON DVD:

“Mystery Science Theater Vol. XXX”: The four entries in this thirtieth set of satirized schlock from the cult movie-mocking series includes Willis O’Brien’s creature feature The Black Scorpion, the much sought after 1980s sword-and-sorcery mistake Outlaw of Gor, the British sci-fi of The Projected Man, and 1974’s were-bat horror It Lives by Night. Full disclosure: none of these titles are actually rated XXX. Buy “Mystery Science Theater 3000: XXX”.

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

“Herzog: The Collection”: A major event in weird (and classic) Blu-ray. This 13-disc set includes the Certified Weird Even Dwarfs Started Small along with Land of Silence and Darkness, Fata Morgana, Aguirre, The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser, Heart of Glass, Stroszek, Woyzeck, Nosferatu the Vampyre, Fitzcarraldo, Ballad of Little Soldier, Where the Green Ants Dream, Cobra Verde, Little Dieter Needs to Fly, and My Best Fiend. A must-have for cinephiles with a mere $15o or so to burn (which, sadly, excludes most 366 Weird Movies staff). Buy Herzog: The Collection [Blu-ray].

“Twin Peaks: The Entire Mystery”: Another major, major event in weird Blu-rays. Couldn’t they space these things out? This set contains every episode of the “Twin Peaks” television show (remastered for a hi-def presentation), the Fire Walk With Me theatrical movie with extras comprising 90 minutes of previously unseen footage, and all-new supplements (including an in-character interview with the surviving, and deceased, Palmers). It all fits on 10 discs. Maybe take out a second mortgage and splurge on Herzog and Peaks together this week? Buy “Twin Peaks: The Entire Mystery” [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 (WIDE RELEASE):

Lucy (2014): Luc Besson directs Scarlett Johansson as a woman who develops nearly omnipotent psychic powers after being accidentally dosed with an experimental drug. The trailer makes this movie look particularly stupid, and we would have avoided mentioning it if not for early reviews proclaiming that it “ends as a bad LSD trip” (Rolling Stone) and talking up “the sheer weirdness of Lucy‘s imagery…” (A.V. Club). Perhaps coincidentally, perhaps not, “Lucy” is a slang term for LSD. Lucy official site.

SCREENINGS – (Cinefamily, Los Angeles, July 25-27):

“Sexperiments: A Collection of Turned-on Cinema”: Three nights of libidinous cinematic excess at the venerable Tinseltown institution. Friday night is “a collection of turned-on shorts” featuring obscene experimental movies of the 196os and 1970s, headlined by Warhol/Velvet Underground associate Barbara Rubin’s pre-hippy body painting/orgy film Christmas on Earth (1963), with live musical accompaniment. Saturday and Sunday’s features turn to the X-rated work of Stephen Sayadian, with the post-apocalyptic sex tale Cafe Flesh screening Saturday night (with Sayadian and writing collaborator Jerry Stahl in attendance), followed by the Surrealist porn flick Nightdreams on Sunday. Altogether, it promises to be an erotically exhausting weekend of bizarro sexiness for lusty Los Angelinos. Promo for Sexperiments: “A Collection of Turned-on Cinema at Cinefamily” (warning: trailers are NSFW).

IN DEVELOPMENT:

Overlook Hotel (est. 2015): Mark Romanek is in negotiations to helm a prequel to The Shining, showing how evil took root at the Overlook Hotel. Fans of both Stephen King and Stanley Kubrick are already expressing emotions ranging from nervous skepticism to premature outrage. Variety has the scoop.

NEW ON DVD:

“The Essential Jacques Demy”: The Criterion Collection releases a 13-disc (!) DVD?Blu-ray combo set of the works of the famed French musical director. The only film of particular interest to us is the 1970 fairy tale adaptation Donkey Skin, wherein a princess (Demy muse Catherine Deneuve) magically disguises herself as a donkey to avoid marrying her father (!!).  Also includes the five features Lola, Bay of Angels, Umbrellas of Cherbourg, The Young Girls of Rochefort, and Une Chambre en Ville, along with four Demy short films, three documentaries, and all the usual Criterion bibelots. Buy “The Essential Jacques Demy” [Criterion Collection Blu-ray + DVD].

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

“The Essential Jacques Demy”: See description in DVD above. Buy “The Essential Jacques Demy” [Criterion Collection Blu-ray + DVD].

FREE (LEGITIMATE RELEASE) MOVIES ON THE WEB:

Evil Brain from Outer Space (1964): Undercover alien superhero Starman fights an evil brain and its band of mutant henchmen. Edited together from three different Japanese films, with about half the original footage removed and furious voiceovers racing to explain why new characters keep popping up all the time, this is the most incoherent of the four Starman features unleashed on unsuspecting American kids in the early 1960s. Given the strangeness of Attack from Space, that’s quite a feat!

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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.