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 DEVELOPMENT:
I Am Divine (est. 2013): A documentary on the world’s favorite 300-pound copraphagiac transvestite, Harris Glenn Milstead, AKA Divine. With the support of John Waters and $25,000 of the requested $40,000 already pledged on Kickstarter, we suspect that this will get made, but if you’re concerned you may want to kick in a few bucks yourself. I Am Divine Kickstarter page.
Rocks in My Pockets (est. 2013): A feature length animated movie advertised as “a funny film about depression” from Bill Plympton protege Signe Baumane. The first trailer is out; apparently animation is complete and the film is going into post-production. Rocks in My Pockets official site.
NEW ON DVD:
Basket Case 3 (1992): In the third installment of the Basket Case series, mutated conjoined twin Belial procreates with another freak and goes on a splatter rampage when his monstrous brood is seized by the local sheriff. 1982’s Basket Case had a subtle black comedy strain but was horror at heart; the sequels became increasingly spoofy, gory, and focused around designing outrageously deformed puppets. Buy Basket Case 3: The Progeny.
Magical Mystery Tour (1967): The Beatles third movie was a one-hour television special that pioneered the idea of surreal music videos, and of taking psychedelic trips in buses. It’s a big year for fans of the Beatles’ weird years, since Yellow Submarine also saw its DVD release in 2012. Buy Magical Mystery Tour.
“Tokyo Vengeance”: Tokyo Shock brings together three splatterpunk “classics”: The Machine Girl (2007), Tokyo Gore Police (2009), and Death Kappa (2010). WARNING: the Amazon page currently says this set takes 4-6 weeks to ship (!) Buy “Tokyo Vengeance”.
Superstarlet A.D. (2000): In a post-apocalyptic world where sexy girl gangs are segregated according to hair color, one starlet searches for her grandmother’s lost stag film. Thanks distribution by Troma, this is probably John Michael McCarthy’s best known work; his unique, self-aware sexplotiation movies are like a mix of Russ Meyer, Dwain Esper and David Lynch. Watch Superstarlet A.D. free 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.
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):
Frankenweenie: Tim Burton has struck out twice this year, garnering mediocre marks directing Dark Shadows and producing Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Slayer. This stop motion kiddie horror, a remake of his pretty good 1984 short live-action film, shot in glorious black and white, is a pet project of Burton’s. In his third at bat, will the once-visionary auteur knock it out of the park, or at least get on base? Frankenweenie official site.
IN THEATERS (LIMITED RELEASE):
The Double Steps [Los Pasos Dobles]: Various groups of people search the Sahara for a bunker covered in frescoes painted by an American expatriate artist. Reviewers have been stumped trying to describe the plot. Playing in NYC only this week. Los Pasos Dobles Facebook page (Spanish).
SCREENINGS (Sunday, Oct. 7, New York City, Film Forum):
Week End (1967): A weekend trip to the country turns into a surreal nightmare as a French couple find themselves stuck in an apocalyptic traffic jam. As they recently did with the Czech masterpieceDaisies, Janus films has refurbished another classic 1960s weird foreign film and unleashed it on an unsuspecting modern American public; please, keep it up! This print will be touring the larger and hipper North American cities through 2013; check Janus Films’ site for playdates.
NEW ON DVD:
Dark Shadows (2012): Read our capsule review and our other capsule review. We didn’t like this poorly conceived revamp (hee hee) of the Gothic soap from the Sixties, but this week has a Tim Burton theme, so if you must… Buy Dark Shadows.
“Found Footage Festival: Volume 6”: Before YouTube, there was VHS. Thankfully we have historians like the fine folks at the Found Footage Festival (and rivals Everything is Terrible!) to sift through the video dating, religious puppet show, and ferret care instructional tapes of yesteryear to bring us the funniest (and weirdest) video trash from the past. Buy “The Found Footage Festival: Volume 6”.
Iron Sky (2012): Nazis from the moon invade Earth. The early buzz was sky-high thanks to the nutty premise and an effective trailer, but after some early sightings of the space-fascists, people lost interest as the invasion grew nearer. Buy Iron Sky.
Dark Star (1974): John Carpenter’s student film is a spoof of 2001 with a talking bomb and a beach ball alien; it was a minor cult hit. This “Thermostellar Edition” contains the theatrical and director’s cut (confusingly, the director’s cut was the version released to theaters; it’s the same as the “theatrical” version but runs ten minutes longer). Buy Dark Star [Blu-ray].
Masters of the Universe (1987): He-Man (really? the hero is named He-Man?) must defeat Skeletor (really?) in this campy cult movie based on a TV cartoon based on a children’s toy from the 1980s. Hopefully, people won’t look back this fondly on the Transformers movies in 20 years. Buy Masters of the Universe [Blu-ray].
The Milk of Sorrow [La Teta Asustada] (2009): Magical realist tale with an interesting premise: women who are abused during pregnancy transmit their sorrow to their children through breast milk. Most critics found the pace poetic, others complained it was too slow, but all agree it features an interesting alternative use for potatoes. Buy Milk of Sorrow [Blu-ray].
Universal Classic Monsters: The Essential Collection: Released in time to schedule a Halloween marathon, this set collects together Dracula (1931), Frankenstein (1931), The Mummy (1932), The Invisible Man (1933), The Bride of Frankenstein (1935), The Wolf Man (1941), The Phantom of the Opera (1943), and The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954). Bride is definitely the weirdest of these offerings, but the Universal horror cycle as a whole was much more influential than the sum of its parts. Essential indeed. Buy Universal Classic Monsters: The Essential Collection [Blu-ray].
FREE (LEGITIMATE RELEASE) MOVIES ON YOUTUBE:
Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead (2006): A fast-food franchise builds a restaurant on the site of an ancient Indian burial ground, resulting in a plague of zombie chickens. Adding insult to injury, they perform song-and-dance routines before ripping your internal organs out. Watch Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead free 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.
Next week well start out by considering whether we can live without The Master (2012), Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest bit of offbeat Oscar bait. We’ll also check out one more entry from Redemption’s Jean Rollin reissues with a look at 1997’s Two Orphan Vampires. From out of the reader-suggested review queue comes the surreal and disgusting Sweet Movie (1974), while Ida Lupino’s The Hitch-Hiker (1953) comes from the twilight of film noir. That’s a review slate chronicling drama, horror, noir and experimental films from four different decades—but we’ll try to be more eclectic next week.
Here’s our weekly rundown of the weirdest search terms that brought 366 Weird Movies traffic this week: it’s a little weekly feature we like to call Weirdest Search Term of the Week. We’ll start out by noting the search for “a man falls in love with immigrant goat short film,” which, if it exists, may be the only movie to address the burning social issue of immigrant bestiality. Next comes a series of short-but-strange searches that we’ll let speak for themselves: “weirdest milk,” “tiny naked muscle men,” and “anime spooky butt short pants.” For our Weirdest Search Term of the Week, however, we’ll go with “im in the water naked touching the face of big crocodile and go swim far to him.” We’re dying to know what happened next: we’re guessing the crocodile ate the guy while he was using his iPhone to search Google for people in the same situation?
Here’s how the ridiculously-long-and-ever-growing-reader-suggested review queue stands: Sweet Movie (next week!); The Hour-glass Sanatorium [Saanatorium pod klepsidra] (out of print in Region 1, but we’ll keep looking); Liquid Sky (re-review); Society; Final Programme; 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 Yakuza and the Mermaid (2010): The story of a writer who meets a mysterious woman who brings the characters in his story—a yakuza and a mermaid, natch—to life. Opening at Cinema Village in NYC. The Yakuza and the Mermaid Facebook page.
FILM FESTIVALS (Sitges Film Festival, Oct. 4-14, Sitges, Spain):
Sitges is a huge (more than 100 films) European festival focusing on genre films (mainly science fiction, horror and fantasy). Because it’s held at the tail end of the festival season, many of the films featured here have previously played at Cannes or other venues or are even out on DVD here in the States. We’ve even reviewed some already: Beasts of the Southern Wild, The Cabin in theWoods,Caterpillar, Keyhole. Still, there are plenty of intriguing movies that are either new or that have somehow escaped our notice until now. Here’s what we’ll be looking out for:
American Mary – A medical student makes extra money by performing dangerous, illegal body modification surgeries. Screening Oct. 4 & 6.
Barcelonorra – A sick anthology film containing ten sexually perverse stories set in Barcelona. Dates unknown.
Blue Bird – Two African children go searching for their lost pet bird and encounter ghosts and spirits along the way; the entire movie is tinted blue. Oct. 11.
The Expanse of Heaven [La extensión del cielo] – Six random people become subjects of a survival experiment in the desert in a film the festival programmers compare to the works of Alejandro Jodorowsky. Oct 12.
El fantástico mundo de Juan Orol – Biopic of director Juan Orol, who was known for his gangster films with negligible budgets and incomprehensible plots and was something like the Ed Wood of Mexico. Very few of Orol’s movies have been translated into English, so we’re doubtful this tribute will ever reach these shores, either. Oct. 10.
Junkie – Fantastical allegory about two heroin addicts living in a mansion; one of them decides to quit junk, but his buddy isn’t about to let his pal go straight without a fight. Debuting at Sitges. Oct. 5.
The Legend of Kaspar Hauser [La leggenda di Kaspar Hauser] – Not to be confused with Werner Herzog‘s The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser, this surrealistic take on the Hauser story involves UFOs and industrial dance music. Oct 11.
Rape Zombie: Lust of the Dead – What modern film festival would be complete without a tasteless, gory B-movie spoof from the Japanese? This one is from the director of Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl. Dates unknown.
Anomalisa (est. 2013): A 40 minute stop-motion animated film penned by weird screenwriting icon Charlie Kaufman. No word on the plot except that it involves “a man crippled by the mundanity of his life.” This Kickstarter-based, crowdfunded project is not only fully funded, it actually doubled its pledge goal—Charlie does have his fans. Anomalisa Kickstarter page.
NEW ON DVD:
“American Horror Story: The Complete First Season” (2011): An FX network cable series about a family that moves into a haunted house and slowly uncovers the secrets of the spirits therein. We wouldn’t have even noticed this one if not for a couple of the review titles on the Amazon page: “weird, warped, wacky,” and “weird, creapy [sic], scary.” Maybe we should tune in? Buy “American Horror Story: The Complete First Season”.
Blood Tea and Red String (2006): Read the Certified Weird entry! It appears that Cinema Epoch’s rights to this dark animated fairy tale have reverted back to author/director/one-woman-show Christiane Cegavske, who is putting the recently out-of-print bizarro classic out on a region free DV-R. It’s also available for online purchase or rental. Buy Blood Tea and Red String.
Damsels in Distress (2011): Comedy/satire about a clique of women at a chic East Coast university who make it a point to “improve” the lives of their fellow students, sometimes through musical numbers. From Whit Stillman (Metropolitan), whose previous work was urbane and clever but defiantly unweird; the press release, however, describes this departure as “distinctly offbeat, even manic,” “often-surreal,” and “delightfully weird.” Buy Damsels in Distress.
Eating Raoul (1982): A bland and prudish suburban couple stumble upon a way to raise money for their dream of opening a restaurant: they advertise themselves as swingers and knock off the perverts who answer their ads. As an excellent bonus to this cult black comedy, the disc includes director Paul Bartel‘s seldom seen early shorts The Secret Cinema and Naughty Nurse. We’re glad to see the Criterion Collection is finally acknowledging Bartel’s genius, and look forward to their deluxe edition of Lust in the Dust. Buy Eating Raoul (Criterion Collection).
FDR: American Badass (2012): Franklin Delano Roosevelt fights Nazi werewolves from his wheelchair. Next up in the Presidential action fantasy sweepstakes: Herbert Hoover: The Shark-Hunting Years (2013). Buy FDR: American Badass.
The Game (1997): A disconnected loner banker (Michael Douglas) accepts an invitation from his profligate brother (Sean Penn) to participate in a mysterious live-action game in this mindbender made by David Fincher between his hits Se7en and Fight Club. Another unexpected pickup by the Criterion Collection. Buy The Game (Criterion Collection).
The Letter (2012): A playwright cracks under the stress and has a hallucinatory breakdown on opening night. Not only does it borrowBlack Swan‘s plot, it also helps itself to one of that movie’s stars (Winona Ryder). Buy The Letter.
Pig (1999)/1334 (2012): Pig was a 1999 punk short about a man who hallucinates to escape the pain as he’s being tortured by a man in a pig mask. 1334 appears to be a followup involving the same man in Hell. Buy Pig/1334.
Post-Mortem (2010): A serial killer befriends a suicidal teen, who descends into madness. This is the third part of a trilogy of films (previous entries were Head Case and The Ritual) that describes itself as a “surrealistic nightmare,” but what really caught our eye was the brings-back-b-movie-memories casting of Robert Z’dar and Brinke Stevens. Buy Post-Mortem.
“Six Weird-Noir B-Movies”: We’re trusting the titling here, although we suspect these six incredibly obscure 50s and 60s noirs are more sleazy and incompetent than weird. The unearthed films are Girl on the Run (1953), The Naked Road (1959), The 7th Commandment (1961), Fear No More (1961), Fallguy (1962) and Stark Fear (1962, with Beverly Garland). Buy “Six Weird-Noir B-Movies” .
The Tall Man (2012): When her own son goes missing a skeptical nurse (Jessica Biel) investigates child disappearances blamed on a legendary figure called “the Tall Man.” This genre-busting entry from the director of Martyrs earned mediocre marks from both critics and audiences. Buy The Tall Man.
Luther the Geek (1990): A carnival geek (that is, a sideshow attraction who bites the heads of live chickens) develops a homicidal streak, outfits himself with steel dentures and goes around biting the heads off people while clucking like poultry. Cheap, nasty, weirdish sleaze from the post-grindhouse era. Watch Luther the Geek free 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.
Next week we’ll catch up on the third entry in Terry Gilliam‘s “imagination trilogy,” the 1988 fantasy The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (Time Bandits and Brazil both made the list—can Munchausen make it a hat trick?). From the new release queue, we’ll check out the Canadian indie schizohorror The Corridor, a cautionary tale about why you should not trust the 0ld friend who stabbed you in the hand during a psychotic break when claims he’s finally got his meds right and invites you to a deserted cabin in the woods. Also in the new release category, sort of, is the recent DVD revival of Julio Medem‘s ripe-for-rediscovery 1993 psychological thriller La ardilla roja [The Red Squirrel], the strange and sometimes surreal tale of a suicidal musician who poses as the boyfriend of a beautiful amnesiac. To top the week off, Alfred Eaker’s survey of Poverty Row auteur Edgar G. Ulmer continues with a look at The Man from Planet X (1951) (tagline: “the WEIRDEST visitor the Earth has ever seen!”)
It was a “meh” week for weird search terms, but as always we’re dedicated to bringing you the strangest queries that show up in our server logs in a little feature we like to call, “366 Weird Movies’ Weirdest Search Terms of the Week.” We’ll knock out a trio of honorbale-mention bizarre fetish queries first with included libido-twisting searches for “hairy pioneer women,” “anime diapers,” and “hypnosis for squirt.” Related, we think, was the person looking for “wash a nude cook french video.” And, as long as we’re in the mood for erotica, we might as well mention the fellow who was looking to reminisce with his good friend Google about “porn movies that i was able to rent in a home wood suite.” But of all the sexy, sexy searches we ran into this week, the one we selected as our Weirdest Search Term of the Week was the simple “foreign film about a girls butt.” Those crazy foreigners, what will they make a movie about next?
Here’s how the ridiculously-long-and-ever-growing reader-suggested review queue stands: The Adventures of Baron Muchausen (next week!); The Hour-glass Sanatorium [Saanatorium pod klepsidra] (out of print in Region 1, but we’ll keep looking); Liquid Sky (re-review); Society; Final Continue reading WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE→
Celebrating the cinematically surreal, bizarre, cult, oddball, fantastique, strange, psychedelic, and the just plain WEIRD!
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