Next week, we’ll have reviews of the “classic” title They Saved Hitler’s Brain (a movie that’s probably better read about than seen), Alfred will finish up his series on the films of Tod Browning with the offbeat auteur’s final film, Miracles for Sale (1939), and we’ll take a second look (long-time readers will realize what that means) at what may be the weirdest movie ever to win a major Oscar, Black Swan.

As a special bonus, we’re working on a mini-guide to Mosfilm’s free English-subtitled movies on YouTube.  Some of you may know that the venerable Soviet studio dumped a bonanza of films onto YouTube—a fantastic service to lovers of world cinema, right?  The only catch is they listed all the titles and descriptions in Russian, with no indication of which movies are subtitled in English (many are).  Thanks to friend-of-366 Irene Goncharova, who’s previously given us the lowdown on Russian cult director Rustam Khamdamov, we’ll be able to at least provide you with some titles, guidelines and recommendations to exploring the musty archives of Soviet films—there are some real treasures hidden there (the classic horror film Viy, for example).

Turning to our weekly recap of weird search terms used to locate the site: we took note of the request for some “bizarre necrophilia” only because of the implication that the searcher didn’t want to be bothered with any of that ho-hum, boring, overexposed necrophilia we average folks encounter everyday.   We’re not sure whether or not we had the answers for the pers0n who came here looking for “movies that freaks would like,” but we sincerely hope we could be of service.  We award the runner-up trophy for weirdest search term of the week to “bigman grrrrrr,” one of those search terms that makes us go, “huh”?  But our winner this week goes to the phrase “we must whup tooth decay.”  We endorse the sentiment, but we’re not sure exactly why the searcher thought we could help… well, whupping tooth decay is a good cause, and any publicity is good publicity.

Here’s that comically long reader-suggested review queue (more titles after the break per usual): Perfume: The Story of a Murderer; Lunacy [Sílení]; Inmortel (2004); Tetsuo; Dead Ringers; Kairo [AKA Pulse]; The Guatemalan Handshake; Dead Leaves; The Seventh Seal; Primer;  A Boy and His Dog; 200 Motels; Private Parts (1972); Saddest Music in the World; Continue reading WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE →

Next week, one of the following movies will be elevated to the List of the 366 Best Weird Movies ever made. Will it be A) Final Flesh (2009), the video where a prankster sent amateur porn fetish companies an absurdist script to act out; B) Ricky (2009), François Ozon’s magical realist tale about a miraculous baby born to a French factory worker, or C) Saint Clara [Clara Hakedosha] (1996), the Israeli coming-of-age story about a teenage Russian immigrant who uses her psychic powers to give her peers the answers on the math test, until she falls in love?  Or, could it even be D) The Mystic (1935), a silent film about fake clairvoyants bilking New Yorkers of their hard-earned cash, or E) Slimed (2010), our second 366 Underground entry, about a park ranger and a Bible salesman teaming up to fight a slime monster?  You’ll have to check in next week to find out for sure, but put in your bets now.

A programming note: we didn’t create this, but YouTube took it upon themselves to syndicate certain of our articles (anytime we embed a video, they create an entry).  We guess this means someone at YouTube likes us? Or are they just drawing on 366’s popularity to try to boost their own sagging traffic?

Looking at weird search terms used to locate the site this week, we have to take note of strange strings like  “hard drinking grannies” and “hypnosis to lesbian action trailer.”  But bizarre as those searches may seem, they’re just also-rans in a week that brought us a search term like “weird movie with vagina mountains.”  And as deranged as that search string is, we’re going to pass it up, too (it seems like it’s trying too hard—vagina mountains?) in favor of our favorite weird search term of the week, the simple “nice weird surreal nachos.”  To the searcher—have you tried the ones at The Ballpark in Arlington?  They’re addictive, but no one can claim that’s not a surreal shade of orange.

Here’s the ridiculously long and growing reader-suggested review queue (more titles after break): Final Flesh (next week!); Perfume: The Story of a Murderer; Lunacy [Sílení]; Inmortel (2004); Tetsuo; Dead Ringers; Kairo [AKA Pulse]; The Guatemalan Handshake; Dead Leaves; Continue reading WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE →

A 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):

Reversion: Speculative sci-fi about mutants who lack a sense of time; the filmmakers describe it “as if Alain Resnais were to awaken in a Vons Supermarket, unable to find his way out.”  Why is Vons always considered the surreal-est of west coast grocery store chains?  From writer/director Mia Trachinger, who was last seen filming Eastern European immigrants in pink Easter Bunny suits on L.A. street corners for Bunny (2000).  Reversion official site.

Road to Nowhere (2010):  A psychological thriller about a filmmaker making a true crime story who gets sucked into a web where fiction and reality are hard to tell apart: is his lead actress actually the femme fatale from the story?  Reviews are good, but the even better news is that this is “existential” cult director Monte Hellman‘s first feature film in 22 years (we’re thrilled to find out he’s still alive, much less churning out good movies!)  Road to Nowhere official site.

Trollhunter [Trolljegeren] (2010): A Norwegian “found footage” film about a man who literally hunts trolls for the government.  We’re not sure it qualifies as fully weird (we’re pretty picky when it comes to weirdness), but its been getting a lot of good press and “midnight movie” type buzz ever since succeeding at Sundance.  Playing larger cities and college towns across the US through the Summer, and also available on numerous video-on-demand outlets like our partner Amazon.   Trollhunter official site.

IN DEVELOPMENT:

Two Darren Aronofsky projects: Coming off the success of Black Swan, the Certified Weird (Pi) auteur is being linked to two upcoming films.  The first, scheduled for a 2012 release, is Machine Man, an adaptation of Max Berry’s sci-fi novel about a postmodern bionic man.  Max is excited but still starlet-free.  Apparently, DA has also been shopping a script he wrote called Noah, which Deadline describes as “an edgy re-telling of the Noah’s Ark story.” Did you ever think you see the words “edgy” and “Noah’s ark” together in the same sentence?  The mind boggles.

FILM FESTIVALS: BLOODFEST FANTASTIQUE (Melbourne, Australia Jun 10 – 18):

This is an offshoot of the Melbourne Underground Film Festival (MUFF—no titters about the acronym, please), focusing on science fiction and horror films. They will be screening several cheesy cult canon pictures like Roger Corman’s “Seven Samurai in Space” opus Battle Beyond the Stars (1980), and the seldom-screened psychedelic conspiracy flick The Committee (1968) (with songs by Pink Floyd), about a freak who’s persecuted by The Man for decapitating himself. The inaugural fest already seems to be a destination of choice for low-budget filmmakers with weird predilections, as can be seen from some of the new films playing there:

• Hellacious Acres: The Case of John Glass (2011) – Pat Tremblay debuts his second feature, a minimalist post-apocalyptic comedy about a man who wakes from a cryogenic slumber to discover the world has been devastated by nuclear war followed by an alien invasion.
• The Potato House (2011?) – described as “an avant-garde, experimental horror film” about a pickle factory that harvests human organs.
• Someone’s Knocking at the Door (2009) – there are reportedly some brutal and transgressive images in this weird grindhouse drug/gore movie premised around a pair of serial killers who “mysteriously return from the 1970s, and bring horrifying psychedelia with them.”

Aussies down Melbourne way should check out the Bloodfest Fantastique Film Festival home page.

NEW ON DVD:

Rubber (2010):  Read our capsule review.  The French—art? exploitation?—movie about the a telekinetic tire serial killer joins the video ranks. Buy Rubber.

The Stunt Man (1980): Steve Railsback plays a criminal who pretends to be a stunt man on director Peter O’Toole’s movie set.  The Stunt Man has oddball characters, a reality vs. illusion theme, and was selected by Danny Peary as one of his 300 “cult movies.”  The DVD and Blu-ray are loaded with extras (so many that they won’t fit on a single DVD). Buy The Stunt Man (2 Disc Special Edition).

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

Rubber (2010): See description in DVD above. Buy Rubber [Blu-ray].

The Stunt Man (1980):  See description in DVD above. This is an unusual case where the Blu-ray release is actually cheaper than the DVD release (due to the fact that only a single Blu-ray is needed to hold the content that took up two DVDs, apparently). Buy The Stunt Man [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.

Here’s your homework for the coming week: watch What Dreams May Come, the Robin Williams pastel afterlife fantasy, and be prepared to comment.  For extra credit you can do independent research on the weird feminist dystopia film FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions; those who really want to brown-nose should come prepared to discuss the puke-aphiliac surreal shock pic Slaughtered Vomit Dolls.  If those titles aren’t obscure enough for you, we’ll dig really deep for coverage of the resurrection of horror host Sammy Terry and his New Nightmare Theater, and one week from today we’ll kick off a new occasional series on super-low-budget independent movies (tentatively entitled “366 Underground”—suggestions for a better title are welcome) with coverage of The Gruesome Death of Tommy Pistol.

It was a banner week for weird search terms used to locate the site.  First off, while not a particularly bizarre search term in itself, we have to give a nod to “weird is nice movie blog,” which we think describes our project very succinctly.   Moving on to weirder stuff, someday we would really love to see a “horror movie inside her belly button.”  Another untitled movie that piques our interest is hinted at in the following search term: “white rice kung fu movie 1970s vagina supernatural.”  And speaking of kung fu, in a less competitive week “weird old kung fu cock” would have been the hands down winner (we usually don’t print the dirty search terms, but we’re pretty sure this searcher is looking for a butt-kicking rooster).  As fun as that search string was, however, nothing beats the brilliant, insightful prose of “if a giant floating head tells you your penis is evil follow it home and kill all hippies!”  (Note to this week’s winner: you have a job writing plot synopses waiting for you here at 366 Weird Movies).

Here’s how that super-long reader-suggested review queue stands (more titles after break, natch): What Dreams May Come (next week); Perfume: The Story of a Murderer; Final Flesh; Lunacy [Sílení]; Inmortel (2004); Tetsuo; Dead Ringers; Kairo [AKA Pulse]; The Guatemalan Continue reading WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE →