First off, if you haven’t already, go vote in the Reader’s Choice Poll to place two movies on the List of 366. Currently, in Group A (recent movies) The American Astronaut leads two-time runner-up Adaptation 15 votes to 10; at the time of this writing Group B is a neck and neck contest between Frank Zappa’s 200 Motels and David Cronenberg’s Dead Ringers. In the “rescue” category the sci-fi classic La Jetée is leaving the competition in the dust (I guess readers found this admittedly excellent mind-bender far weirder than we did). It’s always fun and useful for us to see where reader’s tastes lie, so let your vote be heard! The polls stay open for more than a week, so there’s still plenty of time to influence the results.

As far as what’s coming next week, you can look forward to us finishing up our coverage of Eclipse’s “Up All Night with Robert Downey Sr.” box set with a review of Two Tons of Turquoise to Taos Tonight, maybe the underground auteur/megastar sire’s weirdest (which is not to say his best) work. We’ll also give you our recommendation on the indie mindbender Enter Nowhere, dig into the reader-suggested review queue for a look at an obscure little movie by Federico Fellini called 8 1/2, and bring you even more sleaze from the nearly-erotic world of Doris Wishman. From the ridiculous to the sublime and back again, it’s all in a week’s work here at 366 Weird Movies.

This week, our Weirdest Search Term contest has a definite theme, and a moral: you should be more careful composing your Google searches, because you never know who’s out there watching, waiting to mock your accidentally bizarre wording. We begin with “french movie taking thong off billiard,” which conjures an odd mental picture. It’s not as weird, however, as the search for “porno movie lesbo women undergoing clothing”: we never realized that getting dressed was such an ordeal for lesbians. And we have to wonder if “a man dresses as woman and kills film” was actually a too-clever method of searching for this guy. But, for our official Weirdest Search Term of the Week we turn to “film where midgets eating humans,” simply because it implies the searcher believes that midgets are not human.

Here’s how the ridiculously-long-and-ever-growing reader-suggested review queue stands: 8 1/2 (next week!); The Hour-glass Sanatorium [Saanatorium pod klepsidra] (out of print in Region 1, but we’ll keep looking); Liquid Sky (re-review); “Twin Peaks” (TV series); Society; May; Little 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):

Convento: Documentary about a family of bohemian artists living in an abandoned Portuguese monastery, focusing on the son who builds robots with animal skull heads. The Dallas Morning News called it “lightly surrealist.” Convento official (?) blog.

Iron Sky: 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. Iron Sky official site.

IN DEVELOPMENT:

Old Boy (est. 2013): We immediately started grimacing when we heard that dark and strange cult classic about a man inexplicably imprisoned for years, then just as inexplicably released to seek vengeance on his unknown captor, was getting an American remake. Spike Lee is a curious choice for director, but they could have done worse, to be sure: at one point Stephen Spielberg was rumored to be a candidate, with Will Smith (!) set to star. It appears Josh Brolin will take the lead now, with Elisabeth Olsen as the love interest and Sharlto Copley as the villain. Speaking of Copley, his recent interview suggests, as expected, that they will be taking the movie in the wrong direction: he says the impetus is to make “such an unbelievable story accessible to maybe more people than it was originally.” Oldboy + accessible = disaster in the making; hopefully he’s just speaking off-the-cuff without thinking it through. Here’s the brief Sharlto Copley interview with MTV.

NEW ON DVD:

La Ardilla Roja (The Red Squirrel) (1993): A suicidal man finds a purpose in life when he pretends to be the boyfriend of a beautiful woman with amnesia in this enigmatic erotic drama. Director Julio Medem went on to make the scandalous metanarrative feature Sex and Lucia with the delicious Paz Vega. Buy La Ardilla Roja (The Red Squirrel).

Bathory: Countess of Blood (2008): This fictionalized biopic of the notorious Countess, who was rumored to bathe in virgins’ blood to preserve her youth, was adapted into a long feature from a Slovakian miniseries. It apparently has some dream sequences and features Anna Friel naked. Bathory, who was possibly one of the greatest serial killers in history and was possibly an innocent victim of a politically motivated frame-up, is an eternally fascinating figure and the primeval source of the lesbian vampire archetype. Buy Bathory: Countess of Blood.

The Corridor (2010): Partying teens encounter a corridor of light in the woods that turns them into maniacs. The boxcover suggests a mixture of Stephen King and Donnie Darko, and some internet reviewers suggest the plot is confusing to the point of indecipherability. Buy The Corridor.

Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream People Call Human Life (1995): The first live-action feature by stop-motion animators the Quay brothers is a strange parable about a school for servants where the students repeat the same lesson over and over. This was one of the first films ever mentioned in our “suggest a weird movie” thread, but we passed on it because it wasn’t available on DVD in North America at that time. We always knew it’s Region 1 day would come! Buy Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream People Call Human Life.

The Last of England (1988): From Derek Jarman comes this experimental feature mixing archival footage and home movies to suggest Britain’s decline during the Thatcher era. The film features a small early appearance by Tilda Swinton, who features prominently on the cover of the remastered Lorber edition. Buy The Last of England.

Meeting Evil (2012): Samuel L. Jackson plays a serial killer who sucks an average white male suburbanite into a “surreal, nightmarish murder spree.” Directed by Chris Fisher… now where have we heard that name before… oh no, that isn’t promising. Buy Meeting Evil.

The Monitor (2011): Psychological horror about a paranoid, abused woman who picks up what she believes is the sound of a child being murdered on a baby monitor. This dark Norwegian thriller may be receiving extra attention Stateside because it stars Noomi Rapace (the original Girl With the Dragon Tattoo). Buy The Monitor.

Mourning Wood (2010): A pubic shampoo turns the residents of Slutton into “humping zombies.” From an Amazon reviewer (who gave it one star): “What a STRANGE TRIP… Totally bizarre comedy premise… These jokers are hoping you are drunk when renting films or high.” I seriously doubt it can live up to that praise, but we’ll see. Buy Mourning Wood.

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

Dracula vs. Frankenstein (1971): From the “you’re kidding, right”? file comes this “remastered” release of Al Adamson’s incompetent monster mash, starring John Bloom with wads of toilet paper stuck to his face as Frankenstein and “Zandor Vorkov,” sporting a bigger afro than Blacula, as the screen’s least frightening Dracula. Bride of Frankenstein isn’t on Blu-ray, but this is??? Buy Dracula Vs. Frankenstein [Blu-ray].

The Last of England (1988): See description in DVD above. Buy The Last of England [Blu-ray].

FREE (LEGITIMATE RELEASE) MOVIES ON YOUTUBE:

Kung Fu Hustle (2004): Read the Certified Weird entry. The craziest, most crowd-pleasing kung fu comedy ever made, featuring Looney Tunes sequences, harp assassins, martial arts masters in curlers, and an evil Axe gang that performs dance routines. Watch Kung Fu Hustle 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.

POLL CLOSED – THANKS TO ALL WHO VOTED!

The winners were:

• Group A – The American Astronaut (runner-up: Adaptation. Special note: Adaptation has received the second most votes in its group in all three reader polls conducted on this site.)
• Group B – Dead Ringers (runner-up: 200 Motels)
• “Rescue” category –  La Jetée (runner-up: Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny.  Special note: this marks the first time in any movie poll ever that Ice Cream Bunny has come this close to beating out La Jetée).

Thanks again to all who participated and rest assured that just because the movie you voted for didn’t win this time around doesn’t mean it is permanently eliminated from the List; all the films in the poll are still under consideration (although the ones that received zero votes may want to call it a day).

Sometimes they’re lovable classic movies with powerful imagery, but they’re only a little bit weird. Sometimes they’re amazingly bizarre, but they’re utter crap. Sometimes the reviewer was in a bad mood when they screened it and didn’t give it a fair chance. Sometimes the reviewer had accidentally swallowed more than the recommended dose of cough syrup and recognized that they may have been blown away by a mediocre film. 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 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! Please select one candidate from Group A (movies from 1990-present) and one from Group B (pre-1990 films). You can vote once per day. Voting closes at midnight (EST) on August 8, 2012.

You can also choose to “rescue” one film that we so overlooked so blatantly we didn’t even make it a List Candidate. We’ll make that movie an official Candidate and add it to our next contest. So remember to scroll down for that third poll!

Past Reader Choices that made the List were Alice, Visitor Q, Pink Floyd: The Wall, and Trash Humpers.

Comments are encouraged: maybe you can sway others’ votes towards your favorite?

But wait! Act now and you can vote one more time! (Just click “continued” for your bonus vote)!
Continue reading OUR THIRD READERS’ CHOICE POLL: PICK TWO FILMS TO MAKE THE FINAL LIST OF 366 WEIRD MOVIES! →

Next week we’ll take a look at Chris Morris‘ weird talking-dog short “My Wrongs #8245-8249 & 177” (and a few of the companion films available on the Cinema 16: European Short Films Region 2 disc—we reviewed the US edition already). We’ll also dive into Robert Downey, Sr.‘s hilarious black power/advertising satire Putney Swope, and the late great Doris Wishman—the Ed Wood of nudie movies—will make her first appearance here at 366 Weird Movies. Plus, we’ll be running our third Reader’s Choice poll, where you, the readers at home, vote on two more movies the be officially elevated onto the List of the 366 Best Weird Movies from our exhaustive store of List Candidates. That’s something you won’t want to miss!

Speaking of things you don’t want to miss, it’s time to bring you our weekly rundown of weird search terms used to locate the site. We’ve been getting a lot of requests to help people remember the names of weird movies lately, but frequently people just type bizarre descriptions into Google and then move on without comment. For example, there’s this search for a “very strange movie that can exist.” We wonder if “film a woman gassed herself on both ends up living” meets that description, or if that would be too strange to exist? We also can’t ignore the guy who confesses “i like see all vampire lesbian vampire live sex” (although shouldn’t that be “i like see all vampire lesbian undead sex”?) But our official Weirdest Search Term of the Week is both bizarre and disturbing: “sexy toes cut off with shears.” It seems like the kind of thing Ted Bundy would be searching for if he were reincarnated as a foot fetishist.

Here’s how the ridiculously-long-and-ever-growing reader-suggested review queue stands: “My Wrongs 8245-8249 and 117” (next week!); The Hour-glass Sanatorium [Saanatorium pod klepsidra] (out of print in Region 1, but we’ll keep looking); Liquid Sky (re-review); “Twin Peaks” 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.

There’s nothing new for weirdos in theaters this week; The Dark Knight has driven away all competitors. Even the weirdest features are afraid to challenge its mighty debut. (Heck, even the DVD releases have largely gone quiet for the week).

FILM FESTIVALS: FANTASIA (Jul. 19 – Aug .9, Montreal, CAN):

In its brief 15 year existence, Montreal’s Fantasia International Film Festival has become one of the premier destinations for foreign (especially Asian) and independent fantasy, science fiction, horror and action films. Thankfully, the festival programmers’ tastes skew towards the weirder side of genre cinema. We highly some of the debuts and new-to-us films below, but we also noticed a lot of interesting titles that were familiar to us from Sundance, Tribeca and other fests: the Possession-esque romantic horror Beast (Zuwalski’s original will also screen at FIFF); Carré blanc, a the surreal dystopian French fantasy that’s nearing the end of its festival run; another bow for Traci Lords and John Waters, headlining the misfit cast of the shock-horror Excision; the anthology The Fourth Dimension, anchored by a Val Kilmer/Harmony Korine collaboration; and Grabbers, about Irish pub-dwellers who get drunk to dissuade invading aliens from snacking on them; the Unabomber-inspired magical realist drama Monsters Club; Quentin Dupieux‘s absurdist missing dog comedy Wrong; and the crowd-pleasing Zombie Ass: Toilet of the Dead. Unique features playing Fantasia are mentioned below; there are a couple we’re extremely excited about…

• Ace Attorney – Takashi Miike‘s second film to play 2012 Fantasia (his musical comedy For Love’s Sake screened on opening night), this futuristic courtroom comedy is based on a video game and involves improbable hairstyles and ghost co-counsel. Screening Aug. 2 (sold out).
• As Luck Would Have It –  Alex de la Iglesia absurd satire about an ad-man who gets a spike through the head, and uses his public relations savvy to make the best of it. This one’s not new to the festival circuit, but we overlooked it before. July 25.
• Dead Sushi – Noboru Iguchi (The Machine Girl, RoboGeisha, Zombie Ass) is making 3-4 horror comedies per year since 2008; this one involves killer sushi (not “really good” sushi, but sushi that must be kickboxed into submission before it can be sampled). July 22.
• The Devil’s Carnival – Repo! The Genetic Opera fans will want to check out this followup rock musical, which is a sort of variation on Dante’s Inferno with Hell as a circus. There will be live performances of the score, celebrity guests and carnival sideshow attractions at this gala event, but Fantasia forgot to mention whether the movie will actually screen. July 22.
• A Fantastic Fear of Everything – Simon Pegg stars as a children’s author turned crime writer undergoing a hallucinatory nervous breakdown in this paranoid black comedy. July 31.
• Honey Pupu – Experimental Taiwanese techno-pastiche about the ephemerality of modern life. July 21.
• The Human Race – Random American citizens are whisked away to a netherworld to participate in a brutal death race; two of them are deaf, and the main character has only one leg. July 29.
• Isn’t Anyone Alive? – Follows about 20 characters through two hours as they suddenly die without explanation. July 31 & Aug. 3.
• Lowlife – Two lowlife musicians engage in an orgy of drugs that ends with them descending to a state of permanent hallucination. It’s weird. Check out this trailer (narrated by a dog) if you don’t believe us. Jul. 21.
  
• Mondomanila – Filipino sleaze about a gang of poor drunk outcasts and freaks who extract revenge on a racist pedophile rapist. July 20 & Aug. 1.
• “Outer Limits of Animation” –  Twenty short films, two of which are especially noteworthy to us: Don Hertzfeldt‘s “It’s Such a Beautiful Day,” the third installment of the stick-figure psychodrama that began with Everything Will Be OK, and Bill Plympton‘s “Guard Dog Global Jam,”which sees dozens of animators remaking a section of his 2004 Oscar-nominated short “Guard Dog” in their own styles. July 22.
• Resolution – A buddy ties his crack addict pal up in a cabin in the woods for an involuntary detox, and things get weird. July 25.
• Schoolgirl Apocalypse – A plague makes men kill women in this zombie-apocalypse tale with a bow-firing Japanese schoolgirl heroine and animated scenes. July 30.
• The Warped Forest – Here it is: the spiritual sequel to Funky Forest, this time a solo flight by Shunichiro Miki, the director of the infamous “Wanna Go for a Drink?” segment.
  

That’s one hell of a lineup! Fantasia official website.

SCREENINGS (Hollywood, CA, Egyptian Theater):

Foxfur (2012)/Spacedisco One (2007): The world premier (possibly to be the only theatrical screening) of microbudget icon Damon Packard’s Foxfur, which looks to be a surprisingly straight-faced, gee-whiz sci-fi drama that takes Billy Meier’s insane UFO theories at face value, with CGI flying saucers that would make Ed Wood cream. The companion feature, Spacedisco One, is an unauthorized psychedelic/absurdist sequel to both 1984 and Logan’s Run. Both movies run under an hour. Also featuring a documentary short and a Q&A with Packard and the Foxfur cast. Foxfur/Spacedisco One at the Egyptian Theater.

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

The Butterfly Effect (2004): Trippy, Donnie Darko inspired cult movie about a time-tripping college student who suffers blackouts. We’ll be honest: we skipped this on release solely because it starred teen heartthrob and Dude, Where’s My Car? alumnus Aston Kuchner; now that Kuchnermania is long past, maybe it’s time to give this one a fair look with unbiased eyes? The Blu-ray contains both the director’s and theatrical cuts, in case that matters. Buy Butterfly Effect [Blu-ray].

FREE (LEGITIMATE RELEASE) MOVIES ON YOUTUBE:

Highlander 2: The Quickening (1991): The first movie about battling Immortals was a cult hit because of its originality; the sequel is a notoriously confusing and illogical mess that’s a cult movie for the wrong reasons. This movie is so bad, it actually has less than a 4 1/2 out of 5 star rating at Amazon.com. This upload has Dutch subtitles. Watch Highlander 2: The Quickening 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.