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):

The FP: Post-apocalyptic spoof where rival gangs fight in a desolate urban wasteland, dominating the bands of survivors through their mastery of dance video games. Released via the new distribution arm of the fantastic Alamo Drafthouse theater, which we fear may be the coolest thing about the movie. The FP official site.

NEW ON DVD:

@Suicideroom (2011): A bullied teen turns emo after kissing a boy on a dare and flees into a virtual reality world in this Polish movie. It probably only describes what it’s like to be a modern day adolescent in a world of techno-escapism, but who’s to say that everyday reality isn’t weird? Buy @Suicideroom.

“4 Film Favorites: Fantasy Thrillers”: This grab bag of 2005-2006 visionary features includes Constantine, a minor cult film starring Keanu Reeves as a demon hunter; a bigger cult hit in the graphic novel adaptation V For Vendetta; Neil LaButte’s strange and awful anti-feminist remake of The Wicker Man (featuring Nicolas Cage at his manic, overacting worst); and Darren Aronofsky‘s mystical The Fountain (a title that’s in our reader-suggested review queue). You could do a lot worse for under $20. Buy “4 Film Favorites: Fantasy Thrillers”.

Coonskin (1975): Ralph Bakshi’s controversial satire on racism features three animated Song of the South stereotypes (a fox, a bear and a rabbit) rising to lead a Harlem crime syndicate. With live action sequences and the voices of Scatman Crothers and Barry White; Al Sharpton protested the film’s opening, despite the fact that the NAACP approved of it (with reservations). This is currently in our reader-suggested review queue, and will soon climb out of it. Buy Coonskin.

House of Tolerance [AKA House of Pleasures] (2011): The story of a Parisian bordello circa 1899, told in a deliberately anachronistic style (a 1960s soundtrack, split screens, etc.) We only mention it because David Fear of Time Out gave it a positive review while simultaneously calling it “occasionally WTF hilarious”; other sources, however, haven’t noted significant strangeness here. Buy House of Pleasures.

Killer’s Moon (1978): Four criminally insane patients are given an experimental drug and go on a crime spree while believing they’re living in a lucid dream. Redemption (which recently brought us those Jean Rollin remasters) is pitching this minor, seldom-seen British shocker as A Clockwork Orange meets a slasher movie. Buy Killer’s Moon.

Melancholia (2011): Read our capsule review. Lars von Trier‘s followup to the frighteningly deranged Antichrist once again metaphorically explores the harsh reality of clinical depression, this time as a mysterious planet named “Melancholia” threatens to collide with Earth and destroy all life. In our judgment the movies doesn’t go all the way to “weird”; but, it’s equally far away from normal. Buy Melancholia.

My Joy (2010): A Ukrainian truck driver begins his day trying to make a delivery, runs into absurd bureaucracy and corruption, and ends up trapped in a strange timeless village.  Critical response was been favorable, while hinting at an uncomfortable strangeness. Buy My Joy.

Neverland (2011): Nick Willing has specialized in creating expressionist alternate versions of imagination classics for TV: Tin Man, an update of The Wizard of Oz); a sci-fi tinged version of Alice; and now this one, which explains the origin of the puckish Peter Pan. Charlie Rowe plays Pan, Rhys Ifans is Hook, Keira Knightley supplies the voice of Tinkerbell, and Bob Hoskins appears in the same role he did in Speilberg’s Hook. Buy Neverland.

“Superjail: Season 2” (2011): This crudely animated series about a fantastic prison housed inside a volcano is transgressive, offensive, and senselessly cruel and violent. It’s also undoubtedly surrealistic and psychedelic. Viewer beware. Buy “Superjail: Season Two”.

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

Killer’s Moon (1978): See description in DVD above. Buy Killer’s Moon [Blu-ray].

The Last Temptation of Christ (1988): Read our capsule review. Martin Scorcese‘s adaptation of Nikos Kazantzakis’ novel about the Passion isn’t at all blasphemous, but it does have cool dream sequences. Part of the Criterion Collection’s ongoing upgrade of their existing catalog to Blu-ray. Buy The Last Temptation of Christ (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray].

Melancholia (2011): See description in DVD above. Buy Melancholia [Blu-ray].

Natural Born Killers (1994)/True Romance (1993): An ultraviolent and well-matched 1990s cult double-feature Blu-ray from Warner Brothers. True Romance is Quentin Tarantino-scripted coke-deal-gone-wrong variant with pulp sensibilities; Natural Born Killers is Oliver Stone’s hallucinogenic violence satire, following two celebrity serial killers slaying their way through a bent TV reality. (NBK is in our reader-suggested review queue). Buy True Romance/Natural Born Killers [Blu-ray].

Neverland (2011): See description in DVD above. Buy Neverland [Blu-ray].

Wizards (1977): An animated mix of sword and sorcery and post-apocalyptic science fiction which features fairies, elves, robots and Nazis. This week’s second release from cult animator Ralph Bakshi, it gets the full special edition treatment, complete with insert booklet and director’s commentary, from 20th Century Fox (who wouldn’t touch the controversial Coonskin). Buy Wizards [Blu-ray].

FREE (LEGITIMATE RELEASE) MOVIES ON YOUTUBE:

Black Sunday (1960): Mario Bava’s black and white masterpiece of Gothic horror recalls Universal Studios in the 1930s.  Barbara Steele was so radiant and iconic as the medieval witch and her 20th century descendant that she was typecast playing dual roles in Italian horror movies for years afterwards. Not that weird, but very influential (it’s said to be one of Tim Burton‘s favorite movies).

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.

Everyone (well, every American, at least) is familiar with March Madness, the single elimination NCAA College Basketball Tournament that whittles down a field of 64 (68 actually, but who’s counting) college hoops teams into one final survivor through 65 grueling head-to-head matchups.

To capitalize on that fever, we’ve taken 64 of our most popular Certified Weird movies and pitted them against each other to determine the most popular weird movie of all time. Simply vote for your favorite and, if your fellow voters agree, that movie advances to the next round, until only one flick is left standing.

We ranked the movies from 1-64 based on the number of page views received since Jan. 1, 2012. By that metric the overall #1 seed is Gummo; in the first round it faces off against the 64th most viewed movie, Skidoo. (You won’t be able to see the seedings until after you’ve cast your vote).

We didn’t know how the bracket would look using this procedure but we wound up with some very intriguing first round match-ups:  Begotten (1991) or Being John Malkovich (1999)? Carnival of Souls (1962) or Donnie Darko (2001)? The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) or Hausu (1977)? You’ll have to decide.

Feel free to vote for movies you haven’t seen. Use whatever subjective criteria you want: best movie, or weirdest movie? It’s up to you.

We’re not hosting this contest; we’re using Bracketeers, which was the only online service we could find that allowed us to customize votable brackets. So, we can’t answer technical questions about how the voting works. It appears that you can only vote once per round (we’d remove that restriction if it were up to us). The rounds will roughly follow the timeframe of the NCAA tournament. You’ll have a window of several days to get your vote in each round. Our second round of voting will begin on Thursday; the champion will be crowned in exactly three weeks, on April 2.

So get to it: it will only take you a few minutes to decide the entire first round. Start by picking between cat-killing white trash and acid-dropping vaudevillians: Gummo or Skidoo?

(If for some reason you can’t see the embedded bracket you can access the contest directly here).

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):

Attenberg (2010): An awkward and alienated young woman who studies humanity through mammal documentaries learns about sex from her only friend. Part of the New Weird Greek cinema, it’s in our reader-suggested review queue; we will be all over this one when it comes out on DVD, if not before. Attenberg official site.

The Ballad Of Genesis And Lady Jaye (2011): Documentary on artist-musician Genesis P-Orridge (of Throbbing Gristle) and the series of cosmetic surgeries he and his lover Lady Jaye undertook to look like each other. A weird guy and a weird subject, for sure. Opening at Chelsea Cinemas in Long Island, new York, future screenings doubtful. The Ballad Of Genesis And Lady Jaye official site.

Dissolution (2010): Set in Israel, based on “Crime and Punishment,” and described in the press release as an “almost surreal fairy-tale.” Why “almost” surreal? That almost scares us off. Dissolution official Facebook page.

Sound of Noise (2010): A music hating cop tries to silence a band of avant-garde percussionists who are planning to stage a performance art symphony in the public spaces of Stockholm in this quirky Swedish satire. It’s won a few awards on the festival circuit and is often described as “absurd.” Sound of Noise official Facebook page.

FILM FESTIVALS: SOUTH BY SOUTHWEST (SXSW) (Austin, TX, Mar. 9-17)

If you can’t get your indie film into Sundance, the massive SXSW festival in Austin, Texas has become your next best bet. Like just about every other major festival, they’ve recently added a “Midnight Movie” category to the lineup. Here’s some of the weirder stuff playing there (some are debuts, some have been seen before):

• Beast – A man’s obsessive love for his pretty but unfaithful wife causes him to physically transform and develop cannibalistic urges in this surreal-sounding Danish drama/horror. Screening Mar. 11-12, 14, 17.
  
• Citadel – An agoraphobic widower is attacked by feral children seeking to take his baby daughter; to stop them he must enter a deserted tenement building nicknamed “The Citadel” with the help of a vigilante priest. In the “Midnighters” category, playing Mar. 11-13 and again on the 15th.
• Girls Against Boys – Psychological thriller about two female bartenders who embark on a killing spree. A midnight feature screening Mar 9-10, 13-14.
• Her Master’s Voice – This strikes us as an odd documentary subject: a British ventriloquist takes the dummy of her dead mentor to “Venthaven,” a “graveyard for puppets of dead ventriloquists” in Kentucky. Mar 11-12, 14.
• Iron Sky – Nazis who fled to the moon are planning an invasion of Earth in 2018. This steampunk spoof has some actual buzz around it. Mar 10-11, 14.
  
• John Dies in the End – Cult director Don Coscarelli adapts a popular webseries about two losers saving the world from a psychedelic drug being used by aliens to take over the planet. A “midnigter” for sure and one of our more anticipated 2012 releases. Mar 12 & 15.
  
• Keyhole – The latest Guy Maddin film (it’s a talkie this time) stars Jason Patric as Ulysses, a gangster on the run, journeying through his labyrinthine house trying to find his wife (Isabella Rossellini). The U.S. premier of this long-awaited (by us) feature. Debuting March 11 with more screenings Mar 14 & 17.
• Nature Calls – A scoutmaster convinces his millionaire brother’s adopted kid to sneak off on a camping trip, prompting dad to go on a woodsy expedition to find him. There’s no reviews or even a trailer for this debuting film from Todd Rohal, but the presence of Patton Oswalt and Johnny Knoxville as the headliners leads us to believe this is a move towards the mainstream from the director who has heretofore specialized in singularly odd comedies. Mar. 11 & 16.
• Pavilion – A 15-year old boy moves to Arizona to live with his father; it’s self-described as “ethereal” and promises an obscure, impressionistic experience of troubled youth. Mar 10, 12, 14.
• V/H/S – A horror anthology wherein burglars are hired to break in to a home to steal a rare VHS tape, but find that every cassette they watch is stranger and more disturbing than the last one. Mar. 11, 13 & 16.
• Wildness – Another one which we can’t quite figure out from the description: it’s about a weekly party at a bar, avant-garde performance artists, transgendered immigrants, and promises a touch of magic realism. Mar. 9, 11, 14 & 15.

SWSX Film Festival official homepage.

NEW ON DVD:

“Classic Monsters Spotlight Collection”: This 4-disc collection of classic Universal horrors (Dracula, Frankenstein, The Bride of Frankenstein, and Creature from the Black Lagoon) was released with little fanfare and no reports on extra features. Bride is our fave (and the weirdest) of this essential set. Buy “Classic Monsters Spotlight Collection”.

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

The Little Shop of Horrors (1960): Read our capsule review. The Roger Corman quickie classic about a man-eating plant gets an unlikely Blu-ray release. Includes both the original and the (yeech) colorized version. This downmarket Skid Row tale doesn’t seem like it would benefit from hi-def, so unless you just have to have it in Blu or in color, we’d recommend getting the Trailers From Hell! version instead. Buy The Little Shop Of Horrors [Blu-ray].

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975): This Arthurian spoof with the knights who say “Ni!” and an unexpectedly fragile Black Knight is the masterpiece of pop-absurdist comedy and the holy grail of Monty Python features. This package contains a plethora of extra features, some of which appeared on previous releases and some which are unique to this Blu. Buy Monty Python and the Holy Grail [Blu-ray].

Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957): Dubbed “The Worst Movie Ever Made” by Michael Medved (although it’s nowhere close to the worst),  Ed Wood‘s deliriously and hilariously inept tale of aliens reanimating the dead is absolutely essential viewing for anyone who’s seriously interested in cinema, not just weird movie buffs. Like Little Shop above, however, we’re skeptical that it will benefit from Blu-ray treatment. This release contains the colorized version (why, oh why?), some Ed Wood home movies and commercial demos, and snarky Mike Nelson commentary (the same features are on Legend’s DVD version). Buy Plan 9 From Outer Space [Blu-ray].

The Skin I Live In (2011): Pedro Almodovar’s first venture into horror is the elegantly perverse tale of a deranged plastic surgeon (Antonio Banderas) who invents a synthetic skin, and finds an unexpectedly appropriate subject to test it on. The film is ironic and disturbing but stops just short of “weird”; it’s still a recommended offbeat outing for fans of moral horror. Buy The Skin I Live In (Blu-ray/DVD Combo).

FREE (LEGITIMATE RELEASE) MOVIES ON YOUTUBE:

The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Crazy Mixed-Up Zombies (1964): A layabout greaser (played by director Ray Dennis Steckler under the pseudonym “Cash Flagg”) gets sucked into an incredibly strange plot involving a carnival fortune teller using hypnotism to create zombies. It’s also a musical, of sorts. Our all-time favorite movie title, it gets bonus points for its crazy, pre-psychedelia dream sequence. Future hall of fame cinematographers Laszlo Kovacs (Five Easy Pieces) and Vilmos Zsigmund (Close Encounters of the Third Kind) both worked as assistant cameramen on Creatures. It’s a terribly made movie, and a terribly mad one.

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 offer for your consideration a review of Sushi Typhoon’s latest essay in ultraviolent Japana-madness, Yakuza Weapon (2011); a tour of the No-Wave/Cinema of Transgression documentary Blank City (2011); and, straight outta the reader-suggested review queue, it’s Shock Treatment (1981), the belated and bewildered sorta-sequel to The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975). Add to that Isle of the Snake People (1971), the fifth entry in Alfred’s series on “Karloff’s Bizarre and Final Six Pack” and you have yourself a week!

The always weird Weirdest Search Term of the Week contest took a turn for the weirder this week. If you recall, last week we gave the search string “freaky kid who loved the taste of his mother’s boobies in a certain italian zombie film” an honorable mention. But here’s the even odder follow-up query that showed up in our server logs this week: “the last letter of the first name of the actor who played a freaky kid who loved the taste of his mother’s boobies in a certain italian zombie film.” (The answer, we believe, is “R”). It looks like some sort of scavenger hunt/rebus type of search-string puzzle? We’ll be on the lookout for another clue next week. Turning to more, er, conventional weird search terms, of course we have to mention the search for “drink jar of deer tesicles” (is that an order?)  And in the “it’s probably dirty by we honestly can’t tell” category comes this entry: “”tell me about pussing in pipeline with video” (if you know what this means, please don’t spoil the mystery for us). Our Weirdest Search Term of the Week, however, wins by combining three terms that, while not necessarily weird in themselves, we never thought we’d see strung together in a search: “alter state, gecko, quick bang.” Google had no clue, either, and threw up our site as the most likely source of information on this topic. Thanks for the vote of confidence!

Here’s the world-famous ridiculously-long-and-ever-growing reader-suggested-review-queue for your planning and perusal:  Shock Treatment (next week!); Hedwig and the Angry Inch; Even Dwarves Started Small;  “My Wrongs 8245-8249 and 117″; Freaked; Strings; Dellamorte 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):

American Animal (2011): Jimmy and James, two twenty-something trust-fund babies, live together in relative luxury, but unbalanced Jimmy becomes increasingly deranged when bookish James explains that he’s decided to grow up and get a job. We didn’t notice this when it played festivals last year, but quotes like the one from Slant’s Kenji Fujishima wondering if he “needed to be stoned in order to fully get on its bizarre wavelength” make us wonder if we missed a weird one. It was picked up for theatrical distribution by Screen Media Films, but we have no idea where this might be playing. American Animal official site.

Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie (2012): Read our capsule review. Tim and Eric’s movie garnered lukewarm reactions (including ours) on its video-on-demand debut, but true fans will want to flock to the theaters to support the cult TV pair—won’t they? Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie official site.

IN DEVELOPMENT:

Frankenweenie (post-production, debuts Oct. 2012): Read our review of the original short. We’ve been burnt too many times hoping for Tim Burton to recapture the magic he once had, so we’re not going to get excited about this stop-motion remake of the short Frankenstein parody that originally got him fired from Disney. Watch the just-released trailer and determine your own level of anticipation.

NEW ON DVD:

The Catechism Cataclysm (2011): Read our capsule review. Star Steve Little won a 2011 Weirdcademy Award for his portrayal of the geeky rock n’ roll priest on a canoe trip. Buy The Catechism Cataclysm.

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

Baba Yaga (1973): Read our capsule review. This witchy S&M giallo starring Carroll Baker is an unexpected, but welcome, edition to the Blu-ranks. Buy Baba Yaga [Blu-ray].

FREE WEIRD MOVIES ON THE WEB:

The Humping Pact (2012): We’ll let director Dmitry Paranyushkin describe this one in his own words: ” it’s a meditative contemplation on the persistence in the futile and simultaneous tribute to desolate spaces that have lost their creative potential. And it’s full of multiplied naked men.” He wasn’t kidding about the naked men. Don’t follow this link unless you appreciate the artistic appeal of multiple nude dudes furiously thrusting their pelvises. You’ve been warned. You may also join in the “Humping Pact” at their own website: the makers hope to send naked humping men to various world destinations, and even promise “guest humpers” (Harmony Korine seems the obvious choice). Watch The Humping Pact on Vimeo or get more humping info on humping at humpingpact.com.

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.