Don’t neglect your chance to win a copy of the horror radio play “The Grandfather”: see details below (or click here if you’re really, really lazy).

We’re making a push to get some more 2010 releases covered before 2010 expires on us. To that end, you can still expect to see the (slightly delayed) review of the Italian Mafia musical To Die for Tano, along with the gender-bending psychological thriller Peacock. We’re also hoping to bring you a taste of the Christina-Ricci-nude-on-a-mortician-slab horror After.Life, and the male pregnancy comedy The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle. Who knows what else 2010 may bring?

Surprisingly, we encountered very few weird search terms this Christmas week. Of course, there was the person who came here looking for “homemade videos of shooting arrows at girls,” and the person searching for “crispin glover master-bater.” Out of a weak field, we’ll tip our hat to “dead girl touched by lesbian,” and hope that it wasn’t an image search.

Here’s the hundreds-deep-and growing reader suggested review queue (more after the jump): The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle (coming soon!); Songs From The Second Floor; Possession; Wild Zero; Nothing (2003); The Peanut Butter Solution; Perfume: The Story Continue reading WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE →

The Grandfather is 40 minutes of spine-tingling audio horror from Tales Beyond the Pale (“radio plays for the digital age”), written by Graham Reznick (I Can See You) and starring horror icon Angus Scrimm (Phantasm).

Based on those facts, and the “cover art” you see to the left, we’d like you to give us a short (1-3 sentence) description of what you think the plot of The Grandfather might be and post your concept in the comments below.  The most creative entry will receive a code via e-mail good for a free download of the mp3 file of The Grandfather.

The contest closes on 12/31/2010 at 11:59 PM.

The rules couldn’t be any simpler, so go to it!

Welcome! Did you get the Internet for Christmas?

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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 Illusionist [L’illusionniste] (2009): Animator Sylvain Chomet’s followup to The Triplets of Belleville is a nearly silent animated feature about an out-of-fashion magician, based on an unproduced script by Jacques Tati.  This may not be precisely what we’d call “weird,” but given that the studios like to play it safe and friendly for the holidays, this may have to do if you’ve already seen Black Swan and are looking for something else to challenge you.  Opens in New York and Los Angeles on Christmas Day, making its way across the rest of the country in January and February.  The Illusionist official site.

IN DEVELOPMENT:

“Manos”: The Search for Valley Lodge (est. 2011): We’re keeping a slightly skeptical eye on the progress of this Manos: The Hands of Fate sequel.  Torgo impressionist Rupert Talbot Munch Sr. has been making some fairly hilarious YouTube shorts, but could a full-length campy comedy version of the horrible El Paso horror movie really work, when nearly every deliberately campy horror spoof fails? Can this movie be made by someone who, as far as we can tell, has absolutely no background in the fertilizer industry? The latest news is that Tom Neyman will be reprising his role as the Master in the sequel. Tom’s now on pace to get his second IMDB credit a mere 45 years after his first one.  Keep up with all the latest news at TorgoLives.com.

NEW ON DVD:

Mega Shark vs. Crocosaurus (2010): Fresh off his victory over Giant Octopus, Mega Shark returns in more mega-aquatic silliness from the SyFy Channel.  We like his chances against Crocosaurus, but can he stop a grown-up Urkel? Honestly, the Mega Piranha was probably enough for us, but we understand some people can’t get their fill of seafood. Buy Mega Shark vs Crocosaurus.

The Strange (2010): This is strange. This title just showed up on Amazon with no fanfare; it’s from Pathfinder Home Entertainment, who distribute Elevator Movie along with other obscure titles that sound pretty weird even to us (titles like Sex & the Celts and Hitler Meets Christ).  It’s not listed on the IMDB but Justin Lin (Fast & Furious) is credited as director.  Since there’s no other information on the film we quote from the product description: “a bizarre film experience that will accustom you to the kind of abnormal behavior you may have only heard or read about, but never seen. Why did the couple and the mime have a deadly standoff?”  It’s billed as a “dark comedy.”  Strange indeed. Buy The Strange.

FREE (LEGITIMATE RELEASE) MOVIES ON YOUTUBE:

The Little Shop of Horrors (1960): This is Roger Corman‘s original low-budget black comedy about a nerd’s complex relationship with his blood-drinking plant, later remade as a popular 1980s musical. Featuring an early appearance by Jack Nicholson as the masochistic dental patient. “I’ve eaten in flower shops all over the world, and I’ve noticed that the places that have the most weird and unusual plants do the best business,” advises Dick Miller.  Watch The Little Shop of Horrors (1960) 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 be continuing our wrap up of the year 2010 in movies (and DVDs).  We’ve finally gotten around to seeing a couple of late breaking List-quality releases, though we’re not saying we’ll be covering those titles in the upcoming week, as we don’t want to rob you of the fun guessing what the new entries might be!  We do hope to cover the following next week: Gaspar Noé’s druggy ghost story Enter the Void; Nicolas Winding Refn‘s strange Viking saga, Valhalla Rising; and the mafia musical To Die for Tano (released in Italy in 1997 but making a quiet debut in U.S. theaters this year).  Just so you won’t feel too contemporary and with-it, we’ll also take a look back at one of the craziest of the classic Hollywood musicals, Hellzapoppin’ (1941).

It was a tough week for weird search terms used to locate the site: it seems the searchers out there are getting more and more normal.  Of course, we did see the usual mangled searches from people we assume are searching for something unspeakably filthy, but aren’t quite sure how to put it into words, e.g. “bigest tumy nacked movies” and “18 love bebbe pick movies.”  And maybe it’s not that weird of a search term, but there’s just something about the way this request is phrased that we find amusing:  “donnie darko make it make sense.”  For the weirdest search term of the week, we’re going to have to go with the rather simple “pilgrim type 366,” simply because we like search terms that teach us something new, and we had no clue there were at least 365 other types of pilgrims.

Peering deep into the future, here’s that massive reader-suggested review queue (it goes on for quite a while after the jump): Hellzapoppin’ (next week); Songs From The Second Floor; Possession; Wild Zero; Nothing (2003); The Peanut Butter Solution; Perfume: The Story of a Continue reading WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE →