Next week look for reviews of the curious based-in-fact 2009 mystery Winter of Frozen Dreams, Alejandro Jodoworsky‘s psychedelic slasher film Santa Sangre, and Robert Altman’s cult comedy  Brewster McCloud, about a boy who dreams of building a pair of wings and taking a flight inside the Houston Astrodome.

As far as weird search terms used to locate the site last week, the perverts were out in force, searching for stuff like “weird sex in humans videos,” “taboo insect porn strange,” “sexy orgiastic party,” and even “sally jesse rafael obsese.”  (By the way, we have nothing against perverts: they’re a valued part of our audience!)  Our favorite of the bunch was “weird sex movies of the 20th and 21st century,” because of its weird qualifiers: why craft your search term to specifically exclude 19th century weird sex movies?

Here’s the reader-suggested review queue as it stands today: Santa Sangre (next week); The Abominable Dr. Phibes; What? (Diary of Forbidden Dreams); Meatball Machine; Xtro; Basket Case; Suicide Club; O Lucky Man!; Trash Humpers (when/if released); Gozu; Tales of Ordinary Madness; The Wayward Cloud; Kwaidan; Six-String Samurai; Andy Warhol’s Trash; Altered States; Memento; Nightmare Before Christmas/Vincent/Frankenweenie; The Science of Sleep; Gothic (jumping in line to come out next week!); The Attic Expeditions; After Last Season; Getting Any?; Performance; Being John Malkovich; The Apple; Southland Tales; Arizona Dream; Spider (2002); Songs From The Second Floor; Singapore Sling; Alice [Neco z Alenky]; Necromania (1971, Ed Wood); Hour of the Wolf; MirrorMask; Possession; Suspiria; Mary and Max; Wild Zero; 4; Nothing (2003); The Peanut Butter Solution; Ninja Scroll; Perfume: The Story of a Murderer; Danger: Diabolik; Faust; Sublime; Battle Royale; Pink Floyd: The Wall; Escanaba In Da Moonlight; Jesus Christ, Vampire Hunter; Zardoz; The Films of Suzan Pitt; Toto the Hero [Toto le Héros]; Paprika; The Holy Mountain; Brazil; The Casserole Masters; Dark Crystal; Throw Away Your Books, Rally in the Streets; The Nines; 964 Pinocchio; The Pillow Book; Final Flesh; Lunacy [Sílení]; Inmortel; Tetsuo; Dead Ringers; Kairo [AKA Pulse]; The Guatemalan Handshake; Dead Leaves; Frownland; The Seventh Seal; Taxidermia; Primer; and Maniac (1934).

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 (WIDE RELEASE):

Alice in Wonderland: Tim Burton reimagines Lewis Carrol’s classic, in sequel form.  Is it personal this time?  Burton and Carrol seemed the perfect marriage, and we were excited about this one until we saw the trailers, which make it look like the director has turned the nonsense narrative into just another fantasy quest to kill the evil queen.  Don’t worry, we’re still going to cover it.  Alice in Wonderland official site.

NEW ON DVD:

Alice (2009): Yet another reimagining of “Alice in Wonderland,” released just in time to capitalize on the Burton movie mania. This version features a butt-kicking adult Alice spirited away to a dystopian Wonderland because the Red Queen wants her magic ring. A 240 minute miniseries that originally aired on SyFy channel.  The same director also made a postmodern Wizard of Oz variation, Tin Man, in the miniseries format.  Buy Alice.

Bitch Slap (2009): Three tough women behave badly while fighting over a fortune in diamonds in this “postmodern parody” of busty bad babe flicks like Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! The trailer indicates there are numerous fantasy sequences, and the press release promises a parallel series of Memento-like flashbacks that reveal the backstory. Critics say they’d like to perform the title act on the producers. Buy Bitch Slap.

Castle in the Sky (two-disc special edition) (1986): To coincide with the release of Ponyo, Disney is releasing several older Hayao Miyazaki features in new dubbed versions. This one involves a boy and a girl searching for a floating castle while being opposed by pirates. Warning: we’re not 100% sure, but from the descriptions it sounds like the second disc in each set contains exactly the same content: featurettes about Miyazaki and Ghibli studios that aren’t specific to the movie being featured. Buy Castle in the Sky: Special Edition – 2 Disc DVD.

Cold Souls (2009): Read our review. This comedy about the illicit trade in human souls was one of the weirder movies of 2009, but our staff split on whether it was weird/good enough to make the List. Buy Cold Souls.

Gentlemen Broncos (2009): From Jared Hess (writer/director of Napoleon Dynamite) comes this gross-out satire about a nerdy amateur fantasy writer whose story is stolen by an established author and turned into an awful movie by a small-town director. Critics hated it (“Gentlemen Broncos doesn’t just visit Planet Quirk, it crash lands upon it.”–Peter Howell). Still, scenes from the film-within-the film, with it’s gay cyclops and flying robotic deer, look at least mildly weird, and it seems anything that almost everyone in the mainstream hates must have something going for it. On the other hand, Armond White liked it, which may justifiably scare you off. Buy Gentlemen Broncos.

Kiki’s Delivery Service (two-disc special edition) (1989): Popular Miyazaki anime about a young witch starting a courier service in the human world. Re-released to coincide with Ponyo. Buy Kiki’s Delivery Service: Special Edition – 2-Disc DVD.

My Neighbor Tortoro (two-disc special edition) (1988): Yet another two-disc Disney special edition of an early Hayao Miyazaki anime, this one involving a girl befriending a forest spirit in Japan in the 1950s. This dubbed version features the voices of the Fanning sisters. Buy My Neighbor Totoro (Two-Disc Special Edition).

Ponyo (Disney dubbed version, 2009): Read our review. A bit weird, but we’re convinced Miyazaki can deliver weirder.  Stylistically, it’s very much aimed at little girls with ages in the single digits. Contains a bonus disc of special features. Buy Ponyo (Two-Disc Edition).

Where the Wild Things Are (2009):  Read our review.  Spike Jonze’s adaptation/realization of the classic children’s book is a treat for adults.  We’d love to see the director’s cut (hint). Buy Where the Wild Things Are.

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

Alice (2009): See description in DVD above. Buy Alice [Blu-ray].

Gentlemen Broncos (2009): See description in DVD above. Buy Gentlemen Broncos [Blu-ray].

The Neverending Story (1984): This childhood fantasy about a boy who enters a fairytale story and has to save a kingdom from Nothingness is a major nostalgia piece for many. It may not be very weird, but it may have influenced some of us towards imaginative cinema in our youths. Buy The Neverending Story [Blu-ray].

Ponyo (Disney dubbed version, 2009): See description in DVD above. Rather than putting all the extras onto a single Blu-ray, they’re selling it as a two-disc set and including a DVD as well. I guess the idea is that Blu-ray folks won’t feel cheated by getting one less disc than DVD people? Buy Ponyo (Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo).

Where the Wild Things Are (2009): See description in DVD above. The Blu-ray contains some additional features not on the DVD, including a 23 minute short adaptation of another Maurice Sendak children’s story, “Higglety Pigglety Pop! Or There Must Be More to Life.” Buy Where the Wild Things Are [Blu-ray].

FREE (LEGITIMATE RELEASE) MOVIES ON YOUTUBE:

The Eternal [AKA Trance] (1998):  Michael Almereyda‘s followup to the vampire movie Nadja features druids, mummies and witches in an arty B-movie brew. No idea how long Lionsgate will keep this up for free, so check it out soon if you’re interested.  Watch The Eternal 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 plan to get out reviews of the mystical French sex film À l’aventure (2009), the currently-in-theaters Shutter Island, and the Coen brothers’ writer’s block nightmare Barton Fink (1991).  Also in the pipeline is a review of the 1990 post-apocalyptic film Hardware.

When selecting the weirdest search term used to locate the site last week, sometimes the search terms are fine, but the phrasing makes us wonder.  Such is the case with this week’s selection, “whilst we are on the subject of weird short films,” we makes it sound like the site was having a discussion with Lord Finklebottom over tea and crumpets.

Some notes on the reader-suggested review queue: we’ve acquired copies of Santa Sangre and The Abominable Dr. Phibes, so reviews should appear in the next couple weeks. We are officially giving up for the time being on Tabu’s Monday, as we haven’t been able to locate an English-language translation. We keep a separate wishlist of out-of-print titles, and we will keep an eye out for a re-release. The rest of the queue looks like this: Barton Fink (next week); Santa Sangre; The Abominable Dr. Phibes; What? (Diary of Forbidden Dreams); Meatball Machine; Xtro; Basket Case; Suicide Club; O Lucky Man!; Trash Humpers (when/if released); Gozu; Tales of Ordinary Madness; The Wayward Cloud; Kwaidan; Six-String Samurai; Andy Warhol’s Trash; Altered States; Memento; Nightmare Before Christmas/Vincent/Frankenweenie; The Science of Sleep; Gothic (jumping in line to come out next week!); The Attic Expeditions; After Last Season; Getting Any?; Performance; Being John Malkovich; The Apple; Southland Tales; Arizona Dream; Spider (2002); Songs From The Second Floor; Singapore Sling; Alice [Neco z Alenky]; Necromania (1971, Ed Wood); Hour of the Wolf; MirrorMask; Possession; Suspiria; Mary and Max; Wild Zero; 4; Nothing (2003); The Peanut Butter Solution; Ninja Scroll; Perfume: The Story of a Murderer; Danger: Diabolik; Faust; Sublime; Battle Royale; Pink Floyd: The Wall; Escanaba In Da Moonlight; Jesus Christ, Vampire Hunter; Zardoz; The Films of Suzan Pitt; Toto the Hero [Toto le Héros]; Paprika; The Holy Mountain; Brazil; The Casserole Masters; Dark Crystal; Throw Away Your Books, Rally in the Streets; The Nines; 964 Pinocchio; The Pillow Book; Final Flesh; Lunacy [Sílení]; Inmortel; Tetsuo; Dead Ringers; Kairo [AKA Pulse]; The Guatemalan Handshake; and Dead Leaves.

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):

A Prophet [Un prohète] (2009): A huge stretch for weird interest, but since there’s nothing else in theaters you may want to go see this, the French nominee for “Best Foreign Language Film” Oscar.  It’s a gangster drama about the rise of an North African within an organized crime gang operating from inside the walls of a French prison, and it reportedly contains a few dream sequences.  Winner of the Grand Prix at Cannes. A Prophet official site (English).

SCREENINGS – NEW YORK CITY:

ODDSAC (2010): A 53-minute “visual album” matching experimental visuals to the equally experimental music of Animal Collective. The trailer will verify that the visuals and audio are both definitely trippy. Playing at the Visual Arts Theater March 2 & 3; the official website indicates that both screenings are sold out. Screenings are taking place throughout March in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Portland, Oregon, ahead of a June DVD release.  We’ll remind you of screenings in your area, or you can check ODDSAC‘s homepage for future dates.

NEW ON DVD:

$9.99 (2008): Read our review.  Claymation adaptation of the absurdist short stories of Etgar Keret, including one about a young man who buys a book that promises to give him the meaning of life for $9.99 cash. Definitely weird at times, at other times flatly dramatic; as a whole, the movie has difficulty finding a workable tone. Buy $9.99.

The Box (2009): Read our review.  Opinions were split (even in-house) on the merits of Richard Kelly‘s mystifying sci-fi parable about a box offering moral dilemmas; if you missed it in theaters, now is your chance to weigh in on one side or the other. Buy The Box.

Dead Snow (2009): The Norwegian Nazi zombie movie.  Gory zombie comedies once seemed weird, but they’re fast becoming mainstream—even derivative. Buy Dead Snow .

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

The Box (2009): See entry in DVD above. Buy The Box [Blu-ray].

Dead Snow (2009): See entry in DVD above. Buy Dead Snow [Blu-ray].

Ichi the Killer (2001): Back in August, we prematurely announced this was coming to Blu-ray. This time we mean it! This perverted and extreme sadomasochistic classic from weird director Takashi Miike finally gets the Blu-ray treatment. No longer will viewers have to suffer the agonies of low-definition arterial spray! Ichi the Killer [Blu-ray].

Poutrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead (2007): More Troma madness. Zombie chickens arise from the grave when a fast food franchise is built on an Indian burial ground. Buy Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead [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.

Well, our first review writing contest went fabulously: we landed Pamela de Graff, who’s turned into a valuable contributor for the site.  So, we feel it’s time to trot out a second review-writing contest.

Now, multiple people have contacted us with offers to write reviews, but haven’t followed through.   If you’re one of them, here’s your chance to write that review and get a some swag for your trouble!

The prize is a “like new” DVD of the experimental, surreal horror movie Frankenstein’s Bloody Nightmare, which has only been previously viewed for review purposes.

Just like last time, the rules of the contest are simple:

1. Write a review of a movie that you think should be on the List of the 366 Best Weird Movies, but that hasn’t been covered here yet.  Including the following sections: DIRECTOR, FEATURING (listing the most important actors), PLOT (a one sentence synopsis), WHY IT DESERVES TO MAKE THE LIST (a one sentence to one paragraph description of why you think the movie is weird), COMMENTS (one to two paragraphs describing the movie in more detail). If you have a suggestion for a still to represent the movie and/or a quote from a critic on the film, you can include those, but they are not required.
2. In rare cases, a well-thought out “second opinion” on a movie that we have already considered, but that you think we got wrong (either by putting it on the List when it shouldn’t have made it, or rejecting a film that should have made it), will be an acceptable subject for a review.  We would still prefer reviews of movies we haven’t yet covered.
3. Submit your work on our contact form. By submitting your entry on this form, you agree to allow 366weirdmovies.com to publish your work, either whole or in edited form, on this website. Your work may be selected for publication even if you are not chosen as the winner.
4. The contest is open to anyone whose work has not previously been published on 366weirdmovies.com.  If you submitted a review to the last contest and did not win, you are still eligible to enter this contest even if we published your review.
5. You may not write a review promoting a film which you were involved in the production of, or in which you have a financial interest.
6. This site strives to remain “PG” rated; do not use profanity in your review.
7. The contest will remain open for one month, until March 25, 2010, at which time the editor will select the best entry. The winner will be chosen on the basis of writing style, insight, and appropriateness of the movie chosen. The deadline may be extended, depending on the number of entries received.
8. In order to be eligible to receive the prize, you must supply a valid email address and a valid mailing address. International addresses are acceptable. If the winning entrant does not supply a valid mailing address, or declines the prize, the DVD will be given to a randomly selected entry with a mailing address in the United States. If no entries are from the United States, then the deadline to complete the contest will be extended.

TIPS: Avoid merely summarizing the plot in your comments. Avoid giving away “spoilers” in your descriptions that might ruin the enjoyment of the film. Obscure titles are fine—in fact, they may be worth bonus points—but try to pick a film that is available on DVD, or is at least likely to be released. If you write on a film no one will be able to view or locate, the movie may be judged as inappropriate.

One final tip: don’t be scared away by thinking you have to write something profoundly insightful. Simply consider it as a chance to describe and recommend a film to that narrow audience of people who are interested in the same kind of weird movies as you are.

Have fun! The winner, and even the runners-up, may be invited to become regular contributors to the site!