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 House of the Devil:  A satanic creepfest set in the 1980s, which (word has it) plays out like a forgotten VHS era occult gem.  Maybe not weird, but clearly offbeat, and the presence of cult actress Mary (Eating Raoul) Woronov doesn’t hurt anything.  Opening in L.A. with limited national distribution thereafter.  In a sign of the times, it’s also already gotten a “pre-theatrical” release via video on demand (rent).  House of the Devil official site.

NEW ON DVD:

Adult Swim in a Box (Aqua Teen Hunger Force Volume 2 / Space Ghost Season 3 / Moral Oral Season 1 / Robot Chicken Season 2 / Metalocalypse Season 1 / Sealab Season 2): What twentysomething hipster doesn’t dream of finding this 7-disc set and a one pound brick of medical-grade marijuana (with prescription) under their tree on Christmas morning? Contains and extra disc of failed pilots from the boundary-pushing late night cartoon lineup. Buy from Amazon.

Afterwards (2008): A New York lawyer meets a doctor (John Malkovich) who can foretell who is going to die. Reviewers used adjectives such as lyrical, allegorical, boring and pretentious to describe this arthouse non-hit that nonetheless may be to some tastes. Buy from Amazon.

Death in the Garden [Mort en ce jardin] (1956):  This minor Buñuel adventure piece from his Mexican Marxist period concerns conflicts between gold prospectors and the state. The director’s Surrealist tendencies were on the backburner during this period, so this one is for dedicated Buñuelists and Communist sympathizers only. Buy from Amazon .

Fear(s) of the Dark [Peur’s du Noir] (2007): A French horror anthology containing six black and white animated shorts dealing with themes of fear and night. As with all anthologies, the films likely vary as to quality and bizarreness. Buy from Amazon.

Monty Python: Almost the Truth (The Lawyers Cut) (2009): Six hours of interviews and clips spread out over three discs tell the entire story of the famous British comedy troupe that made absurdism fashionable through the 1970s. A must-get for dedicated fans. Buy from Amazon.

Night of the Creeps (1986): Long-anticipated released of the intentional campy cult 1980s horror/sci-fi flick that simultaneously sends up and pays honest tribute to teen sex comedies, alien invasion pics and zombie movies. Buy from Amazon

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

Monty Python: Almost the Truth (The Lawyers Cut): See the description above in the DVD section. Buy Blu-ray from Amazon

Night of the Creeps (1986): See the description above in the DVD section. Buy Blu-ray from Amazon

The Prisoner: The Complete Series: The classically Kafka-esque, paranoid, psychedelic-era BBC TV series about a retired spy who finds himself held prisoner by the government on a surreal island makes it’s welcome debut on Blu-ray. Buy from Amazon.

NEW FREE (LEGITIMATE) MOVIES ON YOUTUBE:

Sex Madness (1938): From the demented mind of Dwain Esper (Reefer Madness, Maniac) comes another hysterically exploitative “warn your children!” anti-classic, wherein a promiscuous chorus girl catches syphilis from the casting couch.  Watch Sex Madness free on YouTube.

HAUNTED HOUSES (INDIANAPOLIS AREA):

The Asylum House is running a series of high-tech, interactive hauntings in the Indy area. Our own Alfred Eaker is involved in a mysterious, occult capacity with the Crypt of Shadows.  Check ’em out for a frightful time if you’re in the area; this is professional stuff.

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, you can expect to see a Director Retrospective on the legendary Russian director Rustam Khamdamov, an uncompromising artist with extremely bad luck.  His films are unavailable here in the west, and pretty much unavailable in his homeland as well; find out why.  We will also publish reviews of Guy Maddin‘s Cowards Bend the Knee and Robert Mulligan’s eerie but underseen twin horror film, The Other (1972).

As far as weird search terms used to find the site go, it was a surprisingly light week for perverted fetishists (although one guy did come here looking for that “gay porn frogman movie,” which we admit is probably fairly weird).   We did get hits from people searching for the following: a “bizarre movie about our lives,” some “weird movies names for weird people,” and  “simple weird experiments for the eyes.”

The reader-suggested review queue is growing fast.  It now looks like this: Cowards Bend the Knee (next week), Greasers Palace (substituted for Institute Benjamenta), Pan’s Labyrinth, Waking Life, Survive Style 5+, The Dark Backward, The Short Films of David Lynch, Santa Sangre, Dead Man, Inland Empire, Monday (assuming I can find an English language version), The Abominable Dr. Phibes, Barton Fink, What? (Diary of Forbidden Dreams), Meatball Machine, Xtro, Basket Case, Suicide Club, O Lucky Man! , Harmony Korine‘s Trash Humpers (if it’s released), Takashi Miike‘s Gozu,  Tales of Ordinary Madness, and The Wayward Cloud.

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):

Antichrist:  Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg play a grieving couple who retreat to a cabin in the woods where the encounter the Ultimate Evil, in what’s described as either arty torture porn or one of the best horror films of modern times.  Lars von Trier’s latest has divided critics straight down the middle: half think its unreedemable, pandering shock trash, while others think it’s a masterpiece. Von Triers, severely depressed when he wrote the movie, dedicates the film to Andrei Tarkovsky; Cannes preview audiences reportedly booed at the comparison. Antichrist official site.

Night and Day [Bam gua nat] (2008): It’s difficult to divine much information about this well-reviewed “metaphysical” movie about an aging Korean womanizer among expats in Pairs, but reviews suggest that director Sang-soo Hong plays fast and loose with reality and may play tricks with the audiences mind in this drama/character study. Currently playing in NYC only? Bam gua nat Official Site (in French, and not safe for work due to nudity).

Rembrandt’s J’accuse (2008): Not a weird film, but rather a serious documentary about a single Rembrandt painting (“The Nightwatch”), mentioned here because it’s the product of oft-weird artist/director Peter (The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover) Greenaway.  Rembrandt’s J’accuse official site.

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

Easy Rider (1969): Not thoroughly weird, but when Fonda and Hopper drop acid in a New Orleans graveyard, the result is one of the better “trip” sequences in cinema. Buy Blu-ray from Amazon

Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971):  Gene Wilder is iconic as Wonka in one of the weirdest and most psychedelic children’s films ever made.  Everyone loves Oompah-loompahs. Buy Blu-ray from Amazon

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 you can expect to see our long delayed review of the reader-nominated Belgian film Ex Drummer.  Also, be sure to check in on Tuesday, when we debut a new writer!  He’ll be reviewing a little underground horror/comedy movie called Zorg & Andy, which was made for $25,000 and has cult aspirations (but don’t all movies made for $25,000 ?)  Did we scoop a future classic, or sniff out some amateur trash?

As for the weirdest search term used to locate the site this week, we’re going to eschew the usual slew of misguided fetishists looking for free porn and go with “eraserhead are you a vampire”?  We’ll remember to pass on that question the next time we see him.

In the reader-suggested review queue: Ex Drummer (next week), Cowards Bend the Knee (coming soon!), Greasers Palace (substituted for Institute Benjamenta), Pan’s Labyrinth, Waking Life, Survive Style 5+, The Dark Backward, The Short Films of David Lynch, Santa Sangre, Dead Man, Inland Empire, Monday (assuming I can find an English language version), The Abominable Dr. Phibes, Barton Fink, What? (Diary of Forbidden Dreams), Meatball Machine, Xtro, Basket Case, and Suicide Club. Yeah, we know we need to start whittling this thing down!

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):

Where the Wild Things Are: Weird director Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation) takes a crack at adopting the titular classic 1963 children’s book, with the blessing of author Maurice Sendack.  Unlikely to be weird, but the previews show Jonze has done a remarkable job of bringing Sendack’s fanciful illustrations to life, and it’s always interesting to see what Spike’s up to.  Is this a one-off moneymaking detour for Jonze, or will a big hit here make him renounce his weird proclivities?  His followup project, an adaptation of Shane Jones’ weird novel “Light Boxes” about a town that battles eternal February (projected for a 2011 release) suggests we haven’t lost him yet.  Where the Wild Things Are official site.

NEW ON DVD:

Drag Me To Hell (2009):  Read our capsule review.  Sam Raimi‘s multiplex-friendly classic horror film isn’t weird, but it is an effective and well-made thrillride that has lots of in-jokes for Evil Dead II fans. Buy from Amazon.

Hardware (1990):  Fangoria calls this long-unavailable post-apocalyptic sci-fi horror film about a man who finds a robot head in the desert “gritty, trippy and frightening.. one of the best horror movies you’ve never seen!”  Sounds intriguing to us, particularly since director Richard Staley followed this up with Dust Devil (1992), another horror film with a reputation for surrealistic tendencies that’s been on our radar for a while. Buy from Amazon

Land of the Lost (2009):  Read our capsule review.  Juvenile Will Ferrel comedy that’s a bit weird, but only by summer blockbuster standards. Buy from Amazon.

Natural Born Killers (1994):  This week sees a new 2-disc “director’s cut” version Oliver Stone’s controversial, violent, hallucinogenic satire on America’s fascination with violence, which on release was way too weird for mainstream critics to swallow.  The movie’s not perfect, but it is quite trippy, well-intentioned, and much better than received critical opinion would lead you to believe.  Look to these pages for a full review in the future. Buy from Amazon

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

Drag Me To Hell (2009):  See DVD review above. Buy Blu-ray from Amazon.

Land of the Lost (2009): See DVD review above. Buy Blu-ray from Amazon

Natural Born Killers (1994): See DVD review above. Buy Blu-ray from Amazon

South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999): After four cardboard cutout children see a Canadian R-rated movie, America declares war on their neighbors to the north; Saddam Hussein and Satan get worked into the plot as well. We haven’t seen it, but we can guess what you’ll get from watching the TV show: the usual blend of clever plotting, bits of pop-absurdity, spotty satire and crude, cruel humor, with the R-rating giving the creators an excuse to focus on the last element. This popular title is finally available on Blu-Ray. Buy Blu-ray from Amazon.

NEW FREE (LEGITIMATE) MOVIES ON YOUTUBE:

Carnival of Souls (1998): NOT the creepy 1968 Herk Harvey/Candice Hilligoss classic (which can be seen for free here, among other places), but a remake-in-name-only with a horrible reputation, about a pedophile clown.  Interesting mainly because it’s almost universally reviled; watch only if you want to see how low filmmakers can sink in their quest for a buck.  Watch Carnival of Souls (1998) free on YouTube.

Salome’s Last Dance (1988):  One of Ken Russell‘s rarer films is now available for streaming.  By all accounts, the director plays this period piece about a staging of Oscar Wilde’s infamous banned play “Salome” in a brothel relatively straight, but it’s still Ken Russell, so expect ample baroque perversity.  Watch Salome’s Last Dance free on YouTube.

Taxi Driver (1979):  No, we’re not kidding: you can now watch the Martin Scorcese/Robert DeNiro urban alienation classic for free on YouTube, courtesy of Crackle.  Not very weird, at least up until the ambiguous ending, but a consistently fascinating character study of a decaying mind and a classic of 1970s filmmaking.  Watch Taxi Driver 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.