Here’s what’s coming up on the site next week…

Reviews of the Jeunet/Caro weird cannibalism black comedy Delicatessen and “Weird Al” Yankovic’s cult star vehicle, UHF.

Alfred Eaker will be finishing up his series on the westerns of Budd Boetticher with Comanche Station.

The winner of the review writing contest will be announced on Friday, Sep. 4. You still have time to get an entry in as long as we receive it before midnight (US Eastern time) on Sep. 3!

Cameron Jorgensen will present another Saturday Short (even I don’t know what it will be!).

Weirdest search term used to locate the site this week: “pommel horse bondage.”

Here’s the ever-growing reader suggested review queue to give you an idea what will be coming further down the road: Nekromantic (still looking for a copy), UHF (next week), Delicatessen (next week), Pi, Angel’s Egg, Institute Benjamenta, Pan’s Labyrinth, Ex Drummer, Waking Life, Survive Style 5+, The Dark Backward, The Short Films of David Lynch, Santa Sangre, Dead Man, and Inland Empire.

Enjoy the week!

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):

Orgies and the Meaning of Life (2008):  The story of a man living inside his own head and fantasizing about orgies, all while writing a novel about a stick figure trying to find his way into the third dimension.  Beyond quirky, definitely verging on weird.  Also, not very popular with either audiences or critics.  Playing in Los Angeles—looks like a token theatrical release before it arrives on DVD in a couple weeks.  Orgies and the Meaning of Life official site.

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

Children of the Corn (1984):  Adapted from a Steven King novella (usually not a sign of weirdness, unless Kubrick‘s doing the adapting), this story concerns a small town of children who kill all the adults and start a cult worshiping “He Who Walks Behind the Rows.”  In a slow week for weird, this horror movie with a small cult following may be worth a look, especially if you like the idea of seeing Linda Hamilton crucified. Buy from Amazon.

NEW ON YOUTUBE (LEGITIMATE RELEASE):

Black Sunday (1960):  Mario Bava’s black and white classic with bewitching Barbara Steele in dual roles.  Not weird, but full of great Gothic atmosphere that evokes the Universal horror cycle.  Watch Black Sunday on YouTube.

Track 29 (1988): Described as “bizarre black comedy about a love-starved woman, her nerdy husband who’s obsessed with model trains and a stranger who claims to be her long lost son.”  A very overlooked movie from the great Nicholas Roeg, with Gary Oldman, Theresa Russell, Christopher Lloyd, and Sandra Bernhard.  Watch 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.

Just a reminder of what’s going on with the site…

First, we hope you liked the first in what we hope will be a long-running feature… the Saturday Short, where we plan to feature a new short film (usually by an up and coming filmmaker) weekly! Please welcome Cameron Jorgensen, who has graciously agreed to watch short weird movies and select the best for your enjoyment, to the 366weirdmovies team!

Hopefully, with the addition of this column we can begin to update 7 days a week, so you no longer have to wait through the weekend to start getting your weird movie fix again on Monday.

As for what’s coming up next week… reviews of the softcore surrealist flick Dr. Caligari and Chan-wook Park’s ultraviolent psychological epic Oldboy are definitely on tap, with a surprise or two (read: we haven’t decided exactly what to publish just yet.)

Don’t forget that you could win an A Clockwork Orange Blu-ray by writing a review for the site. As of now, we only have two entries (both of which will be published in the future), so your chances of winning aren’t too bad. The contest is open until September 3, 2009. Get all the details here.

We love to look at server logs (who doesn’t?) and check out the oddest search terms used to locate the site. Over the past few weeks we’ve seen “Coraline phallic” (missed that connection in our review of the children’s film), “amateur defecation movies” (weird indeed, but you’re not going to find what you’re looking for here), along with such odd requests as “busty zombie,” and “deadphallus.” But our favorite search term had a touch of honest bemusement to it: “What’s with these weird Japanese movies?” I’m not sure we can answer the question, but if anyone finds out the answer, please post it.

The reader suggested review queue looks like this: Dr. Caligari (upcoming this week), Nekromantic, UHF, Delicatessen, Pi, Angel’s Egg, Institute Benjamenta, Pan’s Labyrinth, Ex Drummer, Waking Life, Survive Style 5+, The Dark Backward, The Short Films of David Lynch, and Santa Sangre. We hope to knock off at least one of these per week, two on a good week. Some of those are out-of-print and difficult to locate, so they may be tackled in a different order than they were submitted.

Enjoy the upcoming week!

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):

Inglourious Basterds:  Led by Brad Pitt, a group of Jewish soldier/vigilantes in World War II hunt and slaughter Nazis in this alternative history lesson from the irrepressible Quentin Tarantino.  Unlike to be more than mildly weird, but QT is always worth a gander.  Inglourious Basterds Official Site.

Shorts:  While Tarantino hogs the opening week spotlight, sometime collaborator and fellow offbeat auteur Robert (Sin City) Rodriguez quietly releases this kiddie fantasy about a rainbow-colored rock that grants wishes.  Critics describe it as hyperactive and unfocused: Toby Young of the Times goes so far as to say that it’s “[S]o structurally complicated that it almost qualifies as an experimental film.”  Shorts Official Site.

IN THEATERS (LIMITED RELEASE):

Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha:  If nothing else, now septuagenarian Melvin Van Peebles has given us the weirdest movie title since his own Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song with this semi-autobiographical, semi-allegorical piece of picaresque performance art adapted for the big screen.  Van Peebles plays a teenager and has a love scene with a gorilla: this one’s going to be weird (and self-indulgent), no doubt about it.  No official site (the work of the Man?)

The Headless Woman [La mujer sin cabeza] (2008): Argentinian film about a woman who experiences a mysterious form of amnesia after striking something—a dog, or a child?—with her car.  Described as head-scratching, slow and oblique.  The Headless Woman Official (?) site (French).

NEW ON DVD:

Absurdistan (2008): The title of this fantastic, magical-realist German about a mythical Muslim country where the women stage a “Lysistrata”-style sex strike until the men fix a broken water pipeline suggests that this movie is right up our alley. Buy from Amazon

Icons of Sci-Fi: The Toho Collection [Mothra (1961), The H-Man (1958), Battle in Outer Space (1959)]:  This three disc letterboxed (well, “Tohoscoped”) collection is big news for kaiju and Japanese sci-fi fans.  Mothra, featuring the giant moth-monster and his miniature princesses, is the chief draw;  The H-Man brings us radioactive slime creatures; and Battle in Outer Space is an “aliens attack the world” movie. All three features were directed by the talented Ishirô (Godzilla, Attack of the Mushroom People) Honda and have either been AWOL on DVD or available only in inferior full-frame versions until now. Buy from Amazon

Surveillance (2008): Jennifer (Boxing Helena, daughter of David) Lynch’s long delayed second feature is a psychological thriller about two FBI agents trying to solve a string of grisly killings with the help of three witnesses who tell conflicting stories. Brutal, perverse and likely (given her heritage) to be highly weird, Surveillance arrives on DVD after token theatrical release. But from Amazon

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

Play Time (1967): This nearly plotless comedy on the absurdity of then-modern life involves clown M. Hulot (director Jacques Tati) lost in a bizarre, futurist re-creation of Paris as he tries to make an appointment. Considered by many to be Tati’s masterpiece. The Criterion Collection issued this on DVD in 2006 and is getting around to upgrading their Blu-Ray versions. Buy from Amazon.

Surveillance (2008): See the DVD section above for description. Buy 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.

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):

District 9 (2009):  South African science fiction story about refugee aliens on Earth that appears on the surface to be an  allegory of  apartheid.  “Presented” by formerly weird director Peter (Heavenly Creatures) Jackson, who’s seal of approval actually implies quality at this point in his career.  Word on the street is it’s original, but that’s unlikely to translate into weird.  District 9 official site.

Ponyo (2008):  Hayao (Spirited Away) Miyazaki’s Hans Christan Andersen inspired fairy tale about a goldfish trying to become human was a hit in Japan; now, Disney is releasing it on these shores, dubbed by big name Hollywood talent (Cate Blanchett, Matt Damon and others).  With Disney’s name on it, it ain’t gonna be weird, but Miyazaki has his fans and the visuals have been described as “trippy.”   Ponyo official site (Disney).

The Time Traveler’s Wife (2009):  Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams star in this romantic sci-fi/fantasy about a man born with a gene which causes him to become unstuck in time at random intervals.  Scripted by Bruce Joel Rubin of Jacob’s Ladder fame from a bestselling novel by Audrey Niffenegger.  Few critics think it’s too good, but at least one (Brandon Judell) thinks it’s “too weird,” which may come as an endorsement to readers looking for a date night movie that won’t bore them.   The Time Traveler’s Wife official site.

IN THEATERS (LIMITED RELEASE):

Grace (2009): This indie horror about a mother whose baby is born undead escaped from the festival circuit to a limited theatrical engagement. First time feature director Paul Solet expanded Grace to a full length movie from an award-winning short that Fangoria called “superbly bizarre.”  Love the poster with the infant’s bottle half full of blood! Grace official site.

Taxidermia (2006):  Three interwoven stories about three generations of Hungarian men: a WWII veteran grandfather, a would-be athlete father, and a taxidermist son—surrealy woven together by certified weird director György (Hukkle) Pálfi.  Clearly, the theatrical weird pick of the week, which is why it is only playing two theaters in the United States.  Rather than taking a road trip to L.A. or NYC, we’ll be waiting for a proper Region 1 DVD release (it’s already available to Europeans and others with machines that can play PAL DVDs), but we advise those who can to catch it on the big screen and report back to us. Taxidermia official site (US).

IN THEATERS (SPECIAL EVENTS): THURSDAY, AUGUST 20:

Rifftrax Live: Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959): One night only!  Three stars from the cult TV hit  Mystery Science Theater will make snarky comments about the movie that is widely (and incorrectly) believed to be the worst ever made! Though we have our doubts about the project—what’s the added value of “riffing live?”  Why pick a movie that doesn’t need any commentary to be a laff riot? And why cater to the masses by screening the colorized print?—it’s an intriguing idea.  You can find a list of participating theaters here.

NEW ON DVD:

Alien Trespass (2008):  This 1950s-style, colorized alien invasion movie realizes that the ridiculousness inherent in the genre needs no exaggeration and spoofs its subject matter with a straight face, which makes it an enjoyably affectionate rather than a smug parody.  Not terribly weird, but an offbeat and worthwhile pickup, especially for fans of The Blob and other nostalgic nonsense.  Buy from Amazon.

Gigantic (2008): Self-described “surreal love story” (we’re skeptical, but maybe the trailer strategically de-emphasized the “surreal” elements) hits the DVD ranks after a minuscule theatrical run (despite the presence of Zooey Deschanel and John Goodman). Buy from Amazon.

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

Alien Trespass (2008):  See description in the DVD section above.  Buy from Amazon.

Ichi the Killer (2001): This perverted and extreme sadomasochistic classic from weird director Takajshi Miike gets the Blu-ray treatment.  No longer will viewers have to suffer the agonies of low-definition arterial spray!  Buy form Amazon

The Ninth Gate (1999):  Roman Polanski returns to the supernatural genre in this overlooked 1999 film about a rare book collector (Johnny Depp) stumbling onto a diabolical tome which leads his soul into peril.  Buy 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.