For immediate release

From director Eric Michael Kochmer, producers Jonathan Haloosim and James Anthony Cotton, associate producer Maria Olsen, co-produced by the We Make Movies collective and MOnsterworks66 comes Way Down in Chinatown, featuring Lisa Loring, “Wednesday” from the original “Addams Family” TV show.

“The team who put this film together certainly succeeded in their mission if it was to leave the viewer disturbed.” – Stuart Hine

THE STORY: Playwright Victor Mitchum and theater director Jessica Mitchum work exceedingly hard at creating new and innovative work for the theater. As they venture into their new dark musical, “Apocalypse Tomorrow” (inspired by Leadbelly’s “Goodnight Irene”) they suddenly find themselves seduced by the underworld that is being created to preserve the few.

Annie, an elusive temptress with the voice of a worm-like angel, slithers her way into Victor’s soul, causing a rift in his marriage to Jessica, who is equally lured by an ominous mirror image of herself, (Mara). Both of the possessed protagonists descend morally before they are compelled to walk downtown and face the underground theater, and themselves, for possibly the last time.

Way Down in Chinatown is a surrealistic horror film in the same vein as Eraserhead and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The film can be classified as a black and white, Expressionist noir. Influenced by Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, Jean Luc Godard’s Alphaville, and Rainer Wener Fassbinder’s Veronica Voss, Chinatown takes elements from all these classics and melds them into a catastrophic delight to watch.

REVIEWS:

“…avant garde at its finest… there really is no middle ground with this film. Either you love it or you hate it. I say enjoy it for what it is.”
– STEPHANIE NETT, Midnight Reverie

“…as original a sci-fi thriller as you’re likely to see… It’s a polarizing film, it’s one that you will love or hate but whatever your reaction it’ll get the grey matter working harder than any movie you’ll see this year.”
– JONATHAN BAXTER, Knifed in Venice

“Think film noir add a dash of Sci-Fi throw in some disturbing scenes in the style of Eraserhead mixed with a squeeze of A Clockwork Orange and you have WAY DOWN IN CHINATOWN.”
– MOLLY GORE, Kensington Gore”

“Surreal, impressionistic, and irrevocably bizarre, Kochmer’s artistic approach to the eccentric is reminiscent of a David Lynch expose.”
– DAVE GAMMON, Horror News

“To be honest with you I can’t really say what this flick is about. And I’ve seen it twice already!”
-TOMMY SORDERBERG, The Flick Fanatic’s Companion

Connect with Way Down in Chinatown on the official Facebook page

 DVD available now. Video-on-Demand coming soon.

We’re a third of the way through 2014, which can only mean one thing: it’s time for us to publish a Weird Movies Yearbook covering the previous year’s bizarre cinema! The print issue still needs formatting and will arrive in a few weeks, but we’re happy to announce the Kindle e-book version is now live:

Per the ad copy: “Covering everything weird, from art house surrealism to next-generation cult movies to so-bad-they’re-weird B-movie atrocities, 366 Weird Movies has been meeting all of your weird movie needs since 2009 with a combination of sly humor and serious insight. This is our annual Yearbook covering all the weird movies released and re-released in 2013, from The ABC’s of Death to Zeta One, with over 45 full-length reviews, extensive supplemental listings, and exclusive interviews and director’s statements. If it’s weird, and it’s a movie, and it’s from 2013, and 366 Weird Movies covered it, you’ll find it here.” The delightful cover image is from Strange Frame: Love & Sax.

If you’re a regular reader and you appreciate what we do here, this is a great way to show some gratitude for mooching off our weird movie knowledge for an entire year. Royalties from each sale will be given to reviewers and used to purchase either one domestic beer, or 2/3 of an import/craft beer, or, in Alfred Eaker‘s case, 1/2 of a Bloody Mary—we keep advising him to go with the house-brand vodka, and he keeps telling us where we can stuff our cocktail onions. Reviewers based in Colorado and Washington may opt to dedicate their royalties towards greener purchases, if you know what we mean. Teetotalers and those in recovery are objects of pity around the 366 World Headquarters; they can spend their pittance on whatever it is sober people buy (probably love, or justice, or something hoighty-toighty like that).

It turns out that several behind-the-scenes projects have come together at the same time, so rather than dragging out the announcements over several self-serving posts, we’re putting everything together in one mega self-serving post.

First up, contributor Alfred Eaker’s first movie, Jesus and the Gospel of Yes (2004), is now available on Amazon Video-on-Demand ($1.99 rental—producer James Manaan points out that’s cheaper than a tab of LSD, though I haven’t personally scoped out prices—or $9.99 for a full digital download).  From the product description: “Jesus is a woman, Moses is a cross-dresser, and Judas is a crack addict in this retelling of the New Testament narrated by a hopped-up beatnik poet and played out in front of a constantly shifting series of eye-popping surrealist canvases. Mixing Star Trek references with fine art, absurd wordplay with lesbians, and superficial blasphemy with deep reverence, Jesus and Her Gospel of Yes is a psychedelic gauntlet thrown down at the feet of fundamentalists of all stripes.” You can see the first 2 minutes free at Amazon by clicking the link to the right.

Next up in the plug-a-thon is the highly-anticipated, long-delayed ““366 Weird Movies 2010 Yearbook.” The 2010 Yearbook should appear on Amazon very shortly, and we’ll be working on putting out an affordable e-book version as well. It comes in at a ridiculous 116 pages (versus a mere 53 pages for the necessary-to-complete-your-collection 2009 Yearbook), yet the price has only risen a paltry $0.50 to $6.99!

Since many of you will doubtlessly, and quite sensibly, ask yourself “why should I buy a book when I can read the damn website for free?,” we reprint our top 5 answers to that question from this time last year:

1. Unlike the digital version, you can take the paper “Yearbook” into the “can” with you.
2. If you unexpectedly run out of toilet paper in said “can,” the “Yearbook” can do double duty.
3. This site may not always be here in the current form. (That’s not a hint, it’s a scare tactic).
4. It’s distinctly within the realm of possibility that this Yearbook will become a collectible worth thousands/hundreds/a few cents over what you paid for it in five years. Collect them all! In the very near future, anything printed in ink on paper will be a valuable antique!
5. Each copy sold will contribute a few cents towards paying our hosting/domain registration bills.

We should be finished there, but there’s actually more… because now you can confuse your friends and mystify strangers with the official 366 Weird Movies t-shirt! I wanted one of these for myself and it costs nothing to offer it to others, so here it is. I have “street tested” a prototype garment, and I can confirm that the product 1). effectively covers the human torso when correctly sized, and 2). is guaranteed to elicit responses like “Hey, isn’t that Count Orlock from Nosferatu?” from would-be hipsters. T-shirts come in two varieties: one with the logo on front and the ever-growing, ever-changing List printed on the back ($19.49—buy a new one every couple of months!) and one with just the logo (only $16.49—one-sided printing is significantly cheaper). You can choose from a variety of colors but I would stick with white, as none of the others have been tested.

For anyone for whom a t-shirt is too expensive but who would nonetheless like to spread the 366 brand, there’s the 366 Weird Movies coffee mug at just $10.49—what weirder way to start your day than with Conrad Veidt’s glassy-eyed stare accosting you as you gulp down your morning joe?

All available at the seldom-visited, never-equaled 366 Weird Movies Merchandise shop! All items subject to predatory shipping & handling charges outside of our control. Reseller handles all returns and complaints.

366 Distribution’s second project, “The Best of Damon Zex,” is now available for purchase at CreateSpace. It will also appear on Amazon in the following days.

Damon was a polarizing figure in public access television in the 1990s. His show assaulted the suburbs with frank sexuality, vulgarity, occultism and blasphemy; but more importantly, it challenged viewers with its high quotient of surrealism, artistry, experimental hypnotic video techniques, and satire.

The press release describes the contents thusly:

DVD 1 contains:

1. “The Diabolical Damon Zex.” 60 min. Watching this hour-long compilation is like flipping through the TV channels at 3 AM and discovering every station has been taken over by Zex. Includes the controversial and shocking tampon scenes from “Damon’s Bloodfeast.” First time on DVD.

2. “A Day in the Life of Damon Zex.” 30 min. Damon’s day begins with wine in his cereal, and gets weirder from there. First time on DVD.

BONUS DVD: CHECKMATE

30 min. Zex’s timeless, post-public access expressionistic chess game shows a more mature artist focused on aesthetics, without sacrificing his sadomasochistic edge. This film, which has never seen before in its entirety outside of private screenings, is a must-have for Zex fans.

For more information on Damon Zex, read Alfred’s article Damon Zex: Intellectual Provocateur and Damon Zex’s Checkmate.

We’re thrilled for the opportunity to help bring Damon’s work to a wider audience.

366 scribe Alfred Eaker‘s W the Movie is now available for digital rental on Amazon.  For only $2.99, you can watch the movie as many times as you want for one week.  The movie can be watched on your computer monitor or your television screen, if you have an internet-equipped device like a Tivo-DVR, certain Blu-ray players or TV models.

Amazon allows a 2:30 free preview of the movie; unfortunately, in this case this doesn’t get you very far past the credits.  Here’s the full trailer for the film to give you a better flavor of this surrealist satire on the presidency of George W. Bush:

To preview or order, click here or on the video cover above.  (Yes, we will earn a few pennies if you rent it).  You can also check out this and other titles in the online rental section of our website.  We hope you’ll enjoy the movie!