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DIRECTED BY: David Sandberg
FEATURING: David Sandberg, Jorma Taccone, Leopold Nilsson
PLOT: After his captain is murdered via telephone, policeman Kung Fury must travel back in time to kill the assassin, Kung Führer (AKA Adolf Hitler).
COMMENTS: Kung Fury is one of the most ridiculous things I have seen. It is also one of the funniest. Even more impressively, it is that rarest of silly comedy films: one that has the wherewithal and willpower not to overstay its welcome. Apart from its other (considerable) qualities, I’d tip my had to Sandberg for shutting up shop and spinning the closing credits well before he wore through the already well-worn tropes that are the bread and bullets of the genre. From the opening skateboard car-flip to the smugly defiant Hitler soaring amidst the high-rises of 1985 downtown Miami on his mechanized Nazi eagle, it never felt forced, fatigued, or unfunny.
Even before (or… after?) Hitler’s appearance in downtown Miami, the city’s not a pretty sight. Street toughs hassle cops with impunity, flipping their squad cars like skeet discs for target practice. Arcade machines flash a nasty “Fuck You!” to the unhappy gamers who kick it after their sky unicorn is shot down on-screen. And transformer death machines spring to life, smashing up passing motorists and menacing passing canines. These hassles are all in a day’s work for… Kung Fury: a super cop who does not play by the book. The chip on his shoulder is as real as his sardonic gruffness is fake: years back, he lost his partner and mentor at the hands of a Kung fu master; before young Fury could pull the trigger on the assailant, he was “…hit by lightning and bitten by a cobra.” The rest is history.
And there is quite a lot of history: ancient Vikings astride their dinosaur mounts, the mighty god Thor (who utters his immortal words, “Stop! Hammer Time”), and, of course, the requisite hundreds of Nazi goons ready to fall under the righteous bullet spray sof Hackerman, Triceracop, Barbarianna and Katana. Oh, and a second welcome appearance from Thor and his epic pecs. Added to all this inspired lunacy is Jorma Taccone’s performance as a martial arts fascist; the actor perfectly captures the bizarre speechifying articulations of the erstwhile Führer.
Kung Fury is first and foremost a lampoon of ’80s crime/martial arts television and film. The creative team is spot on with everything—gaudy New Wave score, “futuristic” Tron-style animations, and even a seamlessly included advertisement for a newfangled mobile telephone. It’s as resourceful as it is silly. Leaning heavily on the retrowave vibe, occasional “tracking” issues conveniently crop up to disturb the image just when the most expensive effects sequences might take place. The fight choreography is masterful, too; during the Nazi fight, it switches to a long uninterrupted side-scroller video game ballet. Absurd surrealism pops up as well, as when Fury’s boss is shot through a telephone. (A similar stunt from a classic ’70s film comes to mind.) Sandberg is informed, witty, and has an eye for action timing. Kung Fury is, admittedly, no “Must See”, but I would be hard-pressed to recommend it enough.
At the time of this writing, the producers have made Kung Fury available for free (see below).
366 Weird Movies may earn commissions from purchases made through product links.
Our weekly look at what’s weird in theaters, on hot-off-the-presses DVDs and Blu-rays (and hot off the server VODs), and on more distant horizons…
Trailers of new release movies are generally available at the official site links.
FILM FESTIVALS – Nightstream (Online, Oct 7-13):
Nightstream came about in 2020 as an online collaboration between smaller film festivals that were canceled due to the pandemic; it proved enough of a success to have another go in 2021. This year, the participating festivals are Boston Underground, Brooklyn Horror, North Bend, and Overlook. All titles stream exclusively online and are geolocked to the U.S.
The streaming titles we’ve covered elsewhere are the nun dramedy Agnes, the Japanese time travel comedy Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes, the experimental documentary Code Name: Nagasaki, Brazil’s sentient auto horror King Car, stop-motion nightmare Mad God, the restrospective Satoshi Kon: The Illusionist, the existential comedy Stanleyville, and the horror-drama We’re All Going to the World’s Fair. Among those we have previously noted but have yet to catch are Bertrand Mandico‘s visually amazing After Blue (Dirty Paradise) and the title-says-it-all doc Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror. There’s also one promising new-to-us debut: Bloody Oranges, a French feature involving multiple storylines about a dance contest, a crooked politician, and a pervert; programmers use the keyword “surreal.” Also with a revival of the amazingly bad and sleazy direct-to-video horror Boardinghouse (1982) and numerous shorts, podcasts and special panels.
Arrebato (1979): Surprise! This Spanish horror film about a horror film director who receives a mysterious 8MM film that leads to a hallucinogenic nightmare is getting an unexpected re-release in select theaters. A cult item in its homeland, it has never been exhibited in the U.S., and is not on home video in North America (an oversight we expect to change soon). Opens this week in NYC at Anthology Film Archives. More dates can be found at the U.S. distributor’s Arrebato homepage.
Mayday (2021): A world where women are engaged in an endless war, luring men to their death like sirens; a woman not sure if she wants to be a killer. Early reviews are a bit ho-hum. Also available on VOD. Mayday official site.
Titane (2021): A woman who survived a childhood car crash makes her adult living modeling at car shows, and then things get strange. We were intrigued by the idea of Julia Ducournau‘s Raw followup, but we were unsure whether it would qualify as weird; after reading reports of its Palme D’or winning Cannes debut, we’re now convinced. Titane U.S. distributor site.
NEW STREAMING SERVICE: KINO CULT:
Kino Lorber has scoured their large catalog (and their sub-labels, including recently-acquired Artsploitation) for their cultiest titles and put them up for free on a new ad-supported streaming service, which advertises itself as “a deep dive into the unapologetically weird.” There are too many titles of interest, many covered here, to mention individually, so we’ll only list the canonically weird titles we noticed: Dogtooth [Kynodontas] (2009), Eden and After (1970), The Forbidden Room (2015), L’Immortelle (1963), and the restored versions of Nosferatu (1922) and Metropolis (1927). Also with a large selection of classic exploitation and most of Jean Rollin‘s catalog. This is truly a bonanza of online weirdness for your perusal. Now, if they’d just add watch party capabilities to the mix… check it out at Kinocult.com.
NEW ON HOME VIDEO:
Devil Story (1986): A French horror with a plot involving mummies, Nazi mutants, and ghost horses, rediscovered and released by Vinegar Syndrome. Early reports suggest it enters into so bad it’s weird territory. Currently listed as “out of stock” at Amazon (though you can check the link to see if that’s changed), but you can always order these limited editions directly from Vinegar Syndrome. Blu-ray only. Buy Devil Story.
“Melvin Van Peebles: Essential Films”: This Criterion Collection box set is, naturally, highlighted by Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (1971). Melvin’s experimental debut The Story of a Three Day Pass may also be of interest, but the kicker is son Mario’s comedy biopic Baadasssss! (2003), about the making of Sweetback. On five Blu-rays. Buy “Melvin Van Peebles: Essential Films”.
Never Gonna Snow Again: A mysterious masseur appears in an upscale Polish neighborhood. Comparisons to Teorema naturally arise. DVD or Blu-ray. Buy Never Gonna Snow Again.
Tough Guys Don’t Dance (1987): A drug-addicted writer finds a severed head after a two-week blackout bender and tries to piece together what happened. The directorial debut of writer Norman Mailer is seriously intended (it debuted at Cannes) but odd, campy, and raunchy; an unusual pickup for trash label Vinegar Syndrome. Buy Tough Guys Don’t Dance.
This section will no longer be updated regularly. Instead, we direct you to our new “Repertory Cinemas Near You” page. We do have to mention that NYC’s the Metrograph is back, baby, showing the new restored print of Possession (1981) all week, and tossing in some oddities like the Chesty Morgan bra-buster Double Agent 73 , She Dies Tomorrow, and a smattering Halloween faves like In The Mouth of Madness through October. Also, Seattle’s Central Cinema is back in the game, with Suspiria (1977) playing next week. And heck, we’ll throw in Louisville, Kentucky’s Speed Art Museum Cinema, with 8 1/2 (1963) playing this weekend. We will continue to mention exceptional events in this space from time to time.
WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE: There’s still time to vote for our next Weird Watch Party (scheduled for the evening of October 9). If things hold up, we’ll be screening the serial killer flick Angst (1983) on Tubi.tv.
FEATURING: Frank Baroni, Cort McCown, Keith Kelsch
PLOT: A shark hunt progresses after a native blood pact drives a group of privileged boys to avenge the death of their friend.
COMMENTS: Summer 2021 is fading away, and it’s wise to see as many shark movies as possible. Of those, the fuzzy and buzzing 80’s Italian shark film Deep Blood isn’t the worst selection—but it comes close. Many claim it’s worse than Jaws 4, and judging from its warbled and faded approach to both narrative structure and aesthetics in general, that’s a reasonable assessment. The shark attack scenes lack excitement, women and minorities are marginalized, and the main characters appear bored. Thankfully, the bulk of the movie is made up of narcotizing scuba scenes where little happens besides the inadvertent conjuring of serene oceanic bliss, making it a minor hit for weirdos with an interest in the peculiar and ironic entertainment of dated oceanographic sequences.
Donato and D’Amato succeed in creating a shark drama complete with boats, copters, and underwater scenes, but it’s frazzled by incompetency in the form of loopy synth pads and awkward, boring camera angles. It also hits sour notes with the seeping indolence of the era’s culture—things get kind of racist and sexist. The only native character (credited as “Indian”) is used as a MacGuffin, and the ladies’ only function is to cheerlead, so distaste and disinterest with Deep Blood grows fast while the boys mope around the cabana, attended to by servants. While the questionable culture of a bunch of yuppie shark hunters is detestable, the characters’ mission to avenge the death of a friend with whom they made a blood pact with gives the narrative some validity. This central concept is enough to propel Deep Blood forward, highlighted by the curious rewards of sleepy scuba scenes.
Stock deep sea footage cuts to polluted swarms of kelp faded in haze, with tranquil swimmers slowly flipping fins, and not much occurring other than a handful of chord changes. The calm Zen quality of these quiet underwater shots is the true charm of Deep Blood. With grey and blue aquatic smears, the undersea content has a distinct 80’s ocean feel that brings to mind better films like Dead Calm. But the nagging synths and wooden acting draw negative attention to Deep Blood‘s lack of charisma. Luckily, there’s a pair of shabby kill scenes to laugh at.
It’s tough to tell (or even care) who is getting killed by the shark during the attack scenes because all characters look and act the same. Protagonists Ben, Miki and Allan all appear to be overzealous wimps when using explosives to kill the shark instead of good old hooks and lines. After all, as Grody in Jaws, Roy Scheider only resorted to pyrotechnics after his bones were rattled by seeing his captain get eaten alive by a prehistoric killing machine. In Deep Blood, the crew has a full arsenal of support together with their mansions, servants, striped pastel shirts, and yachts armed with explosives. And even with the motivating power of some very flirty Italian ladies, they barely get the job done.
Deep Blood boasts cheeky and misguided shark content along with sucky characters. The kill scenes are as exciting as a mail room staff party. What redeems it is the peaceful feeling of floating underwater while a droning score highlights the glowing VHS ambience. Like the moody aesthetics of early PC educational software, Deep Blood offers nodding maritime pleasures with a total lack of self-awareness. You can always watch Jaws afterwards to cleanse your palate.
FEATURING: Farelle Walker, Jared Benjamin, Scott St. Patrick, Kiya Roberts, Jermaine Jercox, David Chattam, Gayla Johnson, Mia Sun
PLOT: Ahmed attends a dinner party with Corah, his fiancée, to meet his prospective in-laws. Did we mention that they live in Wonderland?
COMMENTS: “Down the rabbit-hole” is as apt a phrase to use with Small Talk—literally as well as figuratively—since the film is a very clever bounce off of Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland.” The original story has been adapted and interpreted as everything from social commentary to political allegory, but writer/actor Farelle Walker uses it as a pointed and even more surreal look at information overload, behavior defined by social media, and any “ism” (race, sex, class, etc.) that she can come up with—and that’s quite a lot.
It’s a chaotic package; quite a lot is thrown at the audience, and at “Alice,” in this instance represented by Ahmed Mogadam (Jared Benjamin) as the voice of reason. He (and we) are introduced to the Hamner Family, described in the opening statement as an “interesting family of strong opinions and disturbingly small-minded chatter.” There’s Corah (Farelle Walker), Ahmed’s fiancée, an African Goddess (we meet them as they’re listening to her podcast on her “Yanniverse”; she refers to Ahmed as a “Moor”) and a conspiracy believer (trying to avoid chemtrails as planes fly overhead). Her sister, Senna (Kiya Roberts) is “White” based, having ties to the “White Lives Matter” movement. Her husband, Edwardian ‘Eddie” Licenter (Scott St. Patrick) is a “White” rabbit (“Creole,” he insists). Brother Grant (Jermaine Jercox) is a sinister Army officer, describing himself as “the Black Man They can trust.” Poppa Hamner (David Chattam) is a pig who acts and talks as a stereotypical black patriarch, and matriarch Athyna Hamner (Gayla Johnson)—The Red Queen —is a pious Christian for White Jesus, who watches all via a portrait on the wall.
Amongst all of this is the Asian housekeeper, Soon Yook (Mia Sun), who gives condescension as good as she gets it; and the constantly streaming “Wonderland News” with the Mad Hatter, Dormouse and Rabbit as news anchors in the background. It’s a dense package that might seem, at first glance, a mad cluster… but it’s a film that one needs to pay close attention to, especially the wordplay. It’s a film for smart people. Some of the banter may go over a lot of heads, especially as far as some specific cultural aspects are concerned, but for those willing to go on the ride down the hole, they’ll have a wild time.
366 Weird Movies may earn commissions from purchases made through product links.
Our weekly look at what’s weird in theaters, on hot-off-the-presses DVDs and Blu-rays (and hot off the server VODs), and on more distant horizons…
Trailers of new release movies are generally available at the official site links.
IN THEATERS:
Nothing for the foreseeable future, as all the major movie chains are now shuttered due to the pandemic. Studios are now considering debuting some new releases on video-on-demand. We’ll keep an eye on the trend.
FILM FESTIVALS – Postponements:
Cannes has officially postponed the world’s most prestigious (if not largest or weirdest) film festival. No substitute date has been named, but they are hoping for June or July. Like the Kentucky Derby, Cannes may be too big to cancel altogether. We can only hope. More Cannes news at Deadline.
IN DEVELOPMENT (post-production):
Corona Zombies (as soon as they can rush it out, 2020): Full Moon pictures becomes the first studio to shamelessly exploit the pandemic. They’ve gotten a lot of bad press for the project, which will doubtlessly draw them plenty of eyeballs. As far as we know Horror Society was first to break the news.
Last Night in Soho (fall 2020): Comedy specialist Edgar Wright dips his toes into psychological thriller territory. Lips are tight as to plot, but the film is set in London in the Swinging Sixties and appears to involve time travel. Star Anya Taylor-Joy teases, “It’s a really well-directed acid trip.” Definitely one we’ll keep an eye out for. More of Taylor-Joy’s comments can be found at Indiewire.
IN DEVELOPMENT (completed):
Just Don’t Think I’ll Scream [Ne croyez surtout pas que je hurle] (2019): An avant-garde documentary where a depressed shut-in filmmaker talks over an assemblage of movies (including a number of B-movies and rare Eurohorrors) as a confessional/self-therapy. Given the current status of the world, the trailer is both timely and eerie. Originally scheduled for an April U.S. debut at Film Forum in NYC; no idea whether it will play as scheduled or not. Just Don’t Think I’ll Scream French site.
NEW ON HOME VIDEO:
Freeway II: Confessions of a Trickbaby (1999): A teenage prostitute and a teenage serial killer flee to Mexico. The two Freeway movies, directed by Forbidden Zone actor and co-writer Matthew Bright, are an interesting species of exploitation films based on fairy tales (this one takes its cue from “Hansel and Gretel.”) Now on Blu-ray. Buy Freeway II: Confessions of a Trickbaby.
The Nines (2007): Read our review. Mill Creek finally brings this thoughtful metaphysical mindbender to Blu-ray, at a shockingly low price that probably won’t last for long. Buy The Nines.
A Pure Formality (1994): This psychological thriller sees writer Gérard Depardieu interrogated by detective Roman Polanski over a mysterious murder. In our reader-suggested review queue, and now on DVD, Blu-ray from Kino Lorber, with a commentary track. Buy A Pure Formality.
Seven Stages to Achieve Eternal Bliss (2018): Black comedy about a couple whose bargain apartment comes with a catch: cultists continually break in to commit suicide in their bathtub. This debuted in theaters a couple of weeks ago and is now available on VOD (as scheduled; it wasn’t moved forward due to the pandemic). Buy or rent Seven Stages to Achieve Eternal Bliss.
Verotika (2019): A horror anthology sponsored by metalhead Glenn Danzig, inspired by his line of adult horror comics; the title is a portmanteau of “violent” and “erotica.” On VOD since February; now in a 3 disc package with DVD, Blu-ray and soundtrack CD. Buy Verotika.
CERTIFIED WEIRD (AND OTHER) REPERTORY SCREENINGS:
See “In Theaters,” above. We’re not aware of any movie theaters in the U.S. or Canada that are currently open for business.
We’re not going to tell you about all the wonderful movie screenings that were scratched, from fear of making you cry. Let’s say there were a couple of cancellations of upcoming repertory revivals and deep indie debuts that brought water to our eyes. We just pray all the cool stuff will be rescheduled soon and we can report good news in coming weeks.
FREE MOVIES AND BONUS CONTENT FOR ISOLATED WEIRDOS:
“The Cult Show: Jackie Kong”: The director of the canonically weird Blood Diner shows up on a relatively new web series to discuss her work. Kong is charming and enthusiastic, and these days seems to be spending all her waking moments promoting Blood Diner. Good for her! Enjoy.
The Green Fog (2017): Guy Maddin (working with collaborators Evan and Galen Johnson) createdThe Green Fog on commission from San Francisco Film Society as the closing film of their 2017 festival. In a manner similar to Doggiewogiez! Poochiewoochiez!, but with Maddin’s particular madness, The Green Fog loosely recreates Vertigousing footage from San Francisco-based movies and TV shows. The Green Fog is likely unreleasable commercially due to the huge number of copyright clearances which would have to be obtained. Maddin has put it up on his Vimeo channel for viewing; how long it will stay there is anyone’s guess, so this may be your only chance to check it out. Score by Jacob Garchik, performed by the Kronos Quartet. Watch The Green Fog free on Vimeo.
Plan 10 from Outer Space (1995): Trent Harris (Rubin & Ed) is digitally screening his full-length independent movie on YouTube (see his personal channel for more strange stuff) for free—temporarily—to help us weirder folk endure their social distancing. In fact, we hope to feature a new one from his catalog next week. While low budget, with acting and deliberately corny dialogue that echoes inspiration Ed Wood, Jr., Plan 10 is primarily a satire of Mormonism from the Utah-based filmmaker. Featuring the inimitable Karen Black as Nehor. This link is unlisted and only up for a short time, so please don’t share without permission, and it goes without saying do not copy or download it—if you want a permanent copy, Harris sells them directly from his own website. With that out of the way, enjoy!
https://youtu.be/-xMZ1w2-NBs
WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE: A wise man once said, “Things are really getting weird out there.” Let’s push out some of the bad-weird with the good-weird. Next week, Giles Edwards gets to the ahead-of-its-time tentacle horror/comedy Sh! The Octopus (1937), while G. Smalley endures the “violent eroti(k)a” of Glenn Danzig’s Verotika (OK, so we may be going back on our promise to focus on the good-weird with this one, but hopefully it will be amusing). You can also continue voting in the Eerie 8 round of our March Mad Madness Tournament until Sunday night (at least one of the four contests is still extremely competitive and may go right up to the deadline). And it’s always possible that we’ll have another announcement to brighten your spirits soon… onward and weirdward!
What are you looking forward to? If you have any weird movie leads that we have overlooked, feel free to leave them in the COMMENTS section.
Celebrating the cinematically surreal, bizarre, cult, oddball, fantastique, strange, psychedelic, and the just plain WEIRD!
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