A look at what’s weird in theaters, on hot-off-the-presses DVDs, and on more distant horizons…

Not much going on this week as the studios tend to their holiday hangovers.  See you in 2012!

IN DEVELOPMENT:

Swet (est. 2012):  A conspiratorial musical horror satire (?), or something like that.  We only know writer/director Matthew Reel (Jessicka Rabid) promises it will be “a lot flashier and crazier than anything I have done in the past.”  Starring the familiar face of Damon Zex, alongside Damon (Reflections of Evil) Packard.  Swet Facebook page.

NEW ON DVD:

Fish Story (2009): Japanese movie about how a punk rock single from 1975 saves the world from destruction by a comet in 2012.  Not much information on this one but the synopsis does sound weird, plus it’s from “the team behind The Native Duck, the Foreign Duck and God in a Coin-locker” (!). Buy Fish Story.

FREE (LEGITIMATE RELEASE) MOVIES ON YOUTUBE:

Horrors of Spider Island (1960): Read our Certified Weird review!  Since it’s in the public domain, it was only a matter of time until someone put this so-bad-it’s-weird misogynist fever dream up on YouTube.  Watch Horrors of Spider Island 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.

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.

Spielberg and his minions have driven all traces of weirdness from theaters this week, under the guise of “Christmas spirit.”  We weirdophiles will have to cower in our hovels this week, regroup, and return to the cinemas in 2012.

IN “DEVELOPMENT“:

Weird: The Al Yankovic Story:  Tells the shocking true story of “Weird” Al Yankovic, from his days as an accordion-loving outcast to his multi-platinum “Eat It,” as his career magically survives alcoholism and sex with Madonna.  Our favorite line from the trailer?  “I’m the weird one!”  Reminder to readers: on this site, we occasionally include notices for films that don’t actually exist.

NEW ON DVD:

Columbiana (2011): A young woman (Zoe Saldana) grows up to be an assassin after witnessing her parents’ murder.  Thinking it was an ordinary action movie, we passed over this one when it played theaters (even though it came from mildly weird director Luc Besson); we just now noticed the Amazon editorial review says it contains “a dash of oddball surrealism.”  We prefer a lot more than a dash, but in a slow week we’ll take what we can get. Buy Colombiana.

Love Exposure (2008): Shion Sono’s 4 hour (!) comedy epic involves Roman Catholicism, candid panty photos, and a butt-kicking, man-hating schoolgirl. Thanks to Olive Films, who really earn our respect lately by releasing this and Skidoo in the same calendar year. Buy Love Exposure.

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

Columbiana (2011): See description in DVD above.  Includes an UltraViolet digital download. Buy Colombiana [Blu-ray].

FREE (LEGITIMATE RELEASE) MOVIES ON YOUTUBE:

Godmonster of Indian Flats (1973):  Gaseous vapors turn an embryo into an eight-foot sheep monster.  Distributor Something Weird calls it “one of the weirdest, wackiest, oddballest monster movies ever made” (and they should know).  Watch Godmonster of Indian Flats 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.

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):

Corman’s World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel: If you’re not yet burned out on B-movie documentaries—and you live in New York or Los Angeles—you might want to head out to the cinema to soak in this survey of the life and work of independent impresario Roger Corman.  An odd assortment of Oscar winners and cult figures turn out to pay tribute to the King of the B’s, including Jack Nicholson, Pam Greer, Martin Scorsese and Traci Lords.  Corman’s World official site.

IN DEVELOPMENT:

1000 Kings [1000 Könige] (est. 2012): Sort of an abstract science fiction ballet set in a sky-ball dystopia where monks hate red sleeping bags, or something like that, this German first feature by Georgian-born Bidzina Kanchaveli is in post-production but still searching for completion funding. It looks like superlative weirdness; check out 1000 Kings at Indiegogo or at the 1000 Kings official site.

NEW ON DVD:

Astron-6 (2011): A 2-disc compilation of the 1980s-spoofing short films of the absurdist Canadian collective behind the pop-killer feature Father’s Day.  Titles include Inferno of the Dead, Gore Blade, and H.I.Z. (Erection der Zombi).  Avowed fans of the group include Uwe Boll, George Kuchar, Guy Maddin, and Jasmine from jasmines-panties.com.  Buy Astron-6.

Branded to Kill (1967): Read the Certified Weird entry!  After years of promises the Criterion Collection has finally re-released Seijun Suzuki’s totally whacko rice-sniffing yakuza film, with a new restoration and extras including interviews with the director and chipmunk-faced star Joe Shishido.  This is the new #1 killer version of the classic of weirdness. Buy Branded to Kill [Criterion collection].

Def-con 4 (1985)/Hell Comes to Frogtown (1988): Def-con sounds like just another Mad Max ripoff (The Los Angeles Times called it a “suspenseful, action-packed drama”—yawn).  Hell is much cooler, featuring wrestler “Rowdy” Roddy Piper fighting future frog-men for the right to impregnate Earth’s remaining fertile females.  Hell is in our reader-suggested review queue. Buy Def-Con 4 / Hell Comes to Frogtown (Double Feature).

Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame (2011): Read our capsule review. Tsui Hark returns to form with this colorful action fantasy set in a magical version of Imperial China. Buy Detective Dee & The Mystery of the Phantom Flame.

Jessicka Rabid (2010): The sensitive story of a female sex slave who is raised like a dog until one day she’s bitten by a rabid canine and goes on a killing spree.  Shot in a style reminiscent of a 1960s home movie, it co-stars Troma veteran Trent Haaga, perhaps best known as the screenwriter of The Toxic Avenger 4: Citizen Toxie (2000) and Deadgirl (2008). Buy Jessicka Rabid.

Tokyo Drifter (1966):  An ex-yakuza hitman finds himself in trouble when a rival gang won’t recognize his retirement in this stylized, deconstructed gangster movie.  You wouldn’t expect the Criterion Collection to re-release Seijun Suzuki’s Branded to Kill without giving equal time to this colorful ,comic book -styled warm up, and indeed they did not.  Buy Tokyo Drifter.

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

Branded to Kill (1967): See description in DVD above.  Buy Branded to Kill [Criterion Blu-ray].

Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame (2011):  See description in DVD above.  Buy Detective Dee & The Mystery of the Phantom Flame [Blu-ray].

Heavenly Creatures (1994):  Two sheltered Kiwi girls develop an obsessive friendship and invent a fantasy world that they prefer to reality; their bond eventually ends in murder.  This was Peter Jackson‘s first arthouse movie after making three fun but tasteless underground cult provocations.  It’s also in our reader-suggested review queue.  Buy Heavenly Creatures [Blu-ray].

Tokyo Drifter (1966):  See description in DVD above.  Buy Tokyo Drifter [Criterion Blu-ray].

Velvet Goldmine (1998): An impressionistic, and frequently surrealistic, portrait of an aging androgynous glam-rock star (obviously modeled on David Bowie).  This visually splendiferous movie could not be more different than the film that first brought director Todd Haynes to the attention of the underground—Superstar, an unauthorized biography of anorexic pop star Karen Carpenter acted out by Barbie dolls.  Buy Velvet Goldmine [Blu-ray].

FREE (LEGITIMATE RELEASE) MOVIES ON YOUTUBE:

Faust (1926): F.W. Murnau’s telling of the Faust legend owes little to Goethe or Marlowe, but it’s a classic of German expressionism.  Watch Faust (1926) 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.

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):

Sleeping Beauty (2011):  From Australia comes this modern folktale that sounds like it has more to do with The House of Sleeping Beauties than with the classic fairy tale.  We like writer/director Julia Leigh’s quote: “I’m interested in Wonder Cinema…”  On the other hand, we don’t like the reviewers’ quotes, like David Rooney’s “Soporific in every sense.”  Not to be confused with Catherine Breillat‘s 2010 The Sleeping Beauty.  Sleeping Beauty official site.

NEW ON DVD:

Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010):  Read our capsule review.  This documentary on the world’s oldest cave paintings may not be per se weird, but fans of Werner Herzog, and of beauty, may find it interesting. Buy Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010).

Chillerama (2011): A horror/comedy anthology built around the conceit of a drive-in owner screening four outrageous and obscure movies on the theater’s last night of operation.  The best fake movie title is The Diary of Anne Frankenstein.  Billing itself as “the ultimate midnight movie,” but it looks geared to the Troma crowd. Buy Chillerama (2011).

The Flying Guillotine (1975):  Not as famous or notable as its crazed sequel Master of the Flying Guillotine (which is languishing in our reader-suggested review queue), the original tells the story of how the titular distance-decapitation weapon was discovered.  The Shaw Brothers produced four movies in the Flying Guillotine series (with Master being the most remembered).  Buy The Flying Guillotine (1975).

Flying Guillotine 2 (1978): Of the four Shaw Brothers movies with Flying Guillotine in the title, this one (also known as Palace Carnage) is the last chronologically, yet it is the direct sequel to the first. To make things even more confusing, Master, the second movie in the series, was a direct sequel to One Armed Boxer, an otherwise unrelated movie. Buy Flying Guillotine 2 (1978).

Vampires (2010): Belgian mockumentary focusing on the domestic life of a family of vampires, including a rebellious teenage daughter who wants to become human.  Offbeat, at least. Buy Vampires (2010).

Zebraman 2: Attack on Zebra City (2010):  This sequel sees Zebraman split into good (white, male) and evil (black, female) versions.  We never even knew there was a sequel to the crazy original by weird favorite Takashi Miike; we admit we’ll be a bit disappointed if Zebranurse fails to make an appearance. Buy Zebraman 2: Attack on Zebra City (2010) [Blu-ray/DVD Combo].

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010): See description in DVD above. This 2-disc set contains the 3D Blu-ray (which is your only chance to see the film in three dimensions, as intended) as well as a standard disc. Buy Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2011) [Blu-ray 3D/Blu-ray Combo] .

Chillerama (2011): See description in DVD above. Buy Chillerama (2011) [Blu-ray].

Horror Express (1972):  Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing are a pair of archeologists fighting off a train full of zombies and a Cossack Telly Savalas in this Hammer horror classic that’s currently in our reader-suggested review queue.  Appearing for the first time on Blu-ray, this release also contains a DVD copy of the movie (which is available separately from several competing sources).  It’s supposedly remastered from a print discovered in Mongolia (!), but customer reports disagree on whether the visuals are much improved.   Buy Horror Express (1972) [DVD/Blu-ray Combo] .

FREE (LEGITIMATE RELEASE) MOVIES ON YOUTUBE:

American Zombie (2008):  Since we mentioned the Belgian horror mockumentary Vampire, the equal time rule suggests we must also mention this American mockumentary covering a zombie uprising in Los Angeles, from the standpoint of the misunderstood living dead.  Watch American Zombie (2008) 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.

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.

The holiday/awards season is here, which means that you can forget about seeing anything outstandingly weird in theaters for a while.

IN THEATERS (LIMITED RELEASE):

House of Pleasures:  The story of a Parisian bordello circa 1899, told in a deliberately anachronistic style (a 1960s soundtrack, split screens, etc.)  David Fear of Time Out gave it a good review, while admitting it’s “occasionally WTF hilarious” (to us, as to him, a big plus). Playing NYC this week, other dates unknown.  House of Pleasures official site.

IN DEVELOPMENT:

Emmanuelle in Wonderland (completed 2011):  We mentioned this erotic musical thingee in passing last week, but after coming across this—um, “interesting”—YouTube footage, the title bears repeating.  Emmanuelle in Wonderland is part of an “Emmanuelle” reboot(y) series from director Rolfe Kanefsky, featuring many actors and actresses from the porn world stretching their chops.  We can’t discern anything about distribution for this movie (it appears aimed at the Skinemax market) but surely something this—um, “special?”—will show up on DVD soon?  Emmanuelle in Wonderland Facebook page.

NEW ON DVD:

Darkroom (2008):  Another “what is real and what is fantasy” movie, this time revolving around a crime scene photographer.  Not much information on this one to be found. Buy Darkroom.

An Evening with the Residents: Bimbo’s [Talking Light] (2011):  If you’re as much a fan of weird music as of weird movies, you know of The Residents, the avant-garde music collective known for performing in tuxedos and giant eyeball head masks.  This is a live recording of their album/spoken word piece “Talking Light,” which revolves around ghost stories and the paranormal (and features a trio lineup and new costumes). Buy An Evening with Residents – Bimbo’s.

Helldriver (2010): The team behind Tokyo Gore Police and Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl is back with another wild one featuring ninjas, zombies, cannibalism, a sexy samurai babe with a chainsaw blade, and of course, splatter.  An Amazon reviewer offers the advice “save yourselves from the sheer fatuous inanity of this drivel,” which could be seen as a warning, a perverse endorsement, or a dare. Buy Helldriver.

Saki the Killer (2011): The synopsis suggests something about a female art teacher who battles yakuza demons with the power of her paintbrush.  Direct to video and unreviewed elsewhere, yet something about the premise strikes us as noteworthy. Buy Saki The Killer.

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

Helldriver (2010): See description in DVD above. Buy Helldriver [Blu-ray].

FREE (LEGITIMATE RELEASE) MOVIES ON YOUTUBE:

Crowley [AKA Chemical Wedding] (2008): Read our capsule review.  Aleister Crowley is reincarnated with an assist from pseudoscience.  Intentionally campy occult parody, or Bruce Dickinson vanity project gone awry?  You can only decide by watching.  Watch Crowley [Chemical Wedding] 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.