Our weekly 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):

Berberian Sound Studio (2012): A neurotic British sound engineer used to working on quiet nature documentaries goes mad when he takes an assignment designing the audio for a 1970s Italian horror film. This is already out on DVD and Blu-ray in the UK, but it’s just hitting American shores for a limited theatrical run now. Berberian Sound Studio official site.

FILM FESTIVALS – Flyover Film Festival (Louisville, KY, Jun. 12-16):

You have to admire the self-deprecating honesty embedded in the title of Louisville’s premier film festival: this is a destination that filmmakers usually “fly over” while traveling from the East Coast to the West. Once a year, a few of them will stop here, and occasionally something weird will screen. That’s the case this year, as there is a single truly offbeat offering in the lineup—but it’s very offbeat.

• The Rambler: Calvin Reeder‘s followup to his utterly surreal The Oregonian looks like basically more of the same, with an aggressive male wandering protagonist (Dermot Mulroney) instead of a passive female one.

Flyover Film Festival official site.

NEW ON DVD:

The Manson Family (2003): A notoriously raw underground exploitation movie reconstruction of the Manson murders. This trippy, transgressive filth took director Jim Van Bebber 15 years to complete. This is a DVD/Blu-ray combo set. Buy The Manson Family [Blu-ray/DVD].

Nine Miles Down (2009): A scientist investigates a cavern discovered nine miles under the earth. Did the oil company accidentally drill into Hell? If so, which is worse: unleashing a horde of demons on the Earth, or fracking? Buy 9 Miles Down.

Wrong (2012): A man looking for his lost dog encounters bizarre characters and risks losing his sanity.  This is director Quentin Dupieux ‘s followup to his weird hit Rubber, and per the synopsis this one is “equally bizarre.” Buy Wrong.

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

The Manson Family (2003); See description in DVD above. If you don’t need a DVD copy, this is the release you want. Buy The Manson Family [Blu-ray].

Wild Strawberries (1957): On his way to accept an honorary degree, an emotionally dead 78-year old professor reminisces about his life and impending demise in a series of flashbacks and dream sequences. This Ingmar Bergman classic is the latest Criterion collection Blu-ray upgrade. Buy Wild Strawberries [Criterion Collection Blu-ray].

Wrong (2012): See description in DVD above. Buy Wrong [Blu-ray].

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.

At 145 of an eventual 366 movies approved, we’re about 40% of the way through the List of the Best Weird Movies ever made. Along the way, some movies got onto the List on a first screening, but we nominated many others as “List Candidates.” Sometimes they’re lovable classics with powerful imagery, but they’re only a little bit weird. Sometimes they’re amazingly bizarre, but utter crap. Sometimes the reviewer was in a bad mood when they screened it and didn’t give it a fair chance. And, although we’d never admit it, sometimes a movie was good enough to make the List on the first ballot, but we were too busy to write up a full Certified Entry that week and dashed off a List Candidate review instead. The end result is that any of the films listed below could have been placed on the List of the 366 Best Weird Movies, but we chickened out and made each of them “List Candidates” instead.

Although these movies arrived at this point by different routes, they’re all in the same boat now. They all need your help to ensure their rightful spot on the List! Please select one candidate from Group A (pre-1990 films) and one from Group B (movies from 1990-present). You can vote once per day. Voting closes at midnight (EST) on August 8, 2012.

You can also choose to “rescue” one film that we so overlooked so blatantly we didn’t even make it a List Candidate. We’ll make that movie an official Candidate and add it to our next contest. So remember to scroll down for that third poll!

Past Reader Choices that made the List were Alice, Visitor Q, Pink Floyd: The Wall, Trash Humpers, The American Astronaut, and Dead Ringers.

Comments are encouraged: maybe you can sway others to vote for your favorite?

You may vote once per day until the poll ends on June 26, 2013.

Continue reading OUR FOURTH READERS’ CHOICE POLL: PICK TWO FILMS TO MAKE THE FINAL LIST OF 366 WEIRD MOVIES! →

Our weekly 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):

You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet (2012): At a viewing of a video will of an experimental theater director, the assembled actors spontaneously begin re-enacting an old play. Made when he was ninety years old, director Alain (Last Year at Marienbad) Resnais isn’t slowing down, or losing his will to try new things. You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet official site.

IN DEVELOPMENT:

No Milk (est. 2013): Subtitled “a short film about breasts,” this 15-minute movie tells the story of a truly dystopian future where breast milk is poisonous and boobs are considered repulsive. The producers raised their requested $25,000 on Kickstarter, so now they’re committed. Melanie Abramov’s previous short, “Dame Factory,” was full of erotic/repulsive feminist cheesecake surrealism, and we’d hope for more of the same this time around. No Milk at Kickstarter.

NEW ON DVD:

Joshua Tree, 1951: A Portrait of James Dean (2012): A dreamlike series of fictional, sometimes homoerotic vignettes revolving around a pre-fame James Dean. A 12-minute experimental short by director Matthew Mishory about Derek Jarman‘s childhood is included as an extra feature. Buy A Portrait of James Dean: Joshua Tree, 1951.

Mental (2012): This Australian black comedy/satire involves a politician who hires a crack-smoking hitchhiker to play nanny to his five teenaged daughters, each of whom believes she suffers from a different mental illness. We would have passed over mentioning this one if not for some reviewers declaring it “surreal, uncontrolled, frenzied,” “bewilderingly strange,” and “just plain nuts.” Buy Mental.

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

“Alfred Hitchcock: The Essentials Collection”: Hitchcock is probably too well-established in the cinema mainstream to ever count as “weird,” but the deep-seated neuroses of Psycho and Vertigo and the inexplicable horror of The Birds will likely appeal to weirdophiles. Also in the five disc collection are North by Northwest and Rear Window. Buy “Alfred Hitchcock: The Essentials Collection” [Blu-ray].

Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985): Read our capsule review. The third installment of the Mad Max series finally gets its turn on Blu-ray. So glad that we can all finally get Beyond Thunderdome… Buy Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome [Blu-ray].

“Mad Max: The Complete Trilogy”: If you’ve got the extra dough and don’t already own copies of Mad Max and The Road Warrior, here’s your chance to get the complete set of films that sparked the 1980s post-apocalyptic genre on Blu. Includes Thunderdome, but there are no extra features for fans. Buy “Mad Max Trilogy” [Blu-ray].

Mental (2012): See description in DVD above. Buy Mental [Blu-ray].

NEPOTISM CORNER!:

Nailbiter (2013): A family takes refuge from a tornado in a storm cellar, then find themselves trapped inside by a monster in this low-budget horror film. It was shot in the building that served as the organ factory in Carnival of Souls. Our own L. Rob Hubbard served as script supervisor and appears as an extra (he even gets a mention on the commentary track). Distributed by Lionsgate, so it’s available at major retailers and I even saw it at Redbox. Or you could always buy Nailbiter.

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.

Almost six months in the making… but we got it finished before June! Here is the 2012 print edition of the 366 Weird Movies Yearbook—coming in at an utterly ridiculous 220 pages (!) of weird goodness. It’s like a website, only in handy book form.

Since 2009, 366 Weird Movies has been covering the wildest, wackiest and weirdest from the fringes of cinema with insight and dry wit. Whether it’s art house surrealism, transgressive midnight movies, so-bad-their-weird B-movie atrocities or just flat-out unclassifiable oddities, we’re out there watching the screens to locate rarefied cinema for the very few. This Yearbook will meet all your weird movie needs and guide you to hours of confusing, offbeat, infuriating, absurd and frequently brilliant movies. Also features extensive reviews of older DVDs/Blu-rays re-released in 2012, and extensive supplemental listings of even rarer movies. Our fourth Yearbook. The leader in weird movie coverage – 366 Weird Movies.

Each copy sold will contribute a few cents towards paying our hosting/domain registration/bar tabs.

Don’t forget that the Yearbook is also available via Kindle (for a mere $2.99).

WHAT THE CRITICS SAY:

“The website is fantastic but having a book in hand to refer to or browse through is definitely worth the price for sure.”–LP, on the 2009 edition of the Yearbook

“Big Time Amature Job!… Many words misspelled…”–MT, on the 2011 edition

Our weekly 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):

Axe Giant: The Wrath of Paul Bunyan: Kids at a boot-camp learn the homicidal real history of the beloved American legend, firsthand. Dan (“Grizzly Adams”) Haggerty and Joe (son of Martin Sheen) Estevez lead the cast. Screening in Pittsburgh, PA and Duluth, MN (with scattered midnight showings elsewhere) before heading to DVD in June.  Axe Giant: The Wrath of Paul Bunyan official site.

IN DEVELOPMENT:

Rage of Innocence: It’s described as a “psychological thriller in the vein of such classics as ‘Fatal Attraction,’ ‘The Crush,’ and ‘Fear.’ Nothing so weird about that synopsis, but we mention it because it’s from Mark Pirro, the director of such classics as A Polish Vampire in Burbank, Nudist Colony of the Dead and Curse of the Queerwolf. Let’s hope he’s not trying to go too straight on this one. Rage of Innocence Facebook page.

NEW ON DVD:

The Magic Christian (1969): The richest man in the world (Peter Sellers) sets out to prove his misanthropic theory that people will go to any lengths to degrade themselves for money. From Terry Southern’s acid novel with script contributions from future Monty Python members, this occasionally bizarre and disgusting satire features one of those fascinating all 1960s all-star casts including Ringo Starr, Richard Attenborough, Raquel Welch, Christopher Lee, Roman Polanski, Yul Brenner and more. This film is already in our reader-suggested review queue. Buy The Magic Christian.

Shanks (1974): Gimmickmeister William Castle‘s final film is a strange egg about a mute puppeteer (played by famous mime Marcel Marceau!) who reanimates the dead. Castle (Tingler) made B-movies that often teetered on the edge of a surreal abyss; this one arguably fell in. Buy Shanks.

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

The Magic Christian (1969): See description in DVD above. Buy The Magic Christian [Blu-ray].

Shanks (1974): See description in DVD above. Buy Shanks [Blu-ray].

FREE (LEGITIMATE RELEASE) MOVIES ON YOUTUBE:

Badasssss! (2003): Mario Van Peebles’ fictionalized account of his eccentric father Melvin’s quest to create Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, arguably the first (and arguably the strangest) blaxploitation movie. Not directly weird, but definitely offbeat, and very much worth seeing. Watch Badasssss! free on YouTube.

NEPOTISM CORNER!:

“Pets in the City” (album): When he’s not scouring the web looking for the bizarrest short videos for your Saturday enjoyment, Cameron Jorgensen is keeping time for the laid-back psychedelic SLC band “Cliffs.” I’m no expert on the modern indie rock scene, but they remind me a little bit of “of Montreal,” if you played one of their 45 singles at 33 RPM. Here’s a sample off their debut album; it’s also available on Itunes.

[bandcamp album=1051402467 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=0687f5 size=grande]

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.