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 (WIDE RELEASE):

The Man with the Iron Fists: This wuxia tribute movie with a generic “human weapon battles warring clans” plot is “presented by” Quentin Tarantino and co-written and directed by rapper RZA, who also appears as the blacksmith. The tagline is “it puts the f-u in kung fu,” so you can’t take it too seriously, but Scott Weinberg encouragingly called it a “joyously bizarre little action movie.” The Man with the Iron Fists official site.

IN THEATERS (LIMITED RELEASE):

Jack and Diane: It’s a teen lesbian romance werewolf movie, and it’s an art film. Reviews have been terrible, but “teen lesbian werewolf romance art film” says “potentially weird” to us, and they did talk the Quay Brothers into providing the animation. Jack and Diane official site.

This Must Be the Place: Here’s a truly odd premise for a comedy: a retired goth-rock star hunts the Nazi who persecuted his father at Auschwitz.  Starring Sean Penn, of all people, as the laconic, androgynous angel of vengeance. This Must Be the Place Facebook site.

IN DEVELOPMENT:

This Film Hates You (est. 2013): According to the filmmakers this hateful movie is “a bizarre, surreal feature film about love, hate, violence, death, sex, aristocrats, bums, skeleton keys, white blood, and bananas….” Looking at the concept trailer, I would add free jazz and nudity to that list. They’ve already met their extremely modest Kickstarter goal, so the project should be a go. This Film Hates You official site.

NEW ON DVD:

The Ballad Of Genesis And Lady Jaye (2011): Documentary on artist-musician Genesis P-Orridge (of Throbbing Gristle) and the series of plastic surgeries he and his lover, Lady Jaye, undertook with the goal of looking identical. A weird couple and a weird subject, for sure. Buy The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye.

Rosemary’s Baby (1968): A young couple move into a New York City apartment and suspect that their neighbors may be dabbling in the occult. Not really a “weird” movie per se, but it has one great dream sequence and it’s part of Roman Polanski‘s unofficial “apartment trilogy” alongside the Certified Weird Repulsion (1965). Buy Rosemary’s Baby (Criterion Collection).

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

“Alfred Hitchcock: The Masterpiece Collection”: A limited edition Blu-ray collection of 15 of Hitchcock’s greatest. Weirdophiles may be disappointed to find Hitch’s most surreal attempt, the Freudian Spellbound, missing, but the subtle strangeness of Vertigo and The Birds alongside classics like North by Northwest and Psycho may help compensate. Buy “Alfred Hitchcock: The Masterpiece Collection” [Limited Edition Blu-ray].

Rosemary’s Baby (1968): See description in DVD above. Buy Rosemary’s Baby (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray].

FREE (LEGITIMATE RELEASE) MOVIES ON YOUTUBE:

Zombie Strippers (2008): An experimental virus turns women of loose wardrobes into the titular creatures. It should go without saying that this spoof starring ex-porn star Jenna Jameson is intended for “mature” audiences. Watch Zombie Strippers 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.

Shameless plug time: 366’s own Alfred Eaker is a producer on this, the “world’s first comedy-horror soap opera!” Starring twins Camille and Kennerly Kitt as Creeporia. Due out this holiday season (more info when available).

Creeporia official site.

Pick out your weird movie Halloween costume and come join us for a virtual party in the forums.

So, what will we be reviewing next week? We don’t exactly know. We can say you’ll see coverage of It’s in the Blood, a new psychological horror starring Lance Henriksen, and more Val Lewton with the evocative I Walked With a Zombie (it’s “Jane Eyre” in Haiti with zombies—really!) You can also count on two out of three of the following: the in-theaters-now Silent Hill sequel Silent Hill: Revelations, Derek Jarman‘s way avant-garde collage film The Last of England (1988),  or the “lost” science fiction classic World on a Wire (1973), a paranoid German television movie that scooped The Matrix by a couple of decades.

We’ll start our review of the week’s weirdest search terms used to locate the site with a riddle: “to a birds eye i’m a snake to a child’s im a toy to a adults eyes im a machine.” Google has no idea what the answer is, do you? We don’t, so we more on to more conventionally weird searches like “big old man clocks old women smoll poses.” Hmm, we’ve go no answer for that one either… was there a question there? Moving on, we come to the portmanteau query “ads not by this site bombshells demystified – wild at heart porn.” “Bombshells demystified” would have been weird enough on its own, but flanked by “ads not by this site” and “wild at heart porn” it becomes the bizarre meat in a very odd sandwich. It came close to being our Weirdest Search Term of the Week, but we decided to go instead with “films for young people as they have sex on the buttocks ladies inside transport in europe.” What can we say—we’re suckers for buttocks-related weird search terms!

Here’s how the ridiculously-long and ever-growing reader-suggested review queue stands: The Hour-glass Sanatorium [Saanatorium pod klepsidra]; Liquid Sky (re-review); Society; Final Programme; “Foutaises”; Bloodsucking Freaks; Lost Highway; Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (official Continue reading WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE →

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 (WIDE RELEASE):

Silent Hill: Revelation: Belated sequel to the unexpectedly weird 2006 video game adaptation; the unhelpful plot synopsis describes a trip into a “strange and terrifying alternate reality.” It’s in 3D and there were no advance screenings for critics; we’ll keep an open mind, but neither of those facts inspire a lot of confidence. Silent Hill: Revelation official site.

NEW ON DVD:

Dropping Evil (2012): A nerd massacres his friends when he sees their true nature after they dose him with LSD as a prank; a corporation and Christian fundamentalists also fit in somehow. With Troma scream queen Tiffany Shepis and Fred “the Hammer” Williamson in a small role. Buy Dropping Evil.

Shatter Dead (1994): Read our capsule review. From what we can tell, this SRS release is an exact duplicate of the out-of-print Sub Rosa release, including the three separate commentary tracks (!) on this low-budget zombie art movie. Buy Shatter Dead.

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

The Penalty (1920): Read our review. This silent amputee crime melodrama is an interesting choice for a Kino Blu-ray release; it shows how deep the format’s catalog is starting to get. Buy The Penalty [Blu-ray].

NEW ON INSTANT VIDEO:

The Devil’s Carnival (2012): Repo! The Genetic Opera fans will want to check out this followup rock musical, which is a sort of variation on Dante’s Inferno with Hell as a circus. This 56 minute episode with original songs is the first of a planned series of yet undetermined length. Rent The Devil’s Carnival.

FREE (LEGITIMATE RELEASE) MOVIES ON YOUTUBE:

The Horrors of Spider Island (1960): Read the Certified Weird entry. Just in time for Halloween! Horrors include an interminable dance audition sequence, bad dubbing, and buxom German women frolicking in homemade palm frond bikinis.

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.

On November 3, 2010, we originally published our 69th Certified Weird movie review: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. On November 4th, 2010, servers at our previous host crashed and we lost everything; we were able to restore almost everything from backups, but the Fear and Loathing review was lost. Now, almost two years later, we’ve recreated that entry from scratch, restoring Fear and Loathing to full standing in the Certified Weird universe. Please, read the new entry here, and thanks for your patience.