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):

The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence):  More people are sewn together to make a longer centipede. If early notices are to be believed, this sequel is a dumbed-down, grossed-up version of the original.  Is that even possible?  Also available on demand beginning Oct 12.  The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence) official site.

NEW ON DVD:

“Alfred Hitchcock: Essentials Collection”:  Universal Studios owns the rights to 14 Hitchcock films, including most of the master’s greatest pictures.  Here’s a truly essential collection of 5 masterpieces.  None of them will knock you out with their surreality, but in descending order of weirdness we’d rank them The Birds (1963), Vertigo (1958), Psycho (1960), and Rear Window (1954)/North by Northwest (1959) (tie).  All are must sees, though. Buy “Alfred Hitchcock: The Essentials Collection”.

Amer (2009):  Read our capsule review.  This hypersexualized giallo tribute is a welcome addition to the home video ranks. Buy Amer.

I’m a Cyborg, But That’s OK (2006):  Read the Certified Weird entry!  It’s about time that Chan-wook Park‘s film about love in a mental asylum—which probably ranks as the strangest romantic comedy ever made—gets a real region 1 release.  A big thumbs up to Pathfinder Pictures for doing the right thing (finally!)  Buy I’m a Cyborg, but That’s OK.

The Juche Idea (2010): One of director Jim Finn’s award winning “utopian comedies,” Idea paints a portrait of the absurdity of North Korea though a series of short films made by a fictional South Korean director brought across the border to to the North to help modernize the propaganda machine of Kim Jong Il.  We never thought something this smart, satirical, topical and off-the-wall would ever get a real DVD release. Buy The Juche Idea.

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

Amer (2009): See description in DVD above. Buy Amer [Blu-ray].

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005):  Tim Burton‘s alternate version of Roald Dahl’s scary kiddie classic about a dictatorial candy magnate ( Johnny Depp, natch) who exploits children’s moral weaknesses and has them killed in bizarre, ironic ways isn’t as classic as the 1971 film starring Gene Wilder and his orange dwarf slaves, but it has its fans (we’re not among them, but whatever). Buy Charlie and the Chocolate Factory [Blu-ray].

Dead-Alive [AKA Brain Dead] (1992): Peter Jackson saw the rampaging undead and absurd gore in Evil Dead II, thought to himself, “I can top that,” and did, in this crazy film featuring kung fu priests and zombies sliced up with a lawnmower.  The pinnacle of the gut-spewing genre, it’s never been surpassed (although every year three or four low-budget filmmakers predictably try). Buy Dead Alive [Blu-ray].

Interstella 5555 (2003):  The plot is something about aliens who are kidnapped, have their memories wiped, and are forced to become a house band.  It’s really an extended music video by the band Daft Punk, with retro Japanimation done in an 80s style by Kazuhisa Takenôchi.  Fair warning: customers are complaining that the video quality on this Blu release is no better—or maybe even worse—than the DVD version. Buy Daft Punk: Interstella 5555 [Blu-ray].

Pee Wee’s Big Adventure (1985):  The adventures of man-child Pee Wee Herman, who meets Elvira, Twisted Sister and Godzilla as he crosses the country trying to recover his stolen bicycle, are almost surreal in their childish extravagance.  An early success for Tim Burton. Buy Pee-wee’s Big Adventure [Blu-ray].

Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975):  Torture porn, before the genre existed—except that this almost literal translation of the Marquis de Sade’s most pornographic work was made by Pier Paolo Pasolini, considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time.  So respected was Pasolini that the Criterion Collection gave this hymn to coprophagia the deluxe treatment, and has now upgraded the depravity to hi-def.  Buy Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray].

NEW ON VIDEO ON DEMAND:

Melancholia (2011): Lars von Trier‘s latest is apocalyptic sci-fi; a planet (called Melancholia) is set to collide with Earth on a woman’s wedding day.  Kirsten Dunst walked away from the Cannes with Best Actress honors; Charlotte Gainsbourg, Keifer Sutherland, Charlotte Rampling and John Hurt round out the fine cast.  In a tactic the smaller studios are increasingly using, for obscure marketing reasons we can’t explain, this is being released on demand a week before it appears in theaters.  Rent Melancholia (Pre-Theatrical).

FREE (LEGITIMATE RELEASE) MOVIES ON YOUTUBE:

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1921): The wild, slanted sets Caligari uses to tell its tale of murder and madness still amaze modern viewers.  A perfect way to get a jumpstart on the Halloween season.  Watch The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari 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.

Here’s what we have lined up for next week: the lowdown on Carlos Atanes‘ latest weird feature, Maximum Shame, a surreal apocalyptic fetish movie; from the reader-suggested review queue, we’ll grab Frank Zappa’s 200 Motels (Ringo Starr is Larry the Dwarf as Frank Zappa!); and a report on Tabloid, Errol Morris’ latest kinky documentary about the “Mormon sex in chains” scandal.  And, in the spirit of Halloween, Alfred will take a break from writing about Mozart to pay tribute to a different kind of genius: Boris Karloff.

For the past few weeks, someone has repeatedly been searching for “weird lumpy movie shorts” in hopes of being named 366 Weird Movies “Weirdest Search Term of the Week.”  Each week we mentioned that search term as an honorable mention, but found something weirder worthy of the grand prize.  Well, this week the competition is weaker, meaning that “weird lumpy movie shorts” would finally get its chance to be named Weirdest Search Term of the Week… except for the fact that the searcher gave up on finding lumpy shorts just this week.  (We refuse to acknowledge the possibility that he may have found lumpy shorts at some other site).  That leaves us, instead, to consider the following searches for the prize, beginning with “hot woman with bag briss feed min milk moves.” (What min doesn’t love a woman with bag briss?)  The choice of word order can sometimes turn a perfectly ordinary search term into something strange-looking; this week’s illustration of that principle is “horror movie guy makes fat women eat netflix.”  (Along similar lines is the search for a “bizarre movie about a tv that orders to kill a french movie.”)  We found “japan girl biting something to drink in man movies” flatly incomprehensible.  But our official Weirdest Search Term of the Week had nothing to do with cinema at all (at least, as far as we can tell): “watching the oiled reflections chime and swim.”  That would be a beautiful, poetic image, if only it made a lick of sense.

As always on a Sunday, we provide you with the ridiculously long reader-suggested review queue for your perusal: 200 Motels (next week!); Kairo [AKA Pulse];  Private Parts (1972); Saddest Music in the World; Mulholland Drive; The American Astronaut; Blood Tea and Red Continue reading WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE →

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):

Bunraku (2010): A cowboy and a samurai team up to battle evil in this alternate reality actioner starring Josh Hartnett, Woody Harrelson (as a mystical bartender), Ron Perlman and Demi Moore.  The setup and cast are intriguing, but reviewers warn that it’s style over substance.  Bunraku official site.

My Joy (2010): A Ukrainian truck driver begins his day trying to make a delivery, runs into absurd bureaucracy and corruption, and ends up trapped in a strange timeless village.  Critical response has been favorable.  Opens in New York with only a few dates across the country to follow.  My Joy official site (US).

Take Shelter: Michael Shannon plays a crazy guy (daring casting, that) whose dreams of impending tempests are so lifelike that he cashes in his savings to build an elaborate storm shelter.  Fresh off a successful festival run, Jeff (Shotgun Stories) Nicholls second feature opens in New York and Los Angeles this week, and has a full card of future dates across the country (thanks to being picked up by Sony Classics).  Take Shelter official site.

Tucker & Dale vs. Evil: Not so weird, but noteworthy: a horror movie/slasher spoof where the loner hillbillies in the middle of nowhere actually don’t want to carve up the hot collegians on spring break with chainsaws—though they’d have a hard time convincing anyone of their beneficence.  This independent Canadian production is getting fine reviews and somewhat predictable comparisons to Shaun of the Dead.  Tucker & Dale vs. Evil official site.

NEW ON DVD:

7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964):  Tony Randall plays eight (or is it nine?) different roles (mostly mythological characters like Pan and the Abominable Snowman) in this fantasy about a magical circus that comes to a Western town.  This is in our reader-suggested review queue.  It’s being re-released on DVD-R by Warner Archives, rather than in a nice new edition, unfortunately. Buy 7 Faces of Dr. Lao.

Baby Jane? (2010):  Remember the catty camp classic Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?  Well, here’s a (nearly shot for shot?) remake.  The gimmick?  Joan Crawford’s and Bette Davis’ roles go to female impersonators. Buy Baby Jane?

The Butcher, the Chef and the Swordsman (2010): Heavily stylized Chinese action comedy about a mythical blade that is melted down and made into a kitchen knife, and passes down through three different owners. Could this be a slight stirring in the crazy corpse of the Hong Kong New Wave we detect? Buy The Butcher, the Chef, and the Swordsman.

Heathers (1988):  The hilarious cult black comedy about wholesale slaughter in high school, starring Wynona Ryder and Christian Slater.  The good news is that Heathers was, surprisingly, out of print.  The bad news is that this re-issue comes from Image Entertainment, who are known for releasing cheap bare-bones DVDs from substandard prints.  There are no reports on any extras, which suggests there are none.  A true fan might go looking for a used copy of the 20th High School Reunion Edition; this cheap release is aimed at casual fans and bargain hunters. Buy Heathers.

Herschell Gordon Lewis: Godfather of Gore (2010): The title says it all.  Cool folks like John Waters, Joe Bob Briggs, and Frank Henenlotter are interviewed on the Blood Feast auteur’s impact on the sleaze scene.  From Something Weird video by way of Image Entertainment. Buy Herschell Gordon Lewis: Godfather of Gore.

Maximum Shame (2010): From Carlos Atanes comes a release described as a “apocalyptic fetish horror musical chess sci-fi weird underground feature movie.”  Surprisingly, that description is completely accurate.  We’ll have a review of this coming shortly.  Available on DVD-R only. Buy Maximum Shame.

Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky (1991): A man with superhuman strength is sent to jail for avenging the rape of his girlfriend, and once there system pushes him too hard and he must rip out his tormentors’ intestines.  Tokyo Shock originally released this insane gore spectacle in 2000; no word on whether there are any upgrades this time, or if they’re just reissuing it with new cover art to capitalize on the film’s Blu-ray debut in two weeks.  Buy Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky.

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

Basket Case (1982): Read our capsule review!  This strange, scratchy grindhouse monster flick doesn’t seem like it would benefit from high definition, but here it is anyway.  The abundant special features all appear to be ported over from Something Weird’s previous DVD release. Buy Basket Case [Blu-ray].

“The Blood Trilogy”:  Herschell Gordon Lewis‘ foundational gore films on one disc: the ridiculous Blood Feast (1963), the extremely nasty Two Thousand Maniacs (1964), and also-ran Color Me Blood Red (1965). Another entry in the new Something Weird/Image Entertainment partnership. Buy “The Blood Trilogy” [Blu-ray].

Heathers (1988): See description in DVD above. Buy Heathers [Blu-ray].

FREE (LEGITIMATE RELEASE) MOVIES ON YOUTUBE:

Southland Tales (2006):  Read our capsule review.  Richard Kelly‘s notoriously confusing (many say botched) speculative satire is now up to help you blow your mind for free.  Watch Southland Tales 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.

Next week, we’ll be taking a look at Amos Gitai’s somewhat weird, but more tedious autobiographical film Carmel (2009); we’ll knock another one off our reader-suggested review queue with an elementary introduction to the incredibly complicated Primer (2004);  and to fill things out we’ll examine at the silly-as-it-sounds The Manster (1959).  Of course, Alfred will tackle more mad Mozart with coverage of Joachim Schlömer’s Odysseys, a pastiche trilogy created from fragments of the composer’s unfinished works.

It was a strange, grab-bag week for bizarre search terms, making it quite a challenge to pick a Weirdest Search Term of the Week.  First off, we have to encourage the “wierd lumpy movie short” search guy to keep trying: you’re fast becoming the unofficial mascot of 366 Weird Movies’ Weirdest Search Term of the Week contest.  Alas, once again your search for lumpy short movies rates no weirder than an honorable mention.  Speaking of honorable mentions, the query “mila kunis shave down there” scores bonus points  because we (oddly) turn up in the #1 spot for this search term on Google (you have to omit the quotation marks, though).  We also liked the weird challenge of trying to literally visualize “drop your mouth.”  But our weirdest search term of the week comes from the indecisive searcher who wasn’t too particular whether he received results relating to “italian movie or film tomato ‘jerk off’ or masturbate pregnant.”  Hey, “film tomato ‘jerk off'” alone would have been good enough for us to make it our Weirdest Search Term of the Week; the rest is just gravy.

For those who follow such things, here’s the intimidatingly massive reader suggested review queue: Primer (next week!); Kairo [AKA Pulse]; 200 Motels; Private Parts (1972); Saddest Music in the World; Mulholland  Drive; The American Astronaut; Blood Tea and Red Strings;  The Continue reading WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE →

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):

The Oregonian (2011): Read our capsule review.  Calvin Reeder’s surreal horror debut finally sees a very limited release: although it will be seen in about ten cities across the country, most of those are one night only screenings.  The show begins Sept. 23 at Cinefamily in Los Angeles.  Not a great movie, in our judgement, but it’s weirdness is undeniable.  The Oregonian page at Cinemad.

Shit Year (2010):  An aging, retiring actress relives her past in an impressionistic melange.  We’re not fans of the calling-attention-to-itself title, but the trailer looks very good, and it’s nice to see Ellen Barkin again.  Opening at IFC Center in New York with a playdate in Dallas to follow, and then presumably off to DVD.  Shit Year official site.

NEW ON DVD:

Blue Sunshine (1978): A bad batch of LSD turns Stanford grads into bald killer zombies in this off-the-wall horror/thriller.  The product description says it’s “packed with bonus material for fans,” but doesn’t say what that material is (though one feature reportedly is an interview with director Jeff Lieberman). Buy Blue Sunshine.

Dead End Drive-In (1986): Australian kids go to the drive-in where the authorities steal their tires while the teens are making out and imprison them behind barbed wire—but at least they leave the concession stand open.  It’s a bizarre premise for a B-movie version of “Lord of the Flies” that drive-in critic Joe Bob Briggs described as “Mildly Perturbed Max Beyond Thunderdome.” This release is part of Image Entertainment’s “Midnight Madness” series. Buy Dead End Drive-In.

Nightbreed (1990): Strange Clive Barker scenario about a possible serial killer who flees to a land of monsters underneath a graveyard, featuring David Cronenberg in a rare acting role. The bad news about this release is that it’s being relegated to Warner Archive’s burn-on-demand graveyard; the death knell for any future serious release. You might consider the video-on-demand download for half the price of the DVD-R, if you can stand watching movies on your computer/I-whatever.  Buy Nightbreed.

The Strange Case of Angelica [O Estranho Caso de Angélica] (2010):  A romantic ghost story about a photographer who sees the dead when he looks through his camera, from 101-year old (!) director Manoel de Oliveira.  The disc contains a goodly number of bonus features, including de Oliveira’s first movie—a 1931 silent.  Buy The Strange Case of Angelica.

The Stuff (1985):  Read our capsule review.  This “Midnight Madness” release is a downgrade from Anchor Bay’s out-ot-print-but-widely-available version, which featured a Larry Cohen commentary track, but it’s also much cheaper (under $10 at this writing). Buy The Stuff.

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

Casino Royale (1967):  Not the “serious” 2006 Bond adaptation, this is an “only-in-the-1960s” experimental spy spoof made by six different directors with a once-in-a-generation cast including David Niven, Peter Sellers, Ursula Andress, Orson Welles, Woody Allen, William Holden, etc.  The plot does not make any sense. Buy Casino Royale (1967) [Blu-ray].

“Sophia Loren: Award Collection” [Boccaccio ’70 (1962)/Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow (1963)/ Marriage Italian Style (1964)/ Sunflower (1970)/ Vittorio D  (2009)]:  A strange collection, understandably aimed at fans of Ms. Loren (yowza!).  Boccaccio ’70 is the only one of even mild interest to weirdophiles (it’s the anthology film with one by Fellini featuring a 50-foot tall Anita Eckberg, and it is available spearately).  The fifth disc in the set isn’t a Blu-ray, but a DVD, and it doesn’t even feature Loren—it’s a recent documentary on director Vittorio De Sica! Buy “Sophia Loren: Award Collection” [Blu-ray].

The Strange Case of Angelica [O Estranho Caso de Angélica] (2010): See description in DVD above. Buy The Strange Case of Angelica [Blu-ray].

FREE (LEGITIMATE RELEASE) MOVIES ON YOUTUBE:

Sukiyaki Western Django (2007):  Reviews were mixed—although Andrew O’Hehir of Salon did praise it as “hilarious and uniquely weird“—but who can resist the idea of a samurai Spaghetti Western spoof directed by cult provocateur Takashi Miike?  Watch Sukiyaki Western Django 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.