It’s a simple deal: write the best review, win a DVD!  Specifically, you can win Trailers from Hell, Vol. 2 (review here), a disc that includes a copy of The Little Shop of Horrors (review here).  True, it’s a used copy, but it’s only been watched a couple of times for review purposes.

The rules of the contest are simple:

1. Write a review of a movie that you think should be on the List of the 366 Best Weird Movies, but that hasn’t been covered here yet.  Including the following sections: DIRECTOR, FEATURING (listing the most important actors), PLOT (a one sentence synopsis), WHY IT DESERVES TO MAKE THE LIST (a one sentence to one paragraph description of why you think the movie is weird), COMMENTS (one to two paragraphs describing the movie in more detail). If you have a suggestion for a still to represent the movie and/or a quote from a critic on the film, you can include those, but they are not required.
2. In rare cases, a well-thought out “second opinion” on a movie that we have already considered, but that you think we got wrong (either by putting it on the List when it shouldn’t have made it, or rejecting a film that should have made it), will be an acceptable subject for a review.  We would still prefer reviews of movies we haven’t yet covered.
3. Submit your work on our contact form. By submitting your entry on this form, you agree to allow 366weirdmovies.com to publish your work, either whole or in edited form, on this website. Your work may be selected for publication even if you are not chosen as the winner.
4. The contest is open to anyone whose work has not previously been published on 366weirdmovies.com.
5. You may not write a review promoting a film which you were involved in the production of, or in which you have a financial interest.
6. This site strives to remain “PG” rated; do not use profanity in your review.
7. The contest will remain open for one month, until August 13, 2010, at which time the editor will select the best entry. The winner will be chosen on the basis of writing style, insight, and appropriateness of the movie chosen.  The deadline may be extended, depending on the number of entries received.
8. In order to be eligible to receive the prize, you must supply a valid email address and a valid mailing address. International addresses are acceptable. If the winning entrant does not supply a valid mailing address, or declines the prize, the DVD will be given to a randomly selected entry with a mailing address in the United States. If no entries are from the United States, then the deadline to complete the contest will be extended.

TIPS: Avoid merely summarizing the plot in your comments. Avoid giving away “spoilers” in your descriptions that might ruin the enjoyment of the film. Obscure titles are fine—in fact, they may be worth bonus points—but try to pick a film that is available on DVD, or is at least likely to be released. If you write on a film no one will be able to view or locate, the movie may be judged as inappropriate.

One final tip: don’t be scared away by thinking you have to write something profoundly insightful. Simply consider it as a chance to describe and recommend a film to that narrow audience of people who are interested in the same kind of weird movies as you are.

Chances of winning depend on the number of entries received.

Have fun! The winner, and even the runners-up, may be invited to become regular contributors to the site!  (Just ask past contest participants Alex Kittle, Andreas Stoehr, Eric Gabbard , Kat Doherty,or Pamela De Graff!)

Next week, we’ll be hitting that reader-suggested review queue with reviews of Jan Svankmajer‘s horrific Lunacy (2005) and the bizarre ultraviolent anime Dead Leaves (2004).  We’ll also have coverage of Charlie Chaplin‘s The Great Dictator (1940) (recently re-released by the Criterion Collection).

Now, we could put in more reviews this week, but instead we’re going to feature a couple of interactive posts on Wednesday, so be sure to check us out then!

It was an extremely weak—almost pathetic—week in terms of weird search terms used to locate the site.   Where are all the weirdos, sunning themselves at the beach?  They’re certainly not in front of their computers, typing deranged search terms into Google.  We’re reduced to nominating such relatively normal strings as “cat people begging” and “why arizona ream is called to movie” as honorable mentions.  Yet, even in a poor field, there is one bizarre search query that stands out from the rest: “ninety black swan boobs.”  We can totally understand searching for “black swan boobs,” but why precisely ninety of them?  That’s the sort of incomprehensible eccentricity that makes for a great Weirdest Search Term of the Week.

Here’s that ever-growing reader-suggested review queue (more titles after the break, as always):  Lunacy [Sílení] (next week!); Dead Leaves (next week!); Perfume: The Story of a Murderer; Inmortel (2004); Dead Ringers; Kairo [AKA Pulse]; The Guatemalan Handshake;  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):

Septien (2010): This story of an ex-high school athlete returning to live with his two eccentric brothers played at Sundance in the Midnight Movie category.  Reviews were mixed, but Dennis Harvey of Variety suggested the movie “proves the paths of ‘weird’ and ‘interesting’ do not always intersect.”  Screening at the IFC Center in Manhattan this week, future screenings doubtful.  Also available “on demand” on some cable systems.  Septien official site.

The Sleeping Beauty (2010): Catherine Breillat takes her second stab at adapting a classic fairy tale with modern feminist sensibilities (after the strangely muted, very slightly weird Bluebeard).  Much of the narrative here takes place in Beauty’s dreams as she slumbers and encounters dream ogres and dwarfs, giving rise to hopes of more surrealistic imagery this time out.  This is the middle part of a planned fairy tale trilogy to conclude with Beauty and the Beast.  This French offering is not to be confused with Australian Julia Leigh’s Sleeping Beauty (2011), starring Emily Browning (which has yet to be released on these shores).  No official site located.

NEW ON DVD:

Oblivion (1994): A frontier town in the year 3031 is inhabited by aliens in this campy sci-fi/western/comedy hybrid.  With a cast including Julie Newmar (as a feline alien saloon owner named Miss Kitty), Isaac Hayes, and George Takei. Buy Oblivion.

The Sacrifice [Offret] (1986): Andrei Tarkovsky‘s final film (completed from his deathbed) is about a man who attempts to bargain with God for divine intervention to avert World War III.  A remastered 2-disc set from Kino which includes a feature length documentary on the maverick Russian filmmaker as a bonus feature. Buy The Sacrifice.

Trailers From Hell! Volume 2 (featuring The Little Shop of Horrors) (2011):  Read our capsule review. Buy Trailers From Hell! Vol. 2 [Featuring The Little Shop of Horrors].

Wake Wood (2011): Bereaved parents visit a pagan town whose residents promise that, within their borders, you can reunite with the dead —for three days only.  This latest offering from the resurrected Hammer studios has been compared (in theme, at least) to the Certified Weird The Wicker Man. Buy Wake Wood.

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

The Sacrifice [Offret] (1986): See description in DVD above. Buy The Sacrifice [Blu-ray].

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

FREE (LEGITIMATE RELEASE) MOVIES ON YOUTUBE:

Tekkonkinkreet (2006): Trippy anime about two street urchins (named “Black” and “White”) with superpowers fighting Yakuza in the magical streets of Treasure Town.  From Michael Arias, the producer of The Animatrix, a rare American who’s broken into the Japanese animation world.  Watch Tekkonkinkreet 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.

Monday is Independence Day here in the US, and what better way to celebrate our dissolution from the British Empire than with a review of the controversial, weird, and never-seen-in-the-US black comedy UK television series “Jam”?  Further on in the week we’ll take a look at Terrence Malick’s remarkable Tree of Life (now in theaters), the latest DVD compilation from “Trailers from Hell,” and He Who Gets Slapped (1924), a silent melodrama starring Lon Chaney as a vengeful clown that is not from Tod Browning.

We can’t say it was the weirdest week on record in terms of odd search terms used to locate this site, but we found a few notable head-scratching queries as always.  “Pull out their own sexual organs” had us wondering if the phrase was chopped off—who pulls out their own sexual organs?—and whether it would make more or less sense if we had the missing info.  The search string “weird movies made by drugs” was strange enough, but when the searcher didn’t find the answer he was looking for, he clarified with a more specific (and more bizarre) search for “weird ma movies made by drugs.”  Our weirdest search term of the week, however, is the simple but appealing “french existential animated dog mask circus.”  Now, that’s a circus we might actually go to!

Here’s the ridiculously-long reader-suggested review queue (as always, lots more titles after the break): “Jam” (TV show – next week!), Perfume: The Story of a Murderer; Lunacy [Sílení]; Inmortel (2004); Dead Ringers; Kairo [AKA Pulse]; The Guatemalan Handshake; Dead Continue reading WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE →