Our project to re-rank the entire Canon of 366 Weird Movies is complete!
Last round—which turned out to be the final round—47 voters cast ballots. The lone remaining Apocrypha title, The Lighthouse (2019), finally failed to beat all the titles it was pitted against. Branded to Kill (1967) proved more popular, and John Dies at the End (2012) earned an equal number of votes.
The Lighthouse ended up slotted at #198 overall (meaning it proved more popular than 168 of the original Canon entries). The complete reordered List will be permanently stored on the More Site-Specific Weird Stuff page.
366 Weird Movies may earn commissions from purchases made through product links.
Our weekly look at what’s weird in theaters, on hot-off-the-presses DVDs and Blu-rays (and hot off the server VODs), and on more distant horizons…
Trailers of new release movies are generally available at the official site links.
FILM FESTIVALS – BOSTON UNDERGROUND FILM FESTIVAL (Boston, MA, 3/23-3/27):
A bit under-the-radar, the Boston Underground Film Festival nevertheless lands some interesting titles every year. Besides pics that played Sundance and other fests—the Rwandan sc-fi musical Neptune Frost and the Finnish giant egg horror Hatching—we noticed one that had somehow escaped our notice previously:
Lux Aeterna – Charlotte Gainsbourg and Béatrice Dalle are two actresses in a witch trial movie, and everything goes wrong in a psychedelic way typical of director Gaspar Noe. (NOTE: a strobe light epilepsy warning applies to the film, and to some extent to the trailer below).
Comfort Zone (202?): A drug and sex addict receives a phone call from someone he thinks is dead, and then starts hallucinating. The creators says the idea is “born from our love of all things strange and surreal” and explicitly promise it will be “weird.” They’re seeking $45,000, with the usual suite of inducements. Comfort Zone at Indiegogo.
STREAMING DEBUTS (NETFLIX):
Adam by Eve: A Live In Animation (2022): A “dreamlike” movie (or feature length music video?) inspired by the story of Adam and Eve. Made by Eve, a mysterious (male) Japanese pop star who does not like to be photographed, the movie mixes anime and live-action to impressive effect. Watch Adam by Eve: A Live In Animation on Netflix.
NEW ON HOME VIDEO:
12 Monkeys (1995): Read the Canonically Weird entry! Universal released the rights to Arrow Video to make temporary limited edition editions of Terry Gilliam‘s time-traveling classic; apparently that deal has expired, and the studio is re-releasing their own Blu-ray (which wasn’t bad). Buy 12 Monkeys.
Brazil (1985): Read the Canonically Weird entry! As has happened several times before, the rights to Brazil have reverted from the Criterion Collection back to Universal, who has issued a new Blu-ray. If you’re not interested in Criterion’s exclusive extras, the silver lining is you can save a few bucks with this one. Buy Brazil.
Hardgore (1975): A nymphomaniac is sent to a sanitarium that turns out to be a front for Satan worshipers It’s notorious for mixing cheesy gore with hardcore sex, it’s in our reader-suggested queue, and it’s now available in a limited edition (1000 units) Blu-ray. Massacre Video releases aren’t available from retailers and can only be ordered directly from their website.
This section will no longer be updated regularly. Instead, we direct you to our new “Repertory Cinemas Near You” page. We will continue to mention exceptional events in this space from time to time, however.
“Missing Movies”: This doesn’t fit anywhere else, but it’s an interesting and worthy project. A group of filmmakers (led by Mary Harron of the upcoming DaliLandSalvador Dalí biopic) have made it a mission to identify (American) movies that are out-of-print and not on streaming services, which may have either copyright issues or missing prints that prevent wide distribution. Among the movies they identify as “missing” is 366 entry Titus; I’m sure we could collectively think of many more unavailable movies (you can submit suggestions here, but don’t bombard them with trivia). Visit the Missing Movies website.
WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE:
We appear to be settling on a consensus for next week’s Weird Watch Party in Sion Sono‘s Tag, but if you have input (or just want to RSVP), you can join the conversation here.
In next week’s reviews, Shane Wilson goes to the reader-suggested queue for the absurdist apocalyptic black comedy The Nine Lives of Thomas Katz (2000). On the new release front, Giles Edwards covers the Lovecraftian horror Offseason, while Gregory J. Smalley takes on the voluntary euthanasia comedy Moon Manor. Onward and weirdward!
What are you looking forward to? If you have any weird movie leads that we have overlooked, feel free to leave them in the COMMENTS section.
We’re ready to take suggestions and votes in the comments for our next Weird Watch party, tentatively scheduled for Saturday, March 26 at 10:15 PM ET.
If you’d like to attend our watch party, then the important thing is to RSVP in the comments, where you can make a screening suggestion, or just say you plan to be there. As always, we’re looking for five likely attendees before officially scheduling.
Nominations are open for movies on any of the three platforms we’ve used—Netflix, Prime or Tubi/Kast. When making your nomination, simply comment with “I think we should watch Weird Movie on Netflix” or “I propose Strange Movie on Tubi” or “How about Weird Movie 2: Electric Boogaloo on Prime?”
When the party is set to begin we’ll announce it in three places:
On this site (if you’ve signed up for regular email alerts via the sidebar you’ll also get a notice that way)
366 Weird Movies may earn commissions from purchases made through product links.
Our weekly look at what’s weird in theaters, on hot-off-the-presses DVDs and Blu-rays (and hot off the server VODs), and on more distant horizons…
Trailers of new release movies are generally available at the official site links.
FILM FESTIVALS – (South by Southwest [SXSW], Austin, TX, 3/11 to 3/20):
It snuck up on us, but South by Southwest returns to live screenings this year after two forgettable years online only. SXSW has grown into the second most important of the early season film festivals, and you can often find films that arrived a little too late (or were a little too weird) for Sundance playing there. This year, there are no weird must sees, but a lot of marginally intriguing entries. Here’s what we’ll be keeping an eye on:
Everything Everywhere All at Once – A multiverse spanning tax-filing comedy from Daniels; the trailer makes it look rather conventional, so hopefully that’s misleading.
Linoleum – A satellite crashes into an Ohio home and the dad decides to refashion the wreck into his own personal spaceship; says it contains “surreal events,” but how weird can a movie starring Jim Gaffigan be?
The Man Who Fell to Earth – Showtime’s version of Walter Tevis’ novel that was successfully (and weirdly) adapted with David Bowie in 1976; the first episode of the new (presumably limited) series screens here.
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent – A lightly meta action-comedy starring Nicolas Cage in the role he was born to play (Nicolas Cage); probably not too weird, but the Cageheads out there have been eagerly anticipating this one.
Moon Manor: A man with Alzheimer’s lives out his last day in magical realist style. One of the co-directors is “Machete Bang Bang,” who has at least one surreal short to her credit. Like other low-budget indies nowadays, it’s simultaneously out on VOD. Moon Manor official site.
Offseason: A woman finds herself trapped on an island with odd inhabitants. Reviewers evoke the spirit of H.P. Lovecraft, and Staci Layne Wilson recommends it to fans of “surreal, nightmarish horror.” VOD here. No official site found.
Ultrasound: After a tire mishap, a man is forced to spend the night with a strange couple; the story also follows a woman who suspects her boyfriend is gaslighting her, and a medical technician having ethical doubts about an experiment she’s working on. A sci-fi puzzle-box movie that ultimately, it seems, has a rational solution, but which baffled viewers for most of its runtime. Playing in a few theaters across the U.S., and on VOD. Ultrasound official site.
STREAMING DEBUTS (SHUDDER):
The Seed (2022): Fashion models partying on retreat cope with an alien invasion. Early reviewers cite Society, Under the Skin and The Neon Demon as visual influences on this horror comedy, so it might be worth a look for Shudder subscribers.
Domina Nocturna (2021): The description makes it sound like a plotless Gothic expressionist experimental film, explicitly influenced by the imagery of Jean Rollin. Released directly to DVD last year, now upgraded to Blu-ray. Honestly, we’ve seen this kind of thing done before, and it rarely works out well for the audience. Buy Domina Nocturna.
The Nowhere Inn (2021): Read our review. Fans of singer-songwriter St. Vincent (Annie Clark) will want to check out this slightly surreal mockumentary; non-fans might become fans after watching. Previously on VOD, now on DVD or Blu-ray. Buy The Nowhere Inn.
Phenomeona (1985): Read our review. The Dario Argento thriller about a girl who communicates telepathically with insects receives a lavish 2-disc 4K UHD release from Synapse, with three different cuts of the film and swarms of extras. Buy Phenomenon.
Thriller: A Cruel Picture (1974): A young woman is forced into prostitution and has her eye gouged out, but learns kung fu and grabs a shotgun to take revenge on her tormentor. A Blu-ray upgrade of the notoriously graphic Swedish exploitation film, which is of questionable weirdness but nevertheless has taken up a long residence in our reader-suggested queue. Buy Thriller: A Cruel Picture.
This section will no longer be updated regularly. Instead, we direct you to our new “Repertory Cinemas Near You” page. We will continue to mention exceptional events in this space from time to time, however.
Be sure to join us tomorrow night for a Weird Watch Party you won’t want to miss: Quentin Dupieux‘s Keep an Eye Out [Au Poste] (2018), which we selected as the Weirdest Movie of 2021. A free Kast account is required to stream and chat. The link to join will drop here, on Facebook, and on Twitter around 10 PM.
Speaking of the Weirdest Movie of 2021, you can still make your choice heard in our 2021 Weirdcademy Awards Naked Popularity Contest. Vote here!
And speaking of voting, if you haven’t already, you can also cast your ballot in our latest Apocrypha Promotion poll, to see if The Lighthouse (2019) will continue to climb against its Canonically Weird competition.
Next week, Giles Edwards finds himself tempted by current release Big Gold Brick‘s shocking 3.3 IMDB rating, and dives right in to investigate. Shane Wilson goes deep into the past (and into the reader-suggested queue) as he’s cast into 1911’s Italian Dante adaptation L’Inferno.Gregory J. Smalley stays in the reader-suggested queue, but reviews a film that couldn’t be any more different: 2003’s The Glamorous Life of Sakicho Hanai, a pink film that delivers the softcore thrills while also pursuing an agenda as an experimental political satire. Onward and weirdward!
What are you looking forward to? If you have any weird movie leads that we have overlooked, feel free to leave them in the COMMENTS section.
Our project to re-rank the entire Canon of 366 Weird Movies continues, as we incorporate the newly promoted former-Apocrypha movies into a newly reordered list. (This sounds more complicated than it really is.)
Last round, 47 voters cast ballots. The lone remaining Apocrypha title, The Lighthouse (2019), once again proved more popular than all the Canonical entries it was pitted against. Let’s see how far the The Lighthouse can climb, as it faces the nineteen next most popular Canonical movies based on this 2019 poll. (This set of movies originally ranked between 214 and 196.) We’ll repeat this procedure until The Lighthouse fails to beat all it’s competition in a particular group.
Here’s the next round. Vote for the movie you feel is the most deserving of this bunch. We’ll leave the poll up until midnight, March 17.
Celebrating the cinematically surreal, bizarre, cult, oddball, fantastique, strange, psychedelic, and the just plain WEIRD!
