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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 – NORTH BEND FILM FESTIVAL (North Bend, WA & online, July 15-18):

Set in the Washington town where many of “Twin Peaks“’s exteriors were filmed, the North Bend Film Fest is a Lynchian destination, with a slate of films to match. The dreamlike fantasy The Blazing World and the online gaming nightmare/satire We’re All Going to the World’s Fair are two movies we’ve been awaiting since they were unveiled at Sundance, and the July 17 screening of Donnie Darko with Richard Kelly in attendance should be a big ticket event. Here’s one more release we’ll keep an eye on:

• Cryptozoo – Animated cryptozoology comedy (?) involving strange creatures and government conspiracies, from Dash Shaw. Live screening only, July 17.

This year’s festival will be a hybrid of in-person and online screenings (it remains to be seen if this format is the festival model of the future, or just a post-pandemic hangover). Virtual screenings are restricted to residents of the Pacific Northwest: Washington, Oregon, and Idaho.

North Bend Film Festival official site.

IN THEATERS (LIMITED RELEASE):

Finding Ophelia: An advertising executive dreams of a mysterious woman. Roger Moore called it both “trippy” and “one of the more visually-arresting misfires you’ll encounter on the big screen.” Finding Ophelia official site.

Siberia: Abel Ferrara (and faithful collaborator Willem Dafoe) continues his late-period navel-gazing with this tale of a man traveling through “dreams, memory and imagination” by dogsled.  Siberia was the movie that Ferrara’s alter-ego was seen working on storyboards for in Tommaso. Siberia official site.

IN DEVELOPMENT (crowdfunding):

Fat Fleshy Fingers (202?): A planned anthology film composed of segments centered around a sexual parasite, produced by alumni directors of the Sick ‘n’ Wrong Film Festival. They are hoping to make “the most brain-smashingly weird piece of movie art you’ve ever seen”; a lofty, but worthy goal. Currently almost halfway funded, with a little under two weeks left in the campaign. Fat Fleshy Fingers Kickstarter page.

IN DEVELOPMENT (in production):

Unicorn Wars (202?): Alberto Vázquez (Birdboy) is hard at work on his next feature film, an expansion of his short “Unicorn Blood,” about a bloody fantasy war between unicorns and religious fanatic teddy bears. In production for three years now, he shared some of the work at the Annecy Animation Festival last week. “Bioluminescent hallucinogenic worms” are now confirmed. Variety has an extensive report, with frames.

NEW ON HOME VIDEO:

Son of the White Mare [Fehérlófia] (1981): Read the Apocrypha Candidate review! After an agonizingly long wait (exacerbated by a global pandemic that wrecked plans for a theatrical release), Marcell Jankovics‘ classic psychedelic fairy tale animation is finally here on Blu-ray, courtesy of Arbelos films. Buy Son of the White Mare.

CANONICALLY WEIRD (AND OTHER) REPERTORY SCREENINGS:

This section will no longer be updated regularly. Instead, we direct you to our new “Repertory Cinemas Near You” page. We added many new venues to that page this week: the Balboa in San Francisco, the Film Lab in Detroit (screening The Lure this weekend), the Guild Cinema in Albuquerque  (screening Hedwig and the Angry Inch this weekend), the Screening Room in Buffalo (screening Eraserhead this very evening), Manhattan’s Film Forum (screening 8 1/2 this week), and the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens (screening 2001: A Space Odyssey this Sunday, with accompanying exhibit.) We will still continue to mention exceptional screenings in this space, like this one:

• Memphis, TN – Malco Summer Drive-In – “Best of the Burns,” a four-movie marathon including Dazed and Confused (1993), Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998), Up in Smoke (1978), and Reefer Madness (1936). Saturday, June 19.

FREE WEIRD MOVIES ON TUBI.TV:

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1990): Read the Canonically Weird review! Two minor characters from “Hamlet” pass the time with intellectual games while awaiting their big moment. They may be dead, but they’re also “leaving soon” (from Tubi’s listings). Watch Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead free on Tubi.tv.

WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE: Amazon Prime subscribers can join us tomorrow night at 10:15 PM for a screening and group chat of the nearly-seasonally-appropriate relationship horror Midsommar (2019). The link to join will appear here, on Facebook, or on Twitter around 10 PM ET.

In reviews next week, Pete Trbovich will take a second look at the 1967 Casino Royale (that’s the psychedelic version, not the Daniel Craig version). And Gregory J. Smalley will cover the second entry in Severin’s rare Alex de la Iglesia 2021 Blu-ray drop, Perdita Durango (featuring Rosie Perez as the title character, who also appeared in Wild at Heart). 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.

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.

STREAMING (SHUDDER):

The Amusement Park (1973/2019): Read our review. George Romero‘s Lutheran-funded horror allegory about aging will stream exclusively on Shudder.

NEW ON HOME VIDEO:

Zeroville (2015): An idiot-savant with a tattoo of Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor on the back of his head goes to Hollywood and makes movies. This James Franco experiment (with a pretty weird-looking trailer) was finished in 2015, but the distributor went bankrupt, and then sexual misconduct allegations about the director/star started bubbling up; only now has a new distributor been brave enough to take it on. DVD and Blu-ray only. Buy Zeroville.

CANONICALLY WEIRD (AND OTHER) REPERTORY SCREENINGS:

This section will no longer be updated regularly. Instead, we direct you to our new “Repertory Cinemas Near You” page. We will, however, continue to mention exceptional screenings in this space. In fact, we have one to highlight this week:

Van Nuys, CA – The Plant Drive-In – Aliens, Clowns & Geeks (2019) with Forbidden Zone (1982) (director’s cut), 6/12.

FREE ONLINE WEIRD MOVIES ON TUBI.TV:

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension (1984): Read the Canonically Weird Entry! Watch Buckaroo, the famous neurosurgeon/superhero/rock star, take on Dr. Lizardo and his alien allies, in all its 80s camp glory. We’ve been here before, but this is again listed as “leaving soon.” Watch The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension on Tubi.tv

WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE: The poll for our June 19 Amazon Weird Watch Party is now up. If you plan to attend you have until this Sunday to make your voice heard.

Next week, El Rob Hubbard chips in with a book review of Jeff “Blue Sunshine” Lieberman‘s 2020 memoir, “Day of the Living Me: Adventures of a Cult Filmmaker from the Golden Age.” In movie reviews, Giles Edwards will digest The Baby of Mâcon (1993) (didn’t he already do that?), while Gregory J. Smalley examines Alex de la Iglesia‘s 1995 black comedy about a sinful priest summoning the devil, Day of the Beast. 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.

Here’s the poll to vote in June’s Amazon Prime Weird Watch Party, which will start on Saturday, June 19 at 10:15 PM ET. If you plan on virtually attending, please vote for the movie we’ll be watching below. We’ll screen the movie that get the most votes; your host, Gregory J. Smalley, will personally break any ties. Note that unlike our other polls, you can only vote once. Poll closes at midnight ET on Sunday, June 13. You may vote for multiple movies, but not for every movie (because that would be pointless).

Now vote!

Our next Weird Watch Party on Amazon Prime is scheduled for June 19 at 10:15 PM.

As always, we’ll be looking for RSVPs from people who plan to attend. You are free to nominate a movie to watch, but it’s no longer a requirement: if everyone is happy with the same movie choice, or with the choice between two or three, that will do. After we get the minimum five likely attendees, we’ll put up a poll (assuming we have multiple nominees). Management will break any ties. We’re open to suggestions for different starting times, dates, or methods of propagating the watch link.

Amazon Prime’s catalog of movies is larger (and less exclusive) than Netflix’s. Ed Dykhuizen’s availability spreadsheet is a good resource to check for Canonically Weird movies (look for ones marked “free w/ Prime” in the “Amazon” column). Or, do your own research and come up with a title from Amazon. Eligible movies will have a “watch party” button on their Amazon page. You must be a Prime subscriber; you don’t have to download an extension or additional software.

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)
• On our Facebook page
• On Twitter

Make your nominations in the comments below.

May’s Netflix Watch Party—Synchronic (2018)—starts in fifteen minutes.

Please install the Netflix Party extension (now officially called “teleparty”) if you haven’t already. You must have a U.S. Nextflix account and a Chrome-based browser to participate.

Here is the link to join: https://www.tele.pe/netflix/118fdf5325702e16?s=s190

Be sure to click on the red Teleparty icon to sync up and join the chat room.