Category Archives: Miscellanea

AMAZON PRIME WATCH PARTY POLL

Here’s the poll to vote in our first weird Amazon Prime watch party, scheduled for Saturday, July 18, at 10:15 PM EST. If you plan on virtually attending, please vote for the movie we’ll be watching below. We’ll screen the movie that gets 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 EST on Thursday, July 16. You may vote for multiple movies, but not for every movie (because that would be pointless).

Now vote!


AMAZON PRIME WATCH PARTY #1: INTEREST CHECK & NOMINATIONS

With the announcement that Amazon Prime is joining the Watch Party bandwagon, the catalog of available movies for us to communally screen just grew significantly. In our streaming service interest check poll, Prime even slightly beat Netflix, so we’re going to try it out. Since not everyone has both services, we won’t be abandoning Netflix; as of now, we’re provisionally planning to alternate weeks between the two.

The procedure will be the same as with our Netflix parties: we’re looking for five people (not counting your host G. Smalley) to comment on this post if you are interested in attending. Likely attendees may also make a nomination from the Amazon Prime catalog for a movie to watch. After we cross the five attendees threshold, we’ll put up a poll with all the nominations and start voting to select which film we’ll screen. The Watch Party will tentatively be scheduled for Saturday, July 18 at 10:15 PM ET; feel free to suggest a different time in the comments.

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.

We will not provide tech support; you’re on your own. Help each other. Since this is our first try with this service, there may be bumps in the road.

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

Now, RSVP and make your nominations in the comments below.

366’S NETFLIX PARTY, “WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY,” STARTS IN 15 MINUTES

As the title states, our latest Netflix Party—Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971)—starts in fifteen minutes.

Please install the Netflix Party extension if you haven’t already. You must have a U.S. Nextflix account (we think) and a Chrome-based browser (including Brave) to participate.

There will be no pausing or rewinding except for technical reasons.

We are offering no technical support, so help each other out if needed.

Here is the link to join: https://www.netflix.com/watch/60020949?npSessionId=6abaf7d863ee67f9&npServerId=s65

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

WEIRD HORIZON FOR THE WEEK OF 7/10/2020

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.

IN THEATERS (LIMITED RELEASE):

We Are Little Zombies (2019): Read our Apocrypha Candidate review. Use the official homepage to find a virtual cinema, or wait a few weeks until it shows up on regular VOD outlets, but be sure to catch s’ exciting pop-psychedelic debut film. We Are Little Zombies official home page.

FILM FESTIVALS – Sick ‘n’ Wrong Film Festival (Online until 7/12):

As the name implies, the Sick ‘n’ Wrong festival errs towards the offensive/grossout side of the weird spectrum. It’s mostly shorts, but there are five features this year, including one name we actually recognize: 1000 Kings. The way it works this year is that you buy one online ticket which gives you access to the entire festival; you watch the flicks on demand on your own schedule. (Two features are only available to U.S. or U.K. residents, but other than that there are no restrictions.) $40 gets you everything. Sorry for the late notice. Buy a pass to the Sick ‘n’ Wrong Film Festival.

NEW ON HOME VIDEO:

“The Complete Lenzi/Baker Giallo Collection”: Four gialli directed by Umberto Lenzi and starring Carol Baker: Orgasmo [AKA Paranoia] (1969), So Sweet So Perverse (1969), A Quiet Place to Kill (1970), and Knife of Ice (1972). Of the four, Orgasmo, with Baker as a rich widow seduced and gaslighted by a pair of men for her money, is the most famous and probably the weirdest. This elaborate box set from giallo specialists Severin Films comes with two CDs containing the soundtracks for the first three films and one track from Knife of Ice. Buy “The Complete Lenzi/Baker Giallo Collection”.

https://youtu.be/QnKYVjdIjo4

ONLINE EVENTS (7/10 [today!], 3 PM EST, Facebook):

Jesus Shows You the Way to the Highway Q&A: Director and producer Sergio Uguet de Resayre will answer questions about Apocrypha Candidate Jesus Shows You the Way to the Highway today at 3 PM ET on Facebook. Distributor Arrow Video is very proud of this acquisition; once you see the movie, you’ll see why. It’s both relentlessly weird and accessible (in a cult movie fan sense, at least). Watch Jesus Shows You the Way to the Highway Q&A on Facebook.

CANONICALLY WEIRD (AND OTHER) REPERTORY SCREENINGS:

Independent theaters are cautiously starting to reopen across North America at diminished capacity, although the big chains (and Alamo Drafthouses) remain shuttered for another week or two. That said, we have a dribble of new screenings to announce this week. We expect this section to continue to grow slowly throughout the summer, although we wouldn’t predict things to return to anywhere near normal until the fall, at the earliest. You’ll have to use your own judgment as to whether it’s safe to go to movie theaters at this time.

WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE: The votes are all tallied, and tomorrow’s Netflix Party screening will be Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971). Grab your candy and join us tomorrow at 10:15 ET; we’ll drop the link here and on our Facebook and Twitter pages shortly before the show begins. Based on reader demand, next week we’ll schedule an Amazon Prime watch party and see how that goes. If successful, we may start alternating between Netflix and Prime.

Next week we’ll also bring you a full slate of reviews, as Giles Edwards endures the uncannily heartwarming robots of Heartbeeps (1981), Simon Hyslop sails on the low-budget odyssey A Ship of Human Skin (2019), and Gregory J. Smalley takes a very different trip with Big River Man (2009) as he attempts to swim the length of the Amazon in the titular reader-suggested documentary. Virus be damned: 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.

NETFLIX PARTY #13 POLL

Here’s the poll to vote in our latest weird Netflix watch party, scheduled for Saturday, July 11, at 10:15 PM EST. First order of business: voting on the movie to watch. If you plan on virtually attending, please vote for the movie we’ll be watching below.

There are two sets of instructions: one for the poll, and then the instructions for joining the Netflix Party.

POLL

Vote for which movie you’d like us to watch from the selections below. We’ll screen the movie that gets 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 EST on Thursday, July 9. You may vote for multiple movies, but not for every movie (because that would be pointless).

NETFLIX PARTY

You must have a subscription to Netflix (U.S.) and a browser running Chrome. You must install the Netflix Party extension (from this site).

We will not provide tech support; you’re on your own.

When the party is set to begin we’ll try to 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

You will then receive the link to join the stream. Follow the instructions and be sure to have your Netflix Party extension active.

Once you join, you can customize your avatar and give yourself a screen name.

Now vote!