Category Archives: Miscellanea

366 WEIRD MOVIES INAUGURAL APOCRYPHA POLL

The List of 366 is complete. Let’s start another list of 366 alternates, a mix of runners-up and movies that debuted too late for consideration in the Canonical List of the 366 Best Weird Movies Ever Made.

We’re calling this supplemental list “Apocrypha,” and this is your first chance to help select the roster.

From the 30 candidates submitted by readers, you can vote for up to three. This poll will close at midnight EST, Wednesday, June 19. As always, you may vote once per day.

You can also try to influence others’ votes in the comments, if you like.

Let’s go for another 366!


WEIRD HORIZON FOR THE WEEK OF 6/7/2019

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 –Holly Weird Film Festival (North Hollywood, CA, 6/9):

We had to mention this one mainly because of the festival name. Holly Weird describes itself as an underground film festival with a mission to “celebrate independent films of all genres that feature a distinct vision, a unique voice, or an avant-garde challenge to what is expected or accepted.” The inaugural slate is mostly short films we’re not familiar with, but it does include 2007’s “Doxology.” Also on the slate, as the only feature-length film, is ‘ new documentary Hush…Hush, Nellie Oleson! about his attempts to fit former “Little House on the Prairie” actress Alison Arngrim into a low-budget experimental film. Los Angelino film fans with obscure tastes should check it out this weekend.

Holly Weird Film Festival Facebook page.

NEW ON HOME VIDEO:

Batman Returns (1992): Read the Certified Weird entry! Warner Brothers is re-releasing their entire Batman catalog this week, including the strangest entry, ‘s carnivalesque take on a sequel, featuring psychotic clown henchmen and penguins strapped with missiles. The 4D Ultra HD disc is bundled with a standard Blu-ray. Buy Batman Returns.

Knife + Heart (2018): A producer of gay porn films becomes obsessed with recreating a series of murders in hopes of winning back her lesbian lover. This queer slasher/giallo pic from sounds fairly unclassifiable; available on DVD, Blu-ray, and VOD. Buy Knife + Heart.

The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (2018): Toby, once an idealistic student filmmaker and now a director of commercials, revisits Spain to find the old shoemaker he cast as his lead in his “Don Quixote” student film now believes he is Quixote and Toby is Sancho Panza. A glorious mess from Terry Gilliam, plagued by legendary production disasters that made it take more than two decades in the making, now on DVD, Blu-ray or VOD for all to see! Buy The Man Who Killed Don Quixote.

Rondo (2018): Read Giles Edwards’ review and enter the contest to win a Rondo DVD. A military reject discovers a secret fetishist society that enacts forbidden, sadistic fantasies. On DVD and VOD. Buy Rondo.

CERTIFIED WEIRD (AND OTHER) REPERTORY SCREENINGS:

The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975). We won’t list all the screenings of this audience-participation classic separately. You can use this page to find a screening near you.

WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE: Next week at 366 Weird Movies, look for the second installment of Alfred Eaker‘s summer torture tour, as he takes on Disney’s regurgitated Aladdin; Giles Edwards goes underground for the upcoming drag queen doc Spider Mites of Jesus: The Dirtwoman Documentary; we cover a film from topless-Playmate-secret-agent-specialist Andy Sidaris for the first time as Pete Trbovich gets Hard Ticket to Hawaii (1987); and we’ll put up our first poll for entries to make the list of apocryphal weird movies (you can still suggest nominees here until next Tuesday, and be entered into the drawing for a Rondo DVD at the same time). That’s a lot for a summer week, isn’t it? Onward and weirdward!

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.

CONTEST: HELP US KICK OFF THE APOCRYPHA SECTION AND WIN A DVD OF “RONDO”

After completing the List of the 366 Canonically Weird Movies at the beginning of this year, we announced that we’d open up a second list of 366 Apocryphally Weird Movies, to catch the runners-up and the new movies that will inevitably be made in 2019 and beyond.  The time has come to begin that process, and you will decide the inaugural entry—and maybe win a prize in the bargain.

Just tell us what movie you think we should put on the supplemental list in the comments below. You can see what’s already on the complete Canonical list in the sidebar to the left on desktops, or at the very bottom of your screen on mobile devices. Serious entries only; we will disregard any nominations for Pokemon Detective Pikachu, Transformers, or the like. Ideally, your choice should be available for us to screen on home video; we may make exceptions to that rule on a case-by-case basis.

After a week of nominations/contest entries, we’ll gather all the nominees and create a poll for voting for the official entries. If we receive more than eleven nominees, you’ll vote for two winners to achieve Apocrypha status; in the unlikely event we receive more than twenty-three nominations, we’ll allow you to vote three on the Apocryphal List.

You may nominate a movie even if you aren’t eligible for the contest or don’t wish to receive the prize; just mention you’re not in it for the swag when you announce your choice.

Contest eligibility rules: You must make a nomination by commenting on this post and informing us of your desire to be in the contest. To receive the DVD, you must supply us with a mailing address in the United States. (Don’t publish your address in your comment! We’ll contact the winner through email). 366 contributors are not eligible for the prize. You are not eligible for this prize if you have won a contest here in the last six months. We’ll stop accepting entries Tuesday, June 11, at midnight EST. The winner will be chosen randomly from all eligible comments. If the winner does not respond to our request for a mailing address within 48 hours we’ll email a runner-up, and so forth, until the prize is given away.

RONDO DVD Cover (2018)As for the prize:  It’s a fresh DVD copy of the newly-released revenge-sploitation feature Rondo (2018). Giles Edwards immediately nominated this one for the List when he saw it at the Fantasia Film Festival last year, gushing that he was “impressed at not only its vitality, violence, and humor, but also its incredible audacity” and concluding “In Rondo, baroque verbiage and baroque violence come together in a celebration of blood-sodden deadpan.” If you need more hype, Giles conducted an interview with the director and producer, and you can check out the NSFW trailer, too.

Now let’s get started on those 366 Apocryphal titles!

WEIRD HORIZON FOR THE WEEK OF 5/31/2019

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.

NEW ON HOME VIDEO:

Blue Velvet (1986): Read the Canonically Weird entry! The Criterion Collection adds another jewel to its crown; some special features (even the much ballyhooed “lost footage”) have appeared on other releases, but this one does boast remastering, the feature length doc Blue Velvet Revisited, and Lynch reading from his memoir “Room to Dream.” On two DVDs or one Blu-ray. Buy Blue Velvet.

Climax (2018): Read our review. Provacateur puts a megadose of LSD into his cinematic punch bowl. On DVD, Blu-ray and VOD. Buy Climax.

Lords of Chaos (2018): Read Giles Edwards’ review. The based-on-a-true-story of True Norwegian Death Metal. On DVD, Blu-ray or VOD. Buy Lords of Chaos.

Starfish (2018): Read our review. It’s the end of the world, maybe, but Aubrey might be able to save all of us with a mixtape. This indie horror/sci-fi/drama-of-lonelieness is out on VOD only (for the moment, at least). Buy or rent Starfish.

CERTIFIED WEIRD (AND OTHER) REPERTORY SCREENINGS:

The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975). We won’t list all the screenings of this audience-participation classic separately. You can use this page to find a screening near you.

NEPOTISM CORNER: 366’s contributed a short piece on Howl’s Moving Castle to the Spool as part of their coverage of May’s Filmmaker of the Month, . You can read it here.

WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE: We’ve got a busy summer week coming up at 366, as Alfred Eaker starts off his summer blockbuster purgatory with a trip to see what may be the least Alfred Eaker movie ever, Pokémon: Detective Pikachu. Next up, Giles Edwards fills you in on 2018’s arty animation Ruben Brandt: Collector (about a psychiatrist with an art-thief clientele) and Pete Trbovich takes on Keoma (1976), the cult spaghetti western with a rather, um, unforgettable soundtrack. To top it all off, we’re going to start a new poll with an associated DVD giveaway contest (hint: it’s apocrypha time)  Stay tuned, and onward and weirdward!

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.

WEIRD HORIZON FOR THE WEEK OF 5/24/2019

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):

Diamantino (2018): A Portuguese soccer star adopts an African lesbian immigrant, while his twin sisters are conducting secret genetic experiments. This bonkers-sounding comedy has garnered good reviews, and a limited stateside release, after a successful festival run. Diamantino official site.

NEW ON HOME VIDEO:

Dead Hooker in a Trunk (2009): Four friends find the titular Macguffin in the titular locale, which eventually leads to  surreal confrontations with the Cowboy Pimp and the Almighty himself. A feminist work by identical twin sisters (the Soskas) whose title perhaps oversells the level of subtlety here. Makes its Blu-ray debut this week. Buy Dead Hooker in a Trunk.

The Image Book (2018):  takes images from films of the past, digitally alters them, and philosophizes in voiceover. More late Godard for cinema masochists (we’ll probably end up joining them). On DVD or Blu-ray from Kino-Lorber.  Buy The Image Book.

The Perfection (2019): Psychological thriller about a musical prodigy. The trailer makes it look like Black Swan meets Get Out. A Netflix exclusive movie exclusively streaming on Netflix.

CERTIFIED WEIRD (AND OTHER) REPERTORY SCREENINGS:

The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975). We won’t list all the screenings of this audience-participation classic separately. You can use this page to find a screening near you.

WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE: Next week Shane Wilson digs into the long-neglected reader-suggested review queue for a look at  ‘s Alphaville, a strange 1965 noir-sci fi-philosophy mashup, while G. Smalley is back from vacation with a report on the fake-Japanese-TV-show mockumentary Top Knot Detective. That rapscallion Smalley’s vacation has delayed the upcoming print release of the 2018 Yearbook—proofing revealed a new problem with the margins that cropped up just before his departure—so hopefully next week we’ll get that little issue sorted out and get those collectible items up for sale before too long. We swear, next year the Yearbook will arrive much earlier… well, at least we plan on it. Onward and weirdward!

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.