Time for another giveaway! This one is for true fans only, though all are welcome to try. All you have to do is convince us that you’re 366 Weird Movies’ Biggest Fan, and therefore deserving of this fine prize. We know a couple of you have gone the extra mile to promote this project; now is your chance to show us what you’ve done. Pimp your own creativity while pumping our egos; everyone benefits. (Or just compliment us really, really well). We’ll pick the most impressive submission provided in the comments below. Even if you’re ineligible to win the prize (for example, because you live outside the U.S.), please let us know about your fandom. And even if you think you’re a Pretty Big Fan, but not the Biggest, let us know. Our pride needs it.
Even though, in a way, you’re all winners, the choice of an actual prize winner is solely at the discretion of 366 Weird Movies’ staff.
Eligibility rules: You must comment on this post. 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 eligible for this prize even if you have won a contest here in the last six months. We’ll stop accepting entries Wednesday, February 20, at midnight EST. 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.
As for the prize: it’s the Criterion 2-disc DVD edition of the Canonically Weird True Stories, David Byrne‘s celebration of eccentricity and “Specialness” set in the fictional town of Virgil, Texas. Note that this DVD edition does not include the film’s soundtrack, which is an exclusive bonus feature of the Blu-ray. But it does include the second disc of bonus features (four documentaries, plus deleted scenes) and the cool tabloid-style booklet with essays by Rebecca Bengal and Joe Nick Patoski.
So go to it! Show us what you got!
I don’t know if I’m 366’s biggest fan, but I think you ought to know y’all saved my life more than once. I haven’t always had the best of luck romantically, and it has seemed more than once that I could hold down my job better than I could hold down my marriage. We are back together now and all is well, but there was a season last year (autumn) when we were separated, the wife and I, and I gotta say, I was in a bad way. I’m a security guard in a hospital, I supervise the swing shift, and every time I thought about quitting and taking a negative path, instead of doing so, I read an article on this site. I read just about every article that has been archived here. I waited everyday until the new article came out, and it gave me something to look forward to. One night I was patrolling the wings on the second floor and one of the patients was in a bad way. He wanted to jump, and while I had serious doubts about how much damage he could do to himself from only the second floor, I could appreciate the dark place he was coming from. I went out the emergency exit he had bolted from and grabbed hold of him just as he was climbing over the ledge. This would not be the average observe and report night. I hauled him back to his room and talked him down until the doctor came in to give him some happy juice and put him to bed. We talked about movies. Weird movies. I suggested this site. He was intrigued and said if he lived long enough to get through his treatment he’d check you guys out. When I made my report for the evening and submitted it, the hospital administration was so pleased they set me up with a letter of appreciation, a trip to an awards ceremony for healthcare security workers in LA, and a few odds and ends, gift cards included. It goes without saying, I used my gift card on Akira and Urusei Yatsura 2 Beautiful Dreamer. Watching those films and being just a tad obsessive with watching the other films on this site sparked my creativity, helped me write music again, and I know it had to be this sudden 180 turn and proactive lifestyle really was a factor in my wife returning just in time for Christmas. But for keeping me on a straight path through Halloween and the loneliest Thanksgiving ever, thank you 366 Weird Movies.
I have not had the opportunity or avenues to promote you but I love the site. I certainly tell everyone I know about it. I actually made a spreadsheet with your list I use to track my progress and you have 100% influenced several purchases and streams for me. I couldn’t be happier that you are continuing now that the canon list is complete. I don’t remember how I found you but you are in my favorites and I check at least once a day.
When I first stumbled across your site, and noticed that not only had Doggiewogiez! Poochiewoochiez!, Final Flesh and Santa Claus and the Ice Cream Bunny were on your radar, but that you included all three on the list, I knew damn well this site was to be trusted. I started making it a point to watch every movie on the list, and recommending it to everyone I could. When that didn’t satisfy me enough, I started coating myself in grease every night, and roaming the streets, murdering people, eating their eyes, and carving the website address on their scalps. And during the day, I’d fix myself a plate of spaghetti, a glass of milk, and a snickers bar, and soak in the bathtub while watching the next movie on the list.
A good chunk of that isn’t true. But I have watched 281 movies out of the 366 so far (the most recent one being Santa Claus, which, while worthy of a spot on the list, bored me to tears) and I’ve posted a link to your review on facebook after each one I’ve watched. I have 85 left (84 1/2, I started watching The Ruling Class last night). And I plan to continue with the Apocrypha titles. I’ve also watched every one of the recommended shorts, aside from six whose links have long since expired.
Bullshit artist!
Well, probably not much in the face of what others will have to offer, but I think it worth noting I’ve done my level best to spread knowledge of the site to several avenues.
*I’ve maintained a list of the certified weird films on letterboxd for the last two years (though I’ll gladly admit others have more comprehensive versions all linked up and co-produced with lists of candidates and capsules):https://letterboxd.com/gargusscp/list/366-weird-movies/
*I introduced a page on the site to TV Tropes and kept it updated until an unfortunate edit ban: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Website/ThreeHundredSixtySixWeirdMovies
*I’ve also maintained a checklist for the site on rinkworks: http://www.rinkworks.com/checklist/list.cgi?u=gargus&U=gargus&p=366weirdmovies
*At every available opportunity while conducting my various challenge son letterboxd (queer, cult, season, film school drop-outs), I go out of my way to select one of the weird movies if available, on the sole basis of wanting an excuse to catch and write about one of them in a larger context.
*And whenever someone’s asking for recommends on reddit, I’m sure to bring up this site as a place where people can find all manner of strange movies they might otherwise overlook.
Might not make me your biggest fan, but I’m at least dedicated, and I’d say that’s worth a try!
I’m 366’s biggest fan. You can’t imagine the excitement I get when I see a “Must See” review published!
Being a huge 60’s Batman fan, I discovered that several actors from that show had one particular movie in common that I did not know about, with a weirdass name : SKI-DOO. 366 Weird Movies was one of the first websites that Google was suggesting me in order to know more about the film. And the name of your site alone made me feel like I had discovered my new favorite movie review place instantly, and I was not wrong. Since then, I went down that rabbit hole of perusing every damn movie review in here, buying the movies that resonated with me as soon I was done reading, eager to experience the weirdness. It’s the best addiction one could ever wish for. Thank you for your enabling, it’s been fascinating.
Wow, these are some good stories!
The internet needs more comment sections like this.
Not only are they good stories, I bet they’re True Stories.
Hah. Hah.
Living in Finland, so not eligible.
I don’t remember when exactly I stumbled upon this site for the first time, but my Amazon history tells me I ordered the first four Yearbooks around Christmas 2014. I don’t remember how I found myself here either, but – again based on my Amazon history – I was probably looking for information on Witching & Bitching. I have bought each of the Yearbooks since then. I can’t really say how many movies I’ve bought based on information from this site, but we are probably talking hundreds.
I’m quite omnivorous when it comes to movies. There have been times when I’ve seen all the movies on IMDb’s top 250 and I’ve seen most of the canonical movies (346 to be exact as of this writing). The difference? When a movie on IMDb’s list is not to my liking, I feel like I’ve just wasted a couple of hours of my time. When I watch a canonical movie, I might not be a big fan of all of them, but I have always been glad to have watched them simply for the novelty, if nothing else.
Another thing I enjoy on this site is the information on world cinema. It’s easy to find information on it these days, but it’s mostly not very well filtered or it has been filtered to the bare bones of Oscar contenders or similar. I want to go deeper, but I don’t have the time to actually just go out and watch everything possible.
I mean, there’s hundreds of thousands of movies out there. I need someone to help me make choices. I’ve tried a number of different sources over the years, but most of them fall short. I’ve cultivated a very short list of sources I do follow and listen to.
Sure, I could just watch movies randomly and come up with my own opinions, like some of friends like to say, but the things is that they don’t really understand what’s going on. It’s not about me not being able to form my own opinions, but they misunderstand the situation. It’s about me finding sources that are both close enough to my existing opinions and help me grow as a movie fan. This site has definitely served these purposes.
Well, that turned out to be more painful than anticipated. When I thought up this contest I was hoping the winner would be more obvious. Instead, our staff voted for a bunch of different contestants, with no one receiving more than one vote. That leaves me to reluctantly declare a winner (and to make the decision to pick a runner-up, to whom I will offer a consolation prize). The winner is Gargus, for his obsessive list-making and linking (and we appreciate the existence of a TV Tropes page). The runner-up is James Montenegro for his moving story. Thanks very much to all who participated, this contest was unexpectedly humbling.
Thank you very kindly for the honor!