It’s time once again to disburse some of the distributor loot we collect to our faithful readers. We’ll make this contest easier to enter than the last one, because we have two prizes to give away instead of just one.
As you might have noticed, with the List now standing at 246 Certified Weird movies, this 366 movie project is now nearer the end of its run than the beginning. Only 120 titles to go! That’s not a lot of spots, and that’s why we want to listen to our readers as much as possible to determine which films get those precious final slots.
So, to enter this contest, all you have to do is make a one sentence comment, on this post, explaining why a movie not currently on the List of the 366 Best Weird Movies should be placed on it (for easy reference, you can see the complete current List in the sidebar to your left). Your movie can be one we’ve never considered, one that’s currently marked as a List Candidate, or even a movie we’ve previously rejected that you believe we should reconsider. More than one person can offer the same movie choice. You can use the format, “[movie title] should be put on the List, because…” Entries will be judged by persuasiveness, with extra points given for cleverness. Entries that are longer than one sentence or that nominate a movie that’s already on the List will be not be considered for a prize. Make as many entries as you like (although every individual will be able to win only one of the two prizes).
The staff will chose the best response and a runner-up for prizes. The best response will get his choice of two Blu-rays (see below), while the runner-up will get the other one. Winners must provide an email contact and a U.S. mailing address to receive your prize. If the winner does not respond to us by email with an address and choice of either the Der Bunker or Observance Blu-ray prize within 48 hours after his or her name is announced, choice of prizes will be offered to the runner-up instead. Contest closes at midnight Eastern Standard Time on September 13, one week from today, and winners will be announced on September 14.
The winner’s entry will not automatically be elevated onto the List, but winning the contest will be persuasive as we try to select those final 120 movies.
And now, for the prizes, both supplied by by Artsploitation Films (distributors of the Certified Weird Der Samurai). These are factory-sealed Blu-rays, not used review copies.
DER BUNKER (click for more information on this prize)
List Candidate! From our review: “a solid hit, with more than enough surprises to keep lovers of the weird glued to the screen.”
From the box cover: “Surrealistic yet strangely heartwarming, Der Bunker is a funny and bizarre modern fairy tale. A student rents a room in a bunker home and becomes involved in the bizarre dramas of his landlord’s family which includes a precocious 8-year-old who, despite being German and ‘learning-challenged,’ is being home-groomed to become the President of the United States.”
clip from Der Bunker
-or-
OBSERVANCE (click for more information on this prize)
From our review: “Lovers of the weird need fear not; the ending plunges down a rabbit hole, never to resurface.”
From the box cover: “A frightening psychological horror tale reminiscent of Roman Polanski’s THE TENANT and Hitchcock’s REAR WINDOW. A troubled private investigator is assigned to observe a woman from an abandoned apartment but he slowly becomes aware that the derelict building he is on has a dark, threatening presence.”
Trailer for Observance
OK, begin… NOW!
I dont want your blurays, but did noone ever suggest Bread and Circus? At least I couldnt find it. It’s a (little bit cheaply made) artsy splattery parabel on human life that has almost everything. Including deep thoughts about humanity, weapons, exploding heads and an Alice in Wonderland type of girl climbing down the asshole of the world.
the Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6LQUfoputI
Lord_Mord: No, no one has ever mentioned Bread and Circus. I will move all new titles over to the suggestion thread after the contest is through. Thanks!
endless poetry by Alejandro Jodorowski. He did it again wonderful and weird.
You’re the winner so far! (And you’re the only person I know who’s already seen Endless Poetry, which as far as I know has only screened at a handful of European film festivals).
I got to see it at the Spanish film festival in Melbourne recently. Was definitely another epic ordeal to witness.
You know EX Drummer (2007) deserves a spot on the list when it features two men having a conversation inside a giant vagina!
Rat Pfink A Boo Boo (1966) should be on the list because it starts out as a standard B-movie (okay, C-movie) drama about a rock and roll singer whose girlfriend is abducted by a gang of hoodlums (and later a gorilla) but takes a turn for the weird when the singer and his dimwitted friend become superheroes in order to rescue her and dispense their own brand of justice!
The Hole (many films titled this, but this is the one you want): http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0156610/ Superb pomo/existentialist film that brilliantly and weirdly uses pop music — in the best way since Lynch.
If shorts are eligible, Cecilia Condit’s “Possibly in Michigan” is one of a kind, as far as experimental horror musicals starring mannequins are concerned.
Nathan J. White’s “The Carrier” is a regional horror contagion allegory about alien somethings, melting people, and a small community where live cats basically become the new currency.
Possession (1981) – About a woman who leaves her husband to start a sexual relationship with an octopus.
“Ritual dos Sádicos” (“Awakening of the Beast”), Zé do Caixão!! During Brazil´s military dictatorship in the 60´s, José Mojica Marins´ really subversive and experimental pseudo doc is about LSD, bizarre and hellish hallucinations, metalinguistics involving the Coffin Joe character, and of course low budget and creative special effects, like using actors´ and actresses´ genitalia as monsters from hell! The Smoking Ass monster and the Dick monster of the jungle tied with poor strings are simply unforgettable!
Madam Satan (1930) by Cecil B. DeMille. I’d love to see that on this website.
Cane Toads: An Unnatural History should make the List, as it provides an interesting take on the nature documentary, and the List could use another weird documentary or two.
(I don’t know if winning the last contest disqualifies me from taking part here, but I figured I’d throw in my two cents anyways.)
It’s Such A Beautiful Day, written, shot and created by Don hertzfeldt. very starkly depressing, dark humor and sometimes cringeworthy visuals and music to back it. It leads you directly into a place where you feel dissociated and confused as a human
description from Wikipedia:
It’s Such a Beautiful Day is an experimental black comedy-drama animated film directed, written, animated, and produced by award-winning animator Don Hertzfeldt as his first feature film. The film is divided into three chapters and follows the story of a stick-figure man named Bill, who struggles with his failing memory and absurdist visions, among other symptoms of an unknown illness. The film employs both offbeat humor and serious philosophical musings. It received critical acclaim and won numerous awards.
Good suggestions, but remember to follow the rules and limit yourself to a one sentence justification if you hope to win.
With two insect hallucinations, two incestuous plot twists, a suicide resulting from a phantom pregnancy, and the revoltingly real eating of a live octopus, Oldboy(2003) is a solid choice; I couldn’t imagine trying to explain to someone that it’s not weird.
The Japanese ‘House’ from 1977 seems the most likely to raise universal eyebrows for its zany weirdness frame-by-frame: https://www.criterion.com/films/27523-house
True, but Hausu is already on the List (check the sidebar again). Feel free to try another entry.
Crispin Glover’s intensely surreal 2005 film, What Is It? easily completes the “Three Weird Things” trifecta by featuring (1) Shirley Temple against a backdrop of Nazi Swastikas, {2) a man with cerebral palsy who is given a handjob by a naked woman with onlookers consisting of a cast of Down syndrome actors, and, uh, pervasive snail abuse.
Whether I win or not, please put Koen mortier’s Ex Drummer on the list.
Deafula should be on this list because:
1. It’s a vampire movie spoken entirely in sign language.
2. When some of the characters argue, they simply sign more rigorously.
3. There’s a mute hunchback. How do we know he’s mute? Because he’s got TIN CAN HANDS. Get it? Bwahahahaha.
The Sea That Thinks (De zee die denkt), a movie about the scriptwriting process of a movie about a guy who acts as the scriptwriter of a movie full of optical illusions and philosophy.
(I don’t live in the US so I can’t really win the prize, but this movie seriously deserves a place in the List)
Thanks for this reco — the trailer looks amazing!
Neil Jordan’s The Butcher Boy: It has a boy going to borstal for crapping on a neighbour’s floor, surviving a nuclear apocalypse, becoming best buds with The Virgin Mary (played by Sinead O’Connor, of all people), and killing a friend’s mother Charlie Manson-style, and yet, for whatever reason, despite being a List Candidate, it seems to be a low priority for consideration.
Coonskin. Ralph Bakshi’s ‘Song of the South’ by way of 70’s black and trans street gangs working through the racial and sexual hangups of the decade through brutal cartoon violent, musical numbers, and Barry White as a naked brown bear who gets dragged to the alter by his penis.
I think Deanimated should make the list. Pioneer avant-garde artist, Martin Arnold, appropriates and repurposes one of Bela Lugosi’s old poverty row thrillers (“The Invisible Ghost”) by taking the film and editing out certain extraneous scenes, but more importantly, he slowly removes expository dialogue (actually, pretty much all the dialogue — digitally altering mouth movement), leaving only cursory greetings and acknowledgements, before gradually digitally removing entire characters, one by one, until the final act of the film is the house itself sans characters — but retaining musical cues, empty rooms and camera pans to nowhere, and elements of a plot that is no longer apparent: a disorienting treatment that radically enhances both the film’s atmosphere and the surprising directorial flourishes that may not originally have been quite so apparent.
I recommend Alain Renais’ sci-fi film ‘Je T’aime, Je T’aime ‘/ ‘I Love You, I Love You’ ..it’s now finally out on Blu-ray from Kino Classics. It’s definitely a weird, but excellent movie. Here’s the synopsis: Je t’aime Je t’aime is a haunting tale of romantic obsession and time travel, a traumatic break-up caught in an endless loop. It is science fiction as only Alain Resnais (Last Year at Marienbad) could have made. Claude Ridder (Claude Rich) is recovering from a failed suicide attempt after the collapse of his relationship with Catrine (Olga Georges-Picot). He is approached by an obscure scientific lab, who wants him to participate in the human trials of a new time travel device. The test will send him back one year’s time, for one minute. But the machine goes haywire, and Ridder gets caught in a never-ending series of temporal leaps, re-living his tragic life out of sequence. His past is a nightmare he is trying to escape, and the only exit might be his own death.
This sure was a hard contest to judge. Actually, almost anyone could have won. Fortunately we were able to exclude a couple of non-US entries and some people who didn’t observe the one-sentence rule, or this could have gotten really out of hand. The winners are:
1. Justin Gans for his suggestion of “Oldboy.”
2. Sean for his suggestion of “Coonskin.”
We’ll be in contact with the winners. Thanks to everyone who participated!