With the play-in round completed, it’s time to launch into the tournament proper: 256 weird movies go in, one emerges as the readers’ all-time favorite.
You can see the complete bracket here: https://challonge.com/tsut4018
Because of the large number of contestants in this first round, we’ll be staggering the voting, with half of them appearing today, and half tomorrow.
There are already some brutal match-ups in the first round (all of them were determined by the seeding formula, without editorial interference). Some good, weird movies are destined to die early. (We hope that’s a testament to how many great movies we’ve collected.) A couple of matches we’ll be curious to see the outcome of: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World vs. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory the character-in-the-title whimsy death match; Mandy vs. Santa Sangre, a killer contest; and Altered States vs. Repo Man, an 80s punks vs. hippies proxy.
So get to voting! You may vote once per day. This half of the bracket closes at midnight EST on March 12. Voting on the other side of the bracket will begin tomorrow and last until the 13th.
Part 1 of this round is in the books!
You can see the complete tournament results here: https://challonge.com/tsut4018
Based on this round’s results, The Holy Mountain looks like an early favorite to get to at least the Final 4.
Biggest upset: Dr. Caligari (1989) over Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion. We’ll always wonder how many people actually thought they were voting for The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.
Closest match: Repo Man beat Altered States by a mere two votes.
Generally, the higher seeds won, validating our seeding formula.
Also, some people had expressed the fear that the more widely-seen movie would always win. Fortunately, that did not seem to be the case as our records indicate Willy Wonka, 3 Women, Valerie and Her Week of Wonders, Santa Sangre, The Company of Wolves, Belladonna of Sadness and “Street of Crocodiles” all had a lower number of total IMDB votes than the movies they beat. You guys know your obscure movies!