Guest Reviews

CAPSULE: THE HOUSE WITH LAUGHING WINDOWS [LA CASA DALLE FINISTRE CHE RIDONO] (1976)

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AKA The House of the Laughing Windows

DIRECTED BY: Pupi Avati

FEATURING: Lino Capolicchio, Francesca Marciano, Gianni Cavina, Giulio Pizzirani, Tonino Corazzari

PLOT: An art historian becomes embroiled in a sick mystery when he arrives in a rural village to restore a religious painting.

Still from The House With Laughing Windows (1976)

WHY IT WON’T MAKE THE LIST:  Giallo films always tend to be a little bent when compared to U.S. horror movies.  Despite the strange characters, unsettling tone and death-fetish subject matter, La casa dalle finestre che ridono is not weird by Euro-thriller standards.  In fact, it plays out like a conventional mystery,

COMMENTS:  Producers of Italian Euro-thrillers have rarely constrained themselves by strictly adhering to regimented structure, timing and consistency.  La casa dalle finestre che ridono, aka The House With Laughing Windows, like Suspiria or Baba Yaga is an exception.  It retains the feel of a giallo film, yet stands up to conventional Hollywood standards.  This makes it a candidate for conventional thriller audiences.  The House With Laughing Windows is more of a mystery than a horror movie, yet still qualifies for the “shocker” designation.  As a puzzler, it is not exactly up to Agatha Christie standards of construction, but what it lacks in precision, it makes up for in color and atmosphere.  There are a couple of slow spots, but overall this gory film demands attention with its curious plot, steady, brooding pace, and consistently suspenseful, creepy feel.

Stefano (Capolicchio) is an art historian and restoration specialist who is summoned to an eerie parish to complete a long unfinished fresco in an equally eerie church.  The painting was supposedly never completed, but closer examination reveals that certain parts were intentionally obfuscated by being painted over.  The seeds of Stefano’s undoing lie in his urge to uncover what lies beneath.

The grim fresco depicts the violent torture death of Saint Sebastiano.  It is the work of Continue reading CAPSULE: THE HOUSE WITH LAUGHING WINDOWS [LA CASA DALLE FINISTRE CHE RIDONO] (1976) →

Capsules

CAPSULE: MEMENTO (2000)

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Must See

DIRECTED BY: Christopher Nolan

FEATURING: , ,

PLOT:  A man suffering from an inability to form short term memories hunts for his wife’s murderer, relying on notes he leaves himself and important facts he tattoos on his body.

Still from Memento (2000)
WHY IT WON’T MAKE THE LIST:  It isn’t weird.  Other than the unconventional narrative structure, Memento could even be viewed as a bit of hardcore realism.   But it is easy to see why lovers of the weird are attracted to it; the cloudy mystery that attaches to the story and its central cipher doesn’t lift until the very end, creating a disorientation that feels subjectively weird even though the story is actually firmly grounded in reality.

COMMENTS: Here, I’ll make it easy for you with this paragraph.  To appreciate just how intricately Memento is constructed, and how big of an accomplishment the movie is, try reading the sentences in a story or essay backwards, from the last to the first, and see how much sense they make and how satisfying the experience is.  This time, it’s executed flawlessly.  The movie is epistemologically pessimistic, but artistically invigorating; it’s one of those rare, unique plot hooks that come around once or twice a decade, and you can only hope the filmmakers don’t compromise and do invest the extra work required to pull it off.  It’s a simple concept but far more than a gimmick; the inversion of cause and effect works wonders.  Nothing distracts our attention from trying to unravel the puzzle.  The direction and the performances by the three principals are professionally transparent; the script is the star, as it should be in a mystery.  Leonard insists that memory is faulty, eye witness testimony is unreliable, and that the only thing he can depend on is facts—the notes he inks indelibly on his own body—but as the story works its way from the conclusion to the origin, we start to suspect that there may be nothing that we can accept at face value.  It quickly becomes apparent that it would be Continue reading CAPSULE: MEMENTO (2000) →

Miscellanea

WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE

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Readers, don’t forget, there’s still a little time left to enter the June review-writing contest for a chance to win DVDs of Frankensteins Bloody Nightmare and Burning Inside. We have 4 entries total so far, 2 of which have already been published, so those odds aren’t too bad. Details here.

Reviews scheduled to appear on the site next week: Pamela de Graff is back after a short hiatus to give us the lowdown on the 1976 giallo The House with Laughing Windows.  We’ll get back to tackling the reader-suggested review queue with a discussion of Christopher Nolan’s groundbreaking thriller Memento. And we’ll be giving our old, outdated review of the undeservedly obscure Elevator Movie a complete makeover (and a promotion).

It was a good week for weird search terms used to locate the site. The usual perverts passed through looking for “sexo in Arkansas” and “whors of Mexico.” And we have to appreciate the person who was searching for “366 Weird Movies Academy,” though the request was a litte premature: the Academy isn’t scheduled to open until 2012. Our favorite search term of the week, however, describes an unknown movie we’d love to see: “video of a bunny running and getting talking weird but at the he hits himself.’

But we have to comment on a disturbing trend: more and more people seem to be searching for “strange movies” (we even noticed someone looking for “366 Strange Movies”). Guys, it’s weird movies, not strange movies. There’s no such genre as “strange movies.” Don’t be afraid to go all the way to weird!

Here’s the ever-growing reader-suggested review queue: Trash Humpers (we’re waiting for the DVD release); Memento (coming next week); Kwaidan; Six-String Samurai; Andy Warhol’s Trash; Altered States; Nightmare Before Christmas/Vincent/Frankenweenie; The Science of Sleep; The Attic Expeditions; After Last Season; Getting Any?; Performance; Being John Malkovich; The Apple; Southland Tales; Arizona Dream; Spider (2002); Songs From The Second Floor; Singapore Sling; Alice [Neco z Alenky]; Necromentia; Hour of the Wolf; MirrorMask; Possession; Suspiria; Mary and Max; Wild Zero; 4; Nothing (2003); The Peanut Butter Solution; Ninja Scroll; Perfume: The Story of a Murderer; Danger: Diabolik; Faust; Sublime; Battle Royale; Pink Floyd: The Wall; Escanaba In Da Moonlight; Jesus Christ, Vampire Hunter; Zardoz; The Films of Suzan Pitt; Toto the Hero [Toto le Héros]; Paprika; The Holy Mountain; Brazil; The Casserole Masters; Dark Crystal; Throw Away Your Books, Rally in the Streets; The Nines; 964 Pinocchio; The Pillow Book; Final Flesh; Lunacy [Sílení]; Inmortel; Tetsuo; Dead Ringers; Kairo [AKA Pulse]; The Guatemalan Handshake; Dead Leaves; The Seventh Seal; Primer; Maniac (1934); Hausu; A Boy and His Dog; 200 Motels; Walkabout; Private Parts (1972); Saddest Music in the World; Mulholland Drive; The American Astronaut; Blood Tea and Red Strings; The Films of Kenneth Anger, Vol. II (for Lucifer Rising, among others); Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory ; The Bride of Frank; La Grande Bouffe; Uzumaki [Spiral]; Hedwig and the Angry Inch; Even Dwarves Started Small; Bunny & the Bull; “I Killed My Lesbian Wife, Hung Her on a Meat Hook, and Now I Have a Three-Picture Deal at Disney” (assuming I can find it); Cinema 16: European Short Films; Freaked; Session 9; Schizopolis; Strings; Dellamorte Dellamore [AKA Cemetery Man]; The Hour-glass Sanatorium [Saanatorium pod klepsidra]; The Addiction; Liquid Sky; The Quiet; Shock Treatment; Tuvalu; “Zombie Jesus” (if we can locate it); 3 Dev Adam; Fantastic Planet; “Twin Peaks” (TV series); Society; May; The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension; Little Otik; Final Programme; Careful; Sweet Movie; The Triplets of Belleville; “Foutaises” (short); Johnny Suede; “Jam” (TV, UK, 2000), The Tale of the Floating World, Un Chien Andalou, Bloodsucking Freaks; Fellini Satyricon; Three Crowns of the Sailor; 8 1/2; Death Race 2000; Dororo; Lost Highway; Valerie and Her Week of Wonders; Dogville; and Julien Donkey-boy; Amelie; The Ten; The 7 Faces of Dr. Lao; 1; Fast, Cheap and Out of Control; Tokyo Gore Police; At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul; The Trial [Le procès) (1962); Marquis; Hell Comes to Frogtown; Hellzapoppin’; Seom [The Isle]; Allegro Non Troppo; Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus; Lust in the Dust; Celine and Julie Go Boating; “Franz Kafka’s It’s a Wonderful Life;” The Magic Christian; Black Cat, White Cat; The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T; Abnormal: The Sinema of Nick Zedd; Robot Monster; Nightdreams; 3 Women; Rubin & Ed; Teeth; Vera; Funny Games; Weirdsville; Prospero’s Books; Inferno; Garden State; Persona; and The Real McCoy.

Miscellanea

WEIRD HORIZON FOR THE WEEK OF 6/18/2010

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A look at what’s weird in theaters, on hot-off-the-presses DVDs, and on more distant horizons…

Trailers of new release movies are generally available on the official site links.

IN THEATERS (WIDE RELEASE):

Jonah Hex (2010): Possibly the weirdest looking summer blockbuster (with the exception of Christoper Nolan’s Inception), this adaptation of a relatively obscure DC comics mixes the western and fantasy genres with action movie cliches.  The fact that certain sequences in the trailer look to be inspired by Django (and even Jodorowsky) is a plus, lack of buzz and no advance screenings combine to make a big minus. With Josh Brolin, John Malkovich, and ubiquitous eye candy Megan Fox.  A long shot for weirdness, but the summer doldrums are upon us. Jonah Hex official site.

NEW ON DVD:

Mary and Max (2009): This Australian claymation release about an unlikely online friendship between an eight-year old goth girl in Melbourne and a friendless middle-aged New Yorker with Asperger’s syndrome is currently languishing in our reader-suggested review queue. This DVD release helps its reviewability. Buy Mary and Max.

Mystery Train (1989):  This anthology of three short films set in Memphis is not particularly weird, though Elvis’ ghost does appear.  This Criterion Collection release is notable for Jim Jarmusch completists, however. Buy Mystery Train (Criterion Collection).

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

Mary and Max (2009): See entry in DVD above. Buy Mary and Max [Blu-ray].

Mystery Train (1989): See entry in DVD above. Buy Mystery Train (Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray].

NEW ON ITUNES:

Burning Inside (2010): Read our capsule review.  Priced at $4.99.  We’re not going to be tracking everything that’s released on ITunes, at least not until this format gets a much larger market share, but it is interesting to note this new distribution avenue for independent films. Buy Burning Inside at Itunes.

FREE (LEGITIMATE RELEASE) MOVIES ON YOUTUBE:

Samurai Princess (2009):  Another Japanese splatterpunk fantasy in the Meatball Machine vein.  In a weird mythical fantasy forest fusing feudal elements with modern anachronisms, a rape victim is turned into a “mecha” and infused with the eleven souls of her fellow victims to seek revenge.  A review of this one has been pending for quite a while (it’s also available on Netflix streaming, where I saw it); it’s not great, but fans of the genre will get the weird gore they’re looking for.   Shocked to see this show up on YouTube.  Watch Samurai Princess free on YouTube.

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.

Celebrating the cinematically surreal, bizarre, cult, oddball, fantastique, strange, psychedelic, and the just plain WEIRD!