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Quick links/Discussed in this episode:

WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE:

The Birthday (2004): Corey Feldman (!) stars in this overlooked indie about a man who sneaks into a birthday party where a cult is also making preparations for the end of the world. Alamo Drafthouse restored it and is releasing it to select theaters, but more significantly, it’s now available on VOD. The Birthday official site.

Blonde on a Bum Trip (1968): A blonde chemistry student is manipulated into manufacturing (and indulging in) LSD. This reputedly incoherent drug scare sexploitationer has been surprisingly hard to find on video in the post-VHS era; Vinegar Syndrome and Something Weird put it out on Blu-ray. Buy Blonde on a Bum Trip.

Dogra Magra (1988): A man awakes in a mental asylum with no memory and is informed he killed his wife on his wedding night. Toshio Matsumoto‘s final film was an adaptation of an “unfilmable” novel; a commentator once suggested the film is like a Japanese mashup of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari with Last Year at Marienbad. This is the film’s North American debut, on Blu-ray from the good folks at Radiance. Buy Dogra Magra.

The Other Laurens [L’autre Laurens] (2023): The official plot description reads, “A private detective [is] forced to face the ghosts of his past when his niece asks him to investigate her father’s death.” Sounds conventional, yet it catches our attention because Yellow Veil is releasing it, and one reviewer called it “Lynchian” and “a strange film” while The Hollywood Reporter referred to “bits of dark comedy and weirdness.” Previously on VOD, now on Blu-ray with director and crew commentary and a bonus short film. Buy The Other Laurens.

Shanks (1974): Read the Canonically Weird entry! William Castle‘s last movie, featuring Marcel Marceau as a mute puppeteer who controls corpses with a remote control, was his strangest. Vinegar Syndrome puts it out in an limited 4K UHD+Blu edition with a commentary track (by critic/historians Kim Newman and Barry Forshaw), new and archival interviews, a video essay, and a hardbound book of stills and essays. Available exclusively from Vinegar Syndrome.

The Substance (2024): Read Gregory J. Smalley’s Apocrypha Candidate review. This bizarro beauty satire was a surprise hit in theaters and with critics, despite its wacko third act. It streams exclusively on Mubi (subscription required) starting this week, with other venues sure to follow. Also showing exclusively on Mubi: “Four Unloved Women, Adrift on a Purposeless Sea, Experience the Ecstasy of Dissection,” a new short from David Cronenberg that features Renaissance sculpture. Watch The Substance on Mubi.

WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE:

We might have surprise guest(s) on next week’s Pod 366, but regardless, we will keep you up to date on the week’s weird news and releases. In written content, Shane Wilson takes on another that Came from the Reader-Suggested Queue as he ventures into The Killing Room (2009); Giles Edwards drills into Australia’s Petrol (2022); and Gregory J. Smalley takes on Bertrand Bonello’s not-a-remake sci-fantasy The Beast (2023). Onward and weirdward!