Please do not ask “what was that movie?” questions on this page. We set up an entire site here to answer those questions. This page is for suggesting movies to be reviewed.
Know a weird movie? Something strange that glued you to the screen with awe, amazement or reverence, while your more mundane minded friends left the room (or theater) in boredom, confusion or disgust? A movie whose omission from a list of the 366 weirdest movies of all time would offend you on a personal level? Something even I haven’t heard of or considered? There are potentially thousands of forgotten films, critically dismissed films, foreign or independent films that never got a proper release, or misplaced oddities hiding out there that may deserve a place at the table. One man can’t be expected to track them all down. Here is the place to mention those treasured curios that no one else seems to have even heard of. Nominate a movie in the suggestion box and I’ll move it up on my review queue, or at the very least, explain why I’m not going to review it.
NOTICE: The “Suggest of Weird Movie!” feature has become a victim of its own success. At the time of this update, we have about 250 reader suggestions (!) in queue. (More than that since I last updated the page)! Since we can only do 1 or maybe 2 reviews a week, be aware there may be a huge delay—currently, possibly over a year!—between the time you make a suggestion and the point at which it’s actually reviewed. I considered shutting down the suggestion box as of 2011, but I decided to let you keep your suggestions coming (if nothing else, it tells us what types of movies readers are interested in seeing reviews of). Just be aware that when you make a suggestion, it may not receive the promptest of attention. The best you can really hope for at this point is to bring something to our attention that we might have overlooked. (Also note that although we prioritize the earliest nominations later suggestions may get reviewed before earlier ones if they receive a re-release on DVD or Blu-ray, or interest us for our own inscrutable reasons).
If you can’t wait for one of our staff to review your movie, why not review it yourself and submit it to us via the contact form? We can’t swear we’ll publish every submission we receive, but we want reader participation and we are fairly liberal.
All serious suggestions will receive a response, as well as all most non-serious ones.
Here’s the review queue of reader suggestions that have yet to be reviewed, in alphabetical order. You can always see this list ordered according to intended order of publication in the weekly “What’s in the Pipeline” column (published on Sundays).
Be aware that, given the number of titles here, there will be a (long and ever-growing ) delay between suggesting a title and its eventual review.
1 (2009); 1Day; 3 Dev Adam; 3 Women; The 7 Faces of Dr. Lao; 8 1/2; 2001: A Space Odyssey; 2012 Aficionado DVD Zine Issue #0; The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T; Abnormal: The Sinema of Nick Zedd; The Adventures of Baron Munchausen; The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension; The Adventures of Mark Twain; The Adventures of Picasso; L’Âge d’or; Aguirre, the Wrath of God; Air Doll; Akira; Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams; Allegro Non Troppo; Alphaville; Amazon Women on the Moon; Amelie; Amanece, que no es poco; The American Astronaut; L’Ange; Angelus; Anguish [Angustia]; The Annunciation; Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters; Arrebato; At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul; The Atrocity Exhibition; Audition; Avida; Bad Taste; Barbarella; Battle in Heaven; Beauty and the Beast (1978); Bernie (depending on availability); Big River Man; Black Cat, White Cat; Black Devil Doll ; Bliss; Bloodsucking Freaks; Blood Tea and Red Strings; Blue (1993, Jarman); Blue Velvet; The Bothersome Man; The Boxer’s Omen [aka Mo]; Brain Damage; Brain Dead (1990, d. Adam Simon); The Brave Little Toaster; The Bride of Frank; Britannia Hospital; “Broken Glass”; Bubba Ho-Tep; Buddy Boy (1999); Buffalo ’66; Buffet Froid; Bunny & the Bull; Cafe Flesh; Candy (1968); Careful; The Cars That Ate Paris; Cat Soup; Celine and Julie Go Boating; The Cell; “Charleston Parade”; Charly: Dias de Sangre; Un Chien Andalou; Chingsao the Clown; Christmas on Mars; Chronopolis; La cicatrice intérieure; Cinema 16: European Short Films; Clean, Shaven; Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs; Color of Pomegranates; Conspirators of Pleasure; The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover; Coonskin; Crash (Cronenberg); La Cravate; Crimewave; Cutie Honey; Dark Arc; Dark Waters; Daisies; Dark City; Decasia; Dellamorte Dellamore [AKA Cemetery Man]; The Devils; Dogville; La Dolce Vita; The Doom Generation; Dororo; The Double Life of Veronique; The Drifting Classroom; Drowning by Numbers; Electric Dragon 80,000 V; Even Dwarves Started Small; Evil Ed; Executive Koala; Eyes Wide Shut; The Fall; The Falls; Fando y Lis; Fantastic Planet; Fast, Cheap and Out of Control; Felidae; Fellini Satyricon; Fido; The Films of Kenneth Anger, Vol. II (for Lucifer Rising, among others); Final Programme; Finisterrae; Forbidden Zone; The Fountain; “Foutaises” (short); The Fox Family; “Franz Kafka’s It’s a Wonderful Life;” Freaked; From Beyond; Fudge 44; Funeral Parade of Roses; Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus; Gahjini; Gainsbourg (Vie héroïque); Garden State (official review); Genius Party; Glen or Glenda?; The Godmonster of Indian Flats; Goke, Body Snatcher From Hell; Goodbye Uncle Tom; La Grande Bouffe; Grendel Grendel Grendel; Haggard; Hair Extensions; Hard Candy; Head; Heart of Glass; Hedwig and the Angry Inch; Hell Comes to Frogtown; Horror Express; The Hour-glass Sanatorium [Saanatorium pod klepsidra]; I Am Here Now; ID; The Idiots; I [Heart] Huckabees; “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); The Illustrated Man; Innocence (2004); I Will Walk Like a Crazy Horse; Jack and the Beanstalk (1974, Japan); Johnny Suede; Julien Donkey-boy; Kairo [AKA Pulse]; Killdozer; Killer Condom; Labyrinth; La Razon de Mi Vida; The Last Days of Planet Earth; The Last Sunset; Last Year in Marienbad; Leolo; Liquid Sky (re-review); Litan; Little Deaths; Little Otik; Lost Highway; Love Me If You Dare; Lovers on the Bridge; Lust in the Dust; Mad Detective; The Magic Christian; Marquis; Master of the Flying Guillotine; May; Me and You and Everyone We Know; Meet the Feebles; Meet the Hollowheads; Mermaid in a Manhole; Metropia; Midnight Skater; Moebius (1996);p Monty Python and the Holy Grail; Mr. Nobody; Mulholland Drive; Multiple Maniacs; Murder Party; Mutant Aliens; My Dinner with Andre; Natural Born Killers; The Neverending Story; Nightdreams; Night of the Hunter; The Ninth Configuration; Noroi; Northfork; No Smoking; Nuit Noire; One Eyed Monster; On the Silver Globe; Orpheus; The Ossuary; Parents; Perfect Blue; Persona; Phantasm IV; Piano Tuner of Earthquakes; Picnic at Hanging Rock; Pink Flamingos; The Pit; Portrait of Jennie; “Premium” (if it can be found); Primer; Private Parts (1972); Prospero’s Books; The Quiet; The Quiet Earth; Rampo Noir; Rat Pfink a Boo Boo; The Real McCoy; Reflections of Evil; Repo Man; Revolver; Robo-Geisha; Robot Monster; The Room; Rubber’s Lover; Rubin & Ed; The Ruling Class; Run Lola Run; Russian Ark; The Saddest Music in the World; Safe; The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea; Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom; Santa Claus(1959); The Saragossa Manuscript; Savages; Save the Green Planet; A Scanner Darkly; Schizopolis; Schramm; Screamplay; The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb; Seom [The Isle]; A Serbian Film; “Serial Experiments: Lain” (TV show); Session 9; Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band; The Shape of Things; Sheitan; Shock Treatment; The Shout; The Signal; Sir Henry at Rawlinson End; Skeletons; Slacker; SLC Punk; Sleepaway Camp ; A Snake of June; Society (official review); Spermula; Spirited Away; Spirits of the Air, Gremlins of the Clouds; Strange Circus; Strings; Stroszek; Suicide Club (re-review); Svidd neger (depending on availability); Sweet Movie; Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song; Symbol; The Tale of the Floating World; Tales from the Quadead Zone; Tampopo; Tank Girl; The Taste of Tea; Teeth; The Ten; The Tenant; La Teta y La Luna; Themroc; Things; This Filthy Earth; Three Crowns of the Sailor; Thundercrack!; Time Masters; Titicut Follies; Der Todersking; Tokyo Gore Police; Tommy; Tourist Trap (1979); The Trial [Le procès] (1962); The Triplets of Belleville; “Turkish Star Wars” [Dunyayi Kurtaran Adam]; Tuvalu; “Twin Peaks” (TV series); Twister (1989); Uncle Meat; Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (official review); Vera; Vermillion Souls; Videodrome; Visitor of a Museum [Posetitel muzeya]; Waiting for Godot; The War Zone; Watership Down; Weekend; Weirdsville; Wicked City (1992 live-action version); Wild at Heart; Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory; Wool 100%; Yesterday Was a Lie; Yokai Monsters, Vol. 1: Spook Warfare [AKA Big Monster War]; Zachariah; A Zed and Two Noughts; “Zombie Jesus” (if we can locate it).
Hi
I got to see more of the list and i dont think a lot of these Films i posted were on it but i saw ‘Aftermath’ and ‘August Underground’ recently and they blew me away (In different ways) ie August underground Much Much Much worse than ‘Salo’,’The men behind the sun’,’Guinea pig’,’cannibal holocaust/Ferox’ etc and if Charlie Sheen saw this he would have a heart attack and the two sequels only get worse (That much i dont know if i could watch the 3rd one and i have seen the S.P.K film Internal bleeding) and then to ‘Aftermath’ ?!?!? i dont know where to start but it is the opposite to ‘August underground’ in that it is i think a ArtHouse Short that makes ‘nekromantik’ look like ‘Bambi’ Seriously the weirdest Sickest but well made movie i have ever seen and i think i have scraped every barrell but its to well made? Forget all the faces of death rubbish And Hard to see autopsia and it even sticks its tongue out to not only the italians and americans but it also sticks its rotten fingers up to the geman and the Japanese for being strong contenders for making the weirdest sickest thing i have ever saw Be carefull If you think this is like ‘Guinea pig’ or ‘A serbian film’ because this is gonna make you feel ill!!!! and remember no one lend these two movies to Charlie Sheen or you will probably get the FBI knocking on your door.
Sorry for being absent from the suggestion thread for a while.
Wormhead: Yeah, it’s pretty obvious that, with Time Bandits and Brazil already on the List, we need to cover the third part of the unofficial trilogy as well. The Adventures of Baron Muchausen goes in the queue.
Regicide: Well, if you read our review of Nekromantik (which is weird, I’ll grant), you’ve seen that we’re not really going for “sick/extreme” here, but—well, weird. If it’s weird and disturbing that’s one thing, but if it’s just a sadistic mock snuff films it won’t qualify. Still, on your long initial list there were a number of films that are worth covering, the most important being L’Âge d’or (a classic I’m surprised hasn’t been nominated yet). That one goes in the queue.
Hey
Yeah, i think you need to put in Breakfast of Champions, it’s the movie made based on the Vonnegut book. it’s one of my absolute favs. i think it needs to be on the list.
Hi
G. Smalley
I kinda understand but cant agree in the just ‘sadistic mock snuff films’ and it is difficult to
to define ‘WEIRD’ but i think Dali and Bunel sliced eyeball ala An Andalusian Dog loses its Shock When there are Teenagers growing up with REAL Decapitations on there mobile phones and the Viennese Actionists Taking the Dadaist and Situationist Art performance to the most Extreme and S.P.Ks ‘Despair’ being seen the same night as “Army Medicine in Vietnam” and you know I like Priests turning to Skeletons and Armpits turning to Sea urchins like the next Weirdo but i think things can loose there sting hence people dont riot every time they see a ballet by Stravinsky?
Anyway thanx for putting in L’Âge d’or but talking about ballet well dance about my fave film ever Maya Deren’s ‘Meshes of the afternoon’ Classic avant-garde. Deren was also a choreographer, dancer, poet, writer and photographer and she wrote a cracking book on Voodo too.
This is interesting, but off topic, Regicide. Most of your comments address the idea of the”shocking” rather than the “weird.” Although the definition of “weird” is somewhat open-ended and subjective, and “weird” and “shocking” often overlap, the two are not synonyms. I think the thesaurus will back me up on this.
Someday I hope to compose an essay about the relationship between the weird and the shocking in cinema for this site.
Hi kris, I agree Breakfast of Champions deserves a look. Most Kurt Vonnegut fans seem to hate it but we’ll try to keep an open mind.
Welcome to the dollhouse
hevenly creatures
repo man
freeway / freeway 2 confessions of a trick baby
octane
cigarette burns
vampires kiss
mulholland drive
opium diary of a mad woman
may
secretary
teeth
happyness
palindromes
punch drunk love
lawn dogs
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes
in dreams
arizona dream
salo 120 days of sodom
A very nice list there, becca. I’ll point out that we’ve already covered Arizona Dream, and that Repo Man, May, Salo and Mulholland Drive are currently in the review queue (we’ll do Mulholland, at least, before the year is out). Ordinarily I would take the first title off your list and put it in queue, but I’m enamored with your second choice (and while we like Todd Solondz, we find him a little too mainstream for our tastes—we’re guessing we’re the only ones raising that complaint.) So, I am putting Heavenly Creatures into the queue for you.
What about “Vase de Noces”? Man, it’s one the most f-ing bizarre movies out there.
Well, I’ve dodged the assignment to review Vase de Noces [AKA The Wedding Trough, AKA The Pig F___ing Movie] as long as I could. I’ll put it in the queue, but I’ll admit I’m not looking forward to it.
I would like to suggest “Sweet Movie” by Dušan Makavejev from 1971.
Good suggestion, Mirko, but someone beat you to it; it’s already in our review queue.
Dear 366 Weird,
Wow! What a great website filled with insightful smart reviews and extensive data on that rare and subjective genre of film, the weird. Most everything I would suggest is already in your que or on your site so I’ll just give a couple ideas from the top of my cranium.
1.) Lucky- a film written by Saturday morning cartoonists about a cartoonist who becomes a serial killer after befriending a talking dog. On paper it looks like standard cheapo horror comedy fare but in actuality it’s an immensely flawed and disturbing little film that sits with you long after viewing.
2.) The Applegates- Weird un-family friendly family comedy about amazonian roaches with 50’s Cleaver values by the director of Heathers. It’s gross 80’s at it’s weird appex and wrong on many levels.
Speaking of Heathers, is Heather on your list? Heathers should maybe be on your list.
Also I’m glad The Boxer’s Omen is on your list but get to it! That is a seriously strage piece of cinema and is as indulgent and eye-popping as The Holy Mountain.
Hi Jasper, no need to be formal, you can just call me 366. I will take your first suggestion, Lucky, and add it to the queue. As for as Heathers goes, I love it and think most people around here would too, but its only marginally “weird” to my mind. You can see the order of the reader-suggested review queue here—The Boxer’s Omen is pretty far down the list. But there are lots of wonderfully weird movies to cover before we get there; enjoy the journey!
Since no one has done so yet(and I would like to attempt to reach first with this suggestion) I would like to nominate Ichi The Killer. Despite its infamy as a rather disturbing and depraved work, this is clearly one of Miike’s best, and most memorable. Pretty weird, more leaning on subtle absurdity, but when he goes for it, he can deliver some really great black comic intellect to his delivery. Not to mention the sheer demented uniqueness that populate the film. A real great set of manipulative oddballs and mysterious personas, all woven in a strongly thematic setting. Also, it seems that its hard not to mention a movie where Shinya Tsukamoto revels himself to be a bloodthirsty bulk of freakish muscle(totally awesome scene).
Yep, almost all of Miike’s films deserve consideration. Ichi the Killer belongs in the queue.
A definate contender for the list is the 2007 Argentinian film “La Antena”. German expressionism, baby.
Is “Mystics in Bali” already in the queue? You’ll have nightmares about creepy flying intestines after watch this freaky/bizarre indonesian movie.
Morgan: wow, thanks for that, we missed La antena. Not only is it a tribute to Expressionism, it features a villain named “Mr. TV” and the characters apparently speak in comic book bubbles. Of course it’s not on DVD in Region 1 yet, which may help explain why I never noticed it. Will add to the queue and hope its widely available by the time we get there.
Wormhead: Mystics in Bali is not in the queue and it’s something I’ve always wanted to check out (along with a few other Indonesian movies). I’ll add it too.
Sorry, but I have to list one more. The 1982 Hungarian animated film “Feherlofia” aka “The Son of the White Mare”. People can talk all they want on why they think the director was on “acid” but at first glance, you’d swear the entire movie was designed and colored by Franz Marc. Expressionism, Cubism, Futurism, Folklore, Symbolism, Numerology and Mythology. This is what this film is made from.
Hi
Great site, havent seen these on the list, apologies if I’ve missed them:
Versus – Japanese gangster, zombie, martial arts, apocalypse movie. Mind blowing
And if I can have a 2nd choice – the Thai film Tears of a Black Tiger
Oh, and an endorsement for The Cemetery Man in your list above – if that doesn’t make the list there ain’t no justice.
Martin
Morgan: Feherlofia sounds great. Of course, as usual, when something I’ve never heard of sounds great, it turns out it’s never been released on DVD, has never been officially translated into English, and so on. I will put it in queue anyway.
Martin: No one has suggested Versus yet. I’ll put it in queue. And you can suggest as many titles as you like, just not at one time—let someone else have a turn before recommending your next movie. As far as Cemetery Man goes, you’ll just have to wait to find out if it makes the List—the only question is, do you trust our judgement?
NACHO CERDA THE AWAKENING+AFTERMATH+GENESIS ?!?
‘August underground’,’Guts of a beauty’,’Wife to be sacrificed’,’killing melody’,’Horrors of malformed men’,’Wet and rope’,’Porn of the dead’,’Porn holocaust’,’mad foxes’,”The men behind the sun’,’Meshes of the afternoon,’,Pull my daisy’,’Bruce lee vs gay pride’,’The cheese mites’,’Splatter:naked blood’,’Guinea pig’,’Ebola syndrome etc
Hi again Regicide, as you have guessed, I’m going to take “Meshes of the Afternoon” from that list. If you post the list again, I already have my next favorite picked out… in regards to the Cerda movies, I thought “Aftermath” was not at all weird and actually pretty boring, but the other two titles do intrigue me a little.
CHEERS! for ‘Meshes of the afternoon’ My fave and very much ripped off little gem!
I remember seeing it with ‘pull my daisy’ and Martin Scorsese ‘The Big Shave’ and ‘un chien andalou’ all together in the same life changing night when i was a teen.
I dont know if its on your list yet but I suggest a french film, La pianiste. Its directed by Michael Haneke. Starring Isabelle Huppert, who plays Erika Kohut, a woman in her late thirties and a piano teacher at the Vienna Conservatory. She lives with her mother in an isolated obsessive compulsive world of dependency and sexual disarray. Her sex life consists of voyeurism and masochistic self-injury. Then one of Erika’s pupils takes a liking to her.
Hi Steven: no, we have not covered The Piano Teacher [La pianaste] and it’s not in the queue either. I’m not so sure about its weirdness, but we have covered other Haneke movies, so it fits in well enough, We’ll give it a shot.
Have you seen it ?
Not yet, I have only read the plot synopsis. I take your word for it that it’s worth checking out.
O dear the pressure is on, now it better be good. This is not the weirdest film I have ever seen and it might be to subtle in his weirdness to be on the list but it’s an odd little movie and I do think it’s worth your time. Please let me know what think after seeing it.
Here comes a movie that nobody have suggested before:
“Un Perro Llamado Dolor” (la traducción sería “A Dog Called Pain”), it’s an animated spanish film in white n’ black.
I’m not sure if it has already been mentioned, but can I suggest the 1969 film The Bed Sitting Room ?
Oh, and also, how about the 1985 film Return to Oz. I know that the original didn’t make the list, but I’ve seen no mention of the “sequel”.
Wormhead: Of course, A Dog Called Pain doesn’t seem to be on DVD anywhere, but I can add it to the queue and worry about availability when the time comes.
Artaud: The Bed Sitting Room doesn’t show up in the queue, though I could almost swear someone mentioned it before. I will add it. Return to Oz is one that would be worthwhile as well; I only take one suggestion at a time per reader, so feel free to come back later and suggest it later.
Wow, I’m realizing that searching for “deep,” “thought provoking,” or “challenging” movies has been my mistake for the last 2 years and that the general public are going to dismiss the really difficult films as just weird. I’m sick of all those typical dumb ass lists too. I’m really glad I found this site.
I’m glad Audition is on there. I think it qualifies as weird and not just shocking. I originally thought all the imagery had no meaning to it, but it does. Any film that actually freaks Rob Zombie out should work. Art Horror done right, unlike Black Swan which kind of has no meaning to it other than “blind ambition creates insanity.” Satanic images don’t equal depth. I’m not really a fan of Takashi Miike either, just that one film.
I’m oddly fond of a very very flawed movie called Memento Mori (1999). It’s very similar to Donnie Darko in feel and content. Artsy Supernatural horror Lesbian Korean school girl tender coming of age story + suicide, occasional dead birds, and a constant barrage of non linear memories and hallucinations, sometimes both, as well as possession. I know that sounds horrible. The young cast’s acting is abnormally realistic than other movies featuring that crap. I think it’s ideas have been copied and cliched badly the last 10 years since though. The ending flies over a lot of heads too.Glad you put Mulholland Drive up. One of my favorites. I posted my detailed interpretation of it in the comments if anyone’s interested. Sorry if this message is too damn long.
We never dismiss films as weird. We use “weird” as the highest compliment.
I can put Memento Mori into the queue for you, but it will be a long time before we get to it.
Hi there
Recently just come to this site and I think I have a suggestion that could make the list. ‘That Deadwood Feeling’ directed by Simon Ubsdell. It’s weird on a number of levels; the story (such as it is) is a strange cycle of life imitating art imitating life, the story of a film within a film with characters who may or may not exist. Also the actual story of the filming is weird too (if the hype is to be believed). The director calls it a ghost film, as the orginal prints disappeared and so the ‘completed’ film is cobbled together from rushes and back-up film.
Very weird (in the best possible way), and I think a worthy addition to your list!
Thanks!
Interesting, Essie. Of course, That Deadwood Feeling is not on Region 1 NTSC DVD which makes it hard for us U.S. folks to catch, but I will add it to the queue nonetheless. Who knows what the situation will be when we finally get around to it?
Ah, that does make it more difficult! Thanks for adding anyway, I hope it turns up on region 1 at some point!
Thanks
At this point, all I can suggest is the 2005 movie Funky Forest: The First Contact .
Sorry, Fantomex, but we’ve already been there: Funky Forest certified weird entry.
A list of weird movies that doesn’t mention Happiness? That’s weird.
CheapSwillBill: People have mentioned Happiness before, but no one made it their primary nomination… until now. I’ll add Happiness to the queue.
Irreversible (2002) more or less a disturbing, but good movie, Let The Right One In “Låt den rätte komma in” (2008) not the remake in english…
The Cell (2000)
Meet The Feebles (1989) is a pretty awkward movie also – if you can sit through it >.<
Unless these have been mentioned… (since I was going to mention Happiness)
Oh yea and “Forbidden Zone” (1982)
^_^
I would like to suggest Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Porcile(1969), a pretty odd political allegory featuring two parallel stories: one involving a man wandering through a wasteland who becomes a cannibal, and the other about a former Nazi(who changed his entire appearance after the war to go on to be a successful German industrialist), who’s son tries to make a better relationship with “pigs”, only leading him to be eaten in a sty.
A problem I should note: The current DVD transfer this movie has is pretty atrocious, so it could be said that it would look better if it was remastered; but, I trust you can judge the film itself on its merits, instead of the unjust format treatment it appears to be stuck with.
Miss_Murder: Forbidden Zone, Meet the Feebles and The Cell are all good suggestions… and all already in the queue. Although I’m not 100% confident in the absolute weirdness of the other two you suggest, I think Let the Right One In has enough potential to deserve a review down the line.
Caleb: Good suggestion as usual. Pasolini is always interesting. Porcile [AKA Pigpen] can go in the queue.
After getting more familiar with your definition of weird I would like to retract my previous suggestion of Haneke’s La pianiste. Its a really nice film with great acting and some pretty weird moments but I doubt it’s weird enough to fit this context of weird. Ive seen that Akira and Cat Soup are in line. So I would like to suggest some other anime’s that also deserve to be on this list.
First one is Dead Leaves, totally insane animation. You will get a headache watching it. Don’t expect to get anything out of the title.
Second one is Urotsukidōji, legend of the overfiend. “The” inventor of tentacle rape. Great background story and by far the most disturbing anime I’ve ever seen that still has some substance. It comes in three parts:
“Birth of the Overfiend” (January 21, 1987)
“Curse of the Overfiend” (March 21, 1988)
“Final Inferno” (April 10, 1989).
Last but not least I want to suggest Spirited Away, I guess you could call it the Japanese version of Alice in Wonderland. In contrast to the other two this film is much more innocent in it’s weirdness. A beautiful anime. Anything by Hayao Miyazaki is worth watching but I already suggested two more than I should have. So Ill leave that for some other time or Miyazaki fan.
Whoops you already have spirited away, in that case I suggest “Howl’s Moving Castle”.
Hi Steven, as you’re finding out, at this point in the site’s existence we’ve already either hit or enqueued most of the weird films that spring immediately to mind. That goes for Dead Leaves, a real “experience” movie that we haven’t ruled on, or off, the final list yet. That one seems to divide even weird film fans.
But you are the first person to bring up the “Legend of the Overfiend” movies, and I think they are necessary to cover. So I will put the first one, Birth of the Overfiend, in queue, in place of The Piano Teacher.
If you do thn please watch with subs. This anime is notorious for having the worst dubs ever.
Lisa and the Devil –with Elke Sommer and Telly Savalas –http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_and_the_Devil
Lisa and the Devil is a good possibility, I will add it to the queue. Thanks!
I can’t believe that nobody has suggested “Django Kill” yet! Banned for decades over large parts of the world, this is the most insanely violent spaghetti western of them all. And by the way, the recent DVD version has a considerable number of previously hard-to-find scenes put back in again. Like the one where a critically injured man turns out to have been riddled with gold bullets, and every man, woman and child within earshot digs into him with penknives!
Just about every single character is insane, awkwardly gay, or both (apparently the director had to be talked out of filming a scripted scene in which the villains prove their awfulness by buggering a teenage boy until he dies). The oddly ineffectual hero (no relation to the Django played by Franco Nero – they hastily changed the title to make it into an unofficial sequel when that film was a massive hit) is crucified naked in a cage full of vampire bats. He eventually gets his own back with exploding suicide horses, which look disturbingly like real horses actually being blown apart (apparently this was in fact what happened – this was long before the days of “no animals were harmed during the making of this film”!). Elderly Apaches behave like ninjas. People do inexplicable things for no reason at all, or out of insane sexual jealousy that has nothing to do with the plot. Somebody gets his head engulfed in molten gold, And there are hedgehogs running about, which has nothing to do with anything.
Apparently the people responsible for this genuinely extraordinary film were strongly influenced by the surrealist movement. They used the unexpected profits from this film to make another one which I haven’t seen – it’s kind of obscure – but from what I’ve heard, it might also be worthy of your attention. It’s called “Death Laid An Egg”, and if that isn’t the best title ever (apart from “Faster. Pussycat – Kill! Kill!”, obviously!), I don’t know what is.
Incidentally, many published synopses of the plot of “Django Kill” are wildly inaccurate. For a very long time, it was so hard to see, especially the uncut version, that quite a few otherwise respectable film critics claimed to have seen more complete prints than anybody else, throwing in descriptions of atrocities based on hearsay or imagination, secure in the knowledge that their rivals would have great difficulty in proving them wrong.
Great suggestion Doc! I’ve been wondering if anyone was going to recommend one of Giulio Questi’s three surreal genre pics. Django Kill! goes into the queue. And I highly recommend checking out Death Laid an Egg, the giallo set at an experimental chicken farm, which I believe is available on Region 2 DVD (though not on Region 1, sadly)—we mention it here.
While Bubba Ho-tep may not be overly mystifying, it is definitely weird and highly original. I think it would fit quite nicely in with the others. Surprised I didn’t see it on any of the lists.
Check again: Bubba Ho-tep is listed in the queue at the top of this page. I agree that it fits in nicely.
Kusturica movies, anyone ?
His weirdest film has already been reviewed (Arizona Dream), but several others deserve their place here. If I had to choose only one (and i know i have to), that would be Underground, both his most hilarious and his most tragic.