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Our weekly look at what’s weird in theaters, on hot-off-the-presses DVDs and Blu-rays (and hot off the server VODs), and on more distant horizons…

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

IN DEVELOPMENT: STILL ALIVE :

Nosferatu (202?): Variety reports that Harry Styles has dropped out of Robert Eggers remake of Nosferatu (1922), co-starring Anya Taylor-Joy. (Also no longer attached to the project: recent Oscar winner Will Smith). We’re neutral on Styles’ departure, but the news here is that Eggers’ cursed Nosferatu project is not yet dead—it remains, it seems, in some weird unearthly state between life and death. Read more at Variety.

NEW ON HOME VIDEO:

The American Scream (1988): A family takes a vacation at a winter resort filled with oddballs in this confusing amateur horror film filled with WTF? moments. A candidate for the so bad it’s weird club. First time on Blu-ray (only) from Culture Shock. Buy The American Scream.

Delta Space Mission (1984): Done in the style of a children’s cartoon and earning comparisons to both 2001: A Space Odyssey and Fantastic Planet, this science fiction epic from behind the Iron Curtain (Romania, to be exact) concerns a super-intelligent AI computer who falls in love with an alien journalist. New player Deaf Crocodile releases the deluxe Blu-ray. In our reader-suggested review queue, with streaming options (and our coverage) coming in April. Buy Delta Space Mission.

Flesh for Frankenstein [AKA Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein] (1973): Read Alfred Eaker’s mini-review of Flesh for Frankenstein. Less famous but gorier and possibly even campier than it’s companion piece, Blood for Dracula, this features Udo Kier as Frankenstein stitching together a monster (and doing naughty things to cadaver organs along the way). Vinegar Syndrome releases a 3 disc pack, with a UHD disc, a 3-D Blu-ray, a standard Blu-ray, and two hours of supplementary materials. Buy Flesh for Frankenstein.

(WARNING: above trailer NSFW for gore, nudity and declarations of intended gall bladder molestation)

Hair for Hyde [AKA Andy Warhol’s Jekyll and Hyde] (1974): Having lost the services of Udo Kier (who had decided to leverage his cult fame to make serious movies with Fassbinder), Paul Morrissey unwisely leaned too far into camp, and hired a spectacularly miscast Jerry Lewis for a dual role (making this the “Nutty Professor’s” only gore movie). A spectacular misfire on every level, it’s weird for reasons never intended (Jerry Lewis in patchy werewolf makeup attempting to rape a barmaid played by Holly Woodlawn?), and ended the series of Warhol-backed horror remakes—and Morrissey’s career. Blu-ray only with minimal supplements. Buy Hair for Hyde.

Ham on Rye (2019): Read Giles Edwards Apocrypha Candidate review. Adolescents undergo a strange ritual that will allow some of them to escape their nowheresville town, while others will be left behind. Their fates hinge on whether they slip up at the deli counter and accidentally order pastrami on wheat. The Blu-ray includes an optional director’s cut, deleted scenes, and a commentary track. Buy Ham on Rye.

Red Spirit Lake (1993)/We Await (1996): Of these two direct-to-video horrors from microbudget director Charles Pinion, We Await, which concerns a cannibal family who eats hallucinogenic ooze from a green crystal and keeps a human dog, seems the stranger by far. Lots of bonus features on this double feature Blu-ray from an outfit called Saturn’s Core. Buy Red Spirit Lake/We Await.

Sister Tempest (2020): Read Giles Edwards’ review. Anne defends herself against an intergalactic tribunal in the case of her missing sister. She also performs one of the stranger karaoke numbers in recent memory. Now on DVD; Blu-ray coming to retailers in May. Buy Sister Tempest.

CANONICALLY WEIRD (AND OTHER) REPERTORY SCREENINGS:

This section will no longer be updated regularly. Instead, we direct you to our new “Repertory Cinemas Near You” page. We will continue to mention exceptional events in this space from time to time, however.

FREE WEIRD MOVIE STREAMING EVENTS:

WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE:

It looks like Ari Folman‘s dystopian virtual reality animation The Congress will be the featured screening at our next Weird Watch Party in the late hours of Saturday, April 9, but we will leave the discussion open through the weekend.

In next week’s reviews, Gregory J. Smalley will take on the psychopathic Period Piece (2006) from the reader-suggested review queue, then move to the new-release front for a look at the twisty psychological thriller Ultrasound (2022). Finally, in a 366 exclusive, Giles Edwards uncovers and transcribes a previously unpublished interview on the genesis of Leslie Stevens‘s Esperanto horror film, Incubus. Onward and weirdward!

What are you looking forward to? If you have any weird movie leads that we have overlooked, feel free to leave them in the COMMENTS section.

This announcement came as such a surprise, we thought it’s worthy of its own post.

The Criterion Collection just pre-announced that their latest addition to their catalog of “important classic and contemporary cinema from around the world” will be Mark Region‘s 2009 experimental thriller After Last Season, which has been out-of-print and highly sought after since the original DVD run sold out. (We spotted a copy on E-bay recently; the asking price was over $200).

The lone film by the reclusive Region, After Last Season may seem like a strange edition to the Criterion catalog, but the art-house label has recently added the transgressive early works of John Waters to their catalog as they expand their range from stodgy art movies and begin to include more culturally significant cult films with edgy, DIY aesthetics.

These photographs (leaked onto the Internet by an unknown Criterion insider) are early boxcover mockups, not the finished product (which won’t go on sale until July 2020 at the earliest). Thanks to El Rob Hubbard for bringing them to our attention. According to the Criterion Collection website, the final release will have the following special features:

• New 4K digital restoration, not approved by Region
• The original trailer that rocked the Internet
• “Region Free”: a documentary attempting to track down the mysterious Mark Region (the name has long been suspected to be a pseudonym for Spike Jonze or another established director)
• “I’ve Never Been to That Town, but I’ve Been Through It”: a feature-length appreciation by Martin Scorsese
• New interview with star Jason Kulas
• A free copy of the trial animation software used to compose the special effects sequences (works on Windows 95 systems only)
• PLUS: An essay by IMDB entry Lloyd Nickell

After Last Season has been one of the rarest titles on our list of Canonically Weird movies, and we’re thrilled that the general public will finally get the chance to experience this… um… unusual film.

Only 68 movies left to Certify Weird! (That number is right, we didn’t miscount: see the explanation below).

Alfred Eaker kicks us off next week with a review of Flicker Alley’s new Blu-ray release of the short that birthed the fantastique, “A Trip to the Moon.” Then,  Bryan Pike updates you on the new existential  indie release It Takes from Within, Pete Trbovich knocks one out of the review queue with a shout-out to Britain’s The Shout (1978), and G. Smalley goes classic and retro with an examination of Jean Cocteau‘s surrealistic debut, Blood of a Poet (1930).

No fooling here: the quotes below are actual search terms weirdos used to find 366 Weird Movies this past week. First, the search for a “movie where man says etcettera” goes into our “can you narrow that down for me?” file. We would be remiss if we did not note the search for “lesbian girls and doll pul movies.com” (it was making sense until the “doll pul” arrived). Then we have a pair of perhaps related searches: a jazz cinema fan’s search for “sax films of 2012,” which might possibly be better found on the site “sax bandits.com”. Simple misspellings can sometimes lead to ambiguity: is the guy looking for “twin leaks 366 weird movies” actually looking for the David Lynch television series, or the pee fetish porn parody? A similar searching error led to our official Weirdest Search Term of the Week, “link floyd thé wool”. The misspellings are bad enough, but going out of your way to add an accent aigu to the “thé” that makes the search acutely weird.

On to the bit of business hinted at above: many of you have expressed dismay that the List of the 366 Best Weird Movies ever made is nearing its end, and are afraid that your worthy favorites will not fit into the few remaining slots. If you fall into that category, we have good news: we’re removing some of the dead wood to make way for better choices. Obviously, when we started this List ten years ago, we were very different people than now. As you may have noticed with Alfred’s series on spirituality themed movies, we are (a little!) more mature than the crazy live-for-today 40somethings who started this List. We recognize that we made mistakes in the early days (and even in the later days), and canonized a few movies of questionable intent that didn’t deserve to be honored. What better day than Easter Day, 2018 to announce a culling of the List and the rebirth of a new one? We’re going to free up twenty-seven movie slots by canceling several of our rasher and more questionable choices. These entries have already disappeared from the sidebar list; we’ll detail them below, with an explanation for each film’s removal.

REMOVED FROM THE LIST:

3-Iron (2004) – With the sexual assault allegations against director Ki-duk Kim, we can no longer in good conscience allow him to be honored on our List.

Continue reading WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE →