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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:
The Thing About Cassandra (202?): An adaptation of the Neil Gaiman short story about a made-up Canadian girlfriend who turns out to be very real. Written by Siobhan Hewlett, the subject of an upcoming 366 interview. Extremely early in development, so there’s not much info on the IMDB page, but you (almost certainly) heard about it here first.
NEW ON HOME VIDEO:
Akira (1988): Read the Canonical entry! The 4K restoration of the mindbending anime classic is finally here, on UHD plus Blu-ray (with a bonus Blu full of supplemental features), from Funimation. Buy Akira.
Deep Red (1975): Read our review. A “standard special edition” (isn’t that an oxymoron?) release of Dario Argento‘s bloody giallo precursor to Suspiria (1977) in a new 4K restoration. On Blu-ray UHD from Arrow. Buy Deep Red.
Space Vampire (2020): “A multi-media meditation on the vampire,” i.e., a non-narrative experimental film. 60 minutes of “who knows?” on Blu-ray or DVD. Buy Space Vampire.
The Stendhal Syndrome (1996): A woman (Asia Argento) tracks a killer while suffering from a condition that causes her to hallucinate and enter the works of great painters. This giallo throwback from maestro Dario Argento was previously released on Blu-ray, but this two disc special edition is remastered and promises to restore brief scenes not included in previous North American prints. Buy The Stendahl Syndrome.
Titane (2021): Read the Apocrypha Candidate review. Julia Ducournau‘s surprising sophomore feature is the story of a psychotic girl who meets a car, then meets a fireman. Buy Titane.
Tokyo Decadence (1992): The story of a sad Tokyo prostitute who services wealthy men interested in S&M, from the writer of Ôdishon. On Blu-ray for the first time (in North America) from Unearthed Films, it’s also in our reader-suggested queue. Buy Tokyo Decadence.
ARTICLES:
“Why Are Indie Films So Strange Right Now?”: We’re not sure we entirely agree with Peter Debruge’s analysis here—some of the illustrations he uses are strange because they’re not that strange—but we do like his observations that “weirdness gets noticed” and “that appetite in turn supports an indie-film environment where directors are motivated to be more original, more surprising and all around more creative.” We like to think we’ve had some small part in fostering this weird trend (if trend it is). Read “Why Are Indie Films So Strange Right Now?” at Variety.
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 ONLINE WEIRD MOVIES ON YOUTUBE:
Black Hole Alien Brain Zombies! (2022): This experimental film from Dovin Melhee is just narration over psychedelic backgrounds. Very creative for a no-budget production, and we do love the tagline “this plan 9 goes to 11!”
https://youtu.be/0RprR-UY9Ww
WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE:
We are ready for the next round of our Reordering the 366 Apocrypha Incorporation Poll (TM). Please join in the fun as eight former Apocryphally Weird movies rank themselves against the old guard.
In other announcements you may have missed, January 29’s Weird Watch Party will be Kontroll (2003). Join us at 10:15 PM ET for a group watch and chat, just over one week from now.
Next week should be quite busy around here, with a video interview with British actress Siobhan Hewlett (of Country of Hotels, The Show, and The Thing About Cassandra—see “In Development,” above). In reviews, Shane Wilson will go into the reader-suggested review queue for the 1988 comedy The Wizard of Speed and Time, while And, as often happens, we may drop another piece of bonus content on you—though we don’t want to commit to it here, so if you don’t see it, you won’t be disappointed. 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.
No official release date added yet, but since you’ve reviewed a few surreal versions of Alice in Wonderland on here, you might be interested in the upcoming rather weird looking “Alice, through the Looking”, which played at POFF film festival Estonia. Early reviews from the festival have observations like: “Even the most informed, most attentive audience member would struggle to rationally synopsise and explain what has transpired” and “Donen’s version of Alice is such that compared to it, even Švankmajer’s Alice comes across as a paint-by-numbers colouring sheet filled in carefully by an idiot with his tongue drooping out of his mouth”
Trailer can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-FC0i5uusg
Thanks, we will definitely be keeping an eye out for that one!