Our weekly 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 at the official site links.

FILM FESTIVALS – AFI Fest  (Los Angeles, CA, Nov. 9-16):

The American Film Institute’s official film festival is the last stop on the yearly festival circuit, so you’re unlikely to see many films debuting there (they do get some films technically making their first appearance in the U.S., but the Toronto Film Festival steals most of their first-release thunder). Some weird-ish festival hits are taking a final bow there: Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead‘s UFO cult mindbender The Endless, Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani‘s poliziotteschi tribute Let the Corpses Tan, and Guillermo del Toro‘s soon-to-be merman hit The Shape of Water. In revivals, this year AFI celebrates Robert Altman with a slate of twelve films (including the Certified Weird 3 Women). You can also catch a rare screening of the raw and controversial 1967 mental hospital exposé  Titicut Follies. Here are a few lesser arthouse-style titles of potential weird interest that we failed to highlight when they played the crowded TIFF slate:

• Foxtrot – An Israeli father grieves for his dead soldier son in a film structured as an absurdist triptych. Screens Nov. 14 & 15.
  
• On Body and Soul – Two slaughterhouse workers find that they share a common dream (literally—they each have the exact same dream night after night). Nov. 12 & 15.
• Winter Brothers – Two brothers struggle with alternate perceptions of reality in a lonely Danish mining town.  Also Nov. 12 & 15.

AFI Fest homepage.

IN DEVELOPMENT:

Mandy (201?): Nicolas Cage stars as “a broken and haunted man [who] hunts an unhinged religious sect who slaughtered the love of his life” in what producers promise will be a “surrealist, heavy-metal-soaked story of battle axes and demon bikers.” That sounds cool, but the kicker is that it’s being directed by promising stylist Panos Cosmatos, who hasn’t been seen sighted his 2010 Certified Weird debut Beyond the Black Rainbow. Deadline broke the story.

NEW ON DVD:

The Untamed (2016): Erotic Mexican horror about an unhappy marriage and some sort of creature in the woods. It made a minor splash, but we hope it’s not too tame. Buy The Untamed.

NEW ON BLU-RAY:`

The Untamed (2016): See description in DVD above. Buy The Untamed [Blu-ray].

CERTIFIED WEIRD (AND OTHER) REPERTORY SCREENINGS:

The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975). We won’t list all the screenings of this audience-participation classic separately. You can use this page to find a screening near you.

• Bloomington, IN, 11/10 – Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream People Call Human Life (1995). At Indiana University Cinema.
• Boston, MA, 11/10 – Phantom of the Paradise (1974). At Coolidge Corner Theater.
• Boston, MA, 11/16 – Donnie Darko (2001). At Coolidge Corner Theater.
• Los Angeles, CA, 11/10 (midnight) – Eraserhead (1977). At Nuart Theater.
• Los Angeles, CA, 11/11 – 3 Women (1977). Part of AFI Fest. At AFI Mark Goodson Screening Room.
• New York City, NY, 11/10 – Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971). At Film Society Lincoln Center.
• New York City, NY, 11/10-11 (midnights) – The Holy Mountain (1973). At Videology Bar & Cinema.
• New York City, NY, 11/11 – Blancanieves (2012),  double feature with Rusalochka (1968), with live scores for both performed by Tenth Intervention. At Videology Bar & Cinema.
• New York City, NY, 11/11 – Audition [Ôdishon] (1999). At the Metrograph.
• New York City, 11/11 – Shock Corridor (1963). At the Metrograph.
• New York City, NY, 11/12 – La Grande Bouffe (1973). At Spectacle Theater.
• Silver Spring, MD, 11/10-11/16 – Suspiria (1977). At AFI Silver Theater.

NEPOTISM CORNER:

“PA Days: A ‘Guy with a Website’ Is Put to Work on the Film Set of ‘Pay Day’” –  Our own Gregory J. Smalley volunteered as a production assistant (and was pressed into duty as an extra) on the set of the upcoming (not weird) microbudget hostage drama Payday (2018), then wrote about the experience—which turned into a meditation on the relationship between critic and filmmaker. Please read it at PopMatters.

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.