A 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 on the official site links.
NEW ON DVD:
Bellflower (2011): Read our capsule review. Two hard-drinking slackers who build post-apocalyptic vehicles in their spare time experience love, loss, and non-linear narrative. Side note: the marketers have removed the word “weird” from the critical quote they selected for the cover. Buy Bellflower
Evil Dead 2 (1987): Read the Certified Weird entry! All three of Sam Raimi ‘s Evil Dead moves are constantly being reissued in new packages. Rights to 2 have switched hands from Anchor Bay to Lions Gate, and this “25th Anniversary” re-release promises an improved picture (although some reviewers have said the difference isn’t very noticeable) and a mix of old and new featurettes (the commentary track is old). Buy Evil Dead 2 (25th Anniversary Edition)
Futurist Life Redux (2009): Viva Futurista is a lost film, created as a series of linked shorts by eleven founding members of the Futurist art movement in 1916. Futurist Life Redux is an experimental, loose and modernized reconstruction of what that original movie may have looked like, re-imagined for the 21st century from the original creators notes and a few surviving stills. Most of the directors come from the performance art world, with George (Sins of the Fleshapoids) Kuchar a noteworthy exception. If the clip below is representative, then these are weird, yeah. Buy Futurist Life Redux
Giorgio Moroder Presents Metropolis (1927/1984): In 1984 composer Giorgi Moroder restored Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, and in a controversial decision, colorized the movie and gave it a pop-music score by the likes of Billy Squier, John Anderson, Freddy Mercury, Pat Benetar, and so on. At the time Moroder was fresh off an Academy Award for writing the song “What a Feeling” for Flashdance. Buy Giorgio Moroder Presents Metropolis
Griff the Invisible (2010): A clerk who moonlights as a masked vigilante meets a girl lost in daydreams in this Australian romantic comedy. Half the reviewers who’ve seen it use some form of the word “quirk” to describe it (and one even uses a form of “weird”). Buy Griff the Invisible
“Half Pint Brawlers, Season 1” (2010): We never caught it on its brief Spike TV run, but the packaging (“WARNING: X-treme and Absurd!”), caught our eye. It’s a reality show about a traveling troupe of wrestling little people led by a character who calls himself “Puppet the Psycho Dwarf.” The performers call themselves “midgets,” which got them in trouble with the Little People of America. As an aside, your editor sincerely hopes the word “midget” makes a comeback; it sounds far less demeaning than “little person.” Buy “Half Pint Brawlers: Season 1”
“Neverwhere” (1996): This 180-minute BBC miniseries concerns a chap who finds himself trapped in a fantastic underground world of demons and magic dubbed “London Below.” Co-scripted by fantasy author Neil Gaiman, it has a cult reputation and special effects on the level of a “Dr. Who” episode. Gaimain later turned the screenplay into a novel. Buy “Neverwhere”
The Tree (2011): An eight-year old girl becomes convinced that her dead father’s spirit inhabits a giant tree growing near the house. Life-affirming Australian magical realism starring the always-odd Charlotte Gainsbourg. Buy The Tree
The Weird World of Blowfly (2011): Documentary focusing on Clarence Reid, better known as his alter-ego Blowfly, the proto-rapper and x-rated auteur of 1970s “party albums” packed with brilliantly brain-dead song parodies like “Spermy Night In Georgia” and “My Baby Keeps Farting In My Face.” Hey, it’s got “weird” right there in the title, of course we’re going to mention it! Buy The Weird World Of Blowfly
NEW ON BLU-RAY:
Bellflower (2011): See description in DVD above. This is a DVD/Blu-ray combo pack. Buy Bellflower (Blu-ray/DVD Combo)
Despair (1978): A chocolate magnate goes mad; he watches himself making love to his wife and believes a laborer is his doppelgänger. Rainer Werner Fassbinder directs Dirk Bogarde in Tom Stoppard’s adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov’s novel (is that enough name-dropping for one sentence?). Buy Despair [Blu-ray]
Evil Dead 2 (1987): See description in DVD above. Buy Evil Dead 2 (25th Anniversary Edition) [Blu-ray]
Giorgio Moroder Presents Metropolis (1927/1984): See description in DVD above. Buy Giorgio Moroder Presents: Metropolis [Blu-ray]
Griff the Invisible (2011): See description in DVD above. Buy Griff the Invisible [Blu-ray]
The Weird World of Blowfly (2011): See description in DVD above. Buy The Weird World Of Blowfly [Blu-ray]
FREE (LEGITIMATE RELEASE) MOVIES ON YOUTUBE:
The Brain That Wouldn’t Die (1962): This tale of a mad-scientist who keeps his decapitated fiancée’s head alive while he searches for a stripper’s body to slap it on is one of the sleazier, and stranger, artifacts of its era. “I’m just a head… and you’re whatever you are… but together, we’re strong!” Watch The Brain That Wouldn’t Die free on YouTube.
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.