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.
The holiday/awards season is here, which means that you can forget about seeing anything outstandingly weird in theaters for a while.
IN THEATERS (LIMITED RELEASE):
House of Pleasures: The story of a Parisian bordello circa 1899, told in a deliberately anachronistic style (a 1960s soundtrack, split screens, etc.) David Fear of Time Out gave it a good review, while admitting it’s “occasionally WTF hilarious” (to us, as to him, a big plus). Playing NYC this week, other dates unknown. House of Pleasures official site.
IN DEVELOPMENT:
Emmanuelle in Wonderland (completed 2011): We mentioned this erotic musical thingee in passing last week, but after coming across this—um, “interesting”—YouTube footage, the title bears repeating. Emmanuelle in Wonderland is part of an “Emmanuelle” reboot(y) series from director Rolfe Kanefsky, featuring many actors and actresses from the porn world stretching their chops. We can’t discern anything about distribution for this movie (it appears aimed at the Skinemax market) but surely something this—um, “special?”—will show up on DVD soon? Emmanuelle in Wonderland Facebook page.
NEW ON DVD:
Darkroom (2008): Another “what is real and what is fantasy” movie, this time revolving around a crime scene photographer. Not much information on this one to be found. Buy Darkroom
An Evening with the Residents: Bimbo’s [Talking Light] (2011): If you’re as much a fan of weird music as of weird movies, you know of The Residents, the avant-garde music collective known for performing in tuxedos and giant eyeball head masks. This is a live recording of their album/spoken word piece “Talking Light,” which revolves around ghost stories and the paranormal (and features a trio lineup and new costumes). Buy An Evening with Residents – Bimbo’s
Helldriver (2010): The team behind Tokyo Gore Police and Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl is back with another wild one featuring ninjas, zombies, cannibalism, a sexy samurai babe with a chainsaw blade, and of course, splatter. An Amazon reviewer offers the advice “save yourselves from the sheer fatuous inanity of this drivel,” which could be seen as a warning, a perverse endorsement, or a dare. Buy Helldriver
Saki the Killer (2011): The synopsis suggests something about a female art teacher who battles yakuza demons with the power of her paintbrush. Direct to video and unreviewed elsewhere, yet something about the premise strikes us as noteworthy. Buy Saki The Killer
NEW ON BLU-RAY:
Helldriver (2010): See description in DVD above. Buy Helldriver [Blu-ray]
FREE (LEGITIMATE RELEASE) MOVIES ON YOUTUBE:
Crowley [AKA Chemical Wedding] (2008): Read our capsule review. Aleister Crowley is reincarnated with an assist from pseudoscience. Intentionally campy occult parody, or Bruce Dickinson vanity project gone awry? You can only decide by watching. Watch Crowley [Chemical Wedding] 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.