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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.

NEW ON HOME VIDEO:

Daughters of Darkness (1971): Harry Kümel‘s lesbian vampire movie, starring Delphine Seyrig as an immortal Elizabeth Báthory, is subtly surreal, and one of the artier takes on the genre. Blue Underground reissues the film for it’s 50th anniversary on a newly remastered 4K disc with a new commentary (by Kat Ellinger) to go along with two previous commentary tracks. Upgrade time. Buy Daughters of Darkness.

Funky Forest (2005)/The Warped Forest (2011) : Read the Canonically Weird entry for Funky Forest. Funky Forest, of course, is a surrealistic anthology film; Warped Forest is a semi-followup by Funky contributor Shunichiro Miki, focused on his memorable fleshy monster creations. We usually don’t mention non-U.S. releases, but this double Blu-ray from the UK advertises itself as region free; we still won’t guarantee it will play in your player. Pre-orders of a (possibly slightly different) edition of the same set from US distributor Error 4444 are already sold out. The two titles are also available for rental on Vimeo—but only to UK users. Damn these global rights issues! Buy Funky Forest/Warped Forest.

Millennium Actress (2001): Read the Canonical entry! Shout! Factory re-releases Satoshi Kon‘s reality-bending tour of Japanese cinema in a special steelbook DVD/Blu-ray edition with a new collectible booklet; otherwise its the same as their 2019 combo disc release. Buy Millennium Actress.

Modern Vampires (1998): Van Helsing hires Crips to help him hunt Los Angeles vampires, who are themselves dealing with internal power struggles. This campy spoof from the writing/directing team of Matthew Bright and Richard Elfman was released straight to video despite a fairly impressive cast including Casper Van Dien, Rod Steiger, Kim Catrall, Natasha Lyonne, Craig Ferguson, Robert Pastorelli, and Udo Kier. Now on Blu-ray for the first time. Buy Modern Vampires.

The Phantom of the Monastery [AKA The Phantom of the Convent] (1934): A trio wandering in a forest meet a strange monk who takes them to a monastery where inexplicable events occur. A seldom-seen early Mexican horror film now available restored on Blu-ray. Buy The Phantom of the Monastery.

Rise of the Machine Girls (2019): Using machine guns in place of their severed limbs, two Japanese schoolgirls seek revenge on the organ-harvesting gang who maimed them. The third (we think) sequel in the Machine Girl series; a new director takes over from Noboru Iguchi, but we’d expect the same absurdity and gore. Blu-ray only. Buy Rise of the Machine Girls.

To Sleep So as to Dream (1986): Two bumbling, egg-obsessed detectives search for a missing woman, who may actually be trapped in a silent film. Arrow Video rescues this Japanese arthouse meta-movie from undeserved obscurity. Buy To Sleep so as to Dream.

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 TUBI.TV:

Millennium Actress (2001): Speaking of Millennium Actress (see “NEW ON HOME VIDEO,” above), it’s disappeared from YouTube and reappeared on Tubi, where it’s listed as “leaving soon” (probably because it’s going back to YouTube soon). If you don’t feel like springing for the DVD, here’s your chance to watch it (with subtitles). Watch Millennium Actress free on YouTube.

WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE:

You’re it! Don’t forget to join us this Saturday night at 10:15 PM ET for our latest Weird Watch Party, Sion Sono‘s Tag (2015).

Also, you have just a few hours left to vote in for 2021’s Weirdcademy Award winners! Unless you’re reading this after the deadline has passed, in which case, you can just look at the winners, as we’ll start out next week by revealing the Weirdcademy’s choices, just a few hours before the other Academy awards Hollywood’s Most Conventional Movies. Later in the week, Giles Edwards plumbs the reader-suggested queue for an overdue look at Hong Kong’s insane (and gory) Riki-Oh (1991), while Gregory J. Smalley tells you all about Netflix’s anime + live action J-pop visual album Adam by Eve: A Live In Animation (2022). 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.