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.
IN THEATERS (WIDE RELEASE):
A Nightmare on Elm Street: The inventive dream sequences of the original made it a slasher series of marginal weird interest. The uninspiring reviews of the reboot make it sound like it’s of marginal human interest. A Nightmare on Elm Street official site.
IN THEATERS (LIMITED RELEASE):
The Human Centipede (First Sequence) (2009): This intended cult horror film about a mad doctor who creates a human centipede by linking victims together mouth to anus (!) is already in our reader-suggested review queue, but is only now getting a limited release here in the U.S. Debuting in NYC this week, and going on a 12 city tour the following week. It’s also appearing contemporaneously on IFC’s “On Demand” service (available on many US cable systems), which may be how we end up seeing it. The Human Centipede (First Sequence) official site.
IN POST-PRODUCTION:
Inception: Buzz is continuing to build around director Christopher (Memento, The Dark Knight) Nolan’s latest project, reported to be a mind-bending psychological thriller with the tag line, “your mind is the scene of the crime.” This will be the second psychological thriller of the year for star Leonardo di Caprio, who has been quoted as saying Inception “didn’t make sense to any of us when we were doing it.” Sounds great, though it could just be marketing. Release date is set for July 26. Inception official site.
NEW ON DVD:
The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus (2009): Read our capsule review. This tale of magic mirrors, carnival drifters and Faustian bargains may be ever-so-slightly underwhelming, but only because Terry Gilliam has set the bar so high. It might have worked better had Heath Ledger survived to do re-shoots, but it’s a Gilliam movie and it’s still worth seeing. Buy The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Life Blood [AKA Murder World] (2009): The plot appears to involve God, a gay female, who turns two lipstick lesbian lovers into vampires and sends them out to wreak vengeance on the straight world. That’s the plot as I understand it from skimming the synopsis while drunk, and if it’s actually something more conventional I don’t want to know about it. Buy Life Blood
Mega Piranha (2010): This laughable, cheap and ridiculous Asylum production about mutant flying piranhas got noticed in the camp community thanks to a Syfy channel screening. Our own Eric Young even reviewed it on his personal site. Now, it’s on DVD, where it belongs. The only question, is why isn’t this home-video version the unrated director’s cut with nudity and piranhic gore? Buy Megapiranha
NEW ON BLU-RAY:
Dune (1984): The flop sci-fi epic about giant sandworms and messianic prophecies is perhaps David Lynch‘s most divisive work; it turned out too weird for a blockbuster, but it has it’s defenders. A nice weird addition to the Blu-ray ranks. Buy Dune [Blu-ray]
The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus (2009): See review in DVD above. Buy The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus [Blu-ray]
FREE (LEGITIMATE RELEASE) MOVIES ON YOUTUBE
Breakfast of Aliens (1993): We’re just going to quote the plot synopsis here: “A lovable loser, Walter Clydepepper (Vic Dunlop) eats an alien from outer space in his cereal and becomes a deadly stand up comic.” Looks cheap and campy, like it might have been made specifically for the old “Up All Night!” TV show. Watch Breakfast of Aliens 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.