WEIRD HORIZON FOR THE WEEK OF 7/15/2016

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.

IN DEVELOPMENT (PRE-PRODUCTION):

Sunset People (2016): A stylish vampire love saga influenced by 1980s horror films. The pitch invites us to “enter a dream-like, sinister world, that revolves around burlesque, drugs, sex, and blood addicts…” Director James Demitri is a fashion photographer trying to break into the horror movie field (his first love), which may account for the Neon Demon vibe the trailer is giving us. Sunset People Kickstarter page.

SCREENINGS – (New York City, IFC Center, 7/15 & 16):

House [Hausu] (1977): Read the Certified Weird entry! Held over from last week, the craziest haunted house movie you’ve ever seen begins just after midnight. House [Hausu] at IFC Center.

Eraserhead (1977): Read the Certified Weird Entry! Because it’s playing in the same midnight slot as Hausu (above), you can’t catch them as a double feature (but you couldn’t catch them as a double feature in 1977, either). You’ll have to do consecutive nights. Eraserhead at IFC Center.

FILM FESTIVALS – Fantasia Festival (Montreal, Quebec, Canada, July 14 – Aug 3):

As its name implies, Montreal’s Fantasia Festival (celebrating its 20th year!) originally began as a showcase for fantastic films from Asia; it has since morphed into a major event on the genre cinema calendar. Not that they’ve let mainstream success get to their heads; there’s still more rare weirdness to be found at Fantasia than at just about any film festival on the globe. We make watchlists from Fantasia’s programming, and we’re always saddened when less than half of the most daring films find meaningful distribution in the U.S. Because of the large number of entries, we’re highlighting only films here that are debuting or are totally new to us: we’re not writing up older festival circuit features like The Alchemist’s Cookbook, Creepy, The Greasy Strangler, Too Young to Die, The Wailing, the trippy Antibirth or killer-mermaid musical The Lure (both of which are capsuled here) again.

  • Aloys – A mysterious caller guides an alcoholic detective to explore his own damaged psyche in a visualization experiment. July 21 & 27.
  • As the Gods Will – The stranger-looking of festival “Lifetime Achievement Award” honorees two entries is described as “a surrealist high-school death match, a sort of BATTLE ROYALE seen through Lewis Carroll’s fairy-tale looking glass…” Screening July 17 only, be there!
  • Assassination Classroom: Graduation – The sequel to the film about a smiley-faced entity training high schoolers as alien assassins looks weird, but we still haven’t caught the first Assassination Classroom. July 23.
  • Atmo HorroX – Director promises that “[t]he movie is a VERY weird one, it’s kind of a psychedelic horror b-movie inside an experimental satire and then wrapped into a cryptic mystery thriller…” We previously posted the wild, weird trailer here. July 25 & 29.
  • Bed of the Dead – A bed carved from a cursed tree causes nightmares, then kills those who sleep on it (sounds kinda familiar…) July 16 & Aug 1.
  • L’Élan – a television presenter has an encounter with an elk creature which leads to the discovery of a conspiracy in this absurdist comedy; the downside is it appears to be presented in unsubtitled French only. July 26 & 29.
  • The Eyes of My Mother – B&W nightmare about an orphaned girl recalling a violent tragedy. July 18.
  • HK2: The Abnormal Crisis – The further adventures of the panty-sniffing Masked Pervert, in another sequel to a weird film whose original we have yet to see. July 30.
  • Holy Flame of the Martial World (1983) – Like The Boxer’s Omen, this is another outrageous Star Wars-influenced wuxia from Hong Kong’s transitional period after the kung fu-craze but before the New Wave struck. July 24 & 30.
  • On the Silver Globe (1977) – A new restoration of ‘s never-quite-completed visionary sci-fi epic screens on Aug 3, the fest’s final day.
  • Parasyte – A teenager finds his hand possessed by a mutant alien. Part I (2 hours) screens July 16, with Part 2 (another 2 hours) following the next day.
  • Psychonauts – A feature-length expansion of the surreal animated world first scene in “Birdboy” (a popular short once embedded here, which has since been removed). July 23.
  • She’s Allergic to Cats – Per its creators, this story of a weirdo dog groomer in love is”an avant-garde, nightmarish fever dream filtered through the minds of David Lynch, George Kuchar and Charles Bukowski.” July 21.

One final note: G. Smalley plans to be in attendance at the Fest all next week, and will deliver updates (and maybe some interviews) nightly. (Look him up if you’re there). Fantasia Festival official home page.

NEW ON DVD:

Crimes of Passion (1984): This campy, overripe erotic thriller with Kathleen Turner is not ‘s weirdest movie, but fans will want to check it out. Buy Crimes of Passion [DVD/Blu-ray combo] style=.

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

Belladonna of Sadness (1973): Read Alex Kittle’s Fantastic Fest entry! This forgotten psychedelic anime of sex, witchcraft and revenge gets a home video debut 43 years after it was filmed, proving we should never give up hope on almost any obscure film showing up some day (even The Day the Clown Cried has a release date). It’s still not on DVD, though. Buy Belladonna of Sadness [Blu-ray] style=.

Carnival of Souls (1962): Read the Certified Weird entry! The Criterion Collection upgrades their 2-disc DVD release of Herk Harvey’s low-budget existential zombie miracle to a single Blu-ray. Buy Carnival of Souls [Criterion Collection Blu-ray] style=.

Crimes of Passion (1984): These discs contain both the theatrical and director’s cut versions of the film, and the special edition first pressing comes with a commemorative booklet. Buy Crimes of Passion [DVD/Blu-ray combo]//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=366weirmovi-20&l=ur2&o=1.

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.

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