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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.
IN THEATERS (LIMITED RELEASE):
Masking Threshold: An IT professional investigates the sounds of everyday objects around him, hoping to find a cure for his oppressive tinnitus. An experimental horror film narrated in the protagonist’s monologue, with lots of extreme close-ups and immersive sound design. Playing somewhere, and available in the future on Vimeo On Demand. Masking Threshold official site.
Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon: A single-mom stripper teams up with an escaped mental patient with supernatural powers for an old-fashioned New Orleans crime spree. Ana Lily Amirpour makes her third movie after a six-year hiatus, and it sounds both weird and good. Simultaneously on VOD. No official site found.
Taming the Garden: Documentary about a Georgina (European, that is) billionaire uprooting massive trees and transplanting them to his estate. More than one reviewer dropped the word “surreal” to describe it (though we know that word is used far too often and far too imprecisely). Taming the Garden official site.
STREAMING DEBUTS (Netflix):
Blonde (2022): Already the most controversial movie of the year, this NC-17 biopic reportedly includes some surreal scenes. Is it weird? Probably not—though based on a Joyce Carol Oates story, it’s still an Oscar bait biopic at heart—but there’s only one way to find out for sure. Blonde on Netflix.
IN DEVELOPMENT (announced):
And (202?): Just announced: Yorgos Lanthimos will once again team up with screenwriter Efthymis Filippou (Dogtooth, The Lobster, and most recently 2017’s The Killing of a Sacred Deer) on a new film (plot unknown). It has a sweet lineup of acting talent, though: Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, Jesse Plemons, and Margaret Qualley. The director’s Poor Things, about a woman who has a fetus’ brain implanted in her head, stars much of the same cast (minus Plemmons) and is in post-production now. Read more at Variety.
NEW ON HOME VIDEO:
After Blue (Dirty Paradise) (2021): Read Gregory J. Smalley’s Apocrypha Candidate review. Bertrand Mandico‘s post-apocalyptic sci-fi psychedelic lesbian acid western shows up on DVD and/or Blu-ray this week. Buy After Blue (Dirty Paradise).
The Cornshukker (1997): Forgotten shot-on-video movie (made for $6000) about the mysterious title creature and its battles with encroaching civilization. The few critics who’ve seen it suggest it was influenced by Eraserhead. Blu-ray only, courtesy of a company going by the name “VHShitfest” (!) Buy The Cornshukker.
Evil Dead (2013): Read Gregory J. Smalley’s review. The reboot that failed to restart a franchise arrives on 4K UHD disc this week. Buy Evil Dead (2013).
Evil Dead Trap 2: Hideki (1992): A female projectionist struggles with her double-life as a stomach-extracting serial killer. No relation to The Evil Dead, or even to the first Evil Dead Trap. Blu-ray or DVD. Buy Evil Dead Trap 2: Hideki.
“The Films of Doris Wishman: The Moonlight Years”: This Blu-ray set from American Genre Film Archives covers maverick sexploitation director Wishman‘s productive “roughie” period, from 1965-1969. Includes The Sex Perils Of Paulette; Bad Girls Go to Hell; The Hot Month of August; Another Day, Another Man; My Brother’s Wife; A Taste of Flesh; Indecent Desires; Too Much Too Often!; and Passion Fever. Buy “The Films of Doris Wishman: The Moonlight Years.”
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.
WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE:
Tomorrow night’s (first?) October Weird Watch Party is Matteo Garrone‘s Pinocchio (2019) on Amazon Prime (subscription or purchase required). The link to join will drop here, on Facebook, and on Twitter around 10 PM. Please join us!
In reviews next week, Giles Edwards freaks out to the deviltry of Gaspar Noé‘s recently Blu-rayed Lux Æterna, Shane Wilson takes on a couple of animated shorts from the reader-suggested review queue in “Harpya” (1979) and “Bobby Yeah” (2011), and
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.