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 THEATERS (WIDE RELEASE):
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (2016): A boy is informed he has “peculiar” powers and is whisked away to a school where mutant children are trained to use their talents. This adaptation of of popular children’s book seems custom made for Tim Burton‘s cute-grotesque style, and many have high hopes it will prove a return to form after a string of mediocrities. Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children official site.
IN THEATERS (LIMITED RELEASE):
The Apostate (2015): “Gently absurdist” tale (with Buñuelian touches) of a man who tries to formally and officially leave the Catholic Church, only to find himself lost in a labyrinth of clerical bureaucracy. The message may be: apostates are from Mars, prelates are from Venus. The Apostate distributor’s site (in Spanish).
SCREENINGS – (Barnsdall Art Park, Los Angeles, CA, Sun., Oct 2):
Fellini Satryicon (1969): Read the Certified Weird review! Enjoy Fellini’s wildest indulgence in an outdoor setting, with wine tasting beforehand. No word on whether the facilities include vomitoria. Sponsored (naturally) by Cinefamily. Satyircon at Barnsdall Art Park.
FILM FESTIVALS – Beyond Fest (Los Angeles, Sep. 30 – Oct. 11):
LA’s Beyond Fest may not land a lot of exclusive premieres, but we like their taste. There’s nothing of particular weird interest premiering here, but you can check out recent favorites from other festivals like Ana Lily Amirpour‘s post-apocalyptic cannibal flick Bad Batch (on Oct. 7, with the director in attendance) and the flatulent Thia dwarf horror/comedy The Dwarves Must Be Crazy (Oct. 9, a free screening). You also have to love a festival that features three Certified Weird classic revivals. The Holy Mountain screens on Oct. 6, and 2001: A Space Odyssey plays Oct. 9, hosted by Kier Dullea and Gary Lockwood. The biggest event may be the double feature of Phantasm with the fifth film in the series, Phantasm: Ravager (which, unexpectedly, is getting good reviews), with Don Coscarelli and Ravager director David Hartman both on hand. And that’s just the movies we’re focusing on; the undercard looks good for genre fans, too, so Los Angelinos will want to check this one out.
FILM FESTIVALS – New York Film Festival (New York City, Sep. 30 – Oct. 16):
Don’t get us wrong, the New York Film Festival has some quality screenings—just not a lot that would be of particular interest to weirdophiles. Plus, with all the revival and specialty cinemas inside the Big Apple showing movies that never play outside the city limits, the town is almost like a film festival all year round. Nonetheless, there are a couple of movies we’ve highlighted elsewhere that might be of some interest: the animated My Entire High School Is Sinking Into the Sea (screening Oct. 10 & 11) and Hong Sang-soo’s doppelganger romance Yourself and Yours (Oct. 7, 10, 14 and 16). You might check them out if you’re in town.
New York Film Festival Official Site.
IN DEVELOPMENT (ANNOUNCED):
Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure (est. 2017): Live action version of a superhero family manga. The interesting part is that it’s a co-production between Japan’s Toho studios and Hollywood’s Warner Brothers; the even more interesting part is that Takashi Miike is set to direct. Surely Warners will reign Miike in until he’s no longer interesting—although, as a counterargument, the outsider auteur has produced some kid friendly fare (Zebraman, The Great Yokai War) that nonetheless brought us bizarre visions (Zebra Nurse, anyone?) We remain skeptical, but intrigued. Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure announcement at “Variety”.
NEW ON DVD:
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970): Read Alfred Eaker’s review. Russ Meyer‘s big budget movie about big busted musicians features a great transsexual freakout at the climactic acid orgy. Buy Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (Criterion Collection)
The Neon Demon (2016): Read our List Candidate review! Nicolas Winding Refn‘s fashion-industry horror movie is shallow but beautiful and—yeah—pretty damn weird. Buy The Neon Demon
NEW ON BLU-RAY:
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970): See description in DVD above. Did you ever expect to see Russ Meyer make the Criterion Collection? Buy Beyond the Valley of the Dolls [Criterion Collection Blu-ray]
Blood Diner (1987): Read the Certified Weird entry! Thanks to Vestron Video for finally putting out this bad taste cannibal classic on a modern video format; maybe now this should-be cult classic will get the respect it deserves. Buy Blood Diner [Blu-ray]
The Neon Demon (2016): See description in DVD above. Buy The Neon Demon [Blu-ray]
YOU LINK US! YOU REALLY LINK US!:
Копипаста:Кинопоиск: I don’t read Russian, so even with the help of automatic translation I have little idea what’s going on here. This appears to be some sort of wiki-site, and the writer of this article goes on a long rant about a redesign and over-commercialization of a Russian-language movie site called “kinopoisk.” I really have no idea whether the writer’s complaints are valid or not, but the key takeaway is that, along with the IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes, and Variety, the writer lists 366weirdmovies.com as an alternative to kinopoisk. So I just want to use this space to officially welcome all kinopoisk refugees to 366 Weird Movies! Original post (in Russian).
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.