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.
As is so often the case, there are no new releases of weird interest in theaters this week.
SCREENINGS: LOS ANGELES (AUG 13)
I Can See You/The Viewer (2008): Read I Can See You‘s certified weird entry. Graham Reznick‘s “psychedelic campfire tale” will be screening at the Los Angeles Downtown Independent, along with the 3-D science fiction short The Viewer, which has been upgraded from the “retro” red/blue glasses to take advantage of current polarized 3-D technology. I Can See You/The Viewer at Downtown Independent.
NEW ON DVD:
After.Life (2009): Another psychothriller about a dead person who doesn’t know she’s dead (this one tips its hat in the plot synopsis). Christina Ricci wakes up on a slab in funeral parlor director Liam Neeson’s mortuary; she insists she’s alive, he tells her she’s in passage to the afterlife (or the after.life, I guess). Critics were cruel, and Ricci’s nude scenes may be the main draw. Buy After.Life
Spike (2008): Homemade horror/fairy tale mixing a monster movie with Beauty and the Beast. The few underground critics who saw it in its lightning-flash film festival run gave it mixed reviews, but Calum Waddell did say “anyone seeking something mind-bogglingly bizarre probably won’t be too disappointed by this,” which is enough of an endorsement for us to mention it. Buy Spike
NEW ON BLU-RAY:
After.Life (2009): See entry in DVD above. Buy After.Life [Blu-ray]
James and the Giant Peach (1996): Henry Selick‘s stop-motion followup the The Nightmare Before Christmas was again co-produced by Tim Burton, came from a story by Roald Dahl, and told the tale of a boy traveling to New York City aboard a giant flying and floating peach inhabited by various talking bugs. It could have been a weird kids classic, but, though it’s worth seeing, some kind of magic is missing. Buy James and the Giant Peach [Blu-ray]
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.