Ïðîäîëæàþ âàñ çíàêîìèòü ñî ñïèñêîì íàèáîëåå ñòðàííûõ ôèëüìîâ ïî ñîãëàñèþ õîçÿèíà ñàéòà è àâòîðà áîëüøåé ÷àñòè ýññå ïî òåìå Greg Smalley.
Ýòî àëôàâèòíûé ñïèñîê âñåõ ôèëüìîâ (íà äàííûé ìîìåíò), êîòîðûå áûëè ñåðòèôèöèðîâàíû êàê ñàìûå ñòðàííûå èç 366 ñòðàííûõ ôèëüìîâ, êîãäà-ëèáî ïðîèçâåäåííûõ, à òàêæå ññûëêè íà ôèëüìû ðàññìîòðåíûå òîëüêî â âèäå òàê íàçûâàåìîé "êàïñóëû", ò.å. íà êàññåòàõ è äèñêàõ.
Íàøè ðåöåíçèè íà êîðîòêîìåòðàæíûå ôèëüìû áûëè ïåðåìåùåíû íà ýòó ñòðàíèöó: shorts.
(Îáðàòèòå âíèìàíèå, ÷òî öèôðû, êîòîðûå ïîÿâëÿþòñÿ ðÿäîì ñ îðèãèíàëüíûìè çàïèñÿìè íå óêàçûâàþò íà êàêîé-ëèáî dy'bxfg, íî îòíîñÿòñÿ èñêëþ÷èòåëüíî ê ïîðÿäêó ïóáëèêàöèè).
Òàê ñïèñîê âûãëÿäèò íà ñåãîäíÿ 27 èþëÿ 2016 ã.:
http://366weirdmovies.com/the-weird-movie-list/
The List Thus Far
Here is an alphabetical listing of all the movies (so far) that have been certified as among the 366 weirdest ever made, along with links to films reviewed in capsule form only.
Our short film reviews have been moved to this page: Shorts.
(Note that the numbers that appear beside the original entries don’t indicate any sort of rank, but refer solely to order of publication).
THE LIST OF 366 (241 certified weird)
3 Women (1977) – Identities merge and personalities shift when ing;nue Pinky becomes obsessed with delusional Millie
8 1/2 (1963) – Memories and dreams collide with reality in Fellini’s self-reflexive, stream-of-consciousness classic about a director trying to make a movie
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) – Space monoliths turn apes into men and men into star children
The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T (1953) – A mad doctor enslaves 500 boys to play his giant piano in this surreal musical fantasy courtesy of Dr. Seuss
Adaptation. (2002) – Charlie Kaufman can’t get started on an adaptation of “The Orchid Thief,” so he writes himself (and his twin brother) into the screenplay
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension (1984) – Buckaroo’s a neurosurgeon/particle physicist/secret agent/rock star with a backing band of soldier-of-fortune scientists opposed by transdimensional aliens and… it just goes on from there
After Last Season (2009) – An amateurish embarrassment about two med students, a killer on the loose, and a ghost, so full of misguided directorial choices and failed attempts at cinematic poetry that it takes on a dreamlike character
Akira (1988) – A telekinetic maniac wrecks Neo-Tokyo in this trendsetting cult anime
Alice [Neco Z Alenky] (1988) – Ultra-creepy Czech stop-motion animated version of the Lewis Carroll classic, shot in eerie stop-animation in a decaying house
Alice in Wonderland (1966) – Surreal and dreamlike adaptation of the nonsense classic depicts the main characters as Victorian ladies and gentlemen rather than talking animals
Allegro non Troppo (1976) – “The Italian Fantasia” has some mildly surreal animated sequences, with black and white sequences of an orchestra of old ladies that may be even stranger
Altered States (1980) – Ken Russell’s visionary tale of genetic regression under the influence of magic mushrooms may be the greatest “trip” movie ever made
The American Astronaut (2001) – An absurdist indie sci-fi/western/musical/comedy co-starring the Boy Who Actually Saw a Woman’s Breast
Antichrist (2009) – Controversial, extremely graphic allegory about a man and woman lose their child and retreat to a cabin in the woods where they go crazy
The Apple (1980) – Crazy, campy musical flop that is simultaneously an allegory for the Garden of Eden and the rise of disco
Archangel (1990) – Surreal, nearly silent meditation on forgetfulness set in an icy Russian city just after World War I
Arizona Dream (1993) – A dream fish swims through the desert and Johnny Depp is romantically trapped between a cougar who dreams of flying and her suicidal daughter
Bad Boy Bubby (1993) – Relentlessly offbeat character study of a man who was locked in a basement until age 35, then unleashed on modern Australia
Barbarella (1968) – Slinky Barbarella flies through the sinful galaxy finding herself in sexy psychedelic situations
Barton Fink (1991) – A leftist Hollywood screenwriter endures a case of writer’s block that turns into a living nightmare on the eve of WWII
The Beast [La B;te] (1975) – A drawing room nuptial drama, only with scenes of explicit (simulated) bestiality
The Beast of Yucca Flats (1961) – Dadaist narration courtesy of the eccentric Coleman Francis makes this tale of a nuclear blast turning Tor Johnson into a ravaging desert “beast” weird indeed
Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012) – Six-year old Hushpuppy lives in “the Bathtub” with her dying daddy, and imagines aurcohs coming to get her
Beauty and the Beast [La Belle et la Bete] (1946) – One of the greatest fairy tale films ever made, with Surrealist-inspired set design including living candelabras
The Bed Sitting Room (1969) – Ralph Richardson mutates into a bed sitting room in this absurd post-apocalyptic comedy
Begotten (1991) – Legendary experimental film, featuring God disemboweling himself and other metaphysical atrocities
Being John Malkovich (1999) – You can enter the head of the titular actor through this weird metaphysical comedy, the screenwriting debut of bizarre movie titan Charlie Kaufman
Belle de Jour (1967) – A young French housewife has bondage fantasies that gradually merge with her everyday reality in this once-salacious arthouse hit
Beyond the Black Rainbow (2010) – Modern recreation of a circa 1983 midnight movie, about a telepath imprisoned in the mysterious New Age Arboria Institute
The Black Cat (1934) – The first and best of the Boris Karloff/Bela Lugosi team-ups is an Expressionist horror masterpiece about Satanism and vengeance
Black Moon (1975) – Louis Malle’s unexpected venture in surrealism features gender genocide, breastfeeding, and a unicorn
Black Swan (2010) – A ballerina goes mad as she encounters her lustful double while preparing to dance the lead in “Swan Lake”
Blood Diner (1987) – Severely out-of-whack horror-comedy with (possibly unconscious) fascist undertones
Blood Tea and Red String (2006) – The Dwellers Under the Oak seek to recover their stolen doll from depraved white mice in this surreal stop-motion animated fairy tale for adults
Blue Velvet (1986) – Jeffrey finds a severed ear and it leads him to a melancholy nightclub singer, a deranged drug-huffing pervert, and a suave karaoke version of Roy Orbison
The Boxer’s Omen [Mo] (1983) – Surreal black magic battles featuring an evil wizard with a detachable head and a nude she-demon birthed from crocodile carcass
A Boy and His Dog (1975) – Post-apocalyptic tale of a wasteland rapist and his far more intelligent telepathic dog companion
Branded to Kill (1967) – Seijun Suzuki’s surreal, scrambled yakuza thriller about a rice-sniffing hitman famously got him fired by the studio who financed it
Brazil (1985) – Terry Gilliam’s must-see dystopian black comedy mixes expressionism, surrealism, fantasy, and film noir to create a keen satire of bureaucracy
Bronson (2008) – Overwhelmingly stylized biopic of Charlie Bronson (born Michael Peterson), the self-mythologizing celebrity who prides himself on being Britain’s most violent prisoner
Bubba Ho-Tep (2002) – Elvis and black JFK team up to fight a mummy terrorizing their rest home
Careful (1992) – Residents of an Alpine village fear avalanches and their own incestuous desires in this comic surrealist melodrama shot in “two-strip” Technicolor
Carnival of Souls (1962) – Low-budget creepfest is a minor miracle on film
Cat Soup (2001) – The surreal adventures of an anthropomorphic cartoon cat and his half-dead sister
Cemetery Man [Dellamorte Dellamore] (1994) – Surrealist arthouse zombie gore film about the caretaker of a graveyard where the dead refuse to stay down
Un Chien Andalou (1929) – A razor through an eyeball announces the Surrealist revolution
Christmas on Mars (2008) – The Flaming Lips bring us the most vaginal imagery ever seen in a psychedelic science fiction Christmas movie
The City of Lost Children [La cit; des enfants perdus] (1995) – Visionary steampunk fairytale from Jeunet & Caro
Clean, Shaven (1993) – A deinstitutionalized man seeks his lost daughter in what may be the most clinically accurate depiction of schizophrenia ever filmed
A Clockwork Orange (1971) – Kubrick weirds it up in this disturbing moral fable
The Color of Pomegranates [Sayat Nova] (1969) – Impressionistic, poetic retelling of the life of Armenian bard Sayat Nova in a series of surreal tableaux
Conspirators of Pleasure (1996) – A man with a chicken complex and a woman who snorts dough are two of the six characters whose bizarre fetishes intersect in this intricate Surrealist joke
The Cook the Thief His Wife & Her Lover (1989) – Peter Greenaway’s lavish Jacobean revenge fable is set in a French restaurant where a boorish Thief terrorizes the staff and customers
Cowards Bend the Knee, or, the Blue Hands (2003) – Typically surreal modern silent from the inimitable Guy Maddin mixing melodrama, Greek tragedy, psychosexual guilt, and hockey highlights
Daisies [Sedmikr;sky] (1966) – Sexy Czech hippie chicks wreaking havoc in this banned satire of something or other
The Dance of Reality (2013) – Alejandro Jodorowsky’s surrealistic autobiography is one of his most accessible films, although it still features a woman who can only sing opera and who cures plague with her urine
The Dark Backward (1991) – The world’s worst comic nearly becomes an overnight success when he grows a third arm out of his back in this grotesque show business satire
Dead Man (1995) – Hypnotic, dreamlike Western about a man bearing the name of a dead poet and an Indian named Nobody
Dead Ringers (1988) – Twin gynecologists (!) go crazy in this odd psychodrama from horror maestro David Cronenberg
Death Bed: The Bed That Eats (1977) – Rediscovered oddity about a man-eating bed is a surreal horror/art film/black comedy, or something?
Death by Hanging (1968) – A Korean killer survives his execution, and puzzled police bureaucrats try to recreate the capital crimes to cure the condemned’s amnesia
Delicatessen (1991) – Jeunet & Caro’s first film is a bizarre but oddly sweet black comedy involving cannibalism in post-apocalyptic Paris
Der Samurai (2014) – A man with a katana in an evening dress terrorizes a rural German town
Destino (2003) – Reconstruction of an abandoned 1946 collaboration between Salvador Dal; and Walt Disney; it’s a five minute moving Dal; canvas
Dillinger is Dead (1969) – Nearly forgotten late 1960s avant-garde alienation piece about a gas-mask designer who spends an evening puttering about his apartment
Doggiewogiez! Poochiewoochiez! (2012) – A remake of The Holy Mountain composed entirely of found footage of dogs
Dogtooth [Kynodontas] (2009) – Three children are raised to adulthood in a bizarre estate where words mean just what the tyrannical father wants them to in this shocking Greek art film
Dogville (2003) – This misanthropic fable is like de Sade’s “Justine” played out on the set of Wilder’s “Our Town”
Donnie Darko (2001) – Angsty, apocalyptic, fantastical drama about a screwed-up, possibly time-traveling teen is an irresistibly lovable mess
Don’t Look Now (1973) – Classic psychological horror with a weird twist
The Double (2013) – In a comically nightmarish nowhere, meek clerk Simon James is bedeviled by James Simon, his exact double and his exact opposite
Eden and After (1970) – Bored college students steal a painting and end up in Tunisia, although it could just be the drugs in this surreal sadomasochistic story that could be described as Alice in Wonderland meets Justine meets The Trip
Eisenstein in Guanajuato (2015) – Delirious biopic postulating that Soviet director Sergei Eisenstein lost his virginity to his guide while in Mexico to film a movie that never got made
Elevator Movie (2004) – Surreal and minimalist independent feature about two people trapped in an elevator for months; well-scripted and weird as hell but very amateur
El Topo (1970) – Mystical and surreal Spaghetti Western from Alejandro Jodorowsky
Enemy (2013) – A history professor is obsessed with tracking down a man who appears to be his exact double; spiders appear
Enter the Void (2009) – Provocative and pretentious, Gaspar No;’s “psychedelic melodrama” is nonetheless the best trip film of the young millennium
Eraserhead (1977) – The ultimate nightmare experience, about horror at procreation and loathing for one’s own offspring
Escape from Tomorrow (2013) – Surrealist satire secretly shot in Disney World, with mad scientists, evil witches, French jailbait, and a cat flu plague
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) – Jim Carrey unexpectedly shines as he fights against a memory-erasing procedure he impulsively undertook; a weird crowd-pleaser
Even Dwarfs Started Small (1970) – Dwarf inmates revolt against their dwarf oppressors at an unnamed institution; they burn flowerpots, crucify monkeys, and laugh at defecating camels
Evil Dead II (1987) – The frenetic, fantastic and crowd-pleasing movie about a man trapped in a cabin menaced by evil spirits, mixing equal parts horror and absurd slapstick comedy
Eyes Without a Face [Les Yeux sans Visage] (1965)– Georges Franjou’s influential, poetic horror film
Fantasia (1940) – Dinos, demons and hippos illustrate the classical music canon in Walt Disney’s weirdest classic
Fantastic Planet [La Plan;te Sauvage] (1973) – Tale of humans kept as pets by giant blue aliens, told in a Terry-Gilliam-meets-Salvador-Dal;-in-space animation style
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) – Terry Gilliam’s adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson’s cult novel about two burnouts taking insane quantities of drugs in the City of Sin
Fellini Satyricon (1969) – Bizarre androgynous costuming and mythological leaps of logic gird a great director’s decadent extravaganza
Final Flesh (2009) – Four separate porn-troupes-for-hire enact an absurdist prank script about the apocalypse
The Forbidden Room (2015) – Guy Maddin’s collection of reimagined lost films, with tales curled inside each other like Russian nesting dolls
Forbidden Zone (1982) – Frenchie is lost in the 6th Dimension and her family and friends must save her from the king and queen in this surreal musical that often looks like a Fleischer Brothers cartoon
Funky Forest: The First Contact (2005) – Selection of surreal, interwoven sketches from three Japanese directors is uneven, as you would expect, but contains some of the weirdest sequences you’re likely to come across
Glen or Glenda (1953) – Ed Wood’s pro-transvestite documentary, with Bela Lugosi as an omniscient one-man Greek chorus and a dream sequence featuring bondage
Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell (1968) – Survivors of an airline crash squabble among each other while psychedelic space vampires pick them off
Gothic (1986) – Hallucinatory excess from Ken Russell, about the night Mary Shelley conceived “Frankenstein”
Gozu (2003) – Erotically charged, hallucinatory Takashi Miike horror/yakuza mashup
La Grande Bouffe (1973) – Four successful men lock themselves inside a chateau and eat themselves to death
Greaser’s Palace (1972) – A zoot-suited Jesus visits a Western town to enact a series of absurd parables
Gummo (1997) – Indisputably weird but ceaselessly unpleasant portrait of hopeless white trash
H;xan [Witchcraft Through the Ages] (1922) – Silent documentary about witchcraft containing the most diabolically visionary horror images of all time
Head (1968) – Prefab pop band the Monkees commit career suicide with this psychedelic spit in the eye of their young fans
Heavenly Creatures (1994) – Peter Jackson brings the fantasy world of two teenaged murderesses to life in this crime drama based on a real-life case
Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001) – Hedwig, a punk band leader and victim of a botched sex change operation, chases the rock star who stole her songs across the U.S.
Help! Help! The Globolinks [Hilfe! Hilfe! Die Globolinks] (1969) – The world’s only psychedelic children’s opera about an alien invasion
Holy Motors (2012) – “Mr. Oscar” drives around Paris taking on “assignments” that require him to become a hit man, accordionist, and a fashion-model abducting leprechaun
The Holy Mountain (1973) – An extravagant, psychedelic tour of world mysticism has a guru lead a Christ-figure and companions on a quest to storm the Holy Mountain
The Horrors of Spider Island [Ein Toter hing im Netz] (1960) – A bad misogynist fever dream involving poorly dubbed buxom women, and some spiders, on an island
Hour of the Wolf [Vargtimmen] (1968) – An artist is invited to visit the castle of—demons? ghosts? hallucinations?—in Ingmar Bergman’s Gothic horror
House [Hausu] (1977) – The weirdest haunted house movie ever made; no one forgets the scene where the piano eats the girl
Howl’s Moving Castle (2004) – An 18-year old girl is turned into an old woman and goes to work for a wizard in a steampunk castle
How to Get Ahead in Advertising (1989) – A hotshot ad exec grows a pimple that turns into a head in this bizarre, biting satire
I Can See You (2008) – This “psychedelic campfire tale” is slow to start, but climaxes in a 20 minute freakout
Idiots and Angels (2008) – A loathsome man grows wings in this occasionally surreal animated black comedy that expertly mixes cynicism with romanticism
I’m A Cyborg, But That’s OK [Saibogujiman Kwenchana] (2006) – Romantic comedy set in a mental asylum is likely to remain the weirdest example of its genre
The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle (2009) – Experimental cookies cause hallucinations and pregnancy in male janitors in this indie comedy sleeper
L’Immortelle (1963) – A professor in Istanbul finds and loses a mysterious woman in novelist Alain Robbe-Grillet’s directorial debut
Inherent Vice (2014) – Pot-smoking detective “Doc” Sportello investigates kidnappings, fake murders, a sinister consortium of dentists, and more in this baffling adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s novel
Ink (2009) – Visually impressive low-budget fantasy about a mysterious figure who snatches a sleeping girl into a world of dreams
INLAND EMPIRE (2006) – This story of Laura Dern trapped in a nightmare while filming a cursed script is perhaps David Lynch’s weirdest movie
Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream People Call Human Life (1995) – An ambitionless man enrolls in a school for servants and enters into ambiguous relationships with the brother and sister who run the institute
Jacob’s Ladder (1990) – Big-budget cult mindtrip movie with unforgettable demonic hallucinations
Japanese Summer: Double Suicide (1967) – A nympho who can’t get laid meets a suicidal man who can’t get killed in the surreal Sixties satire
John Dies at the End (2012) – A psychedelic drug called “Soy Sauce” gives two slackers the psychic powers necessary to sense an incoming extra-dimensional invasion
Johnny Got His Gun (1971) – Antiwar classic about a limbless, blind and deaf casualty of the first World War, trapped inside his own head where he lives out a mixture of dreams and fantasies
Keyhole (2011) – A gangster journeys through a haunted house unlocking forgotten family memories
Kontroll (2003) – A kontroller living in the Budapest subway chases after a mysterious killer pushing people onto the train tracks in this mythic thriller
Kung Fu Hustle (2004) – Totally off-it’s-rocker kung fu comedy/fantasy that became a smash international hit
Kwaidan (1964) – Old Japanese ghost stories turned into Expressionist art
L’Age d’Or (1930) – A documentary about scorpions turns into the story of a man and woman’s frustrated love, then into Jesus’ Sadean orgy
The Lair of the White Worm (1988) – Ken Russell’s ultra-fun, tongue-in-cheek horror movie filled with phallic symbols and impaled nuns
The Legend of Suram Fortress [Ambavi Suramis Tsikhitsa] (1984) – The fortress of Suram is doomed to crumble eternally until a youth entombs himself in its walls
Lemonade Joe [Limon;dov; Joe aneb Konsk; Opera] (1964) – Anarchic Czech Communist musical Western spoof about a lemonade-drinking cowboy who challenges the whiskey monopoly in a frontier town
L;olo (1992) – A French Canadian boy who believes he was conceived from an Italian tomato contaminated with semen uses imagination to escape from his dysfunctional family
Lisztomania (1975) – Composer Franz Liszt battles composer/vampire Richard Wagner in this crazy classical music comedy
Little Otik [Otes;nek] (2000) – A barren woman adopts a log as a child, and it comes to life and begins eating the neighbors in this black comedy adaptation of an Eastern European folktale
Lost Highway (1997) – A jazzman allegedly kills his wife, then one day disappears and a totally different man wakes up in his death row cell
Love Exposure (2008) – A virginal Catholic who makes his living as a pornographer with ninja skills at upskirt photography tries to save his unrequited love from a religious cult in this bizarrely plotted four hour comedy epic
Lucifer Rising (1981) – Egyptian gods and goddess conjure Lucifer and flying saucers in this short (30 minutes), occult, avant-garde masterpiece
Maelstrom (2000) – This tale of a pretty young socialite’s guilt is narrated by a talking fish
Malpertuis (1972) – Harry K;mel’s big weird dark house tale was confusing and a flop despite the presence of Orson Welles, but drips with surreal atmosphere nonetheless
Maniac (1934) – Resurrection of the dead, an orangutan-man rapist and edible cat eyeballs all feature heavily in this deranged exploitation movie that seems to have been directed by an actual maniac
Manos: The Hands of Fate (1966) – Could have been the worst movie ever made, if not for the redemptive presence of the great oddball character Torgo, the spastic satyr
Marquis (1989) – The story of the Marquis de Sade’s imprisonment in the Bastille, performed by characters in animal masks and featuring Sade’s penis in a speaking role
Meshes of the Afternoon (1943) – This fifteen minute afternoon nightmare with cloaked figures with mirrored faces gave birth to the American avant-garde
Metropolis (1927) – Fritz Lang’s futurist fantasia, a political allegory with Biblical imagery, undercover robots and Bauhaus designs
The Milky Way [La Voie Lactee] (1969) – A dry and cerebral, but very weird, story by surrealist master Luis Bu;uel about two tramps meet various Biblical characters and embodiments of Catholic heresies while traveling on a pilgrimage
Mood Indigo (2013) – A wealthy inventor’s wife grows ill from a water lily growing in her lung in this whimsical and surreal adaptation of Boris Vian’s novel
Mr. Nobody (2009) – The last mortal man in the world remembers dozens of parallel reality variations of his life
Mulholland Drive (2001) – Radical identity shifts and surrealistic nightclub acts ignite this dreamlike noir fable about love, guilt and Hollywood
Naked Lunch (1991) – David Cronenberg’s adaptation of the unadaptable William S. Burroughs novel features film’s scariest typewriters
Natural Born Killers (1994) – A pair of serial killers become celebrities as they slay their way across a hallucinogenic America
Night of the Hunter (1955) – A homicidal Preacher with “LOVE” and “HATE” tattooed on his hands hunts children carrying treasure in this Southern Gothic Expressionist fable
Night Train to Terror (1985) – God and Satan watch badly edited horror films on a train while a New Wave band practices one compartment down
Ninja Champion (1985) – Rose seeks revenge against her diamond-smuggling rapist, while in another movie clumsily pasted on to that one, an Interpol ninja assassinates evil ninjas while they practice circus tricks
Nosferatu (1922) – F.W. Murnau’s unauthorized Expressionist adaptation of “Dracula” is a melange of sex and disease
Nostalghia (1983) – Andrei Tarkovsky’s slow, beautiful, dreamlike spiritual parable about a homesick Russian poet in Italy
O Lucky Man! (1973) – Sprawling satire with Malcolm McDowell, Kafkaesque interrogations, a half-man half-hog, and breastfeeding
Orpheus (1950) – When Jean Cocteau refashions the Greek myth for postwar France, Orpheus and Death fall in love, and Death’s chauffeur gets the hots for Eurydice
Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) – Guillermo del Toro’s beautiful fairytale; a girl completes quests at a faun’s behest, while her “real” world Fascist stepfather is a monster beyond all fantasy
Paprika (2006) – Stunning Satoshi Kon animation; scenario involves terrorists invading dreams, then turning them loose on the streets of Tokyo
Performance (1968/1970) – Gangster James Fox is fed magic mushrooms and turned into a hippie by Mick Jagger and groupies in this psychedelic stunner
Persona (1966) – A mute actress and her nurse switch personalities at a vacation home – maybe?
Phantasm (1979) – Crazy, nightmarish, obstinately illogical drive-in horror flick about a kid and a sinister funeral home, featuring the terrifying “Tall Man”
Phantom of the Paradise (1974) – A rock n’ rollin’ mix of Phantom of the Opera and “Faust,” with just the right amount of crazy
Pi (1998) – Amazing black and white photography and a pulsing electronica soundtrack drive this intellectual thriller about a mad math genius seeking a mystical number
Pierrot le Fou (1965) – A television personality goes on the lam with his babysitter in this playfully fractured, classic Nouvelle Vague road movie
The Pillow Book (1996) – Gorgeous experimental video, full of layered images, illustrates this story of a woman obsessed with creating living books by drawing on nude bodies
Pink Flamingos (1972) – Divine goes to excessive lengths to prove she is the filthiest person in the world
Pink Floyd the Wall (1982) – Bombastic, unfocused, overwrought and often brilliant rock opera, with knockout animation from British political cartoonist Gerald Scarfe
The Pornographers (1966) – Ogata makes pornographic movies while sleeping with his landlady and lusting after her teenage daughter, under the watchful eye of a carp the widow believes is her reincarnated husband
Prospero’s Books (1991) – Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” as an avant-garde video version of Renaissance painting come to life, with plentiful nudity and all parts voiced by Sir John Gielgud
Reality (2014) – An aspiring filmmaker gets lost in nightmares inside of nightmares when he is tasked with finding an award-winning scream as a prerequisite to funding his movie
The Red Squirrel [La Ardilla Roja] (1993) – A suicidal man pretends to be the boyfriend of a beautiful amnesia victim, but how long can he keep up the charade?
The Reflecting Skin (1990) – Uneven but sometimes powerful flick teeming with symbolism about a kid who thinks his widow neighbor is a vampire, among other strangenesses
Repo Man (1984) – A punk kid takes a job as a repo man and searches for a car with a mysterious glowing cargo in the trunk
A Report on the Party and Guests (1966) – Picnickers are kidnapped and taken to a party in this Kafkaesque allegory on totalitarianism made (and banned) in Communist Czechoslovakia
Repulsion (1965) – Disturbing Roman Polanski peek inside Catherine Deneuve’s disintegrating mind
Robot Monster (1953) – A gorilla alien in a diving helmet and his bubble machine invade Bronson Canyon
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) – Even without its bizarre cult following, this naughty musical b-movie spoof would have earned a place on the list
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (1990) – The two minor characters from “Hamlet” wander around the castle of Elsinore, unaware that they are actually characters in a play
Rubber (2010) – The best animated tire serial killer movie ever made gets bonus points for including an audience that comments on the absurdly comic proceedings
The Ruling Class (1972) – The 14th Earl of Gurney is unfit to serve in the House of Lords because he believes he is God, but he becomes even worse after he is “cured”
Run Lola Run (1998) – Lola has twenty minutes to raise 100,000 Deutschmarks and get it to her desperate boyfriend; fortunately, she gets a do-over
The Saddest Music in the World (2003) – A legless Winnipeg beer baroness holds a contest to discover the titular music in this typically retro comic outing by Guy Maddin
Sans Soleil (1983) – Remarkable, meandering mondo-style arthouse documentary that mixes a trip to a cat shrine and a monkey porn museum with cinematic poetry
Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny (1972) – Insanely bad holiday cheer about Santa’s sleigh stuck on a Florida beach, and Thumbelina, and the sad-sack Pirates World amusement park…
Santa Sangre (1989) – Psychedelic slasher film about a man raised in a circus who acts as the hands for his armless mother
A Scanner Darkly (2006) – An undercover cop addicted to a powerful future narcotic is assigned to investigate himself in this rotoscoped adaptation of the paranoid Philip K. Dick novel
Schizopolis (1996) – Fletcher Munson struggles to write a speech for a Scientology-like leader while his doppelg;nger is having an affair with his wife
The Science of Sleep (2006) – The melancholy love life of a man who can’t distinguish dreams from reality
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010) – A Toronto slacker must defeat his new girlfriend’s seven evil exes in this video game styled cult pic
A Serious Man (2009) – The Coen brothers’ retelling of the Book of Job as an absurdist comedy is mystifying and brilliant in equal parts
Shanks (1974) – A mute puppeteer (played by Marcel Marceau) learns to operate dead bodies like marionettes, and ends up fighting bikers
Shock Corridor (1963) – Eccentric auteur Sam Fuller imagines Cold War America as a mental asylum in this campy melodrama with remarkable expressionist visuals
Silent Hill (2006) – Sloppy scripting and apocalyptic imagery combine to create a truly weird experience
Sin City (2005) – Visually stunning, ultraviolent postmodern noir
The Singing Ringing Tree (1957) – This magical fairytale featuring an evil dwarf, a prince in a bear suit, and a nightmarish mechanical goldfish terrified a generation of British children
Sita Sings the Blues (2008) – An animated retelling of the Indian epic “Ramayana,” with music video interludes featuring a Betty Boop-like demigodess singing the torch songs of Annette Hanshaw
Skidoo (1968) – Carol Channing strips, Jackie Gleason drops acid and Groucho Marx is “God” in this all-star psychedelic misfire
Society (1989) – This horror satire about a teen who doesn’t fit in with his high society family is famous for its wild, surrealist makeup effects
Solaris [Solyaris] (1972) – Minimalist, mystical science fiction about a conscious planet that recreates a cosmonaut’s dead wife
Songs from the Second Floor (2000) – Millennial and existential panic in a nameless Swedish city, told in a spare, absurd style
Spider Baby, or the Maddest Story Ever Told (1967) – The Merrye family reverts to savagery as they age in this horror/comedy with an utterly unique tone
Spirited Away (2001) – Hayao Miyazaki’s masterpiece about a girl trapped in a bathhouse of spirits is Japan’s answer to “Alice in Wonderland”
Stalker (1979) – Andrei Tarkovsky’s slow, mystifying, beautiful science fiction parable about three men’s journey to a room which can grant their innermost wishes
Steppenwolf (1974) – The psychedelic effects in this faithful adaptation of Herman Hesse’s novel have dated badly
Strange Frame: Love & Sax (2012) – Romance and intrigue on the moons of Jupiter in this psychedelic animated lesbian science fiction musical
Suspiria (1977) – Bizarre, unreal color schemes and a pounding score surrealize this horror fairy tale about a coven of witches operating a ballet academy
Sweet Movie (1974) – A beauty contest winner’s prize is to marry a billionaire, while in a second plotline a socialist sea captain sails down an Amsterdam canal with a hold full of sugar in this scatological political satire
The Swimmer (1968) – Cheerful go-getter Ned decides to swim home through his neighbor’s pools, but has he forgotten something important?
Synecdoche, New York (2008) – Charlie Kaufman working without a net in this absurdist, recursive, and dreamlike story of a sad-sack theater director who builds a replica of New York City inside a warehouse
Tales from the Quadead Zone (1987) – We chose this ultra-low-budget anthology of horror stories to represent the work of outsider VHS shlockmeister Chester N. Turner
Taxidermia (2006) – A penis ejaculating fire is the take-home image from this surreal and twisted Hungarian generational epic; barf bags recommended
Tekkonkinkreet (2006) – Orphans White and Black scrape out an existence on the surreal streets of Treasure Town
Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989) – A man inexplicably transforms into metal, set to an industrial soundtrack in grainy 16mm black and white
Tideland (2005) – Terry Gilliam’s dark and controversial riff on Alice in Wonderland
Time Bandits (1981) – Time-traveling, thieving dwarfs feature heavily in this weird kiddie film mixing fantasy, comedy and theology
The Tin Drum (1979) – A three-year old German boy refuses to grow up, then witnesses the rise of Nazism
Tokyo Gore Police (2008) – A female cop hunts spontaneously mutating serial killers in this very weird, often imitated splatterpunk classic
Toto the Hero [Toto le Heros] (1991) – A man nurses a lifelong grudge against the neighbor he believes stole his life (and maybe the love of his sister)
Trash Humpers (2009) – Geriatric miscreants vandalize a trash-strewn Nashville and force Siamese twins to eat soap-soaked pancakes in this non-narrative celebration of VHS aesthetics. A “reader’s choice” poll winner.
The Tree of Life (2011) – Terrence Malick wonders how best to tell the tale of a Texas boy’s strained relationship with his demanding father, and concludes the answer is to include dinosaurs
The Trial (1962) – Josef K. finds he’s accused of a crime, but no one will tell him what it is in Orson Welles’ adaptation of Franz Kafka’s absurdist/existentialist classic
The Triplets of Belleville (2003) – Three retired jazz singers help a nearsighted grandma and her overweight dog save a bicyclist from art deco gangsters in this dialogue-free animation set in a surrealistic 1940s milieu
Tromeo & Juliet (1996) – The creators of The Toxic Avenger remake the Bard’s tale as an obscene punk epic, with predictably bizarre results
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010) – Meditative Thai movie where the border between this world and the next is as thin as a strip of film
Upstream Color (2013) – An examination of what happens when a woman is infected with a will-sapping worm that is then implanted in a pig to create a psychic link
Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (1970) – The onset of menses turns 13-year old Valerie’s innocent world of childhood into a dream of rapist priests, lesbians, incest, and vampires
Vampyr (1932) – Dreamlike early talkie about a student of the occult who wanders into a French village suffering a vampiric infestation
Vertigo (1958) – An acrophobic detective falls for a mysterious woman in Alfred Hitchcock’s obsessive exploration of sexual desire
Videodrome (1983) – Discovery of a pirate snuff film broadcast leads to a hallucinatory melding of man and media
Visitor Q (2001) – Takashi Miike’s story about a mysterious visitor who disrupts dysfunctional family dynamics breaks the lactation taboo
Waking Life (2001) – The story of a young man who finds he’s dreaming and can’t wake up, with serious philosophical monologues and dialogues interspersed, painstakingly animated by over thirty artists in differing styles
Weekend (1967) – A money-grubbing couple travel through a surreal French countryside full of burning wrecks, fictional characters and feral hippies as they try to secure an inheritance from the wife’s dying father
The Wicker Man (1973) – Horrifying and intelligent tale of a devout detective’s search for a missing girl on a Scottish island where the residents have adopted an ancient pagan religion
Wild at Heart (1990) – Sailor and Lulu flee mother’s assassins as they tool down the yellow brick road that leads to madness
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971) – A laborer race of orange and green dwarfs and the bad acid boat trip from hell tip this kiddie musical into the weird column
Yellow Submarine (1968) – Animated film inspired by the Beatles songs is a psychedelic trip through surreal seas in a quest to defeat the music hating Blue Meanies
You, the Living [Du Levande] (2007) – 50 bittersweet, absurdist sketches on the crushing mundanity of everyday life
Zardoz (1974) – John Boorman’s pretentious, campy sci-fi epic full of floating stone heads, psychedelic effects and Sean Connery in a red diaper
Zazie dans le Metro (1960) – 10-year old Zazie explores a Paris filled with transvestites, dirty old men, desperate widows and polar bears in this absurdist tribute to slapstick comedy
Z;ro de conduite (1933) – Boys in a French boarding school rebel in this anarchist/surrealist anti-establishment classic
LIST CANDIDATES (movies that didn’t make it on a first pass, but may get a second chance)
1 (2009) – The Reality Defense Institute investigates a mysterious book which is turning the whole world mad
7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964) – A shapeshifting “Chinaman fakir” brings his allegorical circus to a Western town
200 Motels (1971) – Frank Zappa’s psychedelic review includes Ringo Starr as Larry the Dwarf, Keith Moon as a nun groupie, and an oratorio devoted to the penis
964 Pinocchio (1991) – A cybernetic male sex-slave is cast adrift in a weird world in this underground Japanese cyberpunk film
The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971) – Art-deco b-movie has fascinating production design and campy acting from star Vincent Price, but is it weird enough?
The Acid House (1998) – A trio of tawdry, disturbing fantasies penned by Irvine (“Trainspotting”) Welsh
Aegri Somnia (2008) – The sick dreams of a disturbed man
L’Age d’Or (1930) – A woman sucks a statue’s toe and Christ goes to an orgy in Bunuel and Dali’s blasphemous and surreal feature-length followup to Un Chien Andalou
Alice in Wonderland (1933) – This “star-studded” (W.C. Fields, Gary Cooper, Cary Grant) version of Lewis Carrol flopped on release—could it be because it was too weird for 1933 audiences?
Am;lie (2001) – A pixysh girl improves the lives of those around her in a kitschy version of Paris in this magical romantic comedy
Amer (2009) – Atmospheric, erotic giallo tribute
Angel’s Egg (1985) – Surreal anime about a girl tending an egg in a Gothic city
Angelus (2000) – A few decades in the life of a secret apocalyptic cult in Communist Poland
Angst (1983) – Intense Austrian movie that traps the viewer in the mind of a serial killer
Antiviral (2012) – In a satirical dystopian future, people pay to be infected with viruses taken from their favorite celebrities
April and the Extraordinary World (2015) – French steampunk animation about the workl that results when Napoleon III tries to create an army of invulnerable monkeys
Asparagus (1979) – Surreal 18 minute tour de force featuring obscene iterations of the title vegetable. Included on The Films of Suzan Pitt.
The Atrocity Exhibition (2000) – Series of bizarre sketches based on a J.G. Ballard anthology
The Attic Expeditions (2001) – Mindbending psychological horror that loses its mind, mixing occultism, medical experimentation and general weirdness into a confusing B-movie blend
Bad Girls Go to Hell (1965) – A housewife descends into a dreamlike sexual hell in this roughie with lots of random shots of feet and furniture
The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009) – Nic Cage unloosed, iguanas, and an ambiguous ending give this crazy thriller some weird cred
La Belle Captive (1983) – A man seeks a mysterious woman who may be a ghost, a vampiress or a dream in this film that visually references the paintings of Rene Magritte
Blancanieves (2012) – A modern silent retelling of the legend of Snow White set in the bullfighting culture of 1920s Spain
Blind Woman’s Curse (1970) – A feminist yakuza ghost story
Borgman (2013) – A criminal insinuates himself into a Dutch family’s home
The Bothersome Man (2006) – A freethinker seeks escape from a bland paradise
Brain Damage (1988) – The Aylmer attaches himself to Brian’s brainstem, feeding him an addictive drug in return for grisly murders
The Brain That Wouldn’t Die (1962) – A mad scientist searches for a hot new body for the recently decapitated fianc;e whose head he’s keeping alive in his basement
Brewster McCloud (1970) – Bizarre, bird-oriented Robert Altman cult satire about a boy who dreams of flying inside the Houston Astrodome
The Butcher Boy (1995) – Death and abandonment send a rebellious Irish youth into a psychotic maelstrom
Calvaire (2004) – Strange, surreal, and excessive Belgian horror about a lounge singer stranded in a remote town full of perverted and sadistic men
The Catechism Cataclysm (2011) – The world’s least likely (and maybe least effective) priest goes on a beer-drinking, headbanging canoe trip with his high school idol
Charms (1973) – Some sort of biker/western/witchcraft counterculture mishmash
Chicken with Plums [Poulet aux Prunes] (2011) – The deathbed hallucinations of a master musician who gives up on life after his beloved violin is destroyed
Chronopolis (1982) – Reader review by Morgan Hoyle-Combs. Seldom-seen abstract stop-motion animation from France
“The Comb” (1990) – Quay Brothers animation about a man trying to reach a sleeping woman in her dream
Come and See (1985) – Unremittingly bleak Soviet WWII film with dreamlike passages
The Company of Wolves (1984) – Impressionistic retelling of Little Red Riding Hood as the werewolf sex dream of an adolescent girl
The Congress (2013) – An aging actress (Robin Wright, playing a version of herself) allows her image to be digitized for virtual reality use in the future in this partly animated mindbender
The Cremator [Spalovac Mrtvol] (1969) – This Expressionist/Surrealist mix about a disturbed Czech cremator during the rise of Nazism has a good chance to make the final list.
Cube (1997) – Seven strangers awake to find themselves imprisoned in a cubical maze filled with deadly traps
The Cult of the Damned [Angel, Angel, Down We Go] (1969) – A rock singer influences a Hollywood household in this psychedelic musical satire
Cure (1997) – Pretty weird Japanese twist in the serial killer/police procedural genre
Dark City (1998) – Noirish sci-fi mindbender about a city of eternal night
Dark Country (2009) – Noir-thriller mix about a honeymooning couple who run over a man in the desert
Dead Leaves (2004) – Hyperactive anime about a guy with a television head and a girl with mismatched eyes breaking out of a mutant clone prison on the moon
The Death King (1990) – A suite of seven stories about suicide
Decasia (2002) – An atonal symphony scored to decaying nitrate images from silent films
Desperate Living (1977) – Alfred Eaker considers this third film in John Waters’ “Trash Trilogy” a “descent into a surreal, kitsch abyss that few could imagine”
The Devil (1972) – A Polish soldier goes on a rampage, encouraged by a Mysterious Stranger
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972) – Six friends attempt to eat dinner together but their attempts are frustrated for increasingly surreal reasons
Django Kill… If You Live, Shoot! (1967) – An ambiguously dead antihero who shoots golden bullets fights Mr. Sorrow and his gang of gay fascist cowboys
The Double Hour (2009) – A woman is haunted by apparitions of the dead and visions from what seem to be an alternate, parallel version of her life
Dr. Caligari (1989) – This pop-surrealist work by a hardcore porn director suffers from bad acting, but it is weird as hell; likely to make the list on a second pass
Duck Soup (1933) – Groucho’s lack of diplomacy leads Freedonia into war in the surrealest of the Marx Brothers features
Edward Scissorhands (1990) – A mad scientist fashions a creature with razor-sharp fingers, who then must adapt to suburbia
Entertainment (2015) – An anti-comic on a tour of the Southwest bombs, existentially
eXistenZ (1999) – Bizarre scenarios inside a virtual reality game world
The Exterminating Angel (1962) – Guests at a bourgeois dinner party find themselves inexplicably unable to leave
The Falling (2014) – Students at an all-girls school experience a collective mass hysteria after one of their group unexpectedly passes away
Fando y Lis (1968) – Alejandro Jodorowsky’s first film, from a Fernando Arrabal play, is about a man carrying his lame lover through the desert on a quest to find the magical city of Tar
Father’s Day (2011) – A serial killer who preys on fathers is just the starting point for this lunatic bad-taste comedy that literally winds up in Hell
Faust (1994) – Veteran stop-motion surrealist Jan Svankmajer’s take on the Faust legend
Faust (2011) – Aleksandr Sokurov’s hallucinatory version of the Faust story
Female Trouble (1975) – Sprawling, trashy John Waters/Divine epic black comedy from the “crime is beauty” school
A Field in England (2013) – Soldiers eat psychedelic mushrooms and hunt for treasure during the English Civil War
Film (1965) – An avant-garde collaboration between Samuel Beckett (writing his only screenplay) and Buster Keaton
Flooding With Love for the Kid (2010) – Zachary Oberzan’s one-man Rambo adaptation, made for less than $100, is beyond weird or normal
The Fountain (2006) – The search for the fountain of youth, and also the story of a modern-day scientist seeking a cure for cancer, and also the story of a tree-tending guru floating in a space bubble
Frank (2014) – A mediocre songwriter joins a band led by a genius who refuses to remove his giant papier-m;ch; head
Frankie in Blunderland (2011) – Low budget hallucinatory trip through a bizarre hipster L.A.
Freaks (1932) – Alfred Eaker provides background and a review of Tod Browning’s controversial, creepy classic
Frownland (2007) – Painfully emotionally intense character study of a loser whose social anxiety disorder ironically turns him into loathsome company
Get Mean (1976) – The only Spaghetti Western with Mongol hordes and a Spanish princess
Girl Slaves of Morgana le Fay [Morgane et ses Nymphes] (1971) – A fairy tale for lesbian sex fetishists
Goodbye Uncle Tom (1971) – A fake shocumentary about slavery in the American south, with nudity and depravity on an epic scale
Hansel and Gretel (2007) – Korean adaptation of the fairytale switches the roles of the children and adults; it’s a beautifully made movie but perhaps too predictable in the end
Hard to Be a God (2013) – Undercover Earth visitors are forbidden to intervene in the affairs of a planet stuck in its own filthy version of the Middle Ages
The Hawks and the Sparrows (1966) – Two men meet a talking Marxist raven on the road
Heart of Glass (1976) – Werner Herzog had his cast lietrally hypnotized for this dreamy story of the slow death of a German town after its master glassblower dies, taking his secrets to his grave
Heavy Traffic (1973) – An underground cartoonist animates the highlights of his lowlife neighborhood in this edgy and occasionally surreal mix of animation and live action
Hellzapoppin’ (1941) – Anarchic musical comedy from vaudevillians Chick Johnson and Ole Olsen is probably the weirdest Hollywood musical of all time
Hour of the Wolf (1968) – Ingmar Bergman’s “official” horror movie
The Hourglass Sanatorium (1973) – A man visits his dead father in a sanatorium where temporal rules don’t apply
House of 1,000 Corpses (2003) – Rob Zombie’s cruel and self-indulgent Texas Chainsaw Massacre tribute is weird but not much fun
House of Evil (1968) – One of Boris Karloff’s final, half-Mexican films; also one of his worst
I [Heart] Huckabees (2004) – An activist hires two existential detectives to investigate the Huckabees corporation
Immortal (Ad Vitam) (2004) – The Egyptian god Horus visits future Manhattan in this trippy French sci-fi feature mixing live and computer generated actors
Inherent Vice (2014) – This (purposefully) confusing hippie noir about missing persons, a heroin consortium and tax dodges for dentists is the first authorized adaptation of one of Thomas Pynchon’s dense postmodern novels
Innocence (2004) – Schoolgirls arrive at this unnamed institute in a coffin, and are trained in biology and ballet with no men and few adults
The Isle [Seom] (2000) – A mute woman falls for a suicidal man among the floating cabins of a fishing resort in this bizarre sadomasochistic romance
Jesus Christ Superstar (1973) – The film adaptation of the rock opera chronicling the passion of Jesus
Je T’aime, Je T’aime (1968)
Kaboom (2010) – College student stumbles upon odd murder mystery in this mix of sex and weirdness
Kung Fu Arts [Hou Fu Ma] (1980) – A Chinese princess marries “Sida, the French Monkey Star” in this zany chopsocky
The Last of England (1988) – Utterly avant-garde and abstract, it’s a mad meditation on the decline of Britain in the 1980s
L’il Quinquin (2014) – When human body parts are discovered in cows, it’s up to a detective with bizarre facial tics to not solve the murder in a French coastal town full of eccentrics
Livide (2011) – Surreal modern French haunted house movie
Lost River (2014) – An urban fantasy/fairy tale set in a city in decline
Lunacy [Sileni] (2005) – Jan Svankmajer directs the Marquis de Sade in a tale by Edgar Allan Poe
The Machinist (2004) – Possibly predictable mindbender starring an emaciated Christian Bale
The Magic Christian (1969) – A billionaire induces people to degrade themselves for money in this series of bizarre satirical sketches
Make-out with Violence (2008) – A young man rekindles romance with his ex; the only issue is, she’s dead
The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976) – David Bowie is the alien who falls to Earth and is s corrupted in this nonlinear, experimental sci-fi movie
Master of the Flying Guillotine (1977) – Crazy kung fu spectacle featuring a decaptitating sidearm and a monk with extensible arms
Maximum Shame (2010) – The tagline describes it as “an apocalyptic fetish horror musical chess sci-fi weird feature movie”—and it is!
Meek’s Cutoff (2010) – Westbound pioneers gamble on a shortcut and find themselves unsure which guide they can trust
Mindflesh (2008) – A taxi driver is haunted by an alien nymphomaniac from another dimension
Modus Operandi (2009) – Grindhouse spy spoof with ridiculous amounts of nudity and violence and about a 5% admixture of surrealism
Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life (1983) – Monty Python discusses life in a series of (sometimes weird) sketches
My Own Private Idaho (1991) – Weaves two weird premises together: the story of a narcoleptic searching for his mother and a modern adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Henry IV, Part I.”
Night Across the Street (2012) – Raoul Ruiz’ last completed film is an absurdist meditation on death
The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) – Macabre stop-motion animated cult favorite about the Pumpkin King of Halloweentown trying to reproduce Christmas in his own ghoulish style
Night on the Galactic Railroad (1985) – Two kitty cats take a trip on a train to see the sights: candy-flavored herons, self-replicating apples, and stairways that lead to the center of the universe
Ninja Champion (1985) – An exemplary Godfrey Ho cut-n-paste mess, with newly shot ninja footage inserted into an already ridiculous old kung fu movie to produce something impossible to follow
The Ninth Configuration (1980) – A psychiatrist argues for the existence of God in an experimental military mental hospital
The Nude Vampire [La Vampire Nue] (1970) – A man kidnaps a vampire hoping to learn the secret of immortality, but it turns out she’s from another dimension, and her kinsfolk want her back
Oldboy (2003) – Excellent, if extreme, Korean revenge drama could stand just a teaspoon more weirdness…
Palindromes (2004) – A 13-year old girl desperately wants to become pregnant; she’s played by 8 different actresses of different ages, weights and races
The Peanut Butter Solution (1985) – This odd story of a kid losing all his hair, then growing it back with the help of hobo ghosts freaked out lots of unsuspecting kids in the 1980s
The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes (2005) – This Quay Brothers fairy tale about a piano tuner, a mad doctor and a withdrawn opera diva overflows with dream sequences
Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) – The 1900 St. Valentine’s Day disappearance of schoolgirls from a picnic goes unexplained
A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence (2014) – More existential sketch comedy from the unique Roy Andersson, featuring two chronically depressed novelty salesmen and King Charles XII
Pom Poko (1994) – Tanuki (“raccoon dogs”) fight against the encroachment of humans into their forests in this animated fantasia from Studio Ghibli
Possession (1981) – Isabelle Ajani has sex with an octopus; weird enough for you?
The Phantom of Liberty (1974) – A series of Surrealist sketches by the great Luis Bunuel
Philosophy of a Knife (2008) – 4+ hours (!) of surreal re-enactments of torture scenes mixed with documentary footage about Japanese WWII atrocities
Punch-Drunk Love (2000) – A man with anger management issues (Adam Sandler, in a bizarre casting choice) finds love in this eccentric romantic black comedy
Putney Swope (1969) – A militant black man becomes head of a Madison Avenue advertising agency in this absurdist satire from the Swinging Sixties
R100 (2013) – A man hires dominatrixes to attack him in public, but then things get strange
The Rambler (2013) – A man is released from prison and hitchhikes across the West meeting mummy-toting professors and a femme fatale who will not die
Rape of the Vampire [Le Viol du Vampire] (1968) – A psychotherapist tries to convince four sisters they aren’t vampires, then gets killed and resurrected to defeat the Queen of the Vampires in this surrealist horror
Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967) – Marlon Brando is a repressed homosexual in John Huston’s way overheated melodrama
Repo! the Genetic Opera (2008) – An all singing, all the time sci-fi/horror hybrid about organ repossession
Requiem for a Vampire (1973) – An aging vampire needs two killer lesbian clowns to regenerate his race in Jean Rollin’s most sexually explicit erotic horror movie
Resolution (2012) – Strange things happen when a man tries to kick his meth habit in a remote cabin in this mindbending meta-horror
Rubber’s Lover (1996) – In a modern update of the Frankenstein plot, a team of rogue scientists conduct experimental research on abducted subjects in a secret government torture lab
Rubin and Ed (1991) – Ed is a sad-sack salesman, Rubin is an antisocial shut-in, and together they bury a dead cat
Saint Clara [Clara Hakedosha] (1996) – A psychic Russian immigrant girl in Israel gives her classmates test answers, until she falls in love
The Saragossa Manuscript (1965) – The weird adventures of a Napoleonic solider are told in this “existential potpourri”
Satantango (1994) – Bela Tarr’s glacially paced, almost 8 hour long Hungarian black comedy is a classic and/or an exercise in minimalist extremes
Savage Witches (2012) – Two teenage girls seek to play games and avoid responsibility in this modern experimental tribute to Daisies
Sex and Lucia [Lucia y el Sexo] (2001) – Arty dirty movie with a meta-narrative and nude Paz Vega
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978) – If you hate the Beatles, you’ll love this bizarrely bad disco-era insult to their memory
Sherlock Jr. (1924) – Buster Keaton’s movie projectionist dreams himself onto the big screen as a detective
The Short Films of David Lynch (2002) – The short “The Grandmother” is a weird classic; the rest of this collection, less so
Simon of the Desert (1965) – Truncated (45 minute) surrealist feature about the temptation of a saint who lives on a pillar in the desert
Singapore Sling (1990) – Black and white film noir tribute with mucho sexual perversion and general weirdness
Six-String Samurai (1998) – Buddy Holly is a sword-swinging rock n’ roller seeking to claim Elvis’ throne in an alternate post-apocalyptic reality
Sleepaway Camp (1983) – 1980s teen slasher whose unforgettable ending has given it a cult reputation
Sleeping Beauty (2011) – A young girl takes job as an unconscious prostitute
Some Call it Loving (1973) – A jaded, modern, softcore porn take on “Sleeping Beauty”
Sound of Noise (2010) – A tone deaf detective tries to stop a gang of musical terrorists from staging a conceptual piece in the public spaces of a Swedish city
Southland Tales (2006) – Crazy, near-incoherent apocalyptic epic; a famous flop from the creator of Donnie Darko
Spider (2002) – David Cronenberg turns inward for this story of a schizophrenic misremembering a family tragedy
Stingray Sam (2009) – It’s a six part musical/Western/sci-fi serial; need we say more to catch your interest?
The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears (2013) – A businessman searches for his missing wife in this stylized neo-giallo from the makers of Amer
“Street of Crocodiles” (1986) – A globule of spittle animates a puppet who journeys to a tailor’s shop underneath a crocodile skeleton
Suicide Club (2002) – Japanese surrealism about an unexplained wave of suicides among Tokyo teens
Super (2010) – Uneven comic entry in the “average guy decides to become a masked vigilante” subgenre
Symbol (2009) – A Japanese man wakes up in a white room full of cherub phalluses, while a Mexican luchador prepares for a match
Tales of Ordinary Madness (1981) – There’s little that’s ordinary in these magical realist tales based on the life of skid-row poet Charles Bukowski
The Telephone Book (1971) – A nymphomaniac falls in love with the world’s greatest obscene phone caller in this arty sexploitation feature that ends with a surreal obscene cartoon
The Temptation of St. Tony (2009) – Kafkaesque Estonian retelling of the temptation of St. Anthony
Teorema (1968) – A handsome stranger sleeps with each member of a bourgeois family, and their lives self-destruct when he disappears
The Theatre Bizarre (2011) – A puppet version of Udo Kier introduces six perverse tales of terror
The Voices (2014) – A schizophrenic takes advice from his talking dog and cat
The Third Part of the Night (1971) – Andrzej Zulawski‘s first film is a WWII drama where a man finds a double of his dead wife
Three Crowns of the Sailor (1983) – A sailor related the surreal tales of his travels to exotic ports to a student
The Tingler (1959) – Vincent Price takes acid and exposes the creature that lives in our tailbones and causes fear
To Die for Tano [Tano da Morire] (1997) – This amateur mafia musical is a cult classic in Italy
Tokyo! (2008) – Tryptich of weird tales set in the titular metropolis, from directors Michel Gondry, Leos Carax and Joon-ho Bong
Tommy (1975) – A deaf, dumb and blind kid plays a mean pinball in this psychedelic version of the Who’s best-selling rock opera
A Town Called Panic (2009) – The outright insanity of this picaresque children’s adventure appeals to weirder adults
Toys in the Attic (2009) – A dictatorial Head kidnaps a motherly doll in this Czech stop-motion animated kids fantasy
Trans-Europ-Express (1967) – A producer and director invent a movie about a drug smuggler in Antwerp with a strangulation fetish
Tuvalu (1999) – Can Anton get his family’s Turkish bathhouse to pass inspection while winning the heart of the girl who blames him for her father’s death?
Twice Upon a Time (1983) – A shapeshifting “all-purpose animal” and a silent tramp try to save the world from nightmare bombs in this uniquely conceived animated feature
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992) – David Lynch took an on-the-edge TV series over the cliff with this divisive prequel exploring Laura Palmer’s last days
Under the Skin (2014) – A beautiful female alien hunts lonely men in Scotland, until she goes renegade and tries to make it as a human being
Up! (1976) – Alfred Eaker contends it’s Russ Meyer’s “most surreal live-action X-rated cartoon”
Vampire’s Kiss (1988) – Glorious ham Nic Cage’s most over-the-top performance, as an abusive literary agent who believes he is becoming a vampire
Vera (2003) – A Mexican miner encounters an alien spirit who leads him into the land of the dead in this mystical movie whose visual ambitions exceed its budget
A Virgin Among the Living Dead (1973) – This dreamlike tale of a beautiful girl who inherits a home full of strange relatives may be Jess Franco’s best work
Viridiana (1961) – A novice nun inherits her uncle’s estate and turns it into a charitable haven, with disastrous results
The Visitor (1979) – Jesus is an alien in this incoherent flop Exorcist ripoff
The Wayward Cloud (2005) – Taiwanese minimalism mixing porno shoots, a watermelon fetish, and musical numbers
Witching and Bitching [Las Brujas de Zugarramurdi] (2013) – Robbers rip off a pawn shop and then fall into the clutches of a coven of witches in this over-the-top horror comedy
Why Don’t You Play in Hell? (2013) – A renegade amateur filmmaking crew exploits actual Yakuza mayhem for its cinematic value
Wonderwall (1968) – An absent-minded professor spies on a fashion model frolicking in a psychedelic wonderland by peeping through the hole in his apartment wall
World on a Wire (1973) – Werner Rainer Fassbinder does The Matrix 25 years earlier, and does it with more artistry
Wrong (2012) – Absurdist comedy about a man searching for his kidnapped dog
Xtro (1983) – incoherent alien exploitation pic that’s fairly standard, up until when the dwarf clown hits the nanny on the head with a rubber hammer and uses her to incubate alien eggs
Yakuza Weapon (2011) – An already nearly invincible yakuza warrior is turned into a killer cyborg with armaments for arms
Yellowbrickroad (2010) – Decades ago, the residents of a New England town mysteriously disappeared; a new generation unwisely sets out to discover the cause
Yokai Monsters: Spook Warfare (1968) – Japanese yokai unite to defeat a Babylonian vampire in this puppet fantasy
A Zed and Two Noughts (1985) – The intersection of zoology and amputation
CAPSULES & GUEST REVIEWS
@SuicideRoom (2011) – A suicidal Polish teen retreats into a virtual reality world
2012 Aficionado DVD Zine: Issue #0
3 Dev Adam (1973) – Captain America and Santo team up to defeat Spiderman in this ludicrous superherosploitation flick from Turkey
3-Iron (2004) – A nearly silent romance between a mute man who breaks into people’s places while they’re away and the abused model he meets in one home
4 (2005) – A surreal vision of Russia’s growing pains at the turn of the millennium
42nd Street (1933) – Racy pre-Code musical with classic, outrageous Busby Berkeley choreography
44 Inch Chest (2009) – London gangster drama and actor’s showpiece about four men who try to goad a cuckold into killing his wife’s lover; contains psychological fantasy scenes
7th Day (2012)
7 Women (1966) – John Ford’s final movie involves sexual repression at an almost all-female mission in China
88 (2015)
9 (2009) – Shane Acker’s intriguing short about ragdolls fighting robots in a post-apocalyptic world suffers from extension to feature length
$9.99 (2008) – A series of interwoven absurdist stories, featuring a dour chain-smoking angel, brought to you via Claymation
Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) – The comedy duo meet the Monster (but not Dr. Frankenstein), along with Dracula and the Wolfman
The ABCs of Death (2012) – Uneven horror anthology with 26 directors each assigned a letter of the alphabet; three of the segments are super-weird
The ABCs of Death 2 (2014)
Absurdistan (2008) – charming, unusual, almost silent romantic comedy about a sex strike by the women of an isolated Central Asian village
The Acid Eaters (1968)
Acid Head: The Buzzard Nuts County Slaughter (2011) – Another 2.5 hour epic grindhouse endurance-test comedy from the director of Frankenpimp and Vixen Highway 2006: It Came from Uranus
Across the Universe (2007) – Julie Taymor’s Beatles fantasia has some ripe psychedelic moments, but not enough to make it consistently weird
The Act of Killing (2012) – Leaders of Indonesian death squads recreate their crimes in the style of Hollywood movies they loved as young men in this emotionally devastating documentary
The Addiction (1995) – Abel Ferrara’s pretentious, existential, and strange take on the vampire myth
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988) – An old man tells tall tales about meeting Greek gods and the King of the Moon in the most expensive and least weird entry in Terry Gilliam‘s imagination trilogy
The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926) – History’s first animated feature film is an “Arabian Nights”-esque fantasy seen in silhouettes
The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D (2005) -Wacky Robert Rodriguez film about a kid’s dream world, co-scripted by his then seven-year old son Racer
After.Life (2009) – Christina Ricci spends much of this post-mortem psychological thriller in the nude
Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972)
A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)
Aimy in a Cage (2015)
Air Doll (2009)
A Journey into the Mind of P (2001) – Guest review of the documentary on reclusive writer Thomas Pynchon
; L’aventure (2009): A levitating orgasm is the highlight of this otherwise dull and talky philosophical French sex flick
Aleister Crowley’s the Rites of Mars: A Rock Opera (2014)
Alice (2009) – TV miniseries re-imagining Wonderland as a dystopian kingdom is surprisingly entertaining
Alice in Wonderland (1951) – Animated version of the nonsense classic is pretty good, but too Disneyfied to be weird
Alice in Wonderland (1986) – Straightforward BBC TV adaptation of the nonsense classic, with musical numbers and an overage Alice
Alice in Wonderland (2010) – Tim Burton’s adaptation of the classic is visually impressive, but the generic fantasy plot means it’s for kids only
Alice Through the Looking Glass (1973) – This BBC television production is a rare standalone production of Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland” sequel
Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016)
Alien Terror (1971) – When Boris Karloff accidentally shoots a UFO with his death ray prototype, B-movie silliness follows
Alien vs. Ninja (2010) – Decent martial arts actioner with nutty premise and a touch of absurd comedy
All My Friends Are Funeral Singers (2010) – Odd indie drama about a fortune teller living in a house full of ghosts comes from the lead singer of the band Califone
All That Jazz (1979) – A workaholic choreographer’s deathbed hallucinations take the form of production numbers
Alps (2011) – Actors stand in for deceased love ones in this bleak and absurd Greek arthouse drama
Alyce Kills (2011) – A party girl becomes a serial killer after she accidentally offs her best friend
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014) – Another summer blockbuster Alfred Eaker found underwhelming
The Amazing Transplant (1970) – Amazingly bad story about a man who receives a rapists penis in a transplant operation
American Grindhouse (2010) – Primer on the shadowy history of the exploitation movie industry
An American Hippie in Israel (1972)
American Pop (1981)
American Sniper (2014)
Angel Heart (1987) – Supernatural noir that’s well worth a watch, but not transcendentally weird
Anna Karamazoff (1991) – A woman returns to a city looking for her mother but finds only absurdities in this hard-to-find avant-garde Russian film
Annie Hall (1977) – Touchstone romantic comedy/relationship movie that was innovative in breaking the fourth wall, but not weird
Anomalisa (2015)
Ant-Man (2015)
Aphrodisiac! The Sexual Secret of Marijuana (1971) – Pro-pot propaganda interspersed with brief hardcore sex vignettes makes for an uncomfortable marriage in this early porn attempt to evade the censors
Arabian Nights (2015)
The Arbor (2010) – Experimental documentary of playwright Andrea Dunbar, told by actors lip-synching recordings of her friends and family
Army of Darkness (1992) – The final (?) installment of the “Evil Dead” series is aimed at a more mainstream audience but is still of some interest
Ascanio in Alba (2006) – Disappointing staging of the Mozart opera about a man romancing a nymph, partially in 3-D (or not)
At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul (1964) – Cruel and blasphemous undertaker Coffin Joe terrorizes his Brazilian town until the spirits of those he’s wronged come for him at midnight
Attenberg (2010) – An asexual girl and her promiscuous friend invent weird dances in this strange Greek drama
Automatons (2006) – A girl living with robots in an underground bunker is the lone survivor of her race in this grainy throwback to 1950s style sci-fi
Avatar (2009) – Just to remind us why we prefer weird movies to Hollywood formula movies, Alfred checks out James Cameron’s blockbuster and finds it wanting
The Babadook (2014)
Baba Yaga (1973) – Former Baby Doll Carrol Baker is a lesbian witch in this weirdish erotic Eurosleaze
Babe: Pig in the City (1998)
Babo 73 (1964) – The President of the United Status fights the Red Siamese and his own crazy cabinet in this underground comedy
The Baby (1973) – A concerned social worker tries to get custody of a mentally impaired adult being raised as a baby in this odd, campy thriller with a nice twist ending
Baby Face (1933) – Barbara Stanwyck sleeps her way to the top in this racy pre-Code melodrama
Bad Biology (2008) – Frank Henenlotter’s gleefully tasteless horror comedy about killer genitalia
Bad Chicken (2013) – A sociopathic chicken tries to seduce a beautiful woman by pretending to put her on a reality television program
Bad Milo (2013) – Whenever he gets stressed, a monster emerges from an accountant’s lower intestine and goes on a killing spree
The Banishment (2007) – The longest and most detailed analysis on this site outlines the religious allegory in this tale of adultery
The Banshee Chapter (2013) – A writer based on Hunter S. Thompson is a clue to solving a mystery about CIA mind control drugs
Basket Case (1982) – Worthwhile gory shocker about a monster who fits inside a basket, but not so very weird, by our high standards
Bathory (2008) – Revisionist drama arguing the infamous Countess who bathed in the blood was framed for her murders
Batman (1989) – Tim Burton’s Batman was a pop sensation and a triumph of art direction
Batman Returns (1992) – Alfred Eaker argues Tim Burton’s sequel is the best (and weirdest) comic book movie ever made
Batman vs. Superman (2016)
Battle at Beaver Creek (2014) – In the future small bands fight government mind control in this feature whose tiny budget can’t realize its large ambitions
Battle Royale (2000) – Satire (of sorts) about Japanese schoolchildren sent to fight to the death on a remote island; excellent, thrilling cult movie, but not quite weird enough
Because of Eve (1948)
Beat Girl (1960)
Bedways (2010) – If you’ve ever longed to see an explicit sex film that will put you to sleep, this pretentious German movie about a director not making an explicit sex film will fit the bill
Bellflower (2011) – Twentysomethings build cars out of Mad Max in between bouts of drinking in this odd mumblecore feature with some delusional behavior
Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970) – Surviving subterranean humans worship the atom bomb in this first Apes sequel (which ends with the destruction of the Earth)
Beneath the Valley of the Ultravixens (1979)
Between Men (1935) – Melodramatic “B”-western, part of Alfred Eaker’s survey of Sinister Cinema’s “Sinister Six Gun Collection”.
The Beyond (1981)
Beyond Re-Animator (2003) – The zippy third sequel to the grossout zombie horror-comedy classic features more tasteless jokes and crazed carnage
Beyond the Grave (2010)
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970)
The Big Bang (2011) – Neo-noir with Antonio Banderas, a plot involving stolen diamonds and the search for the God particle, and superfluous magical realist digressions
Big Calibre (1935) – Exceedingly odd early b-Western featuring a bucktoothed hunchback who throws vials of acid
Big Eyes (2014) – Tim Burton bopioc about Margaret Keane
Big Fish (2003)
Big Man Japan [Dai Nihonjin] (2007) – A deadpan mockumentary about a middle-aged, out-of-fashion superhero who battles bizarre monsters in modern Tokyo
Big Money Rustlas (2010) – Western spoof starring washed-up rap stars in clown makeup is for juggalos only
The Birds (1963) – Without any logical explanation, birds begin attacking the coastal town of Bodega Bay, California, it Alfred Hitchcock’s horror movie
Bitch Slap (2009) – A tongue-in-cheek, “postmodern” tribute to Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! built entirely around the allure of cleavage
Birdemic: Shock and Terror (2008) – The new cult/bad movie phenomenon, a “romantic thriller” Birds ripoff built around a combination of the worst script, acting and special effects to make it to the big screen in some time
Birdman (2014) – An aging actor known for his portrayal of the superhero “Birdman” puts on a Broadway play, while battling a voice that tells him to put on the suit again
Bird People (2014)
The Blackbird (1926) – Lon Chaney in a dual rule as a crippled bishop and an underworld kingpin
Black Cat, White Cat (1998) – A coke-snorting crook tries to arrange a wedding for his short, shrewish sister in this quirky gypsy gangster comedy
Black Devil Doll from Hell (1984) – A magical puppet that can grant “the hearts’ desire” rapes the sexually repressed church lady who buys it in this sleaze with home movie production values
Black Sunday (1960) – A witch is reincarnated centuries later in this groundbreaking Gothic starring the luminous Barbara Steele
Blacula (1972)
Blank City (2010) – Informative documentary on the No Wave/Cinema of Transgression underground movements in New York City in the 1980s
Blood Sabbath (1972) – This modern fairy tale about a Vietnam vet who falls for a water nymph and loses his soul to a witches’ coven should have been titled “Boob Sabbath”
Bloodsucking Freaks (1976) – A thin plot about a grand guignol stage show used as cover for a white slavery ring is an excuse to show naked women degraded, tortured and killed in this alleged comedy
Blow-Up (1966)
Bluebeard (1944) – Edgar G. Ulmer directs John Carradine (a match made in Poverty Row heaven) in this modern adaptation of the Bluebeard legend
Blue Beard [Barbe Bleue] (2009) – A slow paced, nearly literal adaptation of the fairy tale about a French aristocrat murdering his child brides, with an enigmatic ending
Blue Movie (1978) – Surreal Salo-chic sadomasochism from Italy’s sleazy age
The Body Snatcher (1945) – Starring Boris Karloff in his evilest role as a cabman who supplies a doctor with cadavers for experiments
The Box (2009) – An adaptation of Richard Matheson’s ethical sci-fi fable gets weirded up by Richard Kelly
Brainiac [El bar;n del terror] (1962) – Cheap, silly Mexihorror featuring a hairy monster with a two-foot brain-sucking tongue that must be seen to be believed
Branded (1950) – Bad Alan Ladd goes undercover to try to steal a rancher’s inheritance
Branded (2012) – An advertising executive sees brand loyalty materializing as badly realized CGI attached to consumers, then foments an all-out brand war to destroy them
The Bravados (1958) – Underrated Western with Gregory Peck
Brides of Dracula (1960) – Immediate sequel to The Horror of Dracula dispenses with Christopher Lee’s Count but remains atmospheric nonetheless
The Bride of Frank (1996) – Offensive underground transgressive comedy about a bum serial killer in search of a wife with big boobs
The Bride of Frankenstein (1935) – Many consider this gay-coded sequel to be the greatest horror (or horror-comedy) movie ever
Britannia Hospital (1982)
The Brood (1979)
Bruiser (2000) – Reader recommendation. A loser extracts revenge on those who have wronged him whenever he puts on a blank mask.
A Bucket of Blood (1959) – A loser is celebrated as a great sculptor when he accidentally kills a cat by covering it in clay
Buffalo ’66 (1998) – An ex-con kidnaps a tap dancer to pretend to be his wife while he plots the murder of the placekicker he believes ruined his life
Bug (2006) – Ashley Judd is mesmerizing in this adaptation of a stage play about extreme paranoia
The Bulgarian Prophet (2010) – A Bulgarian immigrant is struck by a meteor and becomes a prophet in this one-man-show animated satire
Bunny and the Bull (2009) – Mildly surreal comedy from the creators of “The Mighty Boosh” about an agoraphobic’s flashback tour of Europe staged on fantastically artificial sets
Bunraku (2010) – Campy, oversaturated action/fantasy about cowboys and samurai in a post-apocalyptic world
Burning Inside (2010) – overlong, extremely low-budget tale of an amnesiac with buried secrets that borrows the look and feel of classic B&W weird films
Burnt Offerings (1976)
Bushido Man (2013) – Silly martial arts comedy (with decent battles) about a combatant who eats his opponent’s favorite meal before each battle to better understand his foe
Buttwhistle (2014) – An altruistic slacker saves the life of a mean-spirited girl, and in gratitude she destroys his life in this surreal indie comedy
Buzzard (2014)
The Cabin in the Woods (2012) – Excellent postmodern horror flick that turns slasher film conventions on their head while at the same time honoring them
Calvary (2014)
The Cameraman (1978) – Buster Keaton plays a cameraman with a monkey sidekick
Cannibal Holocaust (1980) – Filmmakers torture a cannibal tribe and are eventually eaten by them; turtles are beheaded
Carmel (2009) – Impressionistic autobiographical tale of an Israeli director; frequently weird, but more frequently dull and obtuse
The Cars That Ate Paris (1974)
La Casa del Terror (1960) – Spanish-language musical horror-comedy involving both a mummy and a werewolf (and a grunting Lon Chaney, Jr.)
Casino Royale (1967) – This all-star spy spoof, from five different directors and based on a James Bond novel, is a famously overindulgent flop
The Casserole Masters (200?) – Amateur avant-garde film with some interesting animation; currently available for viewing online (and not available any other way)
Castle in the Sky (1986) – Kid-friendly anime about a floating city is magical, but not weird
The Cat and the Canary (1927) – Early silent “old dark house” movie that set the standards for the genre
Catch My Soul (1974)
Caterpillar (2010) – A dutiful wife cares for her deaf and dumb quadruple-amputee husband after the Japanese Emperor declares him a “living war god”
Cat People (1942) – A Serbian woman fears that she will turn into a panther and kill her husband if she loses her virginity in this “quiet horror” classic
Cat People (1982) – Strange, hypereroticized and occasionally surreal update of Val Lewton’s classic about a race of people who turn into panthers when sexually aroused
Cauldron of Blood (1970) – Mild psychedelia pervades this otherwise uninteresting horror film, one of Boris Karloff’s final efforts
Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010) – Werner Herzog’s remarkable documentary about the world’s oldest cave paintings, originally in 3D
The Cell (2000)
Certified Copy (2010) – An unexplained identity shift provides refined weirdness in this otherwise talky and intellectual arthouse drama
Chafed Elbows (1966) – Walter has a breakdown, gives birth to ten dollar bills and marries his mom in this seminal underground comedy
The Chair (2007) – Interesting Canadian indie horror film about possession that lacks true weirdness
Charley Bowers: The Rediscovery of an American Comic Genius – Collection containing most of the nearly lost silent films of absurdist stop-motion animator and comedian Bowers
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)
The Chase (1946)
The Chaser (1928) – Early gender-switch comedy has Harry Landon sentenced to play the role of wife
Cherry, Harry & Raquel (1970)
Child Bride (1938)– This salacious, leering “expos;” of child marriage among hillbillies is 1930s filmmaking at its most shamelessly exploitative
Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things (1972)
Chi-Raq (2015)
The Choppers (1961)
Christmas Evil (1980) – Offbeat, low budget character study about a killer Santa that’s not as exploitative as future films exploring the same territory
The Circus (1928) – Charlie Chaplin’s Tramp invades a circus
Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV (2000) – the long running series hits a new low in bad taste with this installment, but of course, that was what they were aiming at
City Lights (1931) – The Tramp romances a blind flower girl
City Ninja [Tou Qing Ke; AKA Ninja Holocaust] (1985) – Another crazy ninja movie, but this time with steamy sex scenes
City of the Living Dead (1981)
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (2009) – An inventor learns how to make it rain food in this animated hit film
C Me Dance (2009) – The Devil battles a cancer-stricken teen ballerina for the soul of the world in this embarrassingly earnest proselytizer
Codex Atanicus (2007) – A compilation of three perverse, surreal shorts from Spanish underground filmmaker Carlos Atanes
Coherence (2013) – Mindbending, largely improvised eight character sci-fi mini-classic about alternate realities
Cold Souls (2009) – Philosophical satire about soul removal and storage, starring Paul Giamatti as himself and a Russian soul mule
The Collective Vol. 4: Emotions – Ten ten-minute short horror films, each based on a different emotion
The Collective Vol. 7 – Another low-budget horror anthology from Indiana-based indies
Comanche Station (1960) – Alfred Eaker’s review of the Budd Boetticher cult Western
Coming Soon (2008) – Guest review of the Czech bestiality mockumentary
Common Law Wife (1963) – (S)exploitation hoot about a sugar daddy who wants to dump his common law wife for his stripper niece
The Complete Metropolis (1927/2010) – Report on the restoration of Fritz Lang’s weird silent sci-fi classic
Computer Chess (2013) – Geeks compete at a computer chess tournament in this quirky dramedy with surreal touches
Condemned (2015)
Coraline (2009) – Enjoyable animated children’s fantasy from the animator of A Nightmare Before Christmas
The Corridor (2010) – Schizoid horror about madness in the woods
Cosmopolis (2012) – A billionaire takes a ride across Manhattan to get a haircut while society, and his personal life, seem to be collapsing
Courageous Avenger (1935) – Johnny Mack Brown B-western pits hero against a gang of gold thieves
Cowboy Bebop: the Movie (2001) – Feature-length, standalone adaptation of the cult TV anime about bounty hunters in space
Crank: High Voltage [Crank 2] (2009) – Reader recommendation. Crazed action movie where the bad guys have replaced the hero’s heart with a battery-powered pumper that must be recharged every hour.
Crave (2013) – A freelance crime scene photographer loses his mind in vigilante fantasies
Creature from the Haunted Sea (1961) – Flop Roger Corman comedy memorable only for its ridiculous monster
Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989)
Crowley [AKA Chemical Wedding] (2008) – From the pen of Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson comes this confusing sci-fi/horror tale mixing Aleister Crowley with quantum physics
Cry-Baby (1990) – Johnny Depp stars as a hood who can cry one tear on command in this rare family friendly outing from John Waters
Cuban Rebel Girls (1959): A strange, but not very entertaining, exploitation movie with Errol Flynn and his 14-year old girlfriend.
Cuban Story [AKA The Truth About Fidel Castro Revolution] (1959) – an odd pro-Castro documentary, financed and drunkenly narrated by Errol Flynn. See Cuban Rebel Girls.
Cube 2: Hypercube (2002) – Disappointing, if watchable, sequel to the surprise existential sci-fi hit
Cube Zero (2004) – Even more disappointing than Cube 2, as the series devolves into just another B-movie
Curse of the Cat People (1944) – This tender childhood fantasy has almost nothing to do with the original Cat People, but it’s still highly effective
Curse of the Crimson Altar (1968): Boris Karloff’s last film co-stars Christopher Lee and Barbara Steele dressed as a blue-faced ram, and yet it’s a seldom-screened disappointment
The Curse of the Werewolf (1961) – Literary take on lycanthropes from Hammer director Terence Fisher
Cutie Honey (2004)
Damaged Goods (1961)
Dames (1934) – Busby Berkeley’s first post-Hayes code musical finds him compensating for decreased sexuality with increased fantasy and geometrical choreography
Danger: Diabolik (1968) – Campy, psychedelic comic book madness from Italian horror maestro Mario Bava
The Dark Crystal (1982) – Weird creature conceptions, beautiful art design, totally conventional fantasy/quest plot
Dark Shadows (2012) – Comic remake of the cult Gothic soap opera; another recent Tim Burton disappointment. Guest review by James Mannan.
Dark Shadows (2012) – Alfred Eaker believed James Mannan’s review of the Tim Burton adaptation was not angry enough, so he added some vitriol to his own version
Da Sweet Blood of Jesus (2014)
Date Bait (1960)
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014) – This second installment of the reboot series finds tribes of intelligent apes battling pockets of post-apocalyptic humans
Daydream Nation (2010) – Tale of a teen girl in a strange town who finds herself in an unusual love triangle
The Day He Arrives (2011) – A Korean filmmaker finds events repeating themselves with subtle variations during a boozy trip to Seoul
Day of the Nightmare (1965) – B&W sexploitationer with polymorphous perversity and a killer in drag
Day of the Outlaw (1959) – A wounded outlaw rides into town in this bleak, wintry Western
Deadball (2011) – A pitching prodigy’s fatal fastball makes him the ace on a prison team playing a deadly variant of baseball
Deadgirl (2008) – Provocative horror about teenagers using a zombie as a sex slave
Deadly Weapons (1973) – 73FF-32-36 Chesty Morgan smothers victims with her breasts in this bizarre and unsexy sexploitationer
Dead Snow (2009) – Norway’s entry in the over-the-top zombie slaughterfest genre involves Nazi zombies at a snowbound cabin
Dear God, No! (2011) – Grindhouse throwback spoof combining bikers, mad scientists and bigfoot
Death Note (2006) – Offbeat mystery/thriller from a popular Japanese manga featuring mystical cat-and-mouse games between vigilante who can kill with a stroke of the pen and the superdetective who hunts him
Deep Red [Profondo Rosso] (1975) – Argento’s ultra-stylish giallo is both a treat on its own and a fascinating precursor to Suspiria
Destroy All Planets (1968) – Gamera the flying turtle fights off beehive-themed aliens in this representative fourth adventure, with fight footage from the three previous entries
Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame (2011) – A mystery/fantasy/kung fu/historical epic with a talking deer; what’s not to like?
Detour (1945) – Cult classic Poverty Row film noir
The Devil Doll (1936) – Tiny killers and Lionel Barrymore in drag make this one of Tod Browning’s more popular b-pictures
The Devil’s Carnival (2012) – Darren Lynn Bousman‘s followup to Repo: The Genetic Opera is a horror musical where Hell is depicted as a circus
Dickshark (2016)
Different Drum (2014) – Low-key, lower budget roadtrip movie about a musician and his pregnant ex-girlfriend traveling to a family wedding
Doctor X (1932)
Don Giovanni (2006) – Avant-garde staging of the Mozart opera with underwear model extras
Don Peyote (2104) -An unemployed pot-smoker becomes obsessed with conspiracy theories, then has a psychotic break with reality and goes on a vision quest
Don’t Look Back [Ne te Retourne pas] (2009) – Psychological thriller about one woman inhabiting two bodies is a bit disappointing, but includes great performances from Sophie Marceau and Monica Belluci
The Doors (1991)
Double Agent 73 (1974) – Chesty Morgan is back, this time as a spy with a camera implanted in her boobs
Dracula (1931) – Guest review. Alfred Eaker argues that Dracula is more significant than modern critics acknowledge
Dracula (1992) – Francis Ford Coppola’s romantic take on the Dracula myth is so visually extravagant even Keanu Reeves can’t completely ruin it
Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968) – The third Hammer Dracula sequel illustrates how far the series fell when director Terence Fisher left
Dracula, Pages from a Virgin’s Diary (2002)
Dracula, Prince of Darkness (1966) – Christopher Lee’s Dracula is mute in this Hammer horror
Drag Me to Hell (2009) – A de-weirdified, PG-13 Evil Dead for the cineplexes?
Dreamchild (1985) – Jim Henson puppets illustrate the fantasy sequences in this examination of the questionable relationship between Lewis Carroll and Alice Liddell, his underage muse
The Dress (1995) – Dutch black comedy about a dress that brings bad luck to its various wearers
The Duke of Burgundy (2014)
Dune (1984) – David Lynch’s attempt to translate Frank Herbert’s complex, mystical sci-fi epic was an infamous flop
The Dungeonmaster (1984) – Satan abducts a computer expert and sends him on a series of quests, each created by a different hack director
Easy Street (1917) – Charlie Chaplin’s Tramp becomes a cop and faces off with a henpecked crime boss
Eden Log (2007) – Mysterious French sci-fi about an amnesiac man trapped in a sewer-like maze
Edge of Tomorrow (2014) – Tom Cruise dies over and over while fighting aliens; part of 2014’s “Alfred Eaker vs. the Summer Blockbusters” series
The Editor (2014)
Edmond (2005) – William H. Macy wanders around in a sub-par David Mamet script
Ed Wood (1994) – Tim Burton’s love-letter to the transvestite godfather of so-bad-it’s-good cinema
Elena (2011) – Guest review by Eugene Vasiliev on Andrei Zvyagintsev‘s class drama set in the new Russia
The Elephant Man (1980)
Elvis (1979) – Early John Carpenter made for TV biopic of the King
Embrace of the Serpent (2015)
Emperor of the North Pole (1973) – A cruel conductor kills train-hopping hobos in the archetypal battle between evil and slightly-less-evil
The End of Time (2012) – Documentary about the nature of time that is equal parts philosophical and psychedelic
The Enigma of Kaspar Hasuer (1974)
Enter Nowhere (2011) – Four strangers meet in an isolated cabin in this psychological thriller with horror overtones and a twist ending
Enter the Dangerous Mind (2013)
Escanaba in da Moonilight (2001) – Supernatural deer-hunting comedy set among “Yoopers;” a regional curiosity
Evangelion 1.11: You Are (Not) Alone (2007/2010) – Mystical robots fighting in the post-apocalyptic future; not the weirdest entry in its long-running series
Evangelion 2.22: You Can (Not) Advance (2009/2011) – More teenagers piloting giant robots against “Angels” in a limbo between apocalypses
Evangelion 3.0: You Can (Not) Redo (2012) – Shinji awakes from a 14-year coma to a world of new characters and subplots in the penultimate installment of the series
Evil Dead (2013) – A de-weirdified reboot of the classic b-horror franchise
Ex-Drummer (2007) – Weird, but tedious and unpleasant, tale of a writer joining a punk group of handicapped misfits to compete in a Eurotrash battle of the bands
The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec (2010) – A turn-of-the-century adventuress deals with mummies and pterodactyls in this French comic fantasy
Exorcist III: The Heretic (1977) – John Boorman’s crazed flop sequel takes the action to Africa in search of the original demon who possessed young Regan four years ago
The Exorcist III (1990) – The original novelist directs this sequel about a serial killer, only tangentially related to the past two films
Eye of the Devil (1966) – Occult thriller notably mainly as the acting debut of Sharon Tate, and for prefiguring the pagan revivalist premise that would be more memorably addressed in The Wicker Man (1973)
Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
Fantasia 2000 (1999) – Belated sequel to the 1940 classic includes spectacular new animated musical interpretations of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” Stravinsky’s “Firebird Suite,” and more
A Fantastic Fear of Everything (2012) – Simon Pegg stars as a severely agoraphobic writer forced to brave a laundrette in this strange, only partly effective black comedy
Fantastic Four (2015)
Fast, Cheap and Out of Control (1997) – Documentary exploring the unlikely connections between a lion tamer, topiary gardener, naked-mole rat specialist and a robot designer
Face of the Screaming Werewolf (1964) – Cut-n-paste feature from Jerry Warren mixing scenes from Las Casa del Terror and The Aztec Mummy together with new footage to create an incomprehensible new movie
Faith of Our Fathers (1997) – Low-budget indie satire about modern chimney sweeps
The Fall (2006)
Fascination (1979) – Atmospheric but fairly straightforward erotic horror from atmosphere specialist Jean Rollin; the highlight is a topless Grim Reaper
FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions (2004) – A mute mystic in a future totalitarian matriarchy, with surreal elements
Faster Pussycat, Kill! Kill! (1965)
Fear Chamber (1968): One of Boris Karloff’s final Mexican movies has him as a mad scientist extracting blood from frightened young women at the behest of an alien rock
The Fear of Darkness (2014)
Feed (2005) – Grotesque thriller about obesity fetishes features women being fed to death
Fellini’s Roma (1972)
Fever Night AKA Band of Satanic Outsiders (2009) – Teens go into the woods and summon a psychedelic Satan in this trippy low budget effort
Fido (2006) – Domestic comedy set in an alternate “Leave it to Beaver” universe where zombies are kept as pets
The Fifth Element (1997) – Luc Besson’s attempt to make a space opera/comedy goes so far over the top that it very nearly becomes weird
Film Socialisme (2010) – Inaccessible experimental film essay from Jean-Luc Goddard about… well, no one knows what it’s about
The Films of Kenneth Anger, Vol. 2 (1963-1981) – Compilation featuring some of the avant-garde occultist’s most historically important features
This Filthy Earth (2001)
The Final Programme [AKA The Last Days of Man on Earth] (1973): An “international man of mystery” searches for a computer program that will create the Messiah
La Finta Giardiniera (2006) – Mozart’s craziest opera libretto is given a b-movie style treatment, complete with a man-eating plant and giant plastic spider
La Finta Semplice (2006) – Avant-garde staging of an opera Mozart wrote when he was 15 years old
The Fisher King (1991)
Flaming Star (1960) – Elvis Presley stars as a half-breed in this progressive Western
The Flesh Merchant (1956)
Footlight Parade (1933) – Naughty pre-Code Busby Berkeley musical containing the famously outrageous “waterfall” number
For Ever Mozart (1996) – Another confounding, over-intellectualized experiment by Jean-Luc Godard
The Fourth Dimension (2012) – Ho-hum triptych of movies from different directors, each invoking the fourth dimension (at least, in name)
The Fox Family (2006)
The FP (2011) – Post-apocalyptic gangs fight duels on a video game dance machine in this deadpan camp attempt to make a deliberate cult movie
The Frame (2014) – The separate worlds of a thief and a paramedic intersect in a Twilight Zone-y way
Frankenstein and the Monster From Hell (1974) – Terence Fisher’s final film, and Hammer studio’s final Frankenstein movie, as a weary swan song to both
Frankensteins Bloody Nightmare (2006) – A visually and aurally ingenious, surrealistically inspired remake of a trash horror in the style of Andy Milligan, which sadly suffers from having no story to tell
Frankenstein Created Woman (1967) – The third entry in Hammer’s Frankenstein series
Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969) – The fifth of the Hammer Frankenstein movie’s features Dr. Peter Cushing at his nastiest
Freaked (1993) – Absurd, grossout cult-comedy about freaks made by “Bill” of the Bill and Ted movies
Free Radicals: A History of Experimental Film (2012) – A subjective selection of experimental films, geared towards abstract visuals, from Dadaism to the New York art scene
From Beyond (1986) – Experiments to activate the dormant human pineal gland result in paranormal mayhem
From Dusk Till Dawn (2006) – Reprobates on the run are trapped in a bar full of vampires
Fudge 44 (2006)
Funny Games (1997) – Unmotivated sadists break the fourth wall in this controversial exercise from Michael Haneke
Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus (2006) – A freak awakens Diane Arbus’ artistic impulses in this fantastical fictional biopic
The Future (2011) – Indie dramedy about an anxious thirty-something couple, with magical realist moments (like a cat narrator and a talking moon)
Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life (2010) – The life story of the iconoclastic French singer, and of his grotesque puppet alter-ego “Professor Flipus”
Gallino, the Chicken System (2012) – A “pornophilophical” film that will thrill anyone with a fetish for seeing women deep-throating drumsticks
Garden State (2004) – Quirky indie from “Scrubs”‘s Zach Braff about young adult returning home to face his crazy family after mom dies (reader review)
Garden State (2004) – 366’s official review of the quirky romantic comedy Garden State
Gauguin: The Full Story (2003) – Documentary about the post-Impressionist painter
The Gays (2014) – Sitcom spoof about gay parents raising gay children
Gentlemen Broncos (2009) – Ultra-quirky tale of a sci-fi author who plagiarizes a teen’s fantasy epic, “The Yeast Lords: The Bronco Years”
Georges M;li;s: Encore (DVD compilation 2010, original films 1896-1911) – Essential collection of early shorts from the inventor of the fantasy film
Getting Any? (1994) – Takeshi “Beat” Kitano’s surreal slapstick about a sex-obsessed loser
Ghost in the Shell (1995) – A cyborg cop hunts a hacker in this seminal cyberpunk anime
Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2012) – Rant on the witless sequel and the sorry state of superhero movies
Gimme Shelter (1970) – Interview/memoir with John Semper Jr., who worked as an intern on this documentary that captured the murder at the Rolling Stones’ 1969 Altamont concert
Giorgio Moroder Presents Metropolis (1927/1984) – Giorgio Moroder’s 1984 restoration of Fritz Lang’s classic is visually splendiferous; the tradeoff is that Loverboy and Billy Squier are on the soundtrack
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014) – A female vampire stalks the streets of “Bad City,” a scarcely inhabited Iranian (?) town of lost souls
Girly [AKA Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny and Girly] (1970) – Arrested development in a bizarre British “family” of ritualistic murderers
Glass (2011)
Glass Lips (2007) – Surrealistic story of a poet’s dysfunctional past
Gods and Monsters (1998) – Biopic of James Whale, director of Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein, among other horror classics
God Told Me To (1975) – Larry Cohen’s wild bizarre genre pastiche mixes horror, science fiction and detective elements as a cop tries to find out why unrelated murderers all claim “God told me to do it”
Godzilla (2104) – Alfred Eaker takes on the great lizard in the first of his “Alfred Eaker vs. the Summer Blockbusters” series
Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933) – The quintessential Depression musical; Busby Berkeley’s elaborate fights of fantasy were designed to make people forget their cares
The Gold Rush (1925) – The Tramp travels to the Yukon to become a prospector in one of Charlie Chaplin’s most popular features
Goodbye to Language (2014)
The Good, the Bad, the Weird [Joheunnom Nabbeunnom Ishaghannom] (2008): “Noodle Western” recasting the Leone classic in 1930s occupied Manchuria
The Gorgon (1964) – Hammer horror meets Greek mythology
Go West (1925) – Buster Keaton falls for a cow and puts on a devil suit
Grace (2009) – A woman gives birth to an undead baby in this interesting indie shocker
Graveyard Alive: A Zombie Nurse in Love (2003) – Well-meaning zom-com misfire
The Great Dictator (1940) – Charlie Chaplin’s anti-Hitler satire
The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965) – Campy all-star disaster version of the New Testament, with John Wayne as a centurion with a Texas drawl
The Great K & A Train Robbery (1926) – Silent Tom Mix western
Growing Out (2009) – Low-budget film about a man growing out of a basement floor squanders its weird potential by focusing on romance
The Gruesome Death of Tommy Pistol (2011) – A struggling actor has four weird dreams in this grossout gore flick/Hollywood satire
The Guatemalan Handshake (2006) – Quirked-out indie that pushes into surreal realms; it’s like Gummo if directed by Jared Hess as a comedy
The Gunfighter (1950) – Gregory Peck plays an aging gunfighter weighed down with regret
Guru, the Mad Monk (1970)
Habit (1996) – Interesting metaphorical take on the vampire myth from the viewpoint of an alcoholic Greenwich Village slacker
Hairspray (1988) – Dancing teens integrate Baltimore in this quirky, PG-rated nostalgia piece from John Waters
The Hands of Orlac (1924) – The earliest filmed version of the oft-told tale about a concert pianist who gets a hand transplant from a murderer
The Happiness of the Katakuris (2001)
Happy Here and Now (2002) – Michael Almereyda’s surreal New Orleans based drama about a missing girl, Internet chat rooms and “soft-porn, direct-to-digital Internet film about a time-traveling Nicola Tesla.” Winner of our first review writing contest, by Pamela de Graff.
A Hard Day’s Night (1964) – Four cheeky lads from Liverpool join a band, get popular, and run around like slapstick madmen
The Hard Road (1970)
Hardware (1990) – Post-apocalyptic thriller about a robot run amok
Harold and Maude (1971) – Reader recommendation by Eric SG. Hal Ashby’s cult black comedy about a May-December romance between a suicidal teen and a geriatric life force
Heads of Control: The Gorul Baheu Brain Expedition (2006) – Very obscure and very weird feature told from the point of view of pharmaceutical molecules inside the brain of a madman
Heart Attack! The Early Pulse-Pounding Cinema of Kelly Hughes (2012)
Heart of the Beholder (2005) – Documentary on a crusade against a video store for stocking The Last Temptation of Christ
Hellacious Acres: The Case of John Glass (2011) – A man awakens trapped in a bio-suit in a post-apocalyptic future where the desolate landscape is patrolled by energy aliens
Hell Comes to Frogtown (1988) – A rare non-sterile man in the post-apocalyptic future goes on a mission to rescue a harem full of virile woman held captive by a town of mutant frogs
Hellevator (2004) – A future dystopia where floors of an underground society are linked by a single elevator shaft. A reader recommendation.
Hell’s Hinges (1916) – Overwrought early silent western is an unsubtle lesson in Christian vengeance
The Hellstrom Chronicle (1971) – Mondo insect documentary with a fictional mad scientist as narrator
Her (2013) – A man falls in love with an artificial intelligence in Spike Jonze‘s melancholy science fiction romance
Hercules in the Haunted World (1961)
Her Master’s Voice (2012) – Ventriloquist Nina Conti takes her deceased master’s dummies to be buried at a graveyard for puppets in this offbeat documentary
He Who Gets Slapped (1924) – Lon Chaney plays a celebrity clown who is slapped 100 times a night in this carnival melodrama dripping with pathos
Highlander II (Renegade Version) (1991) – Baffling, nearly incoherent sequel to the cult hit resurrects dead characters and includes a subplot about the ozone layer
High Noon (1952) – Gary Cooper in a classic (but admittedly not weird) Western
High School Caesar (1960)
The Hitch-Hiker (1953) – Two fisherman unwisely give a ride to a killer in the only classic film noir directed by a woman
Hobo with a Shotgun (2011) – The rare grindhouse spoof that doesn’t overplay the comedy, but relies (mostly) on plot and sly dialogue for the absurdity
Horns (2013) – An accused killer grows horns, which make people confess their secret desires to him
The Horror of Dracula (1958) – Hammer’s first Dracula movie is considered a horror classic by critics
Horror Express (1972) – A frozen caveman comes to life while being hauled on the Trans-Siberia express
Horror Rises from the Tomb [El Espanto Surge de la Tumba] (1973) – A warlock’s head attacks an estate full of young people in this Eurohorror that places atmosphere ahead of script
Horse Money (2014)
Housekeeping (1987) – nonconformity sleeper about two orphaned girls raised by an eccentric aunt
The House of Last Things (2013)
House of Pleasures [AKA House of Tolerance] (2011) – The travails of prostitutes in a belle epoque brothel make up the story of this sad and slightly surreal film
House of the Dead (2003) – The film that introduced the world to Uwe Boll is exactly like being trapped inside a bad video game
The House with Laughing Windows [La Casa dalle Finestre che Ridono] (1976) – Atmospheric giallo about an art historian restoring a church painting that hides a wicked secret
How I Won the War (1967)
How the Sky Will Melt (2015)
The Human Centipede (First Segment) (2009) – Mad doctor makes a human centipede; a unique grossout premise but a predictable formula execution
I Am Divine (2013) – Thorough and reverential review of the career of the three-hundred pound transvestite who made John Waters’ early films disgustingly unforgettable
I Bury the Living (1958) – A cemetery caretaker believes he can kill people by placing a pin in a map of the graveyard
The Ice Pirates (1984)
I Confess (1953)
Id (2005)
The Illustrated Man (1969)
The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus (2009) – High fantasy about a monk who makes a deal with the devil, from Terry Gilliam
The Immigrant (1917) – Sentimental Charlie Chaplin two-reeler casting the Tramp as an immigrant
Inception (2010) – Enormously entertaining thriller about the theft of ideas through entering dreams, but not really all that weird
In My Skin [Dans ma Peau] (2002) – Disturbing, unflinching movie about a woman who begins devouring herself
In Old Santa Fe (1934) – “Singing Cowboy” movie featuring an early appearance by Gene Autry
Inside Out (2015)
Intacto (2001) – Moody magical realist thriller about a world where luck can be stolen and won in weird contests
In the Basement (2014)
In the Realms of the Unreal: The Mystery of Henry Darger (2004) – Documentary about the very weird outsider artist who painted huge murals of naked girls with tiny penises leading a child slave revolt in a magical world
The Intruder (1962) – Roger Corman’s surprisingly progressive civil rights movie, starring William Shatner (!) as a racist demagogue
The Invisible Man (1933)
Iron Doors (2010) – A man is imprisoned without explanation in a bare concrete vault; is it a survival test by an unknown intelligence?
Irrfharten II & III (2006) – An avant-garde pastiche of Mozart fragments, including the unfinished operas Sposo deluso and L’ Oca del Cairo
The Island of Lost Souls (1932) – The first adaptation of H.G. Wells’ “The Island of Dr. Moreau” is a since-unequaled horror classic
The Iron Rose (1973) – Poetic but extremely slow-moving film about a young couple trapped in a picturesque French graveyard overnight
Isle of the Snake People (1971) – Boris Karloff (barely) plays a voodoo priest in this Mexican/American co-production, one of his infamously bad final four films
It’s in the Blood (2012) – Father and son try to reconnect in a haunted wood in this psychological horror
Ivan’s Childhood (1962) – Andrei Tarkovsky’s first movie is a touching war drama about a child spy, but frequent dream sequences hinted at the direction he would take
I Walked with a Zombie (1943) – Literate horror classic based loosely on “Jane Eyre” – but with voodoo and zombies!
Jack and Diane (2012) – Reader recommendation. A lesbian turns into a monster.
Jackboots on Whitehall (2010) – Hitler in a dress is the highlight of this animated action-figure alternate-history comedy about Nazis invading Great Britain
Jake Squared (2013)
James and the Giant Peach (1996)
Jannie Totsiens (1970) – South African film archivist Trevor Moses describes the weird and allegorical South African variation on One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. To our knowledge, this is the only full-length English language review of of this Afrikaans film available online!
Jauja (2014)
Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975) – 20 minutes of a housewife cracking up, three hours of her cooking meatloaf and shopping for buttons in this experiment in inactivity on screen
Jerry Springer: The Opera (2005) – The famously sleazy talk show host goes to hell in this production that holds the world record for most f-bombs dropped in an opera
Jesus and Her Gospel of Yes (2004) – Guest review of the low-budget, avant-garde, performance artist retelling of the Gospel with Jesus as a woman
Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter (2001) – True to the title, the Prince of Peace stakes legions of bloodsuckers in this fairly weird, moderately successful low-budget camp offering
Jodorowsky’s Dune (2013) – Documentary about Alejandro Jodorowsky’s unmade version of the novel eventually adapted by David Lynch
Johnny Guitar (1954) – Guest review of the feminist, camp western cult fave by Kevyn Knox
Johnny Suede (1991) – Brad Pitt stars as a struggling musician with a ridiculously huge pompadour in this quirky indie romance with plentiful dream sequences
Jug Face (2013) – A cult of hillbillies worship a pit that demands human sacrifices in this effective low-budget backwoods horror with a unique premise
Julien Donkey-boy (1999) – Impressionistic study of a schizophrenic young man
Just Tony (1922) – silent Tom Mix western starring the vengeful and anthropomorphic Tony the Wonder Horse
Karajan, or Beauty As I See It (2008) – documentary on the life of eccentric conductor Herbert von Karajan
Keane (2004) – First-person perspective on a near-homeless madman who may or may not have tragically lost a daughter
Khrustalyov, My Car! (1998)
The Kid (1921) – The Tramp adopts a kid in Charlie Chaplin’s first feature film
Kill Bill (Vols. 1 & 2) (2003-2004) – Reader recommendation
A Killer Conversation (2014)
Killer Joe (2011) – Transgressive black comedy neonoir about murder-for-hire among trailer trash
Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988) – truth in advertising; this offbeat alien invasion spoof delivers exactly what the title promises
Kill List (2011) – A hit man finds his assigned “kill list” very strange indeed in this weird psychohorror
King Kong Lives (1986) – Ridiculous, cheap sequel to the 1976 King Kong sees scientists searching for another giant ape so they can give Kong a blood transfusion after his fall
King of Pluto (2004) – Underground documentary about oddball artist Mike Wrathell
King of Thorn (2009) – A cross section of humanity is frozen following the worldwide outbreak of a petrification virus and awakes to a world overrun by monsters in this mindbending sci-fi anime
Knight of Cups (2015)
Labyrinth (1986) – Jennifer Connelly searches for her lost baby brother and lusts for David Bowie without realizing it in this Alice/Oz-inspired Muppet fantasy
La Dolce Vita (1960) – A cynical journalist discovers the emptiness of his hedonistic lifestyle
Lady Vengeance (2005) – The conclusion of Park’s “Vengeance Trilogy” features lots of weird moments, but actually works better in its straightforward scenes
The Land of the Lost (2009) – Bizarre for a Hollywood blockbuster, but standard Will Ferrell comedy routines and grossout jokes aimed at middle-schoolers undo the weirdness factor in this tale of a land of dinosaurs, apemen and sleestaks
The Last Circus [Balada Triste de Trompeta] (2010) – A sad clown and a happy clown battle for the love of a beautiful trapeze artist in this bloody and ridiculous Spanish Civil War allegory
The Last Dragon (1985)
The Last Road (2012) – An underground fighter wanders around in a low-budget afterlife
The Last Sunset (1961)
The Last Trail (1926) – Silent Tom Mix B-western
Lattie (2016)
The Leopard Man (1943) – Val Lewton and Jacques Tourneur inject life and atmosphere into this generic shape-shifter scenario
The Lego Movie (2014) – A toy commercial that’s also–surprise!–a witty, touching kids’ movie
Lethal Obsession (2010) – By the numbers exploitation/slasher about webcam models getting chopped up
Let Me Die a Woman (1978) – Sex-change operation exploitation documentary, Doris Wishman style
A Liar’s Autobiography: The Untrue Story of Monty Python’s Graham Chapman (2012) – More than a dozen animators illustrate comedian Graham Chapman’s surreal and facetious autobiography
License to Kill (1989) – The film is discussed in light of Timothy Dalton’s redefinition of Bond
Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) – Oceangoing documentarian Zissou assembles a quirky team to search for the elusive jaguar shark that killed his partner
Life Blood (2009) – Squanders a weird premise—vampires are God’s avenging lesbian angels—to become an undistinguished B-movie
Lifeforce (1985) – Tobe Hooper’s followup to Poltergeist is a little flick about gratuitously nude space vampires
The Limits of Control (2009) – Jim Jamursch’s ultra-minimalist anti-thriller about a Lone Man on an ambiguous assassination mission is an experiment in plotlessness
Lips of Blood (1975) – This Jean Rollin film features twin vampire nurses and a coffin that floats out to see, but it’s not one of the director’s best or strangest
Liquid Sky (1982) – New Wave sci-fi psychedelia about aliens who suck the brains of heroin and sex addicts
Lisa and the Devil (1974) – A tourist finds herself in a Spanish villa with a butler who looks (and acts) just like the devil
Little Ashes (2008) – Biopic concerning a rumored collegiate love affair between Salvador Dal; and poet Federico Garc;a Lorca is thin on insights into fascinating men
The Little Shop of Horrors (1960) – Black comedy with crazy supporting characters (including Jack Nicholoson’s masochistic dental patient), famous for being shot in about 48 hours
A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin (1971)
London After Midnight (1927) – Tod Browning/Lon Chaney lost silent film partly recreated by Turner Classic Movies through stills and narration
The Lone Ranger (2013) – Johnny Depp’s downward career trajectory continues
Long Pants (1927) – An odd and dark silent comedy: a manchild gets the long pants that mark his transition to adulthood, and winds up fantasizing about murdering his fiancee
Look Who’s Back (2015)
Lords of Salem (2012) – Rob Zombie’s witchcraft movie plays a little bit like Rosemary’s Baby directed by 1980s-era Ken Russell
Loren Cass (2006) – Dull, pretentious punk tale of teen anomie that goes beyond the pale with unrelated live suicide footage
The Los Angeles Ripper (2011): Modern grindhouse effort with serial killer stalking Los Angelites
Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley’s ‘The Island of Dr. Moreau’ (2014)
Love (2015) – Reader recommendation
The Lovely Bones (2009) – A murdered girl watches her grieving family and unrepentant killer from a colorful, fantastic afterlife in Peter Jackson’s iffy adaptation of a bestselling novel
Love Me If You Dare (2003)
Love Object (2003) – Perverse horror about a man’s unhealthy relationship with his possessive blow-up doll
The Lovers on the Bridge [Les Amants du Pont-Neuf] (1991)
Lucy (2014) – A woman gains omnipotent powers when she accidentally ingests an experimental drug
Lulu (2010) – Controversial staging of Alban Berg’s perverted opera about incestuous clown/prostitute Lulu
Lust in the Dust (1985) – The presence of Divine as a dancehall girl provides the only real cult interest in this mildly naughty low-budget Western spoof
M.O.N. (2006) – Amateur serial killer effort doesn’t cut the mustard in terms of either weirdness or entertainment value
Machete Maidens Unleashed (2010) – A survey of the feverish exploitation movies produced in the 1970s in the Philippines
Madeinusa (2006) – A stranger is trapped in a remote Andean village where they observe a strange Easter custom, one not approved by the Pope
The Mad Genius (1931)
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981)
Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985) – The weirdest Mad Max movie is good goofy fun
Mad Monster Party (1967) – Rankin/Bass monster mashup, feature-length Halloween fare in the style of their famous “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”
The Magic Flute (1975)
Magic Magic (2013) – An emotionally fragile college-age girl goes crazy when she’s left among strangers in a foreign country
Mahler (1974) – One of Ken Russell’s surrealist biographies of classical composers
Malice in Wonderland (2009) – Alice adaptation set in an underworld of quirky London gangsters; better than its reputation suggests
Man Bites Dog [C’est arriv; pr;s de chez vous] (1992) – Procvocative, sadistic, love-it-or-hate-it Belgian black comedy about a serial killer followed around by a documentary crew
The Man from Planet X (1951) – Early alien invasion movie featuring “the weirdest visitor the earth has even seen”
Man of Steel (2013) – Alfred Eaker considers Man of Steel (2013) in the context of Supermen past
Man of the West (1955) – Gary Cooper plays a reformed desperado caught in a dangerous prodigal son scenario
The Manster (1959) – A Japanese scientist injects an American with an experimental virus that turns him into a drunk, a lech, and a two-headed killer
Mantua (2012) – A comedic “Twin Peaks” variation with public access TV production values
The Man Who Laughs (1928) – Conrad Veidt has a grin permanently carved onto his face in this Expressionist silent
Man With the Movie Camera (1929) – This experimental Soviet propaganda film is a catalog of then avant-garde camera tricks and editing techniques
Maps to the Stars (2015)
Mark of the Vampire (1935) – Talkie remake of the lost London After Midnight
Mary and Max (2009) – Touching Claymation feature about the lifelong pen pal relationship between a socially inept Australian girl and an autistic, middle aged New Yorker
Mask of Fu Manchu (1932)
The Master (2012) – A paint-thinner drinking, sandcastle-humping sailor falls in with a cult leader in postwar America
Match Point (2005)
Matrimony (2007) – Romantic Chinese ghost story with a weird (if not satisfying) ending
May (2002) – A creepy girl tries to connect with those around her in this weirdo character study that turns slasher
Meatball Machine (2005) – Japanese splatterpunk love story about alien parasites turning human hosts into bio-engineered gladiators
Mega Python vs. Gatoroid (2011) – The title creatures do appear, but it probably should have been called Debbie Gibson vs. Tiffany instead. Special Guest Reviewer Cleverbot shares its thoughts.
Melancholia (2011) – A planet named “Melancholia” is set to crash into the earth in this metaphorical movie about depression from always-odd Lars von Trier
Memento (2000) – Christopher Nolan’s brilliantly plotted thriller is engrossing and disorienting, but not weird
Memphis (2013)
The Merry Widow (1925) – A light operetta re-imagined as a silent fetishistic melodrama
Message from Space (1978) – Nutty Japanese/American Star Wars ripoff featuring sailing ships in space
Messiah (2010) – Claus Guth’s staging of Handel’s Christmas oratorio invokes infidelity and suicide
Metallica Through the Never (2013) – Concert footage mixed with music video-style surrealism
Micmacs (2009) – Typically whimsical Jean-Pierre Jeunet outing, this time involving a team of carnivalesque misfits who unite to fight arms dealers
Midnight in Paris (2011)
Midnight Skater (2002) – This gore/comedy with a serial killer is a student film, but the students involved weren’t film majors
The Miracle Rider (1935) – Western serial with sci-fi elements, starring cowboy icon Tom Mix
Miracles for Sale (1939) – Tod Browning’s final film, about a charlatan medium
The Missing Picture (2013) – Rithy Panh recreates his childhood memories of growing up in a Cambodian death camp using clay figures of his own design
Miss Meadows (2014)
Modern Times (1936) – Charlie Chaplin’s classic comedy about technological alienation
Mon Oncle (1958)
Monsieur Verdoux (1947) – Charlie Chaplin film that casts him very much against-type as a serial wife-murderer
The Monster (1925) – A campy Lon Chaney stars in Roland West’s first stab at an Old Dark House mystery
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) – The British comedy troupes absurd and irreverent take on Arthurian legend
Moon (2009) – Thoughtful hard science fiction that flirts with weirdness in the opening reels
The Mothman Prophecies (2002) – Hokey but effective parapsychological horror story
Motivational Growth (2013)
Mr. Jones (2013) – A couple filming a documentary stumble upon the scarecrows of outsider artist “Mr. Jones,” possession of which brings madness
Mr. Sadman (2009) – Independent comedy about a mute Saddam Hussein impersonator restarting his life in Los Angeles
Multiple Maniacs (1970)
The Mummy (1932) – The original Mummy is a slow-paced, atmospheric, yearning version of the tale
The Mummy (1959) – Hammer horror’s version of the mummy legend
Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932) – In his immediate followup to Dracula for Universal, Bela Lugosi plays a “Darwinist pervert” with a murderous pet monkey
Murders in the Zoo (1933)
Mutant Girls Squad (2010) – A cheerleader with a chainsaw in her butt is just one of the strange sights in this wild Japanese mutant gore spoof from three directors
My Dinner with Andre (1981) – Wallace Shawn has dinner with Andre Gregory and they talk, talk, talk in this talky but surprisingly engaging minimalist experiment
My Joy (2010) – Political allegory about corruption in modern Russia with a confusing semi-linear construction
Mysterious Skin (2003) – Searing and painful story about two teens, one an asexual nerd obsessed with UFO abductions and the other a hustler, linked by a common tragedy
Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933)
Mystery Ranch (1932) – Atmospheric B-western with Gothic influences
Mystery Ranch (1934) – Unrelated to the 1932 version, this oater involves a city-slicker who writes Western novels traveling out to the real West
Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie (1996) – Disappointing feature adaptation of the cult TV series, ripping on the colorful 1955 sci-fi feature This Island Earth
The Mystic (1925) – Typical early Tod Browning melodrama about a charlatan medium
The Navigator (1924) – Buster Keaton plays a landlubber set adrift
Nazarin (1959) – Luis Bu;uel‘s exploration of religious hypocrisy concerns a suffering priest with an impotent faith; from his Mexican social “realist” period
Necromentia (2009) – Derivative horror with one memorably weird scene of a pig-man singing an ode to suicide
Nekromantik (1987) – Notorious, badly made necrophilia movie that’s more concerned with grossing out than weirding out it’s audience
Nekromantik 2 (1991)
Never Let Me Go (2010) – A mix of Merchant/Ivory-style drama and dystopian sci-fi, as three children grow up in an English boarding house to learn that there is a sinister purpose to their schooling
Night and a Switchblade (2013)
Night Dreams (1981) – Surrealist hardcore porn, complete with trips to heaven and hell and sex with the man in the Cream of Wheat box
Nightmare Alley (1947) – Oddball film noir about an alcoholic carny posing as a psychic
A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) – Predictably, this remake sucked, and it’s not weird to boot
Nightmares Come at Night (1970) – An exotic dancer has murderous nightmares that she can’t distinguish from reality
Nightmares in Red, White and Blue: The Evolution of the American Horror Film (2009) – Massive survey of American horror films from 1910 to the present; several Certified Weird picks are mentioned
Night Nurse (1931) – Pre-Code naughtiness starring Barbara Stanwyck
Night of the Demons (1988) – T&A teen horror is a bit of a cult item, thanks to Linnea Quigley’s lipstick
Night of the Hunted (1980) – Patients who can only remember events from the past two minutes are held in a secret mental hospital at the top of a skyscraper
Night of the Lepus (1972)
Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated (2010) – A team of animators tackle George Romeros’ zombie classic, using the original soundtrack but drawing or using puppets or baby dolls to illustrate the scenes
Night Tide (1961) – Dennis Hopper’s sailor meets a maybe-mermaid
The Night Walker (1964) – Obscure William Castle thriller featuring Barbara Stanwyck suffering surreal nightmares. Guest review by Pamela de Graff.
Nine (2009) – Non-weird musical ostensibly based on the twisted love life of Federico Fellini while making 8 1/2
Ninja Scroll (1993) – Sexy and ultraviolent, but this anime is basically a straightforward fantasy adventure
Noah (2014) – Visionary director Darren Aronofsky tackles the story of the Flood in a Hollywood blockbuster
Nobody Else but You [Poupoupidou] (2011) – A crime novelist investigates the death of a woman who believed herself the reincarnation of Marilyn Monroe in this offbeat French mystery
A Noisy Delivery (2013) – An extremely minimalist noise music/performance art piece about an undelivered package
No Man’s Law (1927) -Strange, silent oater featuring Oliver Hardy (of Laurel and Hardy) as a sleazy villain whose attempt to rape a pioneer woman is foiled by top-billed Rex the Wonder Horse!
No More Excuses (1968) – A Civil War soldier loose in modern Manhattan, documentary footage of the singles bar scene and an amorous chimp mix in this sketch comedy farrago
Northfork (2003) – A dying orphan dreams he is an angel while bureaucrats try to evacuate stragglers from a town that’s about to be flooded by dam construction
Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)
Nothing (2003) – Two losers wish the world away; possibly the best movie about nothing ever made
Nothing but Trouble (1991)
Nothing but Trouble (1991) – Second opinion
Nowhere (1997) – Greg Araki’s feature about directionless young people stalked by a rubber suited monster goes exactly where the title says
Le Nozze de Figaro (2006) – Avant-garde staging of Mozart’s opera “The Marriage of Figaro” for the 2006 Salzburg Festival
Nymphomaniac, Vol. I & II (2013) – The life and times of a nympho, Lars von Trier style
Oblivion (1994) – Charles Band-produced b-movie that mixed cowboys and aliens long before the big-budget 2011 disappointment; it’s pretty bad
ODDSAC (2010) – Non-narrative, psychedelic feature length “visual album” for the “new weird America” band Animal Collective
Of Freaks and Men (1998)
The Old Dark House (1932)
The Omega Man (1971) – Charlton Heston is the last man on earth after an apocalypse–or is he?
Ondine (2009) – NeilJordan’s “is she a mermaid, or isn’t she?” romantic fable is not as weird as it could have been
One Missed Call (2003) – Takashi Miike adds some surreal style points near the end, but it’s basically a talky and purposelessly confusing J-Horror
Only Lovers Left Alive (2013) – Jim Jarmusch’s vampire film encases us in immortal langour
Order of Chaos (2010) – Offbeat thriller about a passive attorney and the newcomer who throws his life out of whack
The Oregonian (2011) – An amnesiac woman meets giant green Muppet and man who pees in rainbow colors
“The Ossuary and Other Tales” (2013) – Jan Svankmajer short film collection
The Other (1972) – Creepy thriller set in the Great Depression about an evil twin
Our Hospitality (1923) – Yankee dandy Buster Keaton finds himself the guest of Southerners sworn to kill him in this silent slapstick comedy
Outside the Law (1920) – Tod Browning crime melodrama with religious overtones
Paganini (1989) – Klaus Kiniski’s deranged, pornographic biopic of the “demonic” composer
The Painting (2011) – Figures in a painting leave their canvas and seek out the Painter to find out why they were left incomplete
Parasomnia (2008) – A “sleeping beauty” falls under the spell of an evil mesmerist in this implausible direct-to-DVD horror
Paris Je T’Aime (2006) – 18 short films sent in Paris dealing with the theme of love; one segment is weird, and a couple of others are extremely offbeat
Passion (2012)
The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) – Alfred Eaker believes Carl Theodore Dreyer’s devastatingly emotional account of the martyrdom of Joan of Arc may just be the greatest movie ever made
The Passion of the Christ (2004) – Alfred Eaker’s title says it all: “the most reprehensible anti-Christian film ever made”
Passion Play (2010) – Megan Fox is an “angel,” Mickey Rourke is a jazz musician and Bill Murray is a laid back gangster in this modern fairy-tale misfire
Patch Town (2014)
Peacock (2010) – Cilian Murphy in drag in a gender-bending psychothriller
Pearls of the Deep (1966) – Czech New Wave sampler film with a couple of surreal segments
Peeping Tom (1960)
Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985) – Man-child Pee-wee searches America for his stolen bike. A reader recommendation.
Pee-wee’s Big Holiday (2016)
The Penalty (1920) – One of Lon Chaney’s most painful performances; he plays a legless crime boss who models as the Devil in his spare time
Pennies from Heaven (1981) – Bleak Depression-era musical drama where the characters lip-sync to period songs; an unusual feature for comedian Steve Martin
The Perfect Sleep (2009) – Hyperbolic homage to film noir that’s heavy on atmosphere and low on sense
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006) – Period piece about a serial killer who slays women to make perfume; features a truly bizarre climax
Phantasm IV: Oblivion (1998) – Underbudgeted and incoherent rehash of the first three Phantasm movies
The Phantom Carriage (1921) – Atmospheric and influential Swedish silent based on Scandinavian folklore claiming the last person to die before the New Year comes is fated to become Death’s coachman
Philomena (2013)
Phoebe in Wonderland (2008) – Indie flick with great acting from little Elle Fanning as a kid with psychological problems. Not weird, despite a few scenes unwisely staged in Wonderland
Pitch Perfect 2 (2015)
Pina (2011) – Documentary on avant-garde choreographer Pina Bausch showcases some weird production numbers
Playhouse (1921) – Buster Keaton plays to an audience of himselves
Play Time (1967) – Behind-the-times clown Monsieur Hulot attempts to navigate a hyper-modern Paris
Plus One [+1] (2013) – Doppelgangers crash the party of the year in this would-be teen cult movie
Point Blank (1967) – Cucumber-cool Lee Marvin tries to get back the $93,000 the mob owes him in this arthouse action film with avant-garde touches
Pontypoool (2008) – Interesting spin on the zombie genre has the infection spread via language
Ponyo [Gake no ue no Ponyo] (2008) – Hayao Miyazaki’s Japanese variation on “The Little Mermaid” is enchanting, but is considered one of his lesser works
Poor Pretty Eddie (1975) – A black singer’s car breaks down in the rural South and she becomes the “guest” of a gang 0f redneck oddballs
Pop Meets the Void (2015)
Porco Rosso (1992)
Portrait of Jennie (1948)
Powder (1995) – An albino teen with electromagnetic powers tries to fit in to redneck society
Predestination (2014)
Primer (2004) – Intricate and confusing time travel puzzler, made by an engineer for an amazing $7,000.
Private Parts (1972) – A teenage runaway flees to her eccentric aunt’s decrepit hotel in this deviant psychosexual debut from professional oddball Paul Bartel
Prometheus Triumphant (2009) – This attempt to make a modern Gothic silent film is a well-intentioned failure
The Promise [La Promesa] (2004) – Nanny experiences religious visions and encounters a telepathic child
The Prophet (2014)
Proxima (2007) – Science fiction tribute that appears to pose the question: what if a Phillip K. Dick-ish writer really was contacted by an alien race?
Psych: 9 (2010) – Reality-blurring thriller/horror set in an abandoned hospital
Psych-Out (1968)
A Public Ransom (2014) – Low-budget indie about a self-absorbed writer who is the only person to respond to a ransom note written in crayon
Pulse (2001) – Ghosts depopulate the world in this effective early J-horror
Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)
Le Quattro Volte [The Four Times] (2010) – A soul migrates from a shepherd to a goat to a tree to charcoal in this odd, wordless experiment
“The Quay Brothers: Collected Short Films” (2015)
The Quiet (2005) – A deaf-mute teen girl is adopted by a perverted family in this odd drama/thriller
The Rabbi’s Cat (2011) – The titular feline gains the power of speech after eating a parrot, then demands a bar mizvah from his skeptical master
Race War: The Remake (2011) – Bad taste ethnic comedy about a drug turf war, and the Kreecha from a Lagoon
Radio Free Albemuth (2010) – Aliens advise residents of an alternate earth how to overthrow the fascist dictator of the USA in this adaptation of a novel from Philip K. Dick’s “crazy” period
Rage (2010) – Low-budget tribute to Stephen Spielberg’s Duel
Rainbows End (2010) – A psychobilly band, a baton twirler, a singer with a mild speech impediment, and a cockfighter take a road trip to California in this documentary celebrating East Texas eccentrics
Rampo Noir (2005)
The Rapture (1991) – Strange independent film that takes the Christian idea of the rapture at face value
Rat Pfink a Boo Boo (1966) – This kidnapping film with the mangled title turns into a superhero comedy midway through, and is surely one of the worst movies ever made
The Raven (1935) – Lugosi hams it up as a torture-loving doctor who experiments on escaped convict Karloff
Ravenous (1999)
Reality (2012) – A Neapolitan fishmonger loses his mind when he becomes obsessed with joining the cast of a reality TV show
Red-Headed Woman (1932)
Redline (2010) – Anime meets Death Race 2000
Religulous (2008) – Bill Maher’s one-sided documentary satire on religious belief
Restless (2011) – Teen romance between a girl dying of cancer and a death-obsessed boy who’s best friend is a ghost
Retard-O-Tron III (2013) – Nauseating “mixtape” including all types of explicit grossout porn alongside clips of b-movies and video oddities
Return of the Kung Fu Dragon (1976) – Bizarre characters and a rambling plot make this kung fu fantasy from Taiwan stand out as one of the weirder examples of the genre
Return to Babylon (2013) – A silent rendering of early Hollywood scandals, illustrating the fates of Virginia Rappe, Lupe Velez and other tragic luminaries
Return to Oz (1985) – Jesse Miksic discusses the “three fetishes” of the mythical kingdom in this essay (not review) of the odd Oz sequel
Rhymes for Young Ghouls (2013) – A resourceful teenage girl takes on official corruption on a Canadian reservation in the 1970s
Ricky (2009) – A miraculous baby is born to a factory worker in this French magical realist scenario
Ride in the Whirlwind (1966) – “Existential Western” companion to The Shooting
Riders of the Whistling Pines (1949) – Gene Autry ties to save an endangered forest using the miracle of DDT in the ecologically naive oater
Riders of the Whistling Skull (1937) – “The Three Mesquiteers” star in a genre mishmash adventure featuring Indian cults and mummies
The Ring (2002) – This eerie tale of a murderous videotape may be the best American remake of a J-horror
Road to Mandalay (1926) – Partially lost Tod Browning/Lon Chaney Oedpial melodrama set in the seedy seaports of the Orient
Rocky Mountain (1950) – Rare turn for Errol Flynn as a cowboy
The Room (2003) – Incompetent drama from exceedingly odd auteur Tommy Wiseau
Room 237 (2012) – Documentary exploring fans crazy theories about Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining
The Rum Diary (2011) – Semi-autobiographical story from Hunter S. Thompson’s novel about an idealistic, hard-drinking reporter in Puerto Rico
S. Darko (2009) – Two words for this unsanctioned direct-to-video sequel to the classic Donnie Darko: “not worthy”
Safe (1995)
Saint John of Las Vegas (2009) – Steve Buscemi stars as an insurance adjuster with a gambling problem assigned to investigate a case in Las Vegas, in this quirky misfire loosely based on Dante’s “Inferno”
Samurai Princess (2009) – Japanese splatterpunk fantasy about a woman who becomes a cyborg and takes on the souls of eleven raped virgins in a quest for revenge
Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964)
Satan Hates You (2009) – Modern recreation of a Christian scare film, complete with drugs, sex, violence, demons, and redemption
Scars of Youth (2008) – Low-budget tribute to Stalker has surprisingly accomplished visuals, but is undone by poor acting and not enough plot
Schramm (1993)
Scream of the Butterfly (1965) – Soapy Sixties sexploitation involving a cheating nymphomaniac and her bisexual (male) lover
Seconds (1966) – A middle-aged man is offered the chance to fake his own death and begin life anew as Rock Hudson
The Secret of Kells (2009) – Brilliantly animated story of the clash between early Christianity and paganism; every frame looks like a cross between classic Disney and an eighth-century illustrated manuscript
A Serbian Film (2010) – A porn star finds himself unwittingly drugged and cast in a sadistic movie enacting real-life atrocities in this controversial, frequently banned shocker
The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988) – Wes Craven serves up a few memorable hallucinatory sequences in this interesting but uneven “serious” take on zombies
Session 9 (2001) – Creepy, but not-so-weird, psychological horror about a hazmat crew taking a job cleaning out asbestos from an abandoned mental institution
Seven Chances (1925) – Heir Buster Keaton is literally chased by a gang of would-be brides
The Seventh Seal (1957) – Bergman’s movie about Death stalking the medieval countryside and playing chess with knights is a masterpiece, but it’s not so weird
Sexina (2007)
Shanty Tramp (1967) – Sleazy exploitation melodrama with interracial sex
Shatter Dead (1994) -Thoughtful B-movie zombiefest where being a member of the living dead is just another lifestyle choice—and the dead are anxious to convert you to their way of thinking
Sheitan (2006) – A gonzo performance by a perpetually grinning Vincent Cassel is the only reason to see this French horror with slight weird accents
Shiver of the Vampires (1971) – Typically surreal Jean Rollin flourishes—including a spirit emerging from a grandfather clock and a pair of “bourgeois vampires”—fill this otherwise generic, but nudity-filled, bloodsucker flick
Shock Treatment (1981) – This belated sorta-sequel to The Rocky Horror Picture Show is a wacky musical satire of TV that has slightly more detractors than defenders
The Shooting (1967) – Existential, enigmatic Western from Monte Helleman, starring Warren Oates and Jack Nicholson
The Shootist (1976) – John Wayne’s swan song
Shutter Island (2010) – Scorsese/DiCaprio psychological thriller that’s atmospheric and worth a peek, though not especially weird
The Shuttered Room (1967) – H.P. Lovecraft adaptation about—well, about a shuttered room, and the unspeakable horror that lies inside it
Sick Birds Die Easy (2013) – A documentary, or mockumentary—anyway, a something-mentary about a journey to Ghana to take iboga, the hallucinogenic plant supposed to cure drug addiction
Silent Hill: Revelation (2012) – Lackluster sequel to the Certified Weird original brings no new ideas to the table
The Silent Scream (1980) – Proto-slasher featuring cult icon Barbara Steele
Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014) – More stylish, ultraviolent comic book noir that is definitely of a piece with the 2005 original
Sky High (1922) – Silent Tom Mix western, mainly notable for its Grand Canyon scenery
Slacker (1991) – Richard Linklater’s debut was this experimental survey of the unemployed bohemians of Austin, Texas
Slacker (1991) – Reader recommendation for the movie listed above.
Slaughtered Vomit Dolls (2006) – Satanist puke-fetish torture porn experimental film. Weird? Yes. Recommended? No.
Slimed (2010) – An atheist park ranger and a Bible salesman team up to fight a slime-monster conspiracy in this 60 minute low-budget feature
Smash Cut (2009) – Gore comedy, in tribute to H.G. Lewis, about a horror director who kills to create realistic special effects
Snowpiercer (2014) – After an environmental disaster, humanity survives on a train circling a frozen globe; riders in the rear revolt against the privileged first class passengers
Il Sogno di Scipione (2006) – Staging of Mozart’s mythological dream opera, from the M22 series
Somebody Up There Likes Me (2012) – Incredibly deadpan comedy about a waiter who doesn’t visibly age thanks to a magic suitcase
Someone’s Knocking at the Door (2009) – The spirits of serial killers rape drug-abusing medical students to death in this hallucinatory disgusto horror film
The Sorcerers (1967) – An elderly couple use a machine to enter the mind of a 60s swinger
Spark of Being (2010) – Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein,” told through silent archival footage with a dissonant electric jazz score
Sparrows (1926) – Mary Pickford leads orphans through a swamp to avoid a child-massacre
Spiral (2007) – Psychothriller about an unhinged artist and his models
Splendor Solis (2015)
Splice (2010) – Genetic horror/parenthood allegory from Vincenzo Natali about the drawbacks of mixing human and animal DNA
The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge out of Water (2015)
Spotlight (2015)
Spring Breakers (2012) – It’s “Girls Gone Wild” on acid as Harmony Korine tackles the burning issue of spring break bikini babes committing armed robbery
Starry Eyes (2014)
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) – The crew of the Enterprise go looking for God in space in the most embarrassing entry in the franchise (directed by William Shatner)
Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)
Stay (2005) – A visually impressive psychological thriller that puts a little spin on a tired twist, but not enough to merit making the List
Steak (2007) – reader recommendation from Caleb Moss
Steamboat Bill Jr. (1928) – Buster Keaton pilots a steamboat with slapstick results
Stoker (2013) – A mysterious uncle insinuates himself into the life of a virginal 18-year old girl and her mother after her father dies
La Strada (1954)
The Straight Story (1999)
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Miss Osborne (1981)
The Strange Woman (1946) – Edgar G. Ulmer noir starring Heddy Lamarr as a woman more evil than strange
Street Corner (1948)
Street Trash (1987) – Killer rotgut causes hobos to melt in this bad taste black comedy
Strings (2004) – High fantasy set in a kingdom of marionettes, exploring all aspects of marionette culture
The Strong Man (1926) – Manchild Harry Langdon survives a tour in WWI and becomes a circus strong man while searching for his love
Strozeck (1977)
Subject Two (2006) – The subject of a medical experiment must die over and over so that the doctor can perfect his faulty resurrection formula
Sublime (2007) – Mildly surreal hospital horror about the world’s most unfortunate colonoscopy
Suck (2009) – Musical horror/satire about a rock band infected with vampirism
Sucker Punch (2011) – Video game-style fantasy with lingerie-clad babes kicking monster butt in high heels
Sugar Hill (1974) – A blaxploitation heroine uses voodoo to raise an army of zombie hit men to avenge a murder
The Suicide Theory (2014)
Summer Wars (2009) – A high school math and science genius battles a rogue A.I. in a virtual world, while simultaneously posing as his crush’s boyfriend for her conservative family
Sun Don’t Shine (2012) – Florida noir with a great performance from Kate Lyn Sheil that would have benefited from more weirdness
Sunset Boulevard (1950) – Reader recommendation of the Billy Wilder Hollywood noir classic about a failed screenwriter who becomes the boy-toy of an aging, delusional ex-star
Superman and the Mole Men (1951) – Dwarfs with an Electrolux vacuum cleaner threaten the Man of Steel
Supervixens (1975)
Surveillance (2008) – Jennifer Lynch’s long delayed second movie is a perverse cross between Natural Born Killers and a CSI episode
The Synthetic Man (2013) – A mentally ill woman imagines a science fiction story that helps her make sense of her life
Tabloid (2010) – Errol Morris documentary documenting the bizarre story of Joyce McKinney, the former Miss Wyoming who allegedly kidnapped and raped a Mormon missionary in 1977
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (2014) – Beautiful animated fairy tale from Studio Ghibli about a bamboo cutter who adopts a miniature princess he finds in a bamboo shoot
Tales from the Gimli Hospital (1988)
The Tall T (1957) – Budd Boetticher’s bleak, beautiful Western has a cult following
Tank Girl (1995)
Targets (1968) – Boris Karloff stars as an aging horror host caught up in a real-life shooting spree
Tchoupitoulas (2012) – Impressionistic tour of New Orleans as seen from the viewpoint of three boys stranded in the city overnight
Teeth (2007) – A young girl obsessed with abstinence discovers she has teeth growing in her vagina
The Tempest (1979) – Avant garde interpretation of Shakespeare’s strangest fantasy with much nudity and a torch song finale
The Ten (2007) – Occasionally absurd, occasionally amusing short films based on the Ten Commandments, made by TV sketch-comedy vets
Ten Animated Films by Signe Baumane (2006) -Weird and sexy (female-oriented) shorts
Terminator Genisys (2015)
The Terror (1963) – Legendary Roger Corman film allegedly made in 48 hours, with Boris Karloff and Jack Nicholson in an improvised script
Terror in a Texas Town (1958) – A man faces a gunfighter armed with a harpoon in this allegory of the Un-American Activities Committee by the blacklisted Dalton Trumbo
Terribly Happy (2008) – Offbeat, Coen-esque tale of a Danish marshal reassigned to a small rural town full of dirty secrets
Test Tube Babies (1948)
Tetsuo: The Bullet Man (2009) – Visually impressive but pointless b-movie remake of Tetsuo: The Iron Man (by the same director)
ThanksKilling (2008) – Troma-style killer turkey comedy, made for a reported $3500
That Obscure Object of Desire (1977) – A French businessman romances a young Spanish girl (played by two different actresses) over the years, but she will never submit to him
Theory of Obscurity: A Film About the Residents (2015)
They Saved Hitler’s Brain (1963/197?) – Confusing mess about Hitler’s head planning a Nazi comeback, with ill-matched new footage added a decade later
The Thing with Two Heads (1972)
Thirst (1979) – Australian vampire tale about a lineal descendant of Elizabeth Bathory’s involvement in the commercial blood farming industry
Thirst [Bawkji] (2009) – Chan-wook Park’s take on the vampire legend is arty and bloody, as expected, but surprisingly conventional at its heart
The Thirteenth Chair (1929) – Tod Browning’s first sound film features Bela Lugosi as an investigator in a drawing-room murder mystery
This Is Elvis (1981) – Mixes documentary footage with recreations to tell Elvis’ story
This Is Not a Movie (2011) – A man spends the evening before the apocalypse in a Las Vegas hotel room arguing with his alter-egos and a ghost
This Must Be the Place (2011) – Sean Penn plays a retired goth rocker who hunts down an elderly Nazi war criminal
The Three Caballeros (1944)
Three on a Match (1932)
Three’s a Crowd (1927) – Guest review of Harry Langdon’s neglected silent classic
Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie (2012) – The cult TV stars open a mall in this awkward attempt to translate sketch comedy into a feature film
To Die Like a Man [Morrer Como Um Homem] (2009) – Commandos and woodsy transgendered hermits feature heavily in this story of the last months of a fading drag queen
Tombstone Canyon (1932) – Creepy B-western featuring the villanous “Phantom Killer”
Top Hat (1935) – An Astaire/Rogers musical? Weird? Alfred Eaker makes the case
Tormented (2011) – The alternate title “Rabbit Horror” is a better descriptor of this psychological movie about a boy who euthanizes a wounded bunny and then is haunted by rabbit visions
Touch of Evil (1958)
The Toxic Avenger (1984) – Janitor nerd turns into mop-wielding mutant superhero in this gory, goofy and offensive cult spoof
The Toxic Avenger, Part II (1989) – “Toxie” goes to Japan for more mayhem; the craziness remains, but the lighter tone makes this a moderately more pleasant entry in the series
The Toxic Avenger, Part III: The Last Temptation of Toxie (1989) – The producers scrape the bottom of the toxic waste barrel to come up with this third installment composed partially of extra footage from Part II
Trailers from Hell, Vol. 2 (2011) – Trailer compilation (mostly B-movies) coupled with passionate film commentary from some very hip directors and screenwriters
Tramp, Tramp, Tramp (1926) – Man-child Harry Langdon falls in love with a billboard model and enters a cross-country race to win her heart
Trance (2013) – A hypnotherapist tries to uncover a gangster’s repressed memory of where he hid a stolen painting
Transformers (2007)
Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014) – It’s bad
Trash [Andy Warhol’s Trash] (1970) -Joe Dallessandro’s too stoned on junk to get an erection, but he sure meets a lot of weirdos in NYC in the late 60s, including his garbage-collecting transvestite roommate
Triangle (2009) – Weirdness hits the high seas in this psychological mindbender about a single mom trapped on a not-so-abandoned ocean liner
The Tribe (2014)
The Trip (1967)
Troll (1986)
Troll 2 (1990)
Trollhunter [Trolljegeren] (2010) – Truth in advertising in this Norwegian “found footage” horror movie about a man who hunts trolls
Troma’s War (1988)
True Stories (1986) – The Talking Heads investigate the “typical” American town of Virgil, Texas
The Truth About Emanuel (2013) – A troubled teen girl becomes obsessed with her next door neighbor, who strongly resembles her dead mother
Tusk (2014) – From the pitch meeting: it’s Human Centipede meets Clerks in the Great White North
Twilight of the Ice Nymphs (1997) – Guy Maddin’s color misfire has intriguing art design, at least
Twister (1989) – Proof that a quirky dysfunctional family comedy can star both Harry Dean Stanton and Crispin Glover and still be boring
Two-Lane Blacktop (1971) – Three car-obsessed men race across America in this existential cult favorite
Two Orphan Vampires (1997) – Two female vampires pose as blind orphans in this slow, oddly existential meditation from Jean Rollin
Two Tons of Turquoise to Taos Tonight (1975) – Impenetrable avant-garde comedy that’s a collection of not very funny or otherwise interesting scenes
UHF (1989) – Despite the author/star’s name, “Weird Al”‘s TV and movie spoof is only mildly offbeat
The Unholy Three (1925) – Silent film involving hte criminal activities of three carnival hustlers who open a pet shop selling counterfeit parrots
The Unknown (1927) – Lon Chaney stars as “Alonzo the Armless,” who throws knives with his feet at a carnival and romances Joan Crawford
Valhalla Rising (2009) – Vikings discover the New World while searching for the Holy Land in this odd Christian/Pagan allegory
Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl (2009) – Gory Japanese horror/comedy sees DG fight FG for the hand of a handsome high school lad
Vampyros Lesbos (1971)
Vanilla Sky (2001)
Vanishing Waves (2012) – A scientist working on a method to enter others’ minds falls in love with his test subject, a woman in a coma, in this erotic science fiction film from Lithuania
Vikingdom (2013) – CGI-heavy Malaysian (?) spin on Norse mythology
Visioneers (2008) – Corporate satire/black comedy about exploding people, starring Zach Galifianakis
Vixen Highway 2006: It Came from Uranus (2010) – 2 1/2 hour (!) low-budget b-movie pastiche about an escaped girl gang and a rock star who makes a Faustian deal with an alien, or something like that
Viy (1967) – Classic Gothic horror about a seminarian who must spend three nights praying over the corpse of a witch produced in the Soviet Union, under-seen in the West
Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women (1968) – Roger Corman produced curiosity mixing footage of a Soviet space opera with scenes of Mamie van Doren sunbathing in a clamshell bra
Walkabout (1971) – Story of a pair of privileged Australian kids stranded in the Outback who are saved by an aborigine on his walkabout; beautiful, but not very weird
Walk Away Renee (2011) – Experimental, occasionally psychedelic documentary about filmmaker Jonathan Caouette’s mentally ill mother Renee
The Walking Dead (1936)
War Witch (2012) – A twelve year old girl in conscripted as a soldier in a war in a nameless African country and comes to be revered as a witch when she sees ghosts
Watchmen (2009) – Weird by superhero movie standards, at least
Watership Down (1978) – Not-for-kids animated rabbit fable with bunnies getting wasted onscreen
Waxworks (1924) – This historical anthology film with Ivan the Terrible and Jack the Ripper is one of the key works of German Expressionism
Way Down in Chinatown (2013) – Low budget avant-garde movie about a couple casting an avant-garde play about the apocalypse when the real apocalypse strikes
Way Out West (1937) – Laurel and Hardy singing and dancing in the old west
Weirdsville (2007) – It’s junkies vs. Satanists in this offbeat comedy with a minor Coen Brothers vibe
Welcome to Nowhere (Bullet Hole Road) (2013) – A surreal series of tropes based on the romance of the American West
Werewolf in a Girls’ Dormitory (1961)
West of Zanzibar (1928) – Lon Chaney loses his legs and becomes a witch doctor while plotting decades-long revenge in this partially lost melodrama
Wetlands (2013) – A German girl who disdains good hygiene falls in love with her male nurse when she’s hospitalized with anal fissures
What? [Che?, AKA Diary of Forbidden Dreams] (1972) – Roman Polanski’s absurdist sex comedy starring Marcello Mastroianni was a critical and box office flop, but could be a guilty pleasure for some
What Dreams May Come (1998) – Romantic afterlife fantasy starring Robin Williams; some amazing visual effects, but only weird by Hollywood standards
What’s Up Tiger Lily? (1966)
Where East is East (1929) – Tod Browning’s last silent film is another Freudian melodrama, this time set among animal trainers in China
Where the Wild Things Are (2009) – Spike Jonze’s visionary retelling of the classic children’s book is a trip inside a kid’s psyche, not a movie for kids
White God (2014)
White Rabbit (2013)
The White Ribbon [Das Weisse Band: Ein Deutsche Kindergeschichte] (2009) – Serious dramatic meditation on the roots of Nazism, with ambiguous overtones
White Tiger (1923) – Typically obsessive Tod Browning film, with a mechanical chess player as the twist
White Zombie (1932) – Atmospheric classic horror with traditional Haitian zombies, Bela Lugosi, and a silent film aesthetic
The Wick: Dispatches from the Isle of Wonder (2013) – DIY movie mixing a documentary about the bohemian London neighborhood with a self-referential mockumentary about its own making
Wicked City (1992)
“Wild and Weird” – A compilation of twelve strange, fantastic, and experimental films from the dawn of cinema (spanning the years 1902 to 1926), with new scores composed by the Alloy Orchestra
Wild Strawberries (1957) – An old man makes peace with the past and his mortality in this Ingmar Bergman drama with dream sequences
Wild, Wild Planet [I Criminali della Galssia] (1965) – Bad and bizarre Italian space opera from the demented mind of Antonio Margheriti
Wild Zero (2000) – Japanese punk band Guitar Wolf fight a plague of zombies: it’s like Rock N’ Roll High School meets Night of the Living Dead in Yokohama
William S. Burroughs: A Man Within (2010) – Tribute to the influentially weird writer incorporating illustrative avant-garde film footage
Will Penny (1968) – Charlton Heston stars as an illiterate but honorable cowpoke caught in a dispute between his comrades and a demented preacher
Winners Tape All: The Henderson Brothers Story (2015)
Winter in the Blood (2013)
Winter of Frozen Dreams (2009) – Nonlinear true crime thriller about a biochemistry student/hooker/murderess
Wisconsin Death Trip (1999) – Essay from Jesse Miksic exploring the iconography of this strange documentary about a morbidly ill-fated Wisconsin town in the late 1800s
The Wizard of Gore (1970) – A magician cuts up people onstage, then they die from their injuries hours later in this “mindbending” gut-spewer
The Wizard of Oz (1939) – It may not be quite weird, but it’s the must-see fantasy film
The Wolf Man (1941)/The Wolfman (2010) – Alfred Eaker compares and contrasts the two lycanthropic
Woman in the Dunes (1964) – Existential parable about a man and woman living in a world of sand. Winner of our 5th reader-review contest
The Wonderful Land of Oz (1969)
Wozzeck (2006) – Alban Berg’s controversial class-struggle opera about a murderous soldier, staged in an industrial waste factory with ample nudity
Wristcutters: A Love Story (2006) – Quirky indie romantic comedy/road movie set in a bleak afterlife reserved for suicides
Wrong Cops (2013) – Los Angeles cops sell pot and compose electronica in this absurdist comedy from Quentin Dupieux
W the Movie (2008) – Underground, surrealist attack on the Bush presidency will not be confused with the Oliver Stone pic by anyone who sees it
X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) – Wolverine travels back in time to stop a Pentagon mutant-killing robot program
Yesterday Was a Lie (2008)
You and the Night (2013) – Surreal French sex movie about an orgy attended by erotic archetypes
Young Sherlock Holmes (1985) – This often overlooked Speilberg-produced kid’s adventure is worth seeing for its creepy, inventive and ahead-of-their-time hallucinatory effects
Zaide/Adama (2006) – Mozart’s unfinished opera Zaide is mixed with a newly commissioned postmodern composition, and with a bunch of guys in suits with oversized heads
Zelig (1983)
Zenith (2010) – Intricately confusing, weirdish mix of paranoid conspiracy thriller and sci-fi speculation
The Zero Theorem (2013) – A programmer is assigned to prove the theorem that life is meaningless
Zeta One (1969) – A secret agent does very little to stop girl-abducting aliens in this British sex spoof that tries to cash in on both Bond and Barbarella
Zorg and Andy (2009) – Microbudgeted B-comedy that may be worth a look (if you can find it) for the pig-headed collegian and the penis-y fertility statue
Zorns Lemma (1970) – This seminal experimental film is a a strange, repetitive trip through a symbolic alphabet
TV/WEBSERIES/MISCELLANEOUS
“Abnormal: The Cinema of Nick Zedd” – This anthology collects almost all of Nick Zedd’s “Cinema of Transgression” short films from 1980 to 2001, full of explicit sex, necrophilia, grotesquerie, etc.
“Betty Boop, The Essential Collection” – The occasionally surreal adventures of everyone’s favorite black-and-white flapper. Also see Vol. 2.
“The Book of Dallas” (2012) – God asks a deceased atheist to return to Earth and write a new Bible in this hipster comedy
“Felix the Cat” (1919-1930) – The first animated cult cartoon figure operated without rules
“Jam” (2000) – British cult TV show that combined ambient music with deadpan absurdism and pitch black comedy
“Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures” (1997-1989) – innovative, satirical children’s cartoon that was notoriously killed off by a fundamentalist protest of a supposed drug reference
“The Paul Lynde Halloween Special” (1976) – Margaret Hamilton, Kiss, CB radios, and disco all feature heavily as Lynde celebrates the season with an explosion of 70s kitsch
“Pee Wee’s Playhouse” – This kids’ show with talking furniture, cowboys and a bow-tied man-child host introduced kids to weirdness at a young age
“Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” (1964)
“Saturday Morning with Sid & Marty Kroftt” – Pilot episodes from the puppet-centric children’s fantasy shows beloved by 70s children and acidheads alike
“Serial Experiments Lain” (1998) – Anime series about a girl who is drawn into a virtual world called “the Wired” after receiving e-mail from a fellow student who recently committed suicide
“Twin Peaks” (Pilot) – The pilot that introduced the town of Twin Peaks and its odd residents was 90 of the best minutes ever put on television, but only hinted at the weirdness to come
“Twin Peaks” (Series) – Gee-whiz FBI agent Dale Cooper investigates the murder of homecoming queen Laura Palmer by talking to dwarfs and giants in his dreams in the strangest series ever to air on American network television.
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