Ñïèñîê ñòðàííûõ ôèëüìîâ íà äàííûé ìîìåíò

Èðèíà Ãîí÷àðîâà
Ñïèñîê ôèëüìîâ íà äàííûé ìîìåíò, ñåðòèôèöèðîâàíûõ ïî ñïèñêó êàê "366 ñàìûõ ñòðàííûõ êîãäà-ëèáî ïðîèçâåäåííûõ ôèëüìîâ".

Âíèçó â àëôàâèòíîì ïîðÿäêå íà àíãëèéñêîì ÿçûêå ïðèâîäèòñÿ ñïèñîê ôèëüìîâ íà äàííûé ìîìåíò, ñåðòèôèöèðîâàíûõ ïî ñïèñêó êàê "366 ñàìûõ ñòðàííûõ, êîãäà-ëèáî ïðîèçâåäåííûõ ôèëüìîâ", à òàêæå ñïèñîê ëèíêîâ íà ñòðàííûå ôèëüìû, âûïóùåííûõ òîëüêî íà êàññåòàõ èäè äèñêàõ.

Êîðîòêîìåòðàæíûå ôèëüìû âûäåëåíû â îòäåëüíûé ñïèñîê.

Îáçîðû ïî ýòèì è ìíîãèì äðóãèì ôèëüìàì íà àíãëèéñêîì ÿçûêå âû ìîæåòå èìåòü óäîâîëüñòâèå ïðî÷åñòü, åñëè âû êîíå÷íî âëàäåòå ÿçûêîì â äîñòàòî÷íîé ìåðå íà ñàéòå: http://366weirdmovies.com/the-weird-movie-list/


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 (157 certified weird)

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

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

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

Archangel (1990) – Surreal, nearly silent meditation on forgetfulness set in an icy Russian city just after World War I

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 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

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

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

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’ 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

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

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

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

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 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.

Delicatessen (1991) – Jeunet & Caro’s first film is a bizarre but oddly sweet black comedy involving cannibalism in post-apocalyptic Paris

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

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

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

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 [Le Yeux sans Visage] (1965)- Georges Franjou’s influential, poetic horror film

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 extravanganza

Final Flesh (2009) – Four separate porn-troupes-for-hire enact an absurdist prank script about the apocalypse

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Lair of the White Worm (1988) – Ken Russell’s ultra-fun, tongue-in-cheek horror movie filled with phallic symbols and impaled nuns

Lisztomania (1975) – Composer Franz Liszt battles composer/vampire Richard Wagner in this crazy classical music comedy

Little Otik (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

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

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

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

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

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”

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

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 Floyd the Wall (1982) – Bombastic, unfocused, overwrought and often brilliant rock opera, with knockout animation from British political cartoonist Gerald Scarfe

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

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

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

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 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 Sangre (1989) – Psychedelic slasher film about a man raised in a circus who acts as the hands for his armless mother

The Science of Sleep (2006) – The melancholy love life of a man who can’t distinguish dreams from reality

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

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

Skidoo (1968) – Carol Channing strips, Jackie Gleason drops acid and Groucho Marx is “God” in this all-star psychedelic misfire

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

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

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

Taxidermia (2006) – A penis ejaculating fire is the take-home image from this surreal and twisted Hungarian generational epic; barf bags recommended

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

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

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

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

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

$9.99 (2008) – A series of interwoven absurdist stories, featuring a dour chain-smoking angel, brought to you via Claymation

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

Adaptation (2002) – Great twisty script, but in the end, may be too intellectual to be weird

The Addiction (1995) – Abel Ferrara’s pretentious, existential, and strange take on the vampire myth

Aegri Somnia (2008) – The sick dreams of a disturbed man

After Last Season (2009) – Amazingly bad amateur thriller featuring a thin parapsychological plot, special effects done using primitive CAD software, and padding, padding, padding

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 [Neco Z Alenky] (1988) – Alex Kittle’s original short review of Alice (now on the List)

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?

Alice in Wonderland (1951) – Animated version of the nonsense classic is pretty good, but is it too Disneyfied to be weird?

Am;lie (2001) – A pixysh girl improves the lives of those around her in a kitschy version of Paris in this magical romantic comedy

The American Astronaut (2001) – An absurdist indie sci-fi/western/musical/comedy. This movie has been promoted onto the List; this review is left up for archival purposes

Antiviral (2012) – In a satirical dystopian future, people pay to be infected with viruses taken from their favorite celebrities

Asparagus (1979) – Surreal 18 minute tour de force featuring obscene iterations of the title vegetable.   Included on The Films of Suzan Pitt.

Attenberg (2010) – An asexual girl and her promiscuous friend invent weird dances in this strange Greek drama

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 Boy Bubby (1993) – Relentlessly offbeat character study of a man who was locked in a basement until age 40, then unleashed on modern Australia. Promoted onto the List, this initial review kept for archival purposes

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

Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012) – The tale of Hushpuppy, who lives in The Bathtub and sees aurochs; it’s a Louisiana indie fantasy/drama seen through a child’s eyes

The Bed Sitting Room (1969) – Ralph Richardson mutates into a bed sitting room in this absurd post-apocalyptic comedy

Beyond the Black Rainbow (2010) – A mute psychic woman tries to escape a mysterious institution in this bizarre tribute midnight movies of the 1970s

The Black Cat (1934) – The best of the Boris Karloff/Bela Lugosi team-ups is an Expressionist horror masterpiece about Satanism and vengeance. By Alfred Eaker.

The Black Cat (1934) – Alternate “official” review by 366weirdmovies

Black Moon (1975) -  Louis Malle’s unexpected venture in surrealism features breastfeeding and a unicorn (you’ll have to watch to see if they happen together)

Black Swan (2010) – Psychological horror about a goody-goody ballerina (Natalie Portman) who wants to dance as both the White and Black Swan from “Swan Lake.”  Promoted onto the List; we leave up the initial review of the theatrical release for archival purposes.

The Box (2009) – An adaptation of Richard Matheson’s ethical sci-fi fable gets weirded up by Richard Kelly

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

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.

Codex Atanicus (2007) – A compilation of three perverse, surreal shorts from Spanish underground filmmaker Carlos Atanes

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

Dead Ringers (1988) – Twin gynecologists (!) go crazy in this odd psychodrama from horror maestro David Cronenberg. This movie has been promoted onto the List; this original review is left up for archival purposes.

Death Bed: The Bed That Eats (1977) – Rediscovered oddity about a man-eating bed is a horror-art film parody, or something?

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

Doggiewoggiez! Poochiewoochiez! (2012) – A loose “remake” of The Holy Mountain, constructed out of found footage from dog movies and instructional videos. You heard right! Promoted to the List.

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

The Exterminating Angel (1962) – Guests at a bourgeois dinner party find themselves inexplicably unable to leave

Fantasia (1940) – Sometimes abstract, sometimes experimental Walt Disney animations set to a classical music score

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

Film (1965) – An avant-garde collaboration between Samuel Beckett (writing his only screenplay) and Buster Keaton

Frankie in Blunderland (2011) – Low budget hallucinatory trip through a bizarre hipster L.A.

Frownland (2007) – Painfully emotionally intense character study of a loser whose social anxiety disorder ironically turns him into loathsome company

Girl Slaves of Morgana le Fay [Morgane et ses Nymphes] (1971) –  A fairy tale for lesbian sex fetishists

The Guatemalan Handshake (2006) – Quirked-out indie that pushes into surreal realms; it’s like Gummo if directed by Jared Hess as a comedy

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

The Hawks and the Sparrows (1966) – Two men meet a talking Marxist raven on the road

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

Holy Motors (2012) – A man rides around Paris in a limo performing “assignments” which include becoming an accordionist and a twisted leprechaun

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

How to Get Ahead in Advertising (1989) – A hotshot ad exec grows a pimple that turns into a head in this bizarre, biting satire

Immortal (Ad Vitam) (2004) – The Egyptian god Horus visits future Manhattan in this trippy French sci-fi feature mixing live and computer generated actors

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

John Dies at the End (2012) – Demons from a parallel dimension chase a guy who’s ingested a hallucinogenic drug that gives him psychic powers. Promoted to the List.

Kaboom (2010) – College student stumbles upon odd murder mystery in this mix of sex and weirdness

Keane (2004) – First-person perspective on a near-homeless madman who may or may not have tragically lost a daughter

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

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

Livide (2011) – Surreal modern French haunted house movie

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

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

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

Maximum Shame (2010) – The tagline describes it as “an apocalyptic fetish horror musical chess sci-fi weird feature movie”—and it is!

Meatball Machine (2005) – Japanese splatterpunk love story about alien parasites turning human hosts into bio-engineered gladiators

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

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

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

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…

The Oregonian (2011) – An amnesiac woman meets giant green Muppet and man who pees in rainbow colors

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

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

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

Putney Swope (1969) – A militant black man becomes head of a Madison Avenue advertising agency in this absurdist satire from the Swinging Sixties

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

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

Saint Clara [Clara Hakedosha] (1996) – A psychic Russian immigrant girl in Israel gives her classmates test answers, until she falls in love

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 Seventh Seal (1957) – Bergman’s movie about Death stalking the medieval countryside and playing chess with knights is a masterpiece, but is it weird?

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

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

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

Sleeping Beauty (2011) – A young girl takes job as an unconscious prostitute

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

Spider Baby, or the Maddest Story Ever Told (1968) – A chauffeur raises a family of three who are mentally regressing as they age; Lon Chaney Jr. “sings” the theme song

Stay (2005) -A visually impressive psychological thriller that puts a little spin on a tired twist–but is it enough to merit making the List?

Stingray Sam (2009) – It’s a six part musical/Western/sci-fi serial; need we say more to catch your interest?

Strings (2004) – High fantasy set in a kingdom of marionettes, exploring all aspects of marionette culture

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

Sweet Movie (1974) – A millionaire with a golden penis and a socialist whore sailor with a hold full of sugar are the highlights of this disgustingly scatological allegory of capitalism and communism

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

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

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

Toys in the Attic (2009) – A dictatorial Head kidnaps a motherly doll in this Czech stop-motion animated kids fantasy

The Tree of Life (2011) – Original review for the movie that has since been elevated to the List

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?

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

Upstream Color (2013) – A woman is hypnotized and robbed with the help of a hallucinogenic worm, then operated on by an omniscient pig farmer; later, she has trouble trusting men

The Visitor (1979) – Jesus is an alien in this incoherent flop Exorcist ripoff

Visitor Q (2001) -Promoted to the List; this early, less favorable review is kept here for archival purposes

The Wayward Cloud (2005) – Taiwanese minimalism mixing porno shoots, a watermelon fetish, and musical numbers

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

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

Zazie dans le Metro (1960) – 10-year old Zazie explores a Paris filled with transvestites, dirty old men, desperate widows and guys in polar bear suits in this absurdist tribute to slapastick comedy

Z;ro de conduite (1933) – Anarchist classic about a revolt at a boys boarding school, with surreal moments

CAPSULES & GUEST REVIEWS

@SuicideRoom (2011) – A suicidal Polish teen retreats into a virtual reality world

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

9 (2009) – Shane Acker’s intriguing short about ragdolls fighting robots in a post-apocalyptic world suffers from extension to feature length

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

7 Women (1966) – John Ford’s final movie involves sexual repression at an almost all-female mission in China

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

Absurdistan (2008) – charming, unusual, almost silent romantic comedy about a sex strike by the women of an isolated Central Asian village

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 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 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 porst-mortem psychological thriller in the nude

A Journey into the Mind of P (2001) – Guest review of the documentary on reclusive writer Thomas Pynchon

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

; L’aventure (2009): A levitating orgasm is the highlight of this otherwise dull and talky philosophical French sex flick

Alice (2009) – TV miniseries re-imagining Wonderland as a dystopian kingdom is surprisingly entertaining

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

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

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 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

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

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

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

Baba Yaga (1973) – Former Baby Doll Carrol Baker is a lesbian witch in this weirdish erotic Eurosleaze

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

Bad Biology (2008) – Frank Henenlotter’s gleefully tasteless horror comedy about killer genitalia

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  Returns (1992) – Alfred Eaker argues Tim Burton’s sequel is the best (and weirdest) comic book movie ever made

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

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

Between Men (1935) – Melodramatic “B”-western, part of Alfred Eaker’s survey of Sinister Cinema’s “Sinister Six Gun Collection”.

Beyond Re-Animator (2003) – The zippy third sequel to the grossout zombie horror-comedy classic features more tasteless jokes and crazed carnage

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 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

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

The Blackbird (1926) – Lon Chaney in a dual rule as a crippled bishop and an underworld kingpin

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

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

The Body Snatcher (1945) – Starring Boris Karloff in his evilest role as a cabman who supplies a doctor with cadavers for experiments

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 (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

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

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

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

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

The Cameraman (1978) – Buster Keaton plays a cameraman with a monkey sidekick

Carmel (2009) – Impressionistic autobiographical tale of an Israeli director; frequently weird, but more frequently dull and obtuse

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

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

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

The Chaser (1928) – Early gender-switch comedy has Harry Landon sentenced to play the role of wife

Un Chien Andalou (1929) – Further thoughts on the Certified Weird Surrealist classic

Child Bride (1938)- This salacious, leering “expos;” of child marriage among hillbillies is 1930s filmmaking at its most shamelessly exploitative

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

C Me Dance (2009) – The Devil battles a cancer-stricken teen ballerina for the soul of the world in this embarrassingly earnest proselytizer

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

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

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.

Creature from the Haunted Sea (1961) – Flop Roger Corman comedy memorable only for its ridiculous monster

The Cremator [Spalovac Mrtvol] (1969) – Review by Pamela de Graff.  This Expressionist/Surrealist mix about a disturbed Czech cremator during the rise of Nazism has a good chance to make the final list.

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

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

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

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

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

Decasia (2002) – An atonal symphony scored to decaying nitrate images from silent films

Deep Red [Profondo Rosso] (1975) – Argento’s ultra-stylish giallo is both a treat on its own and a fascinating precursor to Suspiria

Desperate Living (1977) – Alfred Eaker considers this third film in John Waters’ “Trasth Trilogy” a “descent into a surreal, kitsch abyss that few could imagine”

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

Dogtooth [Kynodontas] (2009) -  Original guest review by Kevyn Knox.

Don Giovanni (2006) – Avant-garde staging of the Mozart opera with underwear model extras

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

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, 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

Dune (1984) -  David Lynch’s attempt to translate Frank Herbert’s complex, mystical sci-fi epic was an infamous flop

Eden Log (2007) – Mysterious French sci-fi about an amnesiac man trapped in a sewer-like maze

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

Elevator Movie (2004) – For posterity’s sake, here’s the original misguided capsule review for Elevator Movie, before it was promoted onto the List

Elvis (1979) – Early John Carpenter made for TV biopic of the King

Emperor of the North Pole (1973) – A cruel conductor kills train-hopping hobos in the archetypal battle between evil and slightly-less-evil

Enter Nowhere (2011) – Four strangers meet in an isolated cabin in this psychological thriller with horror overtones and a twist ending

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

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

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)

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

Feed (2005) – Grotesque thriller about obesity fetishes features women being fed to death

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

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

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

Female Trouble (1975) – Sprawling, trashy John Waters/Divine epic black comedy from the “crime is beauty” school

Fever Night AKA Band of Satanic Outsiders (2009) – Teens go into the woods and summon a psychedelic Satan in this trippy low budget effort

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

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

Flooding With Love for the Kid (2010) – Zachary Oberzan’s one-man Rambo adaptation, made for less than $100, is beyond weird or normal

Footlight Parade (1933) – Naughty pre-Code Busby Berkeley musical containing the famously outrageous “waterfall” number

The Fourth Dimension (2012) – Ho-hum triptych of movies from different directors, each invoking the fourth dimension (at least, in name)

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

Frankenstein and the Monster From Hell – 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

Freaks (1932) – Alfred Eaker provides background and a review of Tod Browning’s controversial, creepy classic

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

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

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 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

Girly [AKA Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny and Girly] (1970) – Arrested development in a bizarre British “family” of ritualistic murderers

Glass Lips (2007) – Surrealistic story of a poet’s dysfunctional past

Glen or Glenda (1953) – Alfred Eaker argues that Ed’s transvestite doc is his best (worst?) work and the holy grail for “naive surrealism”

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”

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

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 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

Habit (1996) – Interesting metaphorical take on the vampire myth from the viewpoint of an alcoholic Greenwich Village slacker

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

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.

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

Head (1968) – After their TV show disbanded, prefab pop band the Monkees intentionally committed career suicide with this psychedelic spit in the eye of their young fans

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 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

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 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

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

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

The Hourglass Sanatorium (1973) – A man visits his dead father in a sanatorium where temporal rules don’t apply

Housekeeping (1987) – nonconformity sleeper about two orphaned girls raised by an eccentric aunt

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

The Human Centipede (First Segment) (2009) – Mad doctor makes a human centipede; a unique grossout premise but a predictable formula execution

I Bury the Living (1958) – A cemetery caretaker believes he can kill people by placing a pin in a map of the graveyard

Irrfharten II & III (2006) – An avant-garde pastiche of Mozart fragments, including the unfinished operas Sposo deluso and L’ Oca del Cairo

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

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

Intacto (2001) – Moody magical realist thriller about a world where luck can be stolen and won in weird contests, featuring an elderly Max von Sydow

The Intruder (1962) – Roger Corman’s surprisingly progressive civil rights movie, starring William Shatner (!) as a racist demagogue

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

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!

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 Superstar (1973) – The film adaptation of the rock opera chronicling the passion of Jesus

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

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

The Kid (1921) – The Tramp adopts a kid in Charlie Chaplin’s first feature film

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

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

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 Trail (1926) - Silent Tom Mix B-western

The Leopard Man (1943) – Val Lewton and Jacques Tourneur inject life and atmosphere into this generic shape-shifter scenario

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 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

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

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

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

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 Object (2003) – Perverse horror about a man’s unhealthy relationship with his possessive blow-up doll

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

Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985) – The weirdest Mad Max movie is good goofy fun

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

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

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

The Master (2012) – A paint-thinner drinking, sandcastle-humping sailor falls in with a cult leader in postwar America

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

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

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

Micmacs (2009) – Typically whimsical Jean-Pierre Jeunet outing, this time involving a team of carnivalesque misfits who unite to fight arms dealers

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

Modern Times (1936) – Charlie Chaplin’s classic comedy about technological alienation

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

Moon (2009) – Thoughtful hard science fiction that flirts with weirdness in the opening reels

The Mothman Prophecies (2002) – Hokey but effective parapsychological horror story

Mr. Sadman (2009) – Independent comedy about a mute Saddam Hussein impersonator restarting his life in Los Angeles

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

My Joy (2010) – Political allegory about corruption in modern Russia with a confusing semi-linear construction

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

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 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 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

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 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 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

Ninja Scroll (1993) – Sexy and ultraviolent, but this anime is basically a straightforward fantasy adventure

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

Nothing (2003) – Two losers wish the world away; possibly the best movie about nothing ever made

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

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

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

Order of Chaos (2010) – Offbeat thriller about a passive attorney and the newcomer who throws his life out of whack

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

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

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

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 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

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

Phantom of the Paradise (1974): This cult rock musical mixes the plots of “Phantom of the Opera” and “Faust”

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

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

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

Powder (1995) – An albino teen with electromagnetic powers tries to fit in to redneck society

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

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

Pulse (2001) – Ghosts depopulate the world in this effective early J-horror

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 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

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

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

Reality (2012) – A Neapolitan fishmonger loses his mind when he becomes obsessed with joining the cast of a reality TV show

Redline (2010) – Anime meets Death Race 2000

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

Ricky (2009) – A miraculous baby is born to a factory worker in this French magical realist scenario

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

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-vide0 sequel to the classic Donnie Darko: “not worthy”

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 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…

The Saragossa Manuscript (1965) – The weird adventures of a Napoleonic solider are told in this “existential potpourri”

Satan Hates You (2009) – Modern recreation of a Christian scare film, complete with drugs, sex, violence, demons, and redemption

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

Scars of Youth (2008) – Low-budget tribute to Stalker has surprisingly accomplished visuals, but is undone by poor acting and not enough plot

Scream of the Butterfly (1965) – Soapy Sixties sexploitation involving a cheating nymphomaniac and her bisexual (male) lover

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

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

Sex and Lucia [Lucia y el Sexo] (2001) – Arty dirty movie with a meta-narrative and nude Paz Vega

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

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

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

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

Society (1989) – Reader recommendation by J.S. Roberts.  A privileged teen uncovers weird, disturbing rites when he’s initiated into high society

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

Splice (2010) – Genetic horror/parenthood allegory from Vincenzo Natali about the drawbacks of mixing human and animal DNA

Spring Breakers (2012) – It’s “Girls Gone Wild” on acid as Harmony Korine tackles the buring issue of spring break bikini babes committing armed robbery

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

The Strange Woman (1946) – Edgar G. Ulmer noir starring Heddy Lamarr as a woman more evil than strange

Street Trash (1987) – Killer rotgut causes hobos to melt in this bad taste black comedy

The Strong Man (1926) – Manchild Harry Langdon survives a tour in WWI and becomes a circus strong man while searching for his love

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

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

Superman and the Mole Men (1951) – Dwarfs with an Electrolux vacuum cleaner threaten the Man of Steel

Surveillance (2008) – Jennifer Lynch’s long delayed second movie is a perverse cross between Natural Born Killers and a CSI episode

The Swimmer (1968) – Burt Lancaster decides to “swim” his way home one afternoon via neighbors swimming pools, but finds himself impeded by allegory

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 Tall T (1957) – Budd Boetticher’s bleak, beautiful Western has a cult following

Tchoupitoulas (2012) – Impressionistic tour of New Orleans as seen from the viewpoint of three boys stranded in the city overnight

The Tempest (1979) – Avant garde interpretation of Shakespeare’s strangest fantasy with much nudity and a torch song finale

The Temptation of St. Tony (2009) – Kafkaesque Estonian retelling of the temptation of St. Anthony

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Town Called Panic (2009) – The outright insanity of this picaresque children’s adventure appeals to weirder adults

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

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

Trash Humpers (2009) – Four elderly (?) sociopaths terrorize weirdos and defenseless garbage in this narrativeless provocation from Harmony Korine. This is the archived original negative review of this title that was eventually certified weird by popular demand

Triangle (2009) – Weirdness hits the high seas in this psychological mindbender about a single mom trapped on a not-so-abandoned ocean liner

Trollhunter [Trolljegeren] (2010) – Truth in advertising in this Norwegian “found footage” horror movie about a man who hunts trolls

Twilight of the Ice Nymphs (1997) – Guy Maddin’s color misfire has intriguing art design, at least

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

Uncle Boonme Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010) – Dying Uncle Boonme recalls his past lives, and sees a Thai sasquatch, too

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

Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (1970) – Dreamlike movie from the Czechoslovak New Wave about a girl transitioning into womanhood. This is the original review of this movie that was eventually Certified Weird.

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

Vampyr (1932) – Slow-paced, dreamlike early sound vampire movie

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

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

Waxworks (1924) – This historical anthology film with Ivan the Terrible and Jack the Ripper is one of the key works of German Expressionism

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

West of Zanzibar (1928) – Lon Chaney loses his legs and becomes a witch doctor while plotting decades-long revenge in this partially lost melodrama

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

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

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

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

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 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.

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

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

Zenith (2010) – Intricately confusing, weirdish mix of paranoid conspiracy thriller and sci-fi speculation

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

“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

“Saturday Morning with Sid & Marty Kroftt” – Pilot episodes from the puppet-centric children’s fantasy shows beloved by 70s children and acidheads alike

“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.

Screen shot from REPULSION