Oct @ 366 Weird Movies: STRANGE FRAME, three takes on ESCAPE FROM TOMORROW, more

[Rev. Powell]

Welcome to Shocktober!

VIDEODROME (1983): Certified Weird! "In one scene Barry Convex forces a videocassette into the vaginal slit that Renn has grown on his stomach, adding overtones of surrealism and rape to the story. It is an assault on not just the body and the mind but also on reality, an experience that shatters the protagonist and the viewer in a way few other films can match."-BS

THE HAWKS AND THE SPARROWS (1966): "Much of the flighty 'Hawks' seems like an in-joke made for people who are long dead now, which is a bit of a shame, because Pasolini’s pair of clowns do encounter some universal themes on their journey from and to nowhere."

SPARK OF BEING (2010): "Using found footage, Morrison teams with jazz trumpeter Dave Douglas and his electric sextet, Keystone, to illustrate [Mary Shelly's 'Frankenstein']."--AE

[Rev. Powell]

Welcome to Schlocktober!

THE SINGING RINGING TREE (1959): Certified weird! "...it’s easy to see how a kid would be pulled into the story, attracted to its unfamiliar and magical mysteries like a dark cave to be explored. And inside that cave, in a hidden pool, lies a giant semi-mobile goldfish with randomly lolling goggle eyes that claims to be your friend. Let the shuddering begin."

A BUCKET OF BLOOD (1959): "Despite the five-day shoot, Bucket of Blood remains one of Corman's best efforts. It is essentially a reworking of House Of Wax (1953) transplanted to a beatnik coffee shop."-AE

I BURY THE LIVING (1958): "The film was directed by prolific Z-movie director Albert Band (father of Full Moon Productions’ Charles Band), who gives it a brooding, British noir milieu, employing psychedelic montages (shot by cinematographer Frederick Gatelyand) and expressionist sets (from Edward Vorkapich). It plays like an extended 'Twilight Zone' episode with one noticeable difference: an ending which almost kills it."-AE

THE EXTRAORDINARY ADVENTURES OF ADELE BLANC-SEC (2010): "...may try a little too hard, coming off as desperate; but any movie that manages to fit both pterodactyls and mummies into its running time has something to recommend it."

MINDFLESH (2008): " From its lurid, bizarre story about sex with aliens to its colorful visual effects, Mindflesh is sure to please fans of the weird."-PD

THE PAINTING (2011): "Standout scenes include a dreamlike sequence of a magical flower observing a captive figure with its glowing eye-like stigma, a raucous animated romp across the bridges of Venice during Carnivale, and various moments where the characters push through the permeable burlap canvas to emerge in the 'real' world."

FRANZ KAFKA'S IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1993): "This mini-masterpiece of alienation carefully walks that same line between fantasy and reality, dream and nightmare, that its namesake trod, but with an added dash of dry British wit."

[Rev. Powell]

Finishing up Mocktober:

STRANGE FRAME: LOVE & SAX (2012): Certified weird! "Imagine dropping a hefty dose of LSD on the set of Blade Runner, and you walk through a door and suddenly you’re in the Star Wars cantina. Now, imagine that experience animated by the team behind Fantastic Planet working under the direction of Ralph Bakshi, take that result and square the weirdness quotient, and you have some inkling of Strange Frame‘s visuals."

ESCAPE FROM TOMORROW (2013): Three separate opinions on the guerrilla surrealist feature shot at Disney World without park permission

MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO (1988): "...the film’s strangest invention [is] the Catbus: literally, a fuzzy bus with a tail and a Cheshire cat grin."

THE INTRUDER (1962): "Alas, awards do not count as a return on investment, and a desperate Corman and his initial distributor Pathé made the drive-in rounds with four different titles in a vain effort to recoup costs. Whether under the moniker Shame, The Stranger, or I Hate Your Guts, it was a hopeless cause."-AE

AEGRI SOMNIA (2008): "When Edgar’s shrewish wife prepares a nice supper for him, berates him, and then kills herself in the bathtub, Edgar is plunged into a waking nightmare of heightened anxiety, loneliness and frightening 'what-if's?"-PD

SOMEBODY UP THERE LIKES ME (2012): "...an experiment that dares to ask the question: just how deadpan can you make your comedy before the funny completely evaporates? It comes perilously close to finding the answer."

PICTURES OF SUPERHEROES (2012): "[Marie] gets hired by Eric (Shannon McCormick), a high-strung businessman who’s so busy, he scrounges from the vacuum cleaner since he doesn’t have time to cook, and who doesn’t even notice that he has a roommate, Joe (John Merriman), a friend from college whose main interest is eating candy and drawing amateurish pictures of superheroes."-LRH