12 Weird Movies for Strange People

Tuesday, February 2, 2010 at 12:30 pm

Are you the odd person always sitting in the corner at parties? Do animals seem nervous around you? Did you try peyote once and find that it made you act more normal? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then this list of 12 weird movies for strange people should be right up your alley. They’re all available from Netflix, and renting them helps keep the ship called Only Good Movies afloat.

The Dark Backward (1991) – Judd Nelson plays a garbage man who moonlights as a crappy stand-up comic. But when a third arm begins growing from his back, he suddenly generates interest from a sleazy agent played by Wayne Newton. Bill Paxton plays a fellow garbage man who likes to have sex with female corpses he finds discarded in the trash. Co-starring Rob Lowe, James Caan and Lara Flynn Boyle.

Eraserhead (1977) – The first film from David Lynch and perhaps his most bizarre (and that’s really saying something). The not-so-heartwarming story of a man, his girlfriend named Mary X, and their deformed offspring. Under no circumstances should you get stoned before seeing this film.

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) – Yes, it’s a classic. But this Stanley Kubrick masterpiece is also damned weird with its black monolith, Star-Child, and a killer computer known as HAL 9000. Still, if you’re looking for a film that allows the audience to wildly speculate on the outcome, then this is the one for you.

Blood for Dracula (1974) – Udo Kier plays a Dracula who must feed on the blood of virgins to survive. He travels to Italy and sets his sights on finding a suitable victim, but he has hell thanks to a Marxist handyman with a hammer and sickle painted on the wall of his room. In one bizarre scene, a woman is raped to protect her from Dracula, and the titular vampire spends most of the movie coughing and looking completely ineffective. Be sure to catch Flesh for Frankenstein for a double dose of oddness from actor Udo Kier, director Paul Morrissey, and producer Andy Warhol.

The Addiction (1995) – A vampire film directed by Abel Ferrara and starring Christopher Walken and Lili Taylor. That’s about all you need to know, as anyone who’s seen Ferrara’s films (or watched him in an interview) knows just how freakin’ crazy he is.

The Bird People in China (1998) – A Japanese businessman is sent to a remote village in China to scout out some precious gems, and he’s followed on his journey by a member of the yakuza. What they find is an unspoiled land where rumors of flying people persist. With a responsible ecological theme, The Bird People in China is actually one of the more subdued works by prolific filmmaker Takashi Miike, but it’s still weird by conventional standards.

Cabin Boy (1994) – Chris Elliott stars as a young snob who mistakenly boards a dilapidated ship known as The Filthy Whore (after somehow mistaking it for a luxury cruise liner bound for Hawaii). He then receives a lesson in humility, complete with tobacco-spitting cupcakes, an obsessed half-shark man, David Letterman selling sock monkeys, and a trip into the dreaded Hell’s Bucket.

Dark City (1998) – A man with amnesia (Rufus Sewell) wanders around a city where it’s always dark and all residents fall into a coma at the stroke of midnight. Framed for murder, he must elude a mysterious group of bald freaks who possess vast psychic powers. Sound weird? It is.

Suicide Club (2002) – Japanese residents (especially teens) are offing themselves in droves, and nobody seems to be able to figure out why. Does it have something to do with a cute, pre-teen girl band known as Dessert, or is it somehow masterminded by a lunatic who lives in a bowling alley and likes to cram women into white sacks before raping and killing them? When it comes to sheer weirdness, it’s hard to beat Japanese cinema, especially the opening scene featuring the gory death of 54 schoolgirls.

Zardoz (1974) – Sean Connery wears red suspenders, a futuristic red diaper, and sports a big moustache and ponytail in this crazy-ass film from John Boorman. With lines like “The gun is good. The penis is evil.” and giant floating stone heads, this is one of the most oddball films you’ll ever see. Without a doubt, you’ll never look at Connery the same way again after seeing him in knee-high leather boots and a diaper.

Shakes the Clown (1992) – The Boston Globe referred to this film as “the Citizen Kane of alcoholic clown movies.” Starring Bobcat Goldthwait, Julie Brown, Kathy Griffin, Adam Sandler and an uncredited cameo from Robin Williams.  Director Martin Scorsese is a fan of the film, even going so far as to defend it in a debate with a film critic.

Pink Flamingos (1972) – Drag queen Divine stars in this notorious John Waters film. Whether she’s eating dog feces, crushing a live chicken to death during sex, or shooting her rivals in the head, there’s no way you’ll forget this character or this film. Just make sure you’ve got a strong stomach before inserting your Pink Flamingos DVD.

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There are plenty of other weird movies for strange people available, and we’ll no doubt be talking about them again in the future. In the meantime, you can take a gander at the following:

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010 at 12:30 pm and is filed under Thoughts on Film. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “12 Weird Movies for Strange People”

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August 20, 2010

Florentice

The Sci-fi film nSpace,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAcirnrdGhw

from the Dovin Melhee story:
http://www.amazon.com/nSpace-Dovin-Melhee/dp/0557221889/

February 20, 2011

BankruptDude

Among my favorites. you’ve got some taste fella’.

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