Skip to content

The Weird Movies Thread

JoenSoJoenSo Member Posts: 910
edited March 2019 in Off-Topic
Weird
-Having an unusually strange character or behaviour.
-Deviating from the normal; bizarre.


I've sometimes been accused of having a taste for "weird" movies. Movies that are out of the ordinary, unconventional, surreal. Or simply confusing and bizarre. There's a certain charm with movies like House (the Japanese movie from the 70s, that is) that are just so plain bizarre that you can't help but laugh your way through it. While there are a lot of insanely good movies that are dismissed as, well, weird.

I suppose the most classic example of a weird movie would be the surrealist An Andalusian Dog from 1929. But Paprika is one of my absolute favorites - a surreal, messy and confusing movie, which also makes it the best interpretation of the weirdness of dreams I have ever seen in fiction. Also a lot of gorgeous animation.

So what are some really weird movies you have seen? Good weird, bad weird or however you prefer to define it.
Post edited by JoenSo on
ThacoBellZaghoulFinneousPJmlneveseDrHappyAngry

Comments

  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    Oh, THAT House. I still need to watch that sometime. Paprika is certainly a very dreamlike movie. Not sure I can claim to like or dislike it, but it does have gorgeous animation.

    Tekkonkinkreet would probably be considered weird. It starts like a fairly standard urban adventure movie, but goes into some metaphysical themes with strange imagery around the time the "Minotaur" is introduced. There might also be aliens? Its been awhile since I've seen it.
    JoenSo
  • The user and all related content has been deleted.
    ThacoBell
  • KamigoroshiKamigoroshi Member Posts: 5,870
    Can't have a weird movie thread without Big Man Japan, now can we?
    ThacoBellJoenSo[Deleted User]DrHappyAngry
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    I thought that was a parody trailer...
  • JoenSoJoenSo Member Posts: 910
    edited March 2019
    Well, now I want to see Wax (hook-up potential or not). I think there's a trailer for Tekkonkinkreet on my dvd copy of Paprika actually. I remember watching the trailer, being intrigued and then forgetting all about it when I couldn't find it anywhere.

    For another piece of surreal Japanese animation, there's always Angel's egg. Very slow and dreamlike movie. I really like it, even if I understand completely if people find it to be pretentious and over the top with its constant religious and philosophical symbolism. Directed by Mamoru Oshii too, the guy who did Ghost in the Shell.
    ThacoBellFinneousPJTakisMegas
  • FinneousPJFinneousPJ Member Posts: 6,455
    This was a fun, weird little move



    When a depressed woman is burglarized, she finds a new sense of purpose by tracking down the thieves alongside her obnoxious neighbor. But they soon find themselves dangerously out of their depth against a pack of degenerate criminals.
    Skatan
  • SkatanSkatan Member, Moderator Posts: 5,352
    I liked this one, at least the first half was brilliant. The second half was good, but not as great as the first episodes. Very strange, very weird; Happy!
    FinneousPJdeltago
  • DrHappyAngryDrHappyAngry Member Posts: 1,577
    Paprika was a fun flick. "It's like computer graphics!"

    So my happy place movie is Brain Donors. It's very '90s in some spots.

    It was made by the same people who did Airplane!, Hotshots, The Kentucky Fried Movie, etc. It's technically a remake of the old Marx Brothers flick, A Night At The Opera, with John Turturro in the role of Groucho Marx. There's just a constant stream of ridiculous physical gags and John Turturro just goes from one liner to one liner. The cab driver's the same guy who played the albino in The Princess Bride. Even 25 years after it came out, I find myself quoting it from time to time. Like I can't remember meeting someone, I'll say "Was I drunk and stupid and promised to marry you?" or if I haven't seen someone in a long time "I missed you so much, I went out and bought a woman that looks exactly like you."

    Has anybody else seen Barbarella?

    It's just so weird, I don't even know where to start with it. The zero G intro scene was really well done, especially it being the 60s, but damn. What's so strange, is that at the time it was considered liberating for women, because she was a woman that enjoyed sex and was a heroine, whereas today it'd be considered really sexist, since Jane Fonda's naked through a lot of it and a lot of other reasons.
    FinneousPJZaghoulThacoBellJoenSo
  • JoenSoJoenSo Member Posts: 910
    Haha, Barbarella is such a great movie in the worst sense of the word. It's been years since I saw it. I still remember that I found the thought of Death by parakeets funny and strangely horrifying at the same time. I guess it's the Hitchcock vibes.
    DrHappyAngry
  • DrHappyAngryDrHappyAngry Member Posts: 1,577
    JoenSo wrote: »
    Haha, Barbarella is such a great movie in the worst sense of the word. It's been years since I saw it. I still remember that I found the thought of Death by parakeets funny and strangely horrifying at the same time. I guess it's the Hitchcock vibes.
    Ha, I had forgotten about the parakeet scene. That movie is so strange.

    There was a great bit the Venture Bros did recently, where 3 different character's coma dreams overlap. Hank's clearly Lando from Star Wars and the Action Man was the guy in the fur suit from the beginning of Barbarella. It was pretty hilarious to hear them compare how similar Barbarella is to The Empire Strikes Back.
  • shabadooshabadoo Member Posts: 324
    Videodrome
    CRT emissions are stimulating the pineal gland in some people, causing them to think, see, and do very odd things. Not a very good movie (even for the 1980's), but definitely weird.
    Balrog99ThacoBellDrHappyAngrySkatan
  • Balrog99Balrog99 Member Posts: 7,367
    shabadoo wrote: »
    Videodrome
    CRT emissions are stimulating the pineal gland in some people, causing them to think, see, and do very odd things. Not a very good movie (even for the 1980's), but definitely weird.

    If we're going back that far, Altered States is another strange movie. There are some very weird and disturbing scenes in that one. It's pretty good (though a bit dated).
    Zaghoul
  • deltagodeltago Member Posts: 7,811
    Define Weird?

    I use to work in a movie theatre in the early aughts. It was a cross between a regular movie house and art house. So while we'd have something like A Beautiful Mind, or Lord of the Rings playing in one of the bigger theatres, we'd have Memento or Donnie Darko or Hedwig and the Angry Inch playing in one of the smaller ones that wouldn't fit more than 50 people. I got to see a lot of weird movies that way.

    Charlie Kaufman is known for his odd movies like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Being John Malkovich or Anomalisa. Anything by him, IMO is worth a watch.

    Waking Life I remember as a trip both visually and mentally and was the first movie I thought of when I read the title of this thread.

    Then you can go through Nicolas Cage's work and find a plethora of weird movies such as Bringing Out the Dead.

    I'll think I'll leave it at that for now.
  • JoenSoJoenSo Member Posts: 910
    deltago wrote: »
    Define Weird?
    JoenSo wrote: »
    Weird
    -Having an unusually strange character or behaviour.
    -Deviating from the normal; bizarre.

    I actually did :P

    It's been way too long since I saw Being John Malkovich, but Eternal Sunshine is one of those movies I keep going back too.
  • deltagodeltago Member Posts: 7,811
    edited May 2019
    JoenSo wrote: »
    deltago wrote: »
    Define Weird?
    JoenSo wrote: »
    Weird
    -Having an unusually strange character or behaviour.
    -Deviating from the normal; bizarre.

    I actually did :P

    It's been way too long since I saw Being John Malkovich, but Eternal Sunshine is one of those movies I keep going back too.

    But would you define Memento as weird because of it's odd structure. Or Hedwig and the Angry Inch, which at the time, deviated very much from the norm of what a movie should be about.

    I own both (BJM & ESotSM) but haven't watched either in awhile either. Although I now want to watch Waking Life again.

    Magnolia is another odd film that people don't "get."

    And now you have me on a mission to find this obscure movie that follows four people around, and each actor has their own camera that is on the screen at the same time and their camera never breaks away from them so you actually see what they are doing when something else is happening during the movie. It was very chaotic. I will find it eventually.

    edit: still looking, but there is also Twin Falls Idaho about conjoined twins.

    edit2: Found it. Called Timecode
    trailer:
    Post edited by deltago on
  • SkatanSkatan Member, Moderator Posts: 5,352
    I got a tip from a friend to watch a movie called Coherence. Not sure if I was troll baited or not. Anyone seen it and say if it's worth seeing?
    Zaghoul
  • JoenSoJoenSo Member Posts: 910
    deltago wrote: »
    But would you define Memento as weird because of it's odd structure. Or Hedwig and the Angry Inch, which at the time, deviated very much from the norm of what a movie should be about.

    Half the purpose of this thread was that people say I like "weird" movies, as if it was a genre or something easily defined. So I wanted to see what others here found weird.

    I did enjoy Memento (haven't seen the others you mentioned) and its unusual structure. I kind of like how it isn't very weird beyond the structure though. It reminds me of Pulp Fiction in that regard, a movie that just wouldn't leave much impact if they hadn't chopped up the scenes and thrown them around to create a whole other dramatic structure compared to if it was all chronological.

  • ZaghoulZaghoul Member, Moderator Posts: 3,938
    Skatan wrote: »
    I got a tip from a friend to watch a movie called Coherence. Not sure if I was troll baited or not. Anyone seen it and say if it's worth seeing?

    @Skatan I just saw that not long ago. That's definitely a good movie for the weird movie list. Keeps ya guessing.
    Skatan
  • DrHappyAngryDrHappyAngry Member Posts: 1,577
    Breakfast of Champions. A film adaptation of the book by Kurt Vonegut. It's my favorite book by him, and I actually really dig the film adaptation, despite the book being really dark and depressing and the movie being bright and slapsticky.


    Bruce Willis does do crazy really well, and it's funny to see Nick Nolte as a cross dresser. It centers on a car dealership owner played by Willis who's losing his mind. His wife's nuts, and previously tried to kill herself (in the book she succeeded). The problem is he's such a well respected rich man around town, everyone just lets him get away with weird stuff and blowing it off as he gets crazier. I always love anything with Kilgore Trout in it, too, Vonegut's alter ego.
  • SkatanSkatan Member, Moderator Posts: 5,352
    Thanks @Zaghoul, then I will try to find it!
    Zaghoul
  • SharGuidesMyHandSharGuidesMyHand Member Posts: 2,579

    Yes, these are scenes from a real full-length movie:



    Zaghoul
  • ZaghoulZaghoul Member, Moderator Posts: 3,938
    Gummo was weird but I enjoyed it at the time.
    SharGuidesMyHand
  • TannyTanny Member Posts: 1
    Well this is QUITE weird:
    Skatan
  • SkatanSkatan Member, Moderator Posts: 5,352
    Hah, weird indeed. Loved the music though! A shazam and a quick search in Spotify later I'm now playing Null Phi Infinity :)
  • TarotRedhandTarotRedhand Member Posts: 1,481
    edited October 2020
    Depends on your definition of wierd. For example there is a James Stewart movie from 1950 that might well fit into that category due to the six foot tall, invisible, white rabbit called Harvey (IMDB link). Funny, in a gentle, family friendly way too.

    TR
    ThacoBell
Sign In or Register to comment.