Help us rally around a common weirdness

December 22, 2008 3:19 PM

I'm looking for recommendations of movies to show at a movie party. I'd like to find films that are completely out there and just offensively weird and absurd in a way that would allow us all to comment on just how absurd they are.

I've been hosting a series of movie parties lately, and I've found that the best parties are those that center around movies that incite my friends and I to comment on them MST3K style. Movies that are really good, artsy, serious, etc. don't work very well because nobody wants to say anything during a really good movie. Movies that are just too easy to make fun of tend not to work either (Robot Monster was a dud). So far the best movies were ones that none of us had ever seen or heard of that turned out to be so completely bizarre that we couldn't even imagine what was going through the heads of the people who made them.

Movies we've watched in the past that fit what I'm looking for:
-Tetsuo: The Iron Man
-Tetsuo II: Body Hammer
-Turks Fruit (although that movie isn't really that weird)

posted by One Second Before Awakening to media & arts (139 comments total)

Beyond the Valley of the Dolls

...or if you want to go really hardcore Andy Warhol's Trash.
posted by Artw at 3:28 PM on December 22, 2008

If you don't mind subtitles "Save the Green Planet!" sounds right up your alley.
posted by Palmcorder Yajna at 3:29 PM on December 22, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Eraserhead
Liquid Sky

Also check out Bad Idea Theater.
posted by mikeand1 at 3:29 PM on December 22, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

This is the perfect opportunity to bring up the most fucked up thing I've ever watched and actually like. Oh also, the most fucked up thing I've ever watched and hated with all my heart but still bought the DVD
posted by phrakture at 3:32 PM on December 22, 2008

Battle Royal and Old Boy. I've also heard that Cannibal holocaust is pretty out there, but i haven't seen it myself.
posted by aeighty at 3:32 PM on December 22, 2008

Planet Terror
posted by bobber at 3:32 PM on December 22, 2008

Zardoz
Barbarella
posted by Artw at 3:32 PM on December 22, 2008

El Topo!!
posted by np312 at 3:32 PM on December 22, 2008

The Apple (1980)
posted by mrbarrett.com at 3:34 PM on December 22, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Night of the Lepus!!
posted by johnbaskerville at 3:36 PM on December 22, 2008

I'm a big fan of bad movies and I go to an annual movie marathon of crap theater. Here's some of their choices this year: King Dinosaur (but MST3K have already done it), Ninja Turf, Berry Gordy's The Last Dragon.

If you're also into zombie movies then Dead Heat and I Was a Teenage Zombie are good for ridicule.
posted by holloway at 3:37 PM on December 22, 2008

Django
posted by Artw at 3:37 PM on December 22, 2008

Also, in response to aeighty's suggestion, Cannibal holocaust is quite brutal and offensive; and unless the crowd is right, I wouldn't consider showing it without first pre-viewing.
posted by johnbaskerville at 3:38 PM on December 22, 2008

Videodrome, obviously.
posted by Artw at 3:39 PM on December 22, 2008

OMG, I love Tetsuo: The Iron Man!

We have these movie nights, and have shown some groaners like Torque, Showgirls, and are planning Snakes on a Plane (theme nights have been Torque & Porque, Showgrills, etc.).

Also: The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra, Dead Man, Caligula...

There's also AWFUL port, such as Edward Penishands (NB, he has 3, not 11).

Or go for sci-fi classics like Plan 9 From Outer Space, THEM!, The Crawling Eye, 13 Ghosts, and so forth.
posted by sadiehawkinstein at 3:39 PM on December 22, 2008

You could just work through everything you haven;t seen on this list.
posted by Artw at 3:41 PM on December 22, 2008

Some people love it, but I've been completely stupefied by all of the Takashi Miike films I've seen. Visitor Q, in particular, made very little sense and contained tons of images I wish I could un-see.
posted by thebergfather at 3:41 PM on December 22, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

It's no Audition.

Ichi The Killer should be the Miike film highest on the list. Or possibly you could just watch the first five minutes of Dead or Alive on loop for sheer awesomeness (the rest of the film strugles to live up to it and the sequel isn't all that)/
posted by Artw at 3:46 PM on December 22, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

Dr. Caligari (1989)
Gummo
John Waters
posted by Sailormom at 3:49 PM on December 22, 2008

Bad Taste. Its everything the title implies.
posted by baphomet at 3:50 PM on December 22, 2008

Man Bites Dog. Basically a film about a documentary being made about a serial killer. One of the funniest parts of the film is the rape scene. Which kinda says it all really...
posted by i_cola at 3:50 PM on December 22, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

It's American, hopelessly ridiculous, and stars Chevy Chase, so it might not be appropriate for your crowd, but Nothing But Trouble is one of my favorite movies of all time.
posted by hapticactionnetwork at 3:50 PM on December 22, 2008

Artw you're right about the first five minutes of Dead or Alive. That's a fantastic opening.
I like classifying Miike movies into the usual slots. Audition, for example, would be the romantic comedy (guy sets up a hilarious plan to find the perfect girl, etc.) Visitor Q is the heartwarming family drama (the all come together in the end <> My favorite though is Gozu, it's like he took all the good bits from his other movies and blended it into a weird mix of crime and absurdity. And milk.
posted by pantsrobot at 3:51 PM on December 22, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

[Man Bites Dog links: IMDB. Wikipedia.}
posted by i_cola at 3:54 PM on December 22, 2008

Seconding Liquid Sky - the only response when watching that film is "Huh?" Heroin, aliens, necrophilia, it has it all, and makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

For sheer silliness in B-movies, the list is endless. The one that comes to mind right now is Forbidden World (NOT Forbidden Planet, which is all kinds of awesome). Absurdity galore, lots of graphic sex, and the most idiotically hilarious surgery in the history of cinema.
posted by elendil71 at 3:55 PM on December 22, 2008

Fantastic Planet
posted by Artw at 3:56 PM on December 22, 2008

I just watched Cannibal Holocaust in a local independent theatre that shows all kinds of grindhouse/bizarre flicks. It was a special version which included the often-cut Last Road to Hell. I knew the film was bad and I warned my wife before we went, but she's into horror flicks like me and she insisted. It's a great movie while at the same time a horrible, horrible movie.
I'd suggest anything by Alejandro Jodorowsky. El Topo, Holy Mountain, Santa Sangre. I'd also suggest Batman Dracula, Celine and Julie Go Boating, the classic film Freaks, or the old, once-banned documentary Titicut Follies. That one is pretty heavy too, so yeah... depends on the crowd.
posted by Bageena at 3:57 PM on December 22, 2008

Delicatessen.
posted by infinitewindow at 3:57 PM on December 22, 2008

Oh wow, yes, Santa Sangre!

Also: Suspiria
posted by Artw at 3:59 PM on December 22, 2008

The Great Silence
posted by Artw at 4:02 PM on December 22, 2008

People are naming a lot of my all-time favorite films (Tetsuo, Fantastic Planet, Save the Green Planet) in this thread. I'm not sure how to feel about that.

Anyway, I'd add Happiness of the Katakuris to the list of Miike flicks. It's a horror film. It's a remake of a Korean black comedy. It's a musical. And it's totally awesome.
posted by Dr-Baa at 4:09 PM on December 22, 2008

Frogs.
posted by gyusan at 4:10 PM on December 22, 2008

Dirty Duck or perhaps Fantastic Planet

Two very bizarre animated films from 1974 and 1973, respectively.
posted by Phantomx at 4:12 PM on December 22, 2008

Dr-Baa - I'm basically naming anything I watched past midnight in my teens and 20s.
posted by Artw at 4:12 PM on December 22, 2008

Holy Mountain has an unusually high density of Unusual and Strange.

The American Astronaut has some good musical numbers. And a Real Live Girl.

Forbidden Zone stars Herve Villechaize as King Fausto of the sixth dimension.
posted by ook at 4:12 PM on December 22, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

Was beaten twice about Fantastic Planet. I enjoy it a lot, but that doesn't diminish its weirdness one tiny bit.
posted by Phantomx at 4:13 PM on December 22, 2008

If you end up watching Dune then DO NOT WATCH ANY KIND OF "EXTENDED" OR "SPECIAL" EDITION.
posted by Artw at 4:15 PM on December 22, 2008

Drowning Mona
posted by HuronBob at 4:15 PM on December 22, 2008

I won't try to compete with all the suggestions above for the main event, but it might be fun to open (or close) with a little Hertzfeldt. The obvious choice would be Rejected, but they're all awesome.
posted by madmethods at 4:15 PM on December 22, 2008

Survive Style 5+
posted by demon666 at 4:19 PM on December 22, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

Dust Devil
posted by Artw at 4:21 PM on December 22, 2008

Seconding Zardoz.
Maybe ... um ... Straight to Hell?
Six-String Samurai is both pretty good and easily mockable.
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 4:38 PM on December 22, 2008

I'll add my vote for Liquid Sky. Having watched it at the tender age of 17, in a small cineclub where it was announced as "omgscifi!", I can tell you those were some of the most puzzling minutes of my whole life.
posted by Iosephus at 4:40 PM on December 22, 2008

SWEET MOVIE

THE BEYOND

FEMALE CONVICT SCORPION: BEAST STABLE (BEAST STABLE is the third in the series and is available on dvd, the second film of the series - JAILHOUSE 41 - is a masterpiece of art and exploitation and is long OOP on dvd.)
posted by cinemafiend at 4:42 PM on December 22, 2008

Prince of Darkness
posted by Artw at 4:47 PM on December 22, 2008

Tromeo and Juliet
posted by komilnefopa at 4:55 PM on December 22, 2008

Begotten. Hands down, Begotten.
posted by Manhasset at 4:58 PM on December 22, 2008

Just saw this and decided it is completely and utterly ridiculous - Santa's Slay

'nough said.
posted by fiercekitten at 5:06 PM on December 22, 2008

The Doom Generation.

Seconding Meet the Feebles--wow, that was borderline traumatic. It truly has to be seen to be believed (and even then, you might have trouble). Of course, if you're going there, you must see Dead Alive, especially the scene with Selwyn. (And who could forget: "I kick arse for the Lord!")
posted by ostranenie at 5:07 PM on December 22, 2008

Funky Forest: The First Contact

Southland Tales

Christmas on Mars
posted by naju at 5:09 PM on December 22, 2008

The new Indiana Jones movie worked well for just these reasons. That movie is really, really weird.
posted by wemayfreeze at 5:19 PM on December 22, 2008

even dwarves started small. trust me on this. it's full of bizarro win.
posted by CitizenD at 5:21 PM on December 22, 2008

Crispin Glover's What is it?
Being the adventures of a young man whose principle interests are snails, salt, a pipe, and how to get home. As tormented by an hubristic, racist inner psyche.
Plot:
What Is It? is a bewildering, unnerving, surreal, blackly comic film from the visionary mind of Crispin Glover that tells the inner and outer struggles of a young man facing villains and demons on multiple planes
posted by fieldtrip at 5:23 PM on December 22, 2008

Oasis: a Korean-language film about two outcasts who fall in love. One of the best and most difficult movies I've ever watched.
posted by whiskeyspider at 5:25 PM on December 22, 2008

Cannibal! The Musical
posted by nickthetourist at 5:27 PM on December 22, 2008

The Crippled Master -- check out the trailer.
posted by kittydelsol at 5:38 PM on December 22, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

You absolutely must screen The Wicker Man together (the 1973 original, not the lame Nick Cage remake).
posted by availablelight at 5:41 PM on December 22, 2008

Freaked is awesome, seconding Cannibal the Musical!
posted by miasma at 5:43 PM on December 22, 2008

Well, there's always Salo, Or the 120 Days of Sodom...

KIDDING!!! KIDDING!!! KIDDING!!! DON'T WATCH THIS!! NOT FUN OR FUNNY AT ALL!!!! HORRIBLE TERRIFYING REVOLTING YOU-CAN-NEVER-UNSEE-WHAT-YOU-HAVE-NOW-SEEN MOVIE!!! DO NOT WATCH!!! DO NOT SHOW AT PARTY!!!
posted by el_lupino at 5:47 PM on December 22, 2008

Lots of good stuff mentioned already, but if you're looking for more…

Wax, or the Discovery of Television Among the Bees
The Magic Christian
Ice Pirates (very much a "what were they thinking?" kind of movie)
Master of the Flying Guillotine
The Bride with White Hair (the harder you try to make sense of it, the harder your brain hurts)
posted by adamrice at 5:50 PM on December 22, 2008

Ooh ooh ooh! I'm so glad nobody has already said Troll 2.

It's so deliciously awful it even has its own fan site called, fittingly, Best Worst Movie.

It's a movie called Troll 2 that doesn't have a single troll in it!

Trust me, this is the kind of movie you will watch and be quoting five years later.
posted by missjenny at 5:50 PM on December 22, 2008

Thanks for all the suggestions, guys!

We actually watched Videodrome at my first party and the guests enjoyed it, but it was too much of a good movie to really work this way. I think it didn't help that everyone knew I was a big fan, because that may have stifled some parodic remarks.

"Save the Green Planet!" is a great suggestion; I've been meaning to watch that one anyways. "Forbidden World" looks pretty hilarious. "Begotten" I've heard about but never seen. The trailor is horrifying! Is it that crazy the entire way through? I've heard it's has a bit of a slow pace. For the kind of experience I'm looking for, a fast-paced movie is a must.

Anyways, some great ideas in here, and feel free to keep them coming! I'm a big fan of weird movies and I may have to watch some of these on my own later.
posted by One Second Before Awakening at 5:55 PM on December 22, 2008

Hell Comes to Frogtown starring Roudy Roddy Pipper.
posted by QUHZK at 5:56 PM on December 22, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

Oh yeah, we saw "Wax, or the Discovery of Television Among the Bees" at one party. I really liked it, and so did two others at the party, but the rest of them were pretty much done with it after about 25 minutes. It kind of goes on and on in the same vein for a long time, so those of us who didn't like it were really annoyed by the end.
posted by One Second Before Awakening at 5:57 PM on December 22, 2008

Turkish Star Wars I have no idea what was going on in that movie.
posted by banjo_and_the_pork at 5:58 PM on December 22, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Altered States

I'm still frightened and confused by this movie.
posted by QUHZK at 5:59 PM on December 22, 2008

Might be a bit too mainstream for these purposes, but I have a special love in my heart for Hudson Hawk - bruce willis and danny aiello as singing jewel thieves, david caruso as a mime CIA agent, and sandra bernhardt as, well... sandra bernhardt. Oh, right, and Leonardo DaVinci, of course.
posted by dvorak_beats_qwerty at 6:01 PM on December 22, 2008

You'll probably find some good fodder in Nathan Rabin's My Year of Flops case files. In particular:

• Yellowbeard
• An Alan Smithee Film: Burn, Hollywood, Burn
• Dragon Wars
• Under the Cherry Moon
• Rent

And that's just in the first few pages of the archives.
posted by Johnny Assay at 6:02 PM on December 22, 2008

Nowhere
posted by infinityjinx at 6:02 PM on December 22, 2008

This is the greatest thread I've seen in a long time. I now have to find all of these movies.
posted by Bageena at 6:05 PM on December 22, 2008

Oh, crap, how did I forget to mention the Tongan Ninja? With Gun Man! And Knife Man! And that guy from Flight of the Conchords! And Peter Jackson in the 'making of' documentary!
posted by ook at 6:18 PM on December 22, 2008

"The Party"
"Death Race 2000"
posted by gjc at 6:21 PM on December 22, 2008

Probably difficult to find, but if you can lay hands on a movie called "Sorceress", it should fit the bill nicely. It features identical twins Leigh and Lynnette Harris, who did not go on to glory after this feature.

I do love Roger Corman films... (Warning: some nudity.)
posted by Class Goat at 6:40 PM on December 22, 2008

Dead Alive
Zombi
Don't Look Now
Q: The Winged Serpent
Just about any Cronenberg.

Cannibal Holocaust is amazing, but pretty intense so I would think about your audience. It can put off the most hardened gorehound (such as myself) with its brutal, real-life animal killings.
posted by brundlefly at 6:49 PM on December 22, 2008

Excalibur
posted by Artw at 6:52 PM on December 22, 2008

Dream of a Warrior is incoherent, weird, and so amazingly bad.

I'd say that Miike does rank pretty highly on the WTF scale. I recommend Fudoh: The New Generation for your purposes. It also has the most awesome evil Asian mullet ever.
posted by calistasm at 7:09 PM on December 22, 2008

Seconding Gummo and Eraserhead, but vetoing all of these as simply not very weird (at least, not on the scale of the rest of these movies; a fair number are merely intentionally campy):

NOT REALLY VERY WEIRD:
Barbarella
The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra
Caligula
Frogs
Dune
Tromeo and Juliet
Master of the Flying Guillotine
Altered States
Hudson Hawk
Yellowbeard
Excalibur
and definitely not Rent (Really? Fairly realistic NYC stories are weird to you? Get out more!)
posted by IAmBroom at 7:10 PM on December 22, 2008

My favorite movie that nobody has heard of is Casshern, a Japanese steampunk movie with pretty astounding visual effects. Not sure if it fits the category of absurd, but I'd never seen anything like it.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 7:10 PM on December 22, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

The cover of The Ninth Configuration - directed by William Peter Blatty (The Exorcist) from his novel - shows an astronaut finding a crucified Christ on the Moon. It's out there. [It also has one of the all-time great bar fights.]
posted by Joe Beese at 7:12 PM on December 22, 2008

What? No mention of the most batshit insane canadian film ever made? Big Meat Eater. Heres a clip

... an unusual musical/sci-fi/horror/comedy about aliens, Turkish butchers and radioactive deli meat set in the Technicolor 1950s.
Review
posted by Pink Fuzzy Bunny at 7:25 PM on December 22, 2008

GP Sippy's Sholay - super stylized Indian "curry western"
God of Cookery - from Stephen Chow
posted by mkb at 7:29 PM on December 22, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Johnny Suede

It's not gross, just bizarre! Brad Pitt as a rockabilly dude with foot-tall hair who wants to be a big star, his hair never falls down the whole movie.. I seem to remember there's a random midget who appears.. Samuel Jackson makes a cameo.. also Nick Cave appears wearing a white suit, sitting in a lawn chair and eating fried chicken. ???
posted by citron at 7:34 PM on December 22, 2008

Jan Svankmajer, Otesánek aka Little Otik
posted by citron at 7:38 PM on December 22, 2008

Good, arty, but awfully strange: The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover

Hilariously terrible: Shadoe Stevens in Traxx

And for the most bizarre, "what the fuck where they thinking?" experience you may ever have watching a movie, check out the I-can't-believe-no-one-else-has-mentioned-this-yet John Travolta/Jamie Lee Curtis vehicle Perfect.
posted by EarBucket at 7:42 PM on December 22, 2008

Shadowboxer. Wherein you get to witness not one but two Academy Award winners spend 93 minutes making you wonder what they were thinking/smoking when they agreed to star in this nightmare. Wherein you also get to witness Cuba Gooding, Jr.'s character fatally shoot his lover--played by Helen Mirren--in the head while they're having sex. Because she wanted him to.
posted by fuse theorem at 7:50 PM on December 22, 2008

The Forbidden Zone is the most insane movie I've ever seen. I watched it with friends and didn't even know it had a plot until I looked it up online.
posted by hought20 at 7:55 PM on December 22, 2008

yes Casshern. I don't know why most people I know didn't like this film...

But on top of my list for the question you asked: Themroc.
Again, if you don't mind subtitles: Hausu seems to fit your description perfectly. Check out the trailer! (You would probably have to download it, though)
Some other bizarre japanese film that I liked: Yaji and Kita: The Midnight Pilgrims (clip);
Electric Dragon 80.000 V (trailer) and
Wild Zero (trailer)
posted by kolophon at 8:04 PM on December 22, 2008

I'm surprised noone's mentioned Pink Flamingos and I also second gjc's mention of Death Race 2000. Great idea for a film fest! I'm taking notes.....
posted by ourroute at 8:11 PM on December 22, 2008

> I'd like to find films that are completely out there and just offensively weird and absurd in a way that would allow us all to comment on just how absurd they are. ...so completely bizarre that we couldn't even imagine what was going through the heads of the people who made them.

This is exactly what everyone says to me after I've loaned them my beloved VHS copy of The Dark Backward [Trailer], except they have a note of revulsion in their voice; an intonation that clearly says, do not lend me any more movies.

It's maybe somewhere between Brazil and Eraserhead, but also sort of beyond either of those. The movie's a lot of things, really -- it's a deeply unsettling vision of a rotting dystopia, it's a classical tragedy that can not take itself seriously, it's a bald-faced "fuck you" to fame and to hollywood. It is often revolting. In spite of myself, I cannot stop loving it.

I'm telling you, though: people might be mad you even showed it to them. The number one IMDB thread for this movie is charmingly entitled "If you like this movie you deserve to die"

So don't say I didn't warn you.
posted by churl at 8:33 PM on December 22, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Not gross or traumatising but utterly 'the whichwhat now??' is recentish release Doomsday.
Rhona Mitre plays Snake Plisken in a post apocolyptic Scotland where cannibalistic crustifarian road-warriors come up against medievil knights. Wonderously mstk-able.
posted by Iteki at 8:41 PM on December 22, 2008

The Last House on the Left?
posted by sad_otter at 8:42 PM on December 22, 2008

one that I saw recently-Santa's Slay
posted by nickthetourist at 8:56 PM on December 22, 2008

If people talked during Delicatessen, john waters, david lynch or werner herzog movies, I'd be pretty annoyed. Unless maybe it was the zillionth time they'd been shown and we'd all agreed or whatever, but really, those are some fantastically intentionally wonderfully weird movies, not the kind of B movies you banter over...

Really, I think a lot of bad TV shows are good for this, as they have the same kind of shlocky story-based but thrown-together production value that old B-movies had - like "Greatest American Hero... Oh, that reminds me of a movie that sort of fits the bill, House, an 80s horror-comedy about a haunted house. It is pretty awesomely ridiculous in a talk & joke about it kind of way, and the vietnam flashback scenes are priceless.
posted by mdn at 9:16 PM on December 22, 2008

Olivier Assayas Demonlover, lots of cool people in it both French and American, very stylish, goes on for a while.. I have NO idea what actually happened in this film although I guess he's seen Videodrome a few times.
posted by citron at 9:48 PM on December 22, 2008

I like 70's Herzog quite a bit (Even Dwarves Started Small, Heart of Glass ...) but his stuff is definitely out there so might work for you.

Nthing Zardoz.

I'm surprised no one has yet mentioned Russ Meyer, specifically Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!
posted by gudrun at 10:06 PM on December 22, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

I'm surprised no one has yet mentioned Russ Meyer

ahem.
posted by Artw at 10:26 PM on December 22, 2008

Ken Russell's' The Devils (if you can find a copy)? I mean, YMMV (opinions seem divided on whether it's a masterpiece or just completely insane), but I definitely found myself saying WTF?! at regular intervals, and I'm someone who generally refrains from WTF-ing. Fascinating production design, high levels of squick-inducing offensiveness.
posted by thomas j wise at 10:56 PM on December 22, 2008

Putney Swope
Words cannot express how completely awesome.

Head
by the Monkees. That's right, the Monkees.

Conan the Barbarian
featuring the governor of California

Flash Gordon
soundtrack by Queen
posted by Methylviolet at 11:11 PM on December 22, 2008

Cannonball Run.
posted by peewinkle at 11:18 PM on December 22, 2008

Okay, I'm going to hip you all to the worst movie ever. It's called The Room. It has a writeup in a recent Entertainment Weekly, and I think the Onion's AVClub has a thing coming up on it soon. I can't really speak as to how it would play with a dozen people in your living room, but in a packed Hollywood theatre, it's fucking beautiful.

Not 'weird' with its content or plot exactly, but it's weird in its ability to fail in every way possible.
posted by dogwalker at 12:12 AM on December 23, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Dungeonmaster! Because of this movie, I used to fantasize about shooting lasers out of my wrist-computer (XCALIBR8) at big-haired evil sorcerers. Bull Shannon from "Night Court" portrays the evil sorcerer. YOU MUST SEE!

Also Les Visiteurs, the original.
posted by ostranenie at 12:32 AM on December 23, 2008

City of Lost Children was weird as shit too. The opening scene with the multiple evil Santa Clauses is the stuff of nightmares.
posted by ostranenie at 12:36 AM on December 23, 2008

A good film to 'watchmock' with beer and buddies is the Swayze-fest Road House. Kind of stupid, kind of awesome. Has a monster truck, cringe-worthy dialogue, a blind blues man, Sam Eliot, violence, nekkidness of all stripes, and dumbness in spades.
posted by Cantdosleepy at 2:10 AM on December 23, 2008

Several years ago I saw Life Is Cheap... But Toilet Paper Is Expensive at my local arts cinema. It was half-full when the lights went down, when they came back it up at the end I was the only left. It's about a Japanese businessman in Hong Kong who looses a briefcase that contains... well I won't spoil it for you. It has the longest foot chase I've ever seen that goes seemingly forever. For no apparent reason totally unrelated documentary interviews are inserted at random intervals with various people talking about their life and the, I seem to remember, the then imminent handover of Hong Kong to the Chinese including a ballroom dancer and a guy who slaughters chickens for a living.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 2:56 AM on December 23, 2008

The surrealist Sir Henry at Rawlinson End deliberately makes no sense whatsoever. I think it's a celebration of English eccentricity but I've never been able to make it to the end as I feared it was causing me actual brain damage trying to make head or tail of it.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:01 AM on December 23, 2008

Krull
posted by jrishel at 5:05 AM on December 23, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Seconding Troll 2, which is so bizarre that it's actually quite disturbing. Yet also hilarious. And very, very bad. We're talking Ed Wood levels of trashy, memorable badness.

Also, it is not actually a sequel to Troll!
posted by lunasol at 5:11 AM on December 23, 2008

Many good ones here! I think I may have mentioned this before but Wild Zero changed my life. I brought it to a local nightclub to use for "wallpaper" and just about everyone in the place was mesmerized.
posted by JoanArkham at 5:37 AM on December 23, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Awesomely weird, but actually a great movie, so I don't know if if it fits your criteria: The Saddest Music in the World
posted by dfan at 5:48 AM on December 23, 2008

definitely not Rent (Really? Fairly realistic NYC stories are weird to you? Get out more!)

Yeah, now that I re-read the OP I see that he's going for the "actively bizarre" mode rather than the "easy to make fun of à la MST3k" style. Fair enough.
posted by Johnny Assay at 7:13 AM on December 23, 2008

Tideland is one of the oddest films I've ever seen.
posted by Happy Dave at 9:16 AM on December 23, 2008

Oh, and also it's shit.
posted by Happy Dave at 9:16 AM on December 23, 2008

Trilogy of Terror. A hilarious, vintage gem of unintentional (?) camp.
posted by applemeat at 9:29 AM on December 23, 2008

Or, wait, even better (and weirder and infinitely more awful): MANOS: HANDS OF FATE
posted by applemeat at 9:32 AM on December 23, 2008

Aha - doubt you'll ever manage to find a copy, but STARSHIP (AKA Lorca and the Outlaws) is a freaking crazy film. My Dad unknowingly rented it when I was about eight (from a Ritz video store in rural East Lothian, Scotland, go figure) and the entire family were scratching their head about it for days. Memorable for the bit when the dude's arm gets eaten by virtual ants. Awful, so, so bad.
posted by Happy Dave at 9:49 AM on December 23, 2008

For the record, I found every single film in this thread with the exception of two online last night. I'm really, really looking forward to The Room and Troll 2.

What about Machine Girl? That film is pretty out there.
posted by Bageena at 10:53 AM on December 23, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

n-thing the Takaashi Miike suggestions.

You should also check out - Basket Case. Tagline: "The tenant in room 7 is very small, very twisted and very mad." I saw it at a Grindhouse night at an indie cinema, they showed a grindhouse trailer reel, Basket Case and then Planet Terror and Death Proof back to back. Fun, but bum-numbing.

Basket Case was fairly weird, but also fairly disturbing was Roadkill: The Last Days of John Martin (Veoh) [imdb](it's only a short, but still weird).
posted by knapah at 10:59 AM on December 23, 2008

Evil Aliens

The Revenge of Billie the Kid
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 12:29 PM on December 23, 2008

Bad Boy Bubby
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 12:35 PM on December 23, 2008

Oh yeah, I forgot Event Horizon.
posted by gudrun at 1:54 PM on December 23, 2008

Dark Star
posted by brundlefly at 3:34 PM on December 23, 2008

Another vote for Pink Flamingoes

And American Movie. It is weird, but in no way bad. I was introduced to it through alternative reel.
posted by ijoyner at 4:45 PM on December 23, 2008

Seconding The American Astronaut. A rock opera homage to B-movie sci-fi and westerns. Amazing.
posted by puddleglum at 5:24 PM on December 23, 2008

Style 5 Survive+
Visitor Q -- A crazy Miike Takashi film
Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky
posted by theDrizzle at 6:38 PM on December 23, 2008

Pretty raunchy, but Sex & Zen is weird as all getout.
posted by brundlefly at 7:14 PM on December 23, 2008

Wow, I can't believe that there are other people who have seen Tetsuo: The Iron Man. The experience of seeing that at the Biograph in D.C. will always remain a cherished memory of my high school years.

Anyway, I came in here to suggest The Fifth Element. Sure, it's big budget and people have heard of it, but my experience on walking out of the theater afterwards can be summed up with a giant "Huh?"
posted by chinston at 8:12 PM on December 23, 2008

Garbage Pail Kids
Red Dawn
Tribulation 99
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 11:49 PM on December 23, 2008

Y'all are missing out on Live Freaky! Die Freaky!, a tale of the Gospel of Helter Skelter. With puppets. Puppets.
posted by khaibit at 8:04 AM on December 24, 2008

Hercules in New York

The Incredibly Strange People who stopped living and became Mixed-Up Zombies
posted by JimN2TAW at 12:58 PM on December 25, 2008

> Dark Star

Yes.
posted by churl at 7:44 PM on December 26, 2008

So far, I've watched Troll 2 and The Room because of this thread. Troll 2 was awful fantastic, but I've never seen anything quite like The Room before. ***** WONDERFUL!
posted by Bageena at 7:15 AM on December 28, 2008

After Hours and for the love of god, Ricki Oh are exactly what you're looking for. The latter is a weird parable of Chinese communism and Christianity, and is just about what Godard was looking for when he made La Chinoise. Come to think of it La Chinoise may be another choice, but it toes the line on being to good/interesting to talk over.
posted by Jeff_Larson at 9:42 PM on December 28, 2008

Green Snake, the Tsui Hark magical realism kung fu thing. I saw this in a theatre and was all "WTF?" throughout.
posted by pxe2000 at 11:50 AM on December 29, 2008

Lisztomania staring Roger Daltrey riding on a giant penis and Ringo Starr as the Pope.
posted by Sailormom at 7:18 PM on December 31, 2008

just found your question thru growabrain---

Battle Royal--jap import-students kidnapped by "goverment" to battle to the death one survivor....

AUTOMATONS---this is how humanity dies--low budget. I love this movie...
posted by schmelz at 9:53 AM on January 22

No list of "offensively weird" films would be complete without Bobcat Goldthwait's magnum opus, Shakes the Clown, "the Citizen Kane of Alcoholic Clown Movies".
posted by JaredSeth at 9:51 AM on February 12

Sick: The Life and Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist
posted by snowjoe at 1:50 PM on February 12

Magic, with a young Anthony Hopkins as a ventriloquist and "Fats," the dummy that wants to control him.
posted by zerbinetta at 9:27 AM on February 13

Singapore Sling. I had to stop watching after the dry-hump/vomit sequence.
posted by Locative at 9:18 PM on February 20