Obviously there’s lots of weird trash in the direct to VHS/DVD/streaming ecosystems, but when it comes to something that actually got a first run theater release, what is your strangest?

For me, it’s Southland Tales. I actually kind of love this movie but it’s difficult to recommend because people you recommend it to might not look at you the same afterwards. The cast is positively stacked with big names, the movie looks great, and there’s a fantastic and really sad musical number half way through. This is the only movie that has truly captured the vibe of reading the biblical book of Revelation in that it’s making you go “wait, what?” every five minutes as it spirals into either intensely meaningful imagery or schizophrenia manifest on 35mm.

  • BJW@lemmus.org
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    2 days ago

    Napoleon Dynamite. The first time I watched it, I came out of the theater wanting my money back. By the third, I was hoping there would be a sequel.

  • Pommes_für_dein_Balg@feddit.org
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    3 days ago

    The strangest was Flow (2024), a Latvian animation film about a cat trying to survive during an apocalypse.
    There’s not a single line of dialog in the whole movie, since there are no humans.

    I watched it 3 times. Seriously, go check it out, it’s absolutely awesome.

  • Railcar8095@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    Splice. It was a surprise screening, we didn’t know what movie we were watching and none knew about it before hand.

    At some point when they hybrid starts seducing the main character the girl beside me as just “what the fuck is going on with this movie??”

    As a movie I don’t revving l recommend, but the experience was great.

    • Drusas@fedia.io
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      2 days ago

      I loved that movie. I gather there aren’t many of us.

      don’t revving

      What does this mean?

      • Railcar8095@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Means I need to read what I write before sending :)

        Swipe failed to recognize recommend and I failed to removed the result

    • Beetschnapps@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      Kinda the same, 2/3 the way through I’m just like “so he wants to fuck it? The hell?”

      Movie then fell apart…

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    3 days ago

    Kung Pao: Enter the Fist

    I’ve never seen sooo many people walk out of a theater before.

  • NauticalNoodle@lemmy.ml
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    3 days ago

    I just watched Zardoz with Sean Connery last night. I’m pretty sure it got a mainstream release back in 1974. My buddy described it as “an acid-trip.”

  • tmyakal@infosec.pub
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    3 days ago

    Bubba Ho-Tep is the winner for me. Elvis, still alive and kicking in a retirement home, needs to team up with JFK (who the CIA dyed black) to stop an Egyptian mummy that is eating the souls of the elderly.

    I knew exactly what I was in for, and I had an absolute blast. I took my father with me, and his response was, “What the hell did I just watch?”

    Still wish we’d actually gotten the prequel Bubba Nosferatu: Curse of the She-Vampires.

  • eightpix@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    See, I liked Southland Tales, too.

    But, for me, and I’ve seen some pretty strange theatre releases:

    Baise-Moi (2000): It was banned, for glaringly obvious reasons. But, the theatre got an injunction and we went to one of the only showings.

    Happiness (1998): Todd Solondz makes everything awkward.

    The Cell (2000): Tarsem’s Jennifer Lopez starring sci-fi mind trip.

    House of 1000 Corpses: Rob Zombie. I’m not a horror-movie person, yet, somehow, I saw this.

    하녀 (The Housemaid, 2010): one of the wildest endings I have ever witnessed. Bar none.

    Irreversible (2002): My first film by Gaspar Nöe.

    Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams (1990): This is what happens when you can make literally whatever you want. And, you’re one of Japan’s greatest filmmakers.

        • Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          1 day ago

          He was way ahead of his time. If he released that movie half a decade to a decade later in early Adult Swim days, it would have been very well-received. Instead, it was one of the worst-reviewed (in my opinion) great movies ever made.

  • TheOrcWhoWrites@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (Ben Stiller version) 2013. It is also my favorite movie. It is strange because the whole movie or most of it is his imagination.

  • Gerudo@lemmy.zip
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    3 days ago

    Upstream Color. I was so hyped for the 2nd feature from the director of Primer, that I went to a premiere with Shane doing a QnA at the end. Despite him talking about it, I have no idea what the movie was about, and I have yet to figure it out. It was more like an experimental film student thesis than a movie.