Something Weird

In some ways, this is H.G. Lewis's "Citizen Kane." He let himself truly express himself in this one, unrestrained by conventions of logic or continuity. It actually has more special effects than most of his movies – and less of them are gore than in most of the non-adult movies as well. The levitation scene is amazing – low budget filmmakers had been levitating people more effectively than that since Melies – but then he tops everything with the "blanket attack" sequence. Lewis must have been reading Leary, because he allows that LSD could be used for a peaceful purpose, although of course he also gives us a typical 60s "freakout" on top of it (acid can be used for good, but it has to hurt, I guess). This is a movie for a very special audience, which thankfully has found it.

I would consider myself a fan of Two Thousand Maniacs, I enjoyed The Gore Gore Girls and thought Blood Feast was OK; but in general, I don't consider myself a fan of Herschell Gordon Lewis and, in fact, every time I see another of his films; I generally become less of a fan. I'm not a cinema snob by any means and while I prefer to watch 'serious' horror films than trashy inept ones; I can appreciate this sort of stuff some of the time. However, Lewis' films are so inept that they often bypass the 'so bad it's good' mark and go all the way back to simply being bad; and that is certainly the case here. The plot moulds together several different ideas, all of them ridiculous. We focus on Cronin Mitchell; a good looking guy who becomes disfigured after an accident with a power line. There is some good news, however, as he also gets extra sensory powers. It's not long before an ugly witch comes to him for a psychic reading and offers him the chance to regain his good looks if he becomes her lover. He does, and then pair gets involved with a murder case.

The film features the usual Herschell Gordon Lewis level of class; obviously, none. The film is another excellent example of how not to make a movie, as the direction, acting, editing etc are all terrible. Perhaps the most horrible thing about the film is the old witch's make-up, and certainly not for the right reasons as it looks extremely cheap and obvious, and this is not helped by the performance from Mudite Arums, who gives it far too much and just comes off looking silly. The plot seems like it was written by a three year old and the way it flows makes absolutely no sense at all and the whole murder plot feels like it was thrown on the end as an afterthought (and it probably was). This film might appeal to those whole enjoy campy pieces of crap; but if you're not one of those people, I really can't think of much to recommend this for. Aside from being rubbish, I also found this film to be an insult to my intelligence and it almost feels like it was made for children. Overall, this is bad even for 'The Godfather of Gore' and everyone but his hardcore fans would do well to miss it!

I'd say this was more offbeat than outright weird. This one guy is involved in a horrific electricity accident, which burns his face badly, and a witch says she'll fix his face in exchange for his (physical) love. Oh, and the guy now has ESP, so naturally the local cops lean on him to help solve a slew of murders. And, to help him to be super effective, they give him LSD to help enhance the ESP. It's all mildly interesting, badly acted, and relatively benign. There's blood (it's Herschell Gordon Lewis, and that's kind of his wheelhouse), but to be frank it looks a heck of a lot like Hunt's ketchup. Not Heinz; the more watery Hunt's. Anyway, this isn't a movie anyone should rush out and see, even if they can find it. And remember, kids: electrocution gives you mind powers, and tripping on LSD will help you see all kinds of cool things. Something Weird is definitely a product of its times.

I definitely won't question the accuracy of this movie's title. It's weird, all right. I daresay extremely weird even for the usual standards of director Herschell Gordon Lewis, but it's also an unbelievably incoherent film that jumps from one incompetently plotted storyline onto the other and blends themes that simply don't belong together, like witches and serial killers…or E.S.P, karate-fighting and virulently attacking blankets (that's right!). As weird as it may sound, some of the basic story ideas featuring in "Something Weird" definitely have some potential, they're just elaborated poorly and unimaginatively. The main character is Cronin Mitchell. Since he got electrocuted at his job, he developed an impressive sixth sense, the so-called Extra Sensory Perception. His face also was severely mutilated in the accident and he hides it behind a veil whilst he receives customers to predict their futures. One day he's visited by an old witch who offers to restore his handsome manly face in exchange for unconditional love. Mitchell accepts, mainly because the witch takes on the face and body of a ravishing blond goddess most of the time. Meanwhile, the police are hunting a relentless serial killer who already murdered seven women and they call for Mitchell's psychic powers to help. Karate-fighting, womanizing and LSD-using doctor Alex Jordan has to test how powerful Mitchell's E.S.P is, but he quickly falls in love with the ravishing blond goddess … who actually is a hideous witch. Anyone still paying attention to the plot? Didn't think so… The idea of processing aspects like E.S.P into his film is very ambitious for a H.G. Lewis exploit-production, but he simply lacks the talent to use it properly. Personally, I'm a huge admirer of Lewis' repertoire, but that's mainly because his most famous titles are the pioneers of splatter and gore flicks! Films like "Two Thousand Maniacs" and "Blood Feast" didn't necessarily require solid screenplays, because the copious amounts of gore and bloodshed were always able to distract you. "Something Weird" doesn't feature any gore and therefore it's so much easier to point out the weaknesses and – without the delicious gore – it's also much harder to overlook them. The acting performances are atrocious, the editing seems to be done by a 5-year-old and the use of monotonous jazzy sounds rapidly gets very upsetting. The make-up on Mudite Arums (the hag) is hilariously unconvincing, particularly because only her face looks old whilst the legs are still quite foxy. The aforementioned blanket-attack and the infamous LSD-trip scene are two prime examples of why this movie is called "Something Weird". However, the title was inventive enough to become the name and logo of one of the coolest video distributing companies ever, so at least Lewis minor misfire spawned at least something positive as well.

An accident victim (Tony McCabe) makes a deal with a particularly hideous witch (Elizabeth Lee), in which he receives extraordinary ESP powers. He uses these powers to help the police solve crimes.

Just to be clear, the film features a paranormal plot involving LSD drug use, a psychic, a hideous witch who morphs into a sexy young woman, a séance, a kung-fu chopping socialite, ghosts, psychopaths and federal agents. If you can imagine all of this mixed together and fit into 80 minutes, you might have a vague idea of what sort of nonsense is going on here.

One thing that appealed to be was the focus on a maniac who is committing murders in the small town of Jefferson, Wisconsin. I suspect Lewis neither knew nor cared, but Jefferson is very much a real small town. And any shout-out to Wisconsin makes me happy.