उपयोगकर्ता समीक्षाएं

Lewis's direction is as drab as usual here (cue long scenes of people executing actions from go to woe, free of editing in slow master shots) and there's no gore so don't expect any, yet I actually think that this appropriately named weird tale of ESP, a witch's pact and the mystery of a serial murderer is the best Lewis film I've seen by the standards of conventional film-making. The story has enough developments, payoffs and odd surprises that you may find yourself beguiled even without the typically sensational Lewis content in evidence. Fear not, though; the schlock quota is more than met by the ugly witch's bizarrely crap performance and by many classy moments of stilted dialogue and acting. The pushy jazz score is completely Wild and Crazy, and there's also a prolonged and silly chase on foot ala Blood Feast. The threads of this film don't logically feed each other at all, yet I think that the whole thing makes for a pretty good story, and as usual, the cheapness of budget means you can see and hear all the details of life in the year in which the film was shot.

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.

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 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 am a fan of many kinds of movies and often enjoy cheesy, low-budget films from the drive-in era of the sixties and seventies. I love the company Something Weird Video—which took its name from this film and which distributes countless films from the aforementioned genre on DVD—so I decided to give this movie a shot. I was actually pretty excited to watch it.

I ended up being pretty disappointed. Often, when certain movies are considered bad by most, I am still able to find something redeeming or enjoyable about them, even if it is just the old "so bad it's good" quality. I enjoyed Tommy Wiseau's 2003 masterpiece "The Room", which has been called one of the worse films of all time, but which is enjoyable to watch because it is unintentionally funny. Despite its flaws—or because of them—it is enjoyable. But Something Weird lacks even that. It was not so bad it was good. It was so bad it was terrible.

The film is a rambling mess. It's out of focus. It's not cheesy in a funny or charming way. It's quite the opposite. The characters are sickening. The plot goes from one incoherent scene to the next and introduces incongruous subplots. I don't know what this movie is about. There's a witch and a guy with superpowers, but we never find out how the two are connected and we get the idea that maybe it doesn't really matter.

Every scene feels pointless and extraneous. I was waiting for it all to come together and make at least a little bit of sense, but at some point I realized that that moment would never come and I gave up hope. It felt like the filmmakers were not following any sort of screenplay and basing the scenes on whatever locations they had available. That's fine, when it's done well as it was in Easy Rider, but here I felt like the filmmakers didn't even care. They knew their film would be terrible and they let it happen. They never even tried to make it good. The filmmakers didn't care, so why should we? The characters' motivations are unclear and make little sense. The acting is bad. The witch could have been well done, but the actress did a terrible job. Even despite a lack of acting skill, I felt she could have at least tried to have fun with the role, but she did not. And her makeup could have been done a lot better.

I watched the movie one Saturday afternoon after waking up with a hangover. I sat down with a greasy burger and plenty of juice and coffee and popped in the DVD. I think this movie made my hangover last longer and countered the effect of the food and drink. My headache just got worse. I probably would turned off the movie and gone and done something else with my day, but my hangover kept me from getting off the couch.

Even after the film was over, I found myself depressed by it. It was strangely disconcerting. It's a powerful film, in a way. I know I won't forget it. It truly is something weird. I found that it changed the way I thought about the world around me, because before watching it I had no idea that anything so strange existed. It gave me a very bad feeling that I've never felt before and never want to feel again.

Herschell Gordon Lewis, who directed this film, once said: "I see filmmaking as a business and pity anyone who regards it as an art form." I disagree, as I see great artistic potential in film and consider many to be true works of art. But I realize that, based on his personal beliefs about art and film, he was likely never able to make a truly good one. It was not good on any level. There was nothing good about it. It was unpleasant to watch and it ruined my day.

Something Weird (1967)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

This Herschell Gordon Lewis film certainly lives up to its title. Cronin Mitchell (Tony McCabe) gets electrocuted, which badly burns his face but the upside is that it gives him ESP. Soon afterwards a witch offers to fix his face if he becomes her lover. Then, a FBI agent learns of his skills so he wants to team up with Mitchell to track down killers.

SOMETHING WEIRD is exactly what this movie is and I'd argue that it's one of the director's better non-horror films. Technically speaking this is a bit better than what you normally see from Gordon as it appears he was really wanting to make a "good" movie and the screenplay itself has enough weird stuff going on to where you can't help but be entertained. This here is one of those movies where a little bit of everything is thrown in with hopes that something works.

I think the best moments happen early on and deals with the witch trying to put her moves on the young man. The scenes with the witch are mocking the Margaret Hamilton/THE WIZARD OF OZ and it doesn't even try to hide it. This here adds some fun as does the early scenes dealing with the ESP stuff. The later stuff with the FBI agent has the film lose some steam but there's still enough here that makes SOMETHING WEIRD worth watching.

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.

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.

Even for a Hershell Gordon Lewis film SOMETHING WEIRD really sucked. I am not just talking bad--I am talking colossally inept, ridiculous and completely stupid bad! There was almost nothing about the film that I liked, except perhaps to look at the pretty lady playing the witch--she was awfully cute. The acting, direction, script and especially the cinematography were abominable--so horrible that I would consider this film even worse than some of Lewis' other grade-z movies. BLOOD FREAK and THIS'LL KILL YA looked more intelligently made than this film--and they, too, really sucked as well.

The fact that the director was inept wasn't a big surprise, but the biggest problem was actually not Lewis' direction but the cinematography. The camera often darted about, moved jerkily, the camera jiggled and the shots were often poorly centered. And who can we blame for this aspect of the film? If you check the credits, you'll see that it's credited to none other than Hershell Gordon Lewis himself! Okay, it's inept. So let's at least talk about the plot--which is probably the best thing about the film (other than the cute and sexy witch who cannot act to save her life). The first few scenes really have nothing to do with the film. Why he showed guys doing martial arts and some of the other early scenes was beyond me. Anyway, after a while the real film begins. A guy is hit by a live wire and it nearly kills him. In the process, however, it fries the left side of his face AND leaves him with psychic powers (kids: DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME). You'd think he'd be happy about this, but the guy is a whiny jerk. His life only starts working after he meets a witch (who I must point out again was really good looking....and a horrid actress). She can give him even more psychic powers AND restore his face to normal. At first, this arrangement works out great...but, as with all deals with Satan, it naturally comes to bite the guy in the butt by the end of the film.

Overall, this film is a mess only bad film buffs like myself can enjoy. It's every bit as stupid as PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE and a total waste of the $583 they spent to make the film (including film developing and catering costs).

Dumb, inept and silly from start to finish.

Crackpot, frequently amusing combination of parapsychology and psychedelia in this typically twisted Herschell Gordon Lewis schlock production. It's not quite as much fun as his celebrated splatter movies, but it's still pretty entertaining.

Tony McCabe plays Cronin "Mitch" Mitchell, a young engineer who is facially scarred by a severe electrical accident. This also gives him strong psychic abilities, so he hangs out a shingle as a medium. In this capacity, he meets a hideous old crone (Mudite Arums) who promises to restore his face to its handsome glory IF he will be her lover. So she becomes his entourage as he becomes a celebrity of sorts. Soon he is hired by a police force in Wisconsin to help catch a serial killer.

When you watch something by the late, great Mr. Lewis, you know you won't get something very slick technically, and you certainly won't get something very well acted. But that NEVER means that the "acting" in these epics doesn't entertain in its own fumbling way. McCabe is a hilariously obnoxious, insufferable prick, and Elizabeth Lee is delightful as the *other* incarnation of the old crone, the young hottie whom the rest of the world sees. William Brooker is a hoot as a karate student / playboy / doctor who's sent to possibly debunk Mitchs' abilities, and recruit him for the government should he turn out to be the real deal. Jeffrey Allen of "Two Thousand Maniacs!" pops up in a small role as a doctor, but what is truly a gas is seeing Lawrence J. Aberwood as the police chief (he's the infamous "All you kids make me sick..." guy from HGLs' roughie "Scum of the Earth").

Highlighted by a nicely strange L.S.D. trip sequence, and the "attack by blanket" scene, "Something Weird" is given a jazzy score by Edward J. Petan. Written and produced by James F. Hurley, it gets down to business quickly (with a murder playing out behind the opening credits) and offers up a delicious resolution and comeuppance.

Seven out of 10.

Sometimes it may be important to know or recognize when a movie was made or how much of a budget it had. Or even what an impact it may have had either in the industry or socially. Or as in this case, where many years later we got a distribution that gave us the something weird label, releasing movies not just from HGL but other people too.

Quite an interesting movie or at least story overall. There are flaws of course and it takes it sweet time. But it has nice effects and is overall at least decent in its storytelling. May not be your cup of tea, but it's also not really bad

Something Weird is aptly named. The story is unusual and a strange vibe is present throughout; either that or the psychedelic soundtrack. Don't expect top notch acting, but the main characters are good enough. I can't get the image of the hag's cackling laugh and her tongue sticking out. Poor Mitchell, this guy was so desperate to get his wish granted, but it shows how bitter Mitchell was with his condition. Ah, and the LSD scene was the high point for me. In that state, you would find a phone conversation as easy to handle with as quantum space mechanics.

However, I watched this and did want to see how it turned out. The ending seems abrupt and out of the blue, but it's a weird, kooky romp. Where else can you see a blanket attack?

I don't write film reviews, but nobody else seemed to be mentioning the similarities between this film and Twin Peaks (1990). It had to have influenced Lynch (or someone else involved with the series) in some way, even if only subconsciously. After having watched this, I can't help but feel that Dale Cooper is a fusion of Mitchell (the "sensitive") and Jordan (the government man). (Lynch's own character, Gordon Cole, is reminiscent of Jordan, played by William Brooker.) Twin Peaks now strikes me as partially derivative of this film, not only in its characters but in the overall feel of it.

This film's writer's name was James Hurley. A main character in Twin Peaks shares that name. Seeing "the hag" scrunched up over the couch with her dirty grey hair, beckoning Mitch, I couldn't help but think of Bob. (Those odd red lips painted on her right knee are also very Lynchian-esque.) Immediately after Mitch makes contact with the ghost girl, his hand remains held up in what could very easily pass for a thumbs-up gesture (a prominent and iconic trait of Dale Cooper). There are many other little parallels that are hard to put into words, but the resemblance is unmistakable.

As to the film itself, it starts out like a montage of seemingly random scenes, but it does eventually transition into a more proper narrative. And you'll soon realize those scenes weren't random, after all. The acting is pretty bad, especially that of Mudite Arums ("the hag"). It's unintentionally humorous, but not in a laugh-out-loud sort of way.

Fans of goremeister Herschell Gordon Lewis should look elsewhere if they are picking up this film for his usual buckets of blood being sloshed about, for there is precious little in the way of bloodletting in this film. Instead, Lewis decides to try and tell the bizarre story, relying on bargain-basement special effects on a budget which could have probably been doubled if the cast had turned out their pockets for change one day. Oddly enough, while cheap and very poorly acted (especially by McCabe as Mitchell), the total outlandishness of the plot keeps attention throughout. Imagine what this film could have been like with a decent budget! Overall, it strains for champagne tastes on a beer budget.

I have seen about a thousand horror films. (my favorite type) This film is among the worst. For me, an idea drives a movie. So, even a poorly acted, cheaply made movie can be good. Something Weird is definitely cheaply made. However, it has little to say. I still don't understand what the karate scene in the beginning has to do with the film. Something Weird has little to offer. Save yourself the pain!

Well, it was bound to happen to one of us eventually. I've recently been unable to play any form of disc/DVD, which has made me look elsewhere to find some filmic pleasure. Fortunately, youtube.com has given me the gift of a wide selection of middle-rate/utterly bad films (although surprisingly, they have some quite extraordinary cinematic classics such as Benjamin Christensen's Haxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages (1922), and F. W. Murnau's Faust (1926). Like an excited child in a video shop, I looked for the selection within the genre of horror. After all, this is the best place to look, when you want some bad-yet-possibly-interesting- cinema. I fell upon this release by the infamous 'Godfather of gore', Herschell Gordon Lewis.

This is not one of Gordons' gore-filled movies. It is an attempt at a story of psychic abilities. Cronin Mitchell (Tony McCabe) is in a freak electrical accident that leaves half his face disfigured. Whilst Mitchell (Mitch, as he likes to be called by the 'ladies') is angry at the fate of his 'beautiful face', he has developed incredible powers of ESP (extra-sensory perception - the sixth sense). After leaving the hospital with no apparent possibility of plastic surgery to re-instate the 'normal' face, Mitch begins a business of psychic readings. This is where he encounters The Hag (Mudite Arums).

The Hag proposes to Mitch a bargain, that if he loves her, she will restore his face. After refusing, Cronin's face is restored anyway. So begins his fate. For he is completely controlled by The Hag, who now disguises herself as a beautiful 'assistant' (Ellen Parker) to his travelling psychic. Whilst he has his extraordinary powers of ESP, the government want him and the local police desire his assistance in a murder case, where seven woman have been brutally slaughtered.

Mitch is inaugurated into the societal traps of the 'connected' police detective. He has an almost celebrity status. This is pure post-Psycho filmmaking. Mitch is quite obviously investigating murder that he himself has done, but is unable to remember. The Hag has utter control over his memory and his actions. She moves on to her next victim even as Mitch is stumbling through his nightmare. We enter psycho-babble through analytical trappings of 'split-personality' etc. Therefore, he is utterly controlled by his unconscious-self.

Whilst the seeming twist might give this cheap affair some form of narrative gravitas, the film surely doesn't. After all, it is an H G Lewis picture. Yes, everything about a Lewis film is inept. The acting, cinematography, editing, writing are all so terrible. But for some reason, I am utterly drawn into this garish Eastman colourised world. This doesn't have the blood-red charms of Blood Feast (1963) and Two- Thousand Maniacs (1964); it doesn't even hold the absurdly laconic pace of these dull-yet-entertaining films. It is a incredible bore to watch. Perhaps if you created an anthology movie of Lewis-like vignettes, then there may be a two-hour movie there (the sordid lives of distracted Americans perhaps), but to hold out a 20 minute premise in an 80 minute feature, is not the best way to spend that time. I have to say, I still adore the cinema of Herschell Gordon Lewis - up there with the sexploitation magnetism of (the better filmmaker) Russ Meyer.

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