Something Weird

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

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.

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?

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.

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.