A list of the best weird movies.
The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971, dir. Robert Fuest, 94 minutes)
A mute widower (Vincent Price) takes revenge on his deceased wife’s medical team in a series of murders based on the Plagues of Egypt. See also Theater of Blood.
Abre los ojos (1997, dir. Alejandro Amenábar, 119 minutes)
A young man (Eduardo Noriega) is disfigured in a car crash, and the world turns into both nightmare and fantasy.
Action Jackson (1988, dir. Craig R. Baxley, 96 minutes)
Harvard Law-educated Detroit cop Jericho “Action” Jackson (Carl Weathers) gets revenge on the businessman (Craig T. Nelson) who got him demoted to desk duty.
After Hours (1985, dir. Martin Scorsese, 97 minutes)
A New Yorker (Griffin Dunne) attempts to go home and fails.
Alice (1988, dir. Jan Švankmajer, 86 minutes)
Surrealist adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland that combines live action with stop motion. Every line of dialogue is followed by a closeup of Alice’s (Kristýna Kohoutová) mouth saying, “said the [character].”
All Cheerleaders Die (2013, dir. Lucky McKee, 89 minutes)
When a revenge plot unravels, an entire cheerleading squad is killed and then resurrected by Wicca magic.
Army of Darkness (1992, dir. Sam Raimi, 81 minutes)
Ash (Bruce Campbell), now a hardware store clerk, is transported to the Middle Ages, where he must fight an army of Ray Harryhausen-style skeletons before he can return home.
The Astrologer (1976, dir. Craig Denney, 96 minutes)
An astrologer (Craig Denney) cons circus patrons, smuggles conflict diamonds, survives a Kenyan prison, produces a movie starring himself, and makes predictions for the U.S. military–you know, typical astrologer stuff, and all in 96 minutes.
The Baby (1973, dir. Ted Post, 84 minutes)
A social worker (Anjanette Comer) investigates a family that includes an adult man (David Mooney) who has been raised, and who therefore behaves, like a baby.
Bad Black (2016, dir. Nabwana I.G.G., 68 minutes)
Follows the escapades of a trafficked child turned crime syndicate leader (Nalwanga Gloria) and an American doctor (Alan Ssali Hofmanis) forced to learn kung fu from his sidekick, a child named Wesley Snipes (Kasule Rolean). Both a tribute to ‘eighties action movies and wholly unlike anything else, in large part due to VJ Emmie, the “Video Joker” who narrates throughout and serves as a combination of hype man, color commentator, and peanut gallery.
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009, dir. Werner Herzog, 122 minutes)
Nic Cage and Werner Herzog tear up New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
Bad Milo! (2013, dir. Jacob Vaughan, 85 minutes)
When Ken Marino gets too stressed, a monster comes out of his butt and kills people.
Baghead (2008, dir. Jay Duplass & Mark Duplass, 84 minutes)
Four actors go to a cabin in the woods to write a movie and are menaced by a figure with a brown paper bag on its head.
Ballet Mécanique (1924, dir. Fernard Léger & Dudley Muphy, 19 minutes)
Dadaist montage of the world in clockwork motion.
Barb and Star Go to the Vista Del Mar (2021, dir. Josh Greenbaum, 107 minutes)
Two naive, middle-aged best friends (Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo) go on vacation for the first time to Vista Del Mar, Florida, where they get laid and foil a pale supervillain (also Wiig) out to punish beachgoers with killer mosquitos.
Barb Wire (1996, dir. David Hogan, 98 minutes)
Pamela Anderson takes the Humphrey Bogart role in this sci-fi remake of Casablanca.
Barton Fink (1993, dir. Joel & Ethan Coen)
A playwright whose subject is “the common man” (John Turturro) moves to Hollywood, where he tries to write a wrestling picture, befriends an insurance salesman (John Goodman), and wakes up next to a decapitated woman (Judy Davis).
Battlefield Baseball (2003, dir. Yudai Yamaguchi, 87 minutes)
Seido High plays a kind of “fighting baseball,” where death is common but not always permanent.
Battle Royale (2000, dir. Kinji Fukasaku, 114 minutes)
To curb juvenile delinquency, the Japanese government organizes and annual fight to the death among a random middle school class.
A Bay of Blood (1971, dir. Mario Bava, 84 minutes)
Down by the bay, everyone is getting murdered, and only some for reasons that become clear.
Beau Is Afraid (2023, dir. Ari Aster, 179 minutes)
A Jewish man (Joaquin Phoenix) takes an epic journey to visit his overbearing mother (Zoe Lister-Jones and Patti LuPone); features an attic-dwelling penis monster.
The Beaver Trilogy (2000, dir. Trent Harris, 83 minutes)
Three shorts combine to make a feature: the first is a documentary about Groovin’ Gary, a resident of Beaver, Utah who just wants to dress up and sing like Olivia Newton-John; the other two are dramatizations of Gary’s life, one starring Sean Penn and the other Crispin Glover.
The Beguiled (1971, dir. Don Siegel, 105 minutes)
Clint Eastwood is a wounded Union soldier recuperating in a Confederate girls’ school, and all of them want to fuck him.
Beetlejuice (1988, dir. Tim Burton, 92 minutes)
A recently deceased couple (Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis) summon a “bio-exorcist” (Michael Keaton) to purge their home of its new inhabitants (Jeffrey Jones, Catherine O’Hara, and Winona Ryder).
Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2006, dir. Scott Glosserman, 92 minutes)
A journalist (Angela Goethals) documents the life and crimes of a slasher villain (Nathan Baesel).
Being There (1979, dir. Hal Ashby)
After his employer dies, a dim-witted gardener (Peter Sellers) is forced to leave the property for the first time in his life and becomes a political prodigy.
Berberian Sound Studio (2012, dir. Peter Strickland, 92 minutes)
A sound engineer (Toby Jones) goes to Italy to work on a horse movie that turns out to be a giallo called The Equestrian Vortex, but the director (Antonio Mancino) claims they are not making a horror movie.
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970, dir. Russ Meyer, 109 minutes)
The grindhouse version of The Valley of the Dolls, written by Roger Ebert. Includes the line “You will drink the black sperm of my vengeance.”
Big Trouble in Little China (1986, dir. John Carpenter, 99 minutes)
A truck driver (Kurt Russell) helps his buddy (Dennis Dun) recover his fiancée (Suzee Pai) from a sorcerer (James Hong) who needs to marry a woman with green eyes to break a centuries-old curse of incorporeality.
Birth (2004, dir. Jonathan Glazer, 100 minutes)
A ten-year-old boy (Cameron Bright) convinces Nicole Kidman that he is the reincarnation of her dead husband.
Blind Fury (1989, dir. Philip Noyce, 86 minutes)
Best Weird Movies 