SOMETHING
WEIRD (1967)
Directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis
Something Weird DVD
THE FILM
Witchcraft, ESP, levitation, karate
chops, LSD, killer bed sheets...Ah,
it must be Something Weird!
Herschell Gordon Lewis directs this
magnum opus, which also happens
to be one of my favorite b-movies
of all time. A lot goes on, so pay
attention:
A killer is on the loose. Two guys
are practicing kung fu in a dojo.
Cut to one of them making out with
a girl. Cronin Mitchell is a construction
engineer. One fine day on the job,
a live wire horribly disfigures
his face while simultaneously bestowing
him with psychic powers! It’s
revealed that no amount of plastic
surgery can repair his face. Mitchell
decides to open a palm reading shop.
A homely witch visits him at the
shop and offers to return his face
to normal if he will promise to
be her lover. She does and so does
he. The witch appears to be a voluptuous
woman to everyone but Mitchell.
Somehow, the government gets wind
of Mitchell’s psychic prowess.
Remember that killer? Well, he’s
still at it, and Mitchell is called
in to solve the case. But first,
he’s got to prove himself
to stubborn old Dr. Gordon, who
prescribes Mitchell LSD in order
to study its effects on a person
with psychic abilities...and that’s
only the first half!
Something Weird is
outta this world. The film contains
none of H.G. Lewis’ s usual
exploitative elements (i.e. gore
and nudity) and gets by on sheer
bizarre happenings alone. I think
that’s why I like it so much.
The acting is atrocious, some scenes
are pretty humorous, and there’s
a lot of talk, but it all adds up
and works perfectly. This one also
seems to have higher production
values than most Lewis films. Plus,
where else are you going to see
a grown man duke it out with his
own killer bed sheets? I’ll
tell you -- NOWHERE!
Foot note: Lewis was hired to rework
Something Weird as
the sex-ploitive The Psychic a year later because the guy that
wrote the original script wasn’t
happy.
AUDIO AND VIDEO
The film is presented in a nice
non-anamorphic widescreen transfer
with mono sound. Sounds and looks
great. It’s nice to have an
H.G. Lewis film in widescreen and
I’m glad it’s this one.
EXTRAS
Something Weird took their namesake
from this film and I’m glad
we get to find out why. The commentary
track included on this disc features
SW’s Mike Vraney and Jim Maslon,
H.G. Lewis, and Lewis’ partner,
Dave Friedman. Although Herschell
skips out after about 20 minutes
of talk regarding the film, the
remaining three voices discuss the
beginnings of Something Weird video
and how it came to be. It’s
a pretty fascinating track. I would
have liked to hear more about the
actual film, but this commentary
definitely delivers.
Also included is an H.G. Lewis gallery
of exploitation art (repeated from
other discs) and three crazy shorts
that deal with psychedelic witches,
rubber faced monsters, and LSD freakouts.
Fantastic.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Something Weird usually
gets a bad rap. I say that’s
wrong. The film completely mesmerizes
me and I can’t help it. Must
be Cronin Mitchell’s powers
at work...
— Joseph A. Ziemba, 01.26.04 |
Really nice set
Witch face
It's life or death
True forms
|
