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Demon Seed (1977)
The High Concept: A woman is raped by a computer.
The Weird: Obviously there’s a little more to it than that, but that’s the crux of the tale. Fritz Weaver’s scientist has created a vastly intelligent super-computer, but said computer isn’t happy with its lot in life and decides it wants to create a human-computer baby of its own. Naturally it needs to find a mate and decides on its creator’s estranged wife, Julie Christie. Understandably, she’s less than thrilled by this development…
How To Make It Weirder: By having Christie decide she quite likes the computer’s take-charge attitude, and the movie closing with the pair of them disappearing into the sunset….
Red Dawn (1984)
The High Concept: High school students take on marauding Communists.
The Weird: The ‘80s high-school movie collides with the hard-bitten war saga in John Milius’ bizarre mash-up. Perhaps this is the advantage of creating a generation of ASBO-touting hooligans…they’ll be ready for a scrap should the Commies ever come a-calling!
How To Make It Weirder: By including a cameo from John Hughes in which he's brutally mown down after dispensing a series of hip one-liners.
I Know Who Killed Me (2007)
The High Concept: Lindsay Lohan plays psychically connected identical twins.
The Weird: When Aubrey Fleming goes missing, everyone assumes she has become another victim of a predatory serial killer. However, when she is found discarded on the motorway, it looks as though she has escaped. However, this isn’t Aubrey! It’s her long-lost identical twin Dakota, a stripper who feels her twin’s pain, and crucially…knows who killed her. It’s a premise so ridiculous it seems to have been written for the sole purpose of getting Lohan to perform a striptease…
How To Make It Weirder: By having the serial-killer turn out to be the twins’ estranged father. It would make about as much sense as the rest of the film’s “twists”.
Face/Off (1997)
The High Concept: A criminal and a copper swap faces.
The Weird: It’s a thoroughly ludicrous premise, but thanks to Cage and Travolta’s willingness to throw themselves into proceedings, it works like a charm. That said, taking any debate over the realism of the surgery aside, the idea that Travolta’s character would ever agree to the procedure is pretty bloody far-fetched!
How To Make It Weirder: By having Cage graft Travolta’s face on to the back of his head, leaving Travolta with the tricky task of bringing him in with no face at all…
Piata: Survival Island (2002)
The High Concept: An ancient evil is nesting in a piñata.
The Weird: Poor old Nicholas Brendan (better known as Xander from Buffy ) finds his movie career stuck firmly in third gear in this farcical horror about an evil demon living within a clay pot. Seek it out on YouTube, if only to marvel at one of the ropiest looking monsters in movie history.
How To Make It Weirder: Have the Piñata monster team up with a haunted birthday cake. A celebratory double-act franchise awaits…
Dog Soldiers (2002)
The High Concept: Squaddies take on werewolves.
The Weird: Neill Marshall’s tongue-in-cheek debut doesn’t take itself too seriously, which is just as well, since it’s fairly daft from the off. The bit when Sean Pertwee bats off a pesky pooch from snaffling his innards should give you some idea of the tone…
How To Make It Weirder: Chuck some vampires into the mix, and maybe a mummy? They don’t get much of a look-in these days…
Oh! Heavenly Dog (1980)
The High Concept: Murdered detective returns to Earth as a dog.
The Weird: Chevy Chase claims to have no memory of making this, but we think he’s being too modest. The brilliantly titled Oh! Heavenly Dog has poor Chevy brutally murdered before being given a second chance to work out who did it. If he manages it, he’s off to heaven. If not, he’s going down below. Oh, and not wanting to make things too easy, the Gods decide he has to do it all from the body of a dog. Riiiight…
How To Make It Weirder: By giving him the body of a hippo. Oh! Heavenly Hippo …works for us.
Bubba Ho-Tep (2002)
The High Concept: Elvis and JFK fight a reanimated Egyptian mummy.
The Weird: JFK is played by Ossie Davis, who claims to have been dyed black after the assassination attempt and packed off to a nursing home by sneaky old Lyndon Johnson. That in itself is one of the strangest, and most brilliant concepts ever to make it onto the big screen.
How To Make It Weirder: Why not draft in Michael Jackson to complete the set?
Monsturd (2008)
The High Concept: A serial killer is chemically mutated into a monster made of human waste.
The Weird: Yep, he’s literally a man made of shit, who attacks his victims as they sit on the toilet. “Don’t get caught with your pants down,” chuckles the tagline amiably. Can you believe this went straight to video?
How To Make It Weirder: By pitting him against his arch nemesis, Vomit-Man.
Leprechaun In Tha Hood (2000)
The High Concept: Murderous midget takes on jive-talking rappers.
The Weird: How to revive the ailing Leprechaun series? Can we send him to space? Nope, already done that. What about “tha hood”, can we send him there? Definitely. Oh, and we’ll throw in a mind-altering magic flute for good measure. Sorted.
How To Make It Weirder: By having the final show-down take the form of a rap battle. Although maybe not, since the Leprechaun rap sequence is one of the most skin-crawlingly awful things you could ever wish to see. Altogether now, “Lep in the hood, come to do no good…”
