A Deep Dive into Weirdo Cinema [6] Quiz

Answer: Jesse McCartney

He doesn't last long either. He and a bunch of friends ended up going on an off-the-books Chernobyl tour in this movie written and produced by "Paranormal Activity" creator Oren Peli in 2012. Naturally, things went bad when, after discovering that there was much worse stuff going on in the destroyed city, there was something lurking in the shadows.

Despite the horror genre having a bit of a propensity towards mutant freaks, "Chernobyl Diaries" wasn't well-received. Coming in late in what would be a wave of handicam horror films designed to put the viewer into the driver's seat for 'horror that could happen to you', this one pushed further into the unreal than even Peli's "Paranormal Activity" series.

Answer: The Pregnancy Pact

After making big moves in Hollywood during the late-1990s and early 2000s, Thora Birch seemed to recede from the craft in the 2000s before returning for a small handful of lesser-known films. One such return was the Lifetime Original Movie here, "The Pregnancy Pact", which gets a lot more concerning the more you look at it.

While Lifetime movies are known for their problematic intrigue, "The Pregnancy Pact" was based on real events that happened at Gloucester High School in Massachusetts in which a group of girls made a pact to get pregnant together while still in school. The movie proved to be extremely lucrative for the network, becoming one of the most-viewed cable movies of all time. Director Rosemary Rodriguez would go on to have a prolific career in TV directing as a result.

Answer: "Fatality!"

Based on the fighting video game series of the same name, the 1995 adaptation "Mortal Kombat" is campy, but it somehow manages to work for the outright fantasy nonsense that the source material presents. Bringing some of the most popular characters to the Mortal Kombat tournament to save Earth from total annihilation, it would subsequently be followed by "Mortal Kombat: Annihilation" a couple years later.

Paul W. S. Anderson, who directed the film, would end up becoming a big name in the video game adaptation world, creating films for "Resident Evil" and "Monster Hunter". "Mortal Kombat" received middling reviews (still higher than his other films!) but was an effective box office success. The series would be rebooted in 2021, appearing in some theatres, but also releasing simulataneously on HBO Max due to COVID-19.

Answer: South Park

Filmed entirely in 'supermarionation' like the old "Thunderbirds" episodes of the 1960s, "Team America: World Police" was a project conceived by Matt Stone and Trey Parker, both of whom had struck it big by this point creating the TV show "South Park" and its full-length feature film, "South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut". Set in a world where a group of highly-skilled American freedom fighters set out to stop terrorism at all costs, it parodied action films and Hollywood in general, all while ludicrous and destructive fight sequences were played out with puppets.

It's a fascinating film. On top of the complexity of designing sets for a full puppet cast, the painstaking puppet choreography was said to have been mind-breaking. Aside from the back-breaking production issues, the movie was subsequently blocked by the MPAA in America due to its lengthy and graphic puppet sex scene. It did make it, however, and was successful enough in the box office. It's a weird testament, in the end, to creative comedic concepts.

Answer: Fifty Shades of Grey

Based on the 2011 novel that became an almost-instant bestseller, "Fifty Shades of Grey" was adapted to film in 2015 with Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan in the lead roles as Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey.

It would be silly not to start the discussion about this movie without acknowledging that the source material, while popular, was not exactly well-written. It might come as no surprise that the resulting movie, about a young woman slowly sliding into the world of BDSM, was also poorly made; it won five Razzies including Worst Picture. Nonetheless, it and its two sequels ended up making money hand-over-fist and revitalized the erotic romance-thriller genre, even if only for a brief moment.

Answer: One Cut of the Dead

A low budget offering from Japan, "One Cut of the Dead" managed a rare feat for a zombie film-- a 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. The film is presented in three parts, the first depicting a zombie outbreak, the second following the filmmakers responsible for bringing that fictional outbreak to the screen LIVE, and the third taking a behind-the-scenes look at how they were able to get the shoot done while hi-jinx ensued.

The film was made for the equivalent of $25,000 USD and made back more than a thousand times that amount during its theatrical run. Bolstered by film festival screenings, the little movie ended up becoming an awards darling in Asia and one of Japan's top-grossing domestic films for the year.

Answer: Stay Alive

An early work by horror director William Brent Bell, "Stay Alive" was the type of horror movie that could only appeal to a few small crowds-- and those might not be gamers or horror fans. Based on the premise of a group of (just-a-bit-too-cool) people who beta test a video game to find that their death in the game equates to death in real life, a ticking clock starts to run, forcing them to find out the truth behind Countess Elizabeth Bathory, whose spirit haunts the game. Yes, that Elizabeth Bathory.

This movie was critically panned, and with reason. Despite what would now be considered to be an eclectic but stellar cast (Frankie Muniz, of all people, playing a guy named Swink), it's schlocky and poorly devised. That said, it's a mindless ride and super silly. There are legitimate video game adaptations which are worse than this one (looking at you, Uwe Boll!).

Answer: The Last Days of American Crime

While the world went into COVID-19 lockdowns in early 2020, many turned to streaming media for escapism. "The Last Days of American Crime", a Netflix exclusive, appeared on the platform in June 2020 and while it was primed for consumption (becoming the top movie of the week), it also turned out to be a bad choice-- it ended up being the first 0% Rotten Tomatoes movie of the COVID era.

Set in the far-away time of 2024, the movie posited a version of America where crime could be stopped with a transmitted signal, the film tracked a bank heist and its perpetrators as they attempted to get the money and flee across a river to the promised land of Canada, where they could be free of the tyranny of 'no crime'. It's a brutal movie both due to its graphic violence, especially from police, and it's general dullness in execution. This coupled with the George Floyd protests occurring at the time of its release doomed it to obscurity.

Answer: Saw

If you want weird, quick, and effective horror, don't be a dummy-- "Dead Silence" is a perfectly viable 2007 supernatural film about ghosts, curses, and ventriloquism, and that's just right. James Wan, who created "Saw" a short time earlier (and who would go on to be one of the most valuable names in modern, big-screen horror with "The Conjuring" and "Insidious"), pushed this movie out in the midst of his early days and while it may be a forgotten gem, it exhibits several effective techniques that viewers might see with more polish in later stand-alone films like "Malignant".

The movie features Jamie Ashen, played by Ryan Kwanten, as he heads back to his childhood town to find that the curse of Mary Shaw is alive and well. Oh yeah, and there are a ton of uncanny dummies.

Answer: Al Pacino

Love or hate the specific comedy brand of Adam Sandler, it's undeniable that he does occasionally take turns of brilliance, pushing into sometimes dramatic roles which garner critical renown and sometimes providing popcorn movies with just enough levity to put on. "Jack & Jill" is neither.

In it, Sandler plays the roles of twins Jack and Jill, the latter of whom is purposely uncouth and problematic and causes more than enough issues for Jack and his family in the lead-up to Hannukah. Nominated for twelve Razzies, it took one in every category...of which there are only ten. Pacino took one of those awards, interestingly, playing himself. Perhaps problematically, on a $70,000,000 USD budget, the movie made more than double back. It's considered by many to be one of the worst films of all time.