Incredibly Strange Video

Buckle up for perhaps the wildest ride to ever hit the road out of Laughlin, Nevada! When shipments of military plutonium become the target of terrorists, there's obviously only one thing to do - hire a retired trucker, have his grandson and college friends build a bunch of makeshift weapons, and transport the plutonium across the desert in a proto-Fury-Road battle of automotive carnage.

We dive into this forgotten car chase classic, a film devised by special effects specialists, the sole purpose of which seems to be the film's central stunt - an 18-wheeler jumping over a train.

To be clear: an 18-wheeler jumps over a train in this movie. And. it's. AWESOME.

We also uncover stunning revelations when we discover an alternate ending to the film that clarifies tons of questions we had about what was going on the whole time. It's a strange mix of comedic family hi-jinx and high octane road war, a film with delightful Brady Bunch sensibilities and wacky pranks, but also a big rig that burns people alive with flamethrowers. If you come along for this ride with us you're going to learn all about critical ideas and concepts like rocket launching Volkswagens and laser tunnels.

Yes. Laser tunnels.

Thunder Run
Directed by Gary Hudson
1986, United States

Additional music credits

"The Saga" by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

Incredibly Strange Video is produced and edited by Ryan Quinn and Cassie Kay. Follow us on Bluesky @isvpodcast.bsky.social for updates on the newest episodes!

Theme music:
The End by EVA
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0

All excerpts from the films discussed are used for educational and critical purposes only.

No generative AI is used in the production of this show. Keep the world human.

It might not get more incredibly strange than this one. A late entry into our first annual Ani-May, Legend of the Overfiend is the original animated video nasty, the first animated film to ever receive an NC-17 rating from the MPAA...and that was the American cut. On today's episode we're tackling the entire original uncut triple-OVA version of the film, a 2:26 tentacle hentai apocalyptic epic that features wall-to-wall horrors that cannot be unseen.

We're actually posting this one with a trigger warning - it's impossible to discuss Legend of the Overfiend without talking about its rampant sexual assault and rape, much of which is committed by tentacles.

But we're also trying our best to understand what makes this film and its entire subgenre tick. We'll discuss the origins of Japanese tentacle porn (it was created for perhaps the most ironic reason imaginable), and Ryan does his best to dig deep into what the tentacles could possibly mean on a thematic level and how the film occasionally channels great Italian neorealist filmmakers, while Cassie firmly disagrees that this is anything more than shock cinema at best. We're also joined by our friend, cinematographer Ryan Kroboth, who talks to us about what he thinks makes for great anime cinematography.

Every 3000 years, a demon god known as The Overfiend is awakened and judges the three realms - man, beast, and demon. If they are found to be beyond saving, The Overfiend destroys them and creates them anew. But before it can do that, it must incubate inside a human for a while, during which time the human becomes a sex maniac. This is, perhaps, the craziest movie any of us have ever seen.

Urotsukidōji: Legend of the Overfiend
Directed by Hideki Takayama
1989, Japan

Additional music credits
"In Your Dreams Tonight" by Rocket Cafe Music and "Disco Funk" by Creator's Toolbox

Incredibly Strange Video is produced and edited by Ryan Quinn and Cassie Kay. Follow us on Bluesky @isvpodcast.bsky.social for updates on the newest episodes!

Theme music:
The End by EVA
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0

All excerpts from the films discussed are used for educational and critical purposes only.

No generative AI is used in the production of this show. Keep the world human.

It's a new yearly tradition on Incredibly Strange Video - we're celebrating ANI-MAY! Which is when we take all of May to break down cult and unusual anime films! Today's film, Redline, falls into the former category. A major financial failure for its studio after a grueling 7-year-long production, this action/racing smorgasborg of adrenaline-fueled violence has since become a cult classic in the anime world.

And since this is the first anime we've ever covered on the show, in addition to breaking down the film, we'll be doing some learning ourselves along the way, asking questions like, "How is anime even made?" and "What does it mean to say an anime is 'well-directed'?" We'll also delve into common misconceptions about the art style, particularly why many think anime characters don't look Japanese.

Takeshi Koike's 2009 labor of love, Redline, is without a doubt one of the best looking anime films ever made, and yet it's woefully under-appreciated outside of hardcore anime enthusiasts. We're here to change that! If you'd like to check it out before listening to our breakdown, like apparently all films that exist, it's free to stream on Tubi. Otherwise strap in and get ready for the craziest and most dangerous race in the galaxy!

Redline
Directed by Takeshi Koike
2009, Japan

Also, if you've listened to the episode you've heard the huge news: someone has found and uploaded the long-lost song "My Darlin' Don't You Cry" from Bloody Birthday! Check it out here on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSwyougkNg4

Incredibly Strange Video is produced and edited by Ryan Quinn and Cassie Kay. Follow us on Bluesky @isvpodcast.bsky.social for updates on the newest episodes!

Theme music:
The End by EVA
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0

All excerpts from the films discussed are used for educational and critical purposes only.

No generative AI is used in the production of this show. Keep the world human.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

And what film pairs better with a pint of Guinness and some cottage pie than the cult classic, Leprechaun! Warwick Davis gives an iconic horror performance as the titular villain, terrorizing Jennifer Aniston (yes, THAT Jennifer Aniston, in her first feature film leading role) as he searches for his stolen pot of gold.

This horror comedy went on to become a surprise hit when it was released and spawned many sequels...and we intend to get to them all! For now, we're breaking down the original and its use of color to invoke the Celtic Otherworld, how the characters' names might relate to Irish mythology, and how the entire film might be a coded message from the Illuminati regarding the JFK assassination.

May your glass be ever full and your videos incredibly strange! Slàinte Mhaith!

Leprechaun
Directed by Mark Jones
1993, United States 

Incredibly Strange Video is produced and edited by Ryan Quinn and Cassie Kay. Follow us on Bluesky @isvpodcast.bsky.social for updates on the newest episodes!

Theme music:
The End by EVA
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0

All excerpts from the films discussed are used for educational and critical purposes only.

No generative AI is used in the production of this show. Keep the world human.

It's the final stop (for now) on our journey into the year 2000! Come along to the mythical fantasy realm of Detroit where in the year 2047 sex has been outlawed by an authoritarian government! That, of course, does not stop basically everyone from having sex anyway, for those who abstain are fraught with a horrible affliction: The Hornies!

Also, this is a retelling of Cinderella.

Also, it's a musical.

And...actually a really good one! Ryan and Cassie are both adamant that if this were to be adapted on Broadway, it would be a smash hit. It has a Fairy Godfather who frolicks through the wilderness with people wearing animal masks while singing about making love. It has a choreographed country western / disco funk number about a robot yearning to have sex with a computer and/or telephone. It has an incredible amount of nudity. Perhaps most importantly, it has a scene in which the Seven Dwarves gang bang Snow White.

Why is Snow White even in this? And what does Ryan think that sequence is trying to say with a historical analysis invoking the Enūma Elish and The Wedding of Peleus and Thetis? Furthermore, Cassie tackles perhaps the biggest question of them all: When Cinderella gives Big Brother a blow job so good he decides to un-ban sex, is that an empowering feminist moment for her character or not? Tap that play button and find out!

Cinderella 2000 is a bonafide hidden gem, even in the realm of already obscure cult films. Generally forgotten and not available to stream anywhere - except for free on Archive.org of all places! - it's a riotous affair that defies the imagination with new insanity emerging every few minutes. With brilliantly bright colors, a killer 70's score, and a mountain of gratuitous nudity and sex, this is an absolute must-watch for enthusiastic archeologists of incredibly strange cinema.

Cinderella 2000
Directed by Al Adamson
1977, United States 

Incredibly Strange Video is produced and edited by Ryan Quinn and Cassie Kay. Follow us on Bluesky @isvpodcast.bsky.social for updates on the newest episodes!

Theme music:
The End by EVA
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0

All excerpts from the films discussed are used for educational and critical purposes only.

No generative AI is used in the production of this show. Keep the world human.

We continue our podcast journey into the year 2000!

Like a mission ripped right out of an Obsidian RPG, Melanie Griffith plays bounty hunter E. Johnson, who takes desperate lover Sam Treadwell on a fetch quest to post-apocalyptic Las Vegas to replace his sex robot, Cherry 2000. On their way, they run into a gang of Dads on permanent vacation who would love to get their hands on a Cherry 2000, as well.

It's a premise executed with seriously awesome stunt work (including a stunning sequence involving a 1965 Ford Mustang, a large magnet, and the Hoover Dam), off-beat humor that effectively lampoons modern romance, and more than a few unhinged performances. It's a little bit Mad Max, a little bit Firefly, a little Tank Girl and Blade Runner and a whole bunch of other things. It was a massive box office bomb, but suffice to say, we love this movie, but not as a man loves a woman...but perhaps as a man loves a sex robot?

We are joined on the show by husband and wife Ryan Kroboth and Connie Chen, who will throw their hats into the ring as we discuss the big question: is it morally ok for a human to love an artificial intelligence in the year 2025? Things get appropriately spicy as we dive into the realms of fictosexuality and the rising popularity of using AI to satisfy your romantic needs.

Cherry 2000
Directed by Steve De Jarnatt
1987, United States

Incredibly Strange Video is produced and edited by Ryan Quinn and Cassie Kay. Follow us on Bluesky @isvpodcast.bsky.social for updates on the newest episodes!

Theme music:
The End by EVA
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0

All excerpts from the films discussed are used for educational and critical purposes only.

No generative AI is used in the production of this show. Keep the world human.

In the first Ozploitation film we've featured on the show, Escape 2000 - aka Turkey Shoot - presents us with a dystopian future (or present?) where dissenters against a fascist government are sent to death camps with only one way out: participating in the turkey shoot. The turkey shoot, of course, is an event where a bunch of rich people bring a bunch of insane weapons into the Australian bush and hunt the prisoners for sport.

Will Olivia Hussey's character survive the ordeal? And will the real Olivia Hussey survive the truly harrowing experience of filming this in the Australian bush? On this episode Ryan and Cassie paint you a picture of how the actress slowly lost her mind while shooting this insane movie. Additionally, Cassie recounts the year she lived in Australia and applies that experience to discussions about Aussie culture clashes. Ryan, meanwhile, presents a crash course on just what precisely Ozploitation is, and how it's tied to the Australian New Wave, which was a filmmaking renaissance that took place in the mid-70's and 80's. He'll also spin a yarn about the one time the director set George Lazenby on fire.

Released in the US as Escape 2000, but now pretty much universally known as Turkey Shoot, this film fits nicely into our extended glance into the year 2000 through the visions of grindhouse filmmakers many decades prior. And hopefully you're ready to learn what a koala mating call sounds like because...yeah. This episode unravels some incredibly strange threads.

Escape 2000 / Turkey Shoot
Directed by Brian Trenchard-Smith
1982, Australia

Additional Music:

"Solara" by Karl Casey at White Bat Audio

Incredibly Strange Video is produced and edited by Ryan Quinn and Cassie Kay. Follow us on Bluesky @isvpodcast.bsky.social for updates on the newest episodes!

Theme music:
The End by EVA
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0

All excerpts from the films discussed are used for educational and critical purposes only.

No generative AI is used in the production of this show. Keep the world human.

In the year 2000 hit and run driving is no longer a felony. It's the national sport!

Roger Corman's incredible cult classic puts soon-to-be screen legends Sylvester Stallone and David Carradine behind the wheel of trans-American racing machines designed to do two things: go fast and kill pedestrians! Death Race 2000 is a hilarious and bloody satirical look at sports and media culture in America, that deftly trades barbs with the viewers, mocking their obsession with celebrity culture and their belief that the triumvirate of government, religion, and mass media ever has their best interest in mind.

No, Death Race 2000 instead laughs at that unholy trinity's bloodlust by turning a major sporting event controlled by those powerful entities into a literal massacre.

And the crowd goes wild for it!

In this episode we break down all of those themes, as well as discuss the controversial (ancient) arcade game that spun out of this film. Cassie raises interesting questions about the film's final scene. Ryan proposes an unconventional way to make modern sports more entertaining. They both explore the various atrocities that major sporting events sportswash across the globe. Plus, of course, with this being the first Roger Corman film we've covered on the show, they've got a crash course on cult cinema's most legendary producer for you!

Oh, and for reference, here are this year's scoring revisions:

Women: +10 points
Teenagers: +40 points
Toddlers: +70 points
Anyone over 75 years old: +100 points

Death Race 2000
Directed by Paul Bartel
1975, United States

Incredibly Strange Video is produced and edited by Ryan Quinn and Cassie Kay. Follow us on Bluesky @isvpodcast.bsky.social for updates on the newest episodes!

Theme music:
The End by EVA
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0

All excerpts from the films discussed are used for educational and critical purposes only.

No generative AI is used in the production of this show. Keep the world human.

It's the thrilling conclusion to the Jack Wild trilogy! Except it's not about Jack Wild anymore! And doesn't appear to have any connection to the first two films! Or does it?...

Ryan thinks so. Cassie isn't so sure. In this third Crackerjack adventure, Jack is now an old man (played by Bo Svenson!) who runs a department in the CIA. After retiring he's roped back into the action by his analyst, Kelly (played by former WWE Diva Amy Weber) to stop some terrorists from detonating a neutron bomb at the G7 Summit. To get the job done he enlists the help of some old Cold War buddies and things get...well they get kinda torture-y.

Which opens up lots of rousing discussions about the CIA's "enhanced interrogation" program  here on the podcast. It also kicks off theories about how this third entry IS in fact about the same Jack, as a further glimpse into his subconscious, which has been rattled by the trauma of his wife's death. How do the experimental films of Stan Brackhage come into play? What does this all have to do with the novel House of Leaves? Why is there so much circus music in the soundtrack? And could there be a deeper symbolism behind all the garden gnomes? We (try to) answer all these questions and more on this new, thrilling episode!

Crackerjack 3
Directed by Lloyd A. Simandl
2000, Canada

Incredibly Strange Video is produced and edited by Ryan Quinn and Cassie Kay. Follow us on Bluesky @isvpodcast.bsky.social for updates on the newest episodes!

Theme music:
The End by EVA
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0

All excerpts from the films discussed are used for educational and critical purposes only.

No generative AI is used in the production of this show. Keep the world human.

Hey everybody! It's a mutiny!

And just what is a musical mutiny? Well...it's a free concert. Orchestrated by the ghost of a pirate. At Pirates World amusement park in Dania Beach, FL in 1970, featuring Iron Butterfly performing In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida. The whole song.

And this psychedelic musical journey is part of the Pirates World cinematic universe! If you recall from our last episode on Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny, we introduced you to Pirates World, a wildly ambitious amusement park in Florida that produced a bunch of low-budget films in the late 60's and early 70's. This film is directed by Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny's producer, Barry Mahon, and in this episode we're digging into his history as a flying ace in World War II, as well as taking this bizarre film and putting its commentary on hippie culture and capitalism under the microscope.

Cassie considers how the film may have been influenced by the Manson murders. Ryan provides a detailed history of pioneer log flumes and uses that to draw a critical connection between French aristocracy and this film's prescient commentary on musical conglomerates. During Thoughts From Letterboxd we consider what statement the climatic lemonade stand scene could be trying to make, and discuss solipsism and how it could be the key to true freedom.

So come travel back in time with us to groovy Dania Beach for the biggest mutiny in amusement park history! Probably. This bonkers concert film is a one-of-a-kind experience that you can find for free on YouTube! And, seriously, if you watch it, you better really like Iron Butterfly.

Musical Mutiny
Directed by Barry Mahon
1970, United States

Incredibly Strange Video is produced and edited by Ryan Quinn and Cassie Kay. Follow us on Bluesky @isvpodcast.bsky.social for updates on the newest episodes!

Theme music:
The End by EVA
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0

All excerpts from the films discussed are used for educational and critical purposes only.

No generative AI is used in the production of this show. Keep the world human.