Herschell Gordon Lewis has been called many things in his role as a director. The Godfather of Gore is a perennial favourite as the man essentially created a subgenre of film and would commit things to celluloid that many often would not. That being said, creative genius maybe but as a director many of his movies tend to meander a little, are often a little boring and tend to be what most would call bad. When it comes to Something Weird, it is nothing to write home about and it features nothing of his usual excesses aside from drab insanity.

That does not mean that the picture was all bad but there was a lot of it and it definitely outweighed any of the good to be found within. In a nutshell, the film is about a man who gets hit with a live power line and while he survives, his good looks do not. Despite the loss he manages to gain some extra sensory perception or ESP and he uses it to his advantage, when he can that is. He also manages to get himself a girlfriend and the reinstatement of his good looks thanks to an ugly old witch who gives him the latter in exchange for being the former. Disgusted as he is, he agrees as his vanity is overpowering. Eventually, they get involved in a murder case, lending a hand to find a serial killer and while that does happen after a fashion, the man named Mitchell finds his life at an end and the witch looking for a new lover.

The movie is not overly long but it feels as if it is an eternity as there is little action or anything of interest going on at any given time. It is tedious and that in itself works against it, taxing the audience and giving them every reason to leave before the picture’s end. Almost. There is enough craziness to stick around though with its LSD subject matter, the utterly terrible makeup worn by the old witch that has to be seen to be believed and the resolution to the plot and yes, there is a plot that might shock most despite how much this film wanders around during its running time. It is not all that compelling but seeing how Mitchell makes out and if he manages to get rid of the old crone he is forced to make love to is at least of a little interest.

There is more that one could say about this shoddy production, about the lazy direction from Lewis, the somewhat poor performances from Tony McCabe and Elizabeth Lee, not to mention the rest of the cast. One could talk about the editing, the music or the bonkers script that would try and give audiences something they would want to see and yet, in the end, while the film should be called a fail on most levels, Something Weird was just that. It was completely weird and yet provided just a shred of something that would intrigue and thus not make it a complete waste of time. It is not for everyone but it is for the few out there that enjoy this kind of stuff.

2 out of 5