JP Nunez
2023 had no shortage of weird movies. Sure, superheroes and lightsabers have dominated the box office for the last decade or so, but films like Barbie, Infinity Pool, and Dream Scenario proved that there’s still room for unique, outside-the-box storytelling in today’s cinematic landscape. It’s just a great time to be a movie fan, so no matter where your tastes may lie, there’s a little something for everyone.
But even so, if you gravitate towards the weirder side of cinema, you might be struggling to track down films that cater to your particular sensibilities. While they’re definitely out there, they’re not always easy to find. The majority of weird movies skip theaters and go straight to streaming or VOD, and 2023’s slate was no exception. They tend to be smaller films that barely get any marketing, so you really need to keep an eye out for them.
However, that’s often easier said than done, so if you’re looking for some bizarre gems to check out, I’d like to help you out a bit. I saw my fair share of weird movies in 2023, and a lot of them were quite good. In fact, a few were even among my favorite films of the year, so without further ado, here are five awesomely weird 2023 movies you might’ve missed.
Devils
Let’s start with my favorite film on this list. I saw Devils at the Fantasia International Film Festival this past summer, and it totally blew me away. It’s a bloody revenge thriller about a detective who’s tracking a notorious serial killer who murdered his brother-in-law, and when he finally finds the guy, they fall off a cliff and go missing for a while. The pair are eventually found, but something strange happened while they were off the grid. They somehow switched bodies, so now the detective has to find a way to get his body back before the killer hurts the people closest to him.
It’s an absolutely wild ride, and it’s executed to perfection. For example, the two lead actors are phenomenal, and the action is violent and shockingly brutal, but hands down, the best thing about Devils is the story. The mystery of how these two people switched bodies is utterly fascinating, and when the movie finally pulls back the curtain and lets you in on its secrets, it does not disappoint. I don’t want to spoil anything, but trust me, the big reveal will leave your jaw hanging.
On top of all that, Devils also has a surprisingly great message. Again, I don’t want to give anything away, so I’ll just say that this isn’t exactly a typical revenge film. It’s a much more thoughtful story than we normally get from this genre, and it uses its hard-hitting violence to make a point that’s both timely and timeless. In a word, Devils is the total package, so if you’re a fan of bloody and mind-bending thrillers with real thematic substance, do yourself a favor and check this one out. You’ll be happy you did.
Mad Cats
Mad Cats is another film I had the pleasure of watching at Fantasia last year, and while I didn’t love it quite as much as Devils, it’s still one of my favorite weird movies of 2023. It’s an action/comedy/fantasy hybrid about a man named Taka who receives a mysterious message telling him where his missing brother is, and when Taka sets out to rescue the poor guy, he learns that his brother is being held captive by a group of female warriors with bizarre, cat-like tendencies. These fierce fighters are a bit too formidable for Taka to take on by himself, but when he teams up with a homeless man and a mysterious woman named Ayane who knows her way around a fight, the three of them together might have enough firepower to defeat their feline enemies.
If that brief plot synopsis sounds too ridiculous to be real, let me assure you, Mad Cats is, in fact, a real film. And it’s awesome. The characters are really likable, the jokes are hilarious, and the action is fantastic, so just like Devils, this movie also fires on all cylinders. Seriously, everything about Mad Cats is so good it’s tough to pick out one or two elements to focus on, but if I had to choose a highlight, I’d say it’s probably the action.
In particular, I have to give huge props to the actors who play Ayane and the cat women she goes toe to toe with. They’re all fantastic martial artists, and every one of their fights is an absolute joy to watch. They play a huge role in turning this absurd premise into an unforgettable gem, so even if you’re not exactly a cat person, this is one film you don’t want to miss.
Woman of the Photographs
Next up, we have Woman of the Photographs, a wonderful, horror-adjacent parable about the various ways people can use technology (especially pictures) to escape the real world and create false realities for themselves. It’s about a professional photographer and photo editor who starts a bizarre romance with an Instagram model, and as you can probably guess, his ability to skillfully edit pictures leads his new girlfriend down a very dark path.
On the surface, that may not sound terribly weird, but the execution makes Woman of the Photographs one of the most unusual movies of 2023. See, for the vast majority of the film’s runtime, the main character doesn’t speak a single word, and he doesn’t even make anything happen. He mostly just does what his customers and his girlfriend ask him to do, and everything somehow just falls into place around him.
On a purely logical level, it doesn’t make any sense, but that’s the point. This movie follows a kind of dream logic that wouldn’t work in the real world, and that in turn makes you feel like you’re in a waking nightmare. In fact, it even gives the movie a bit of a horror vibe, but Woman of the Photographs never goes all-in on the genre. It only dips its toes into horror territory, and truth be told, it doesn’t fit neatly into any genre. It’s just a bizarre work of art all around, so if you’re looking for something that defies classification, this film will be right up your alley.
Ashkal: The Tunisian Investigation
Ashkal: The Tunisian Investigation just might be the most conventional entry on this list, but don’t let that fool you. It’s still pretty far outside the typical mainstream box, so it definitely earns its status as one of the best weird movies of 2023. The film is a supernatural thriller that follows two police officers as they investigate a series of mysterious burning deaths, and the circumstances surrounding these cases don’t seem to add up.
In fact, at one point in the story, a few witnesses even report seeing a man give someone fire straight from his hand, so the whole thing is just a really puzzling mystery that will keep you guessing from start to finish. What’s more, Ashkal: The Tunisian Investigation also tackles a real-life issue we don’t see in too many films: the self-immolations that have taken place in the Arab world over the last decade and a half or so. It challenges us to think more deeply about both the self-immolations themselves and the circumstances that compelled protesters to resort to such drastic measures, but it wisely avoids spoon-feeding us easy answers.
Instead, it remains open to interpretation right up until the credits begin to roll, so you’ll need to keep your thinking cap on when you watch this one. Admittedly, that will probably frustrate a lot of viewers, but if you enjoy movies that raise questions and let you decide how to answer them, you should definitely check out Ashkal: The Tunisian Investigation.
Shin Kamen Rider
Last but not least, we have Shin Kamen Rider (also known as Shin Masked Rider), the latest reboot of Japan’s iconic Kamen Rider franchise. In the film, an evil organization named SHOCKER creates human/animal hybrids calls Augs and brainwashes them to take over the world, but one of these Augs, a man named Takeshi Hongo, manages to escape the organization’s evil clutches. After his breakout, he takes the name Kamen Rider, and he sets out to defeat the other Augs and stop SHOCKER from fulfilling its plan.
Admittedly, that’s a fairly standard superhero plot, so on a narrative level, there’s nothing terribly odd about Shin Kamen Rider. However, much like with Woman of the Photographs, the weirdness here lies entirely in the way this story is executed. In particular, Kamen Rider and his fellow Augs are pretty bizarre, so they more than earn the movie a spot on this list. For example, one of them is a spider hybrid who can grow extra arms, and another one is a bat hybrid who looks a bit like the winged vampire in Mike Flanagan’s Midnight Mass.
On top of those weird characters, Shin Kamen Rider also has a lot more blood than we’ve come to expect from superhero films. Most notably, whenever Kamen Rider hits a non-superpowered enemy, their blood splatters pretty freely, and there are even a few times when he caves people’s heads in. It’s pretty cool, and when you combine that bloody action with the monstrous characters, it makes for a fun, horror-adjacent superhero flick that’s definitely one of the best weird movies of 2023.
