Garagehouse did everyone a favor when they re-released The Weirdo on blu ray. One of the last movies Andy Milligan made, it's a film about teenage innocence being destroyed by someone who seemingly has no innocence left. Donnie (Steve Burington) just wants to stay in his secret hiding space looking for garbage, but continually he's set upon by larger and larger packs of bullies. The only kindness he finds in this world is in the disabled Jenny (Jessica Straus). Jenny has one of those rambling Milligan speeches that ends with a truly haunting few sentences: "When I woke up my dress was all torn and I was bloody...all over here. When I finally got home my mother and sister beat on me. They blamed me for everything that happened. Bobby didn't call me names after that but he would whisper to the other boys and they would giggle at me in the halls. I never went back to school again after that. I don't need school. I don't need anything." Donnie finally explodes and destroys everyone that ever hurt him, even decapitating his horrific mother. Heads getting cut off is something that happens regularly in Milligan movies. And seeing as how Andy hated his mother, this time the act takes on more meaning. Yes, someone is also killed with a pitchfork. Donnie and Jenny have a love that must battle three thugs - Nails (Shawn Player), Dean (Patrick Thomas) and Vic (Dennis Robbins) - as well as a horrible religious figure named Reverend Cummings (John Miranda), Donnie's drunken mother wanting to sell him into slavery and the fact that they are in an Andy Milligan movie, which means that these things never seem to end well. Supposedly, there was going to be a sequel with Donnie has an unkillable monster being controlled by Jenny and coming back for even more revenge. I despise the idea of AI-based cinema, but if there's any movie I'd want to see made that is impossible to make today, this may be it.

Garagehouse Pictures is releasing two Andy Milligan films on blu-ray for the first time. One is MONSTROSITY. This is the other. Of the two this one is the better film but likely to not find as big a base. It's a bit more well done and with any film of Andy Milligan saying that is something. Donny is a mentally challenged young man, that way for many reasons most being his upbringing by an alcoholic mother. Basically raised by the kindly Miss Martins, Donny lives in a shed behind her house. Picked on by the local troublemakers and prone to wandering the streets Donny has hit an age where he's beginning to notice the opposite sex. First he notices Miss Martin's niece when she comes to stay and then while walking the nearby parks he meets Jenny. Jenny is a handicapped girl with a bad leg who lives with an abusive aunt. The two of them hit it off and soon are sharing all their time together. But tragedy lays in store for the couple. First Donny's mother wants to sell him as a slave to another man, the local reverend puts the moves on Jenny, Miss Martins decides to evict Donny when she learns of Jenny and then the gang members attack Jenny as well. All of this combines to unleash the fury that resides inside of Donny. Given a mega-budget and featuring more well-known actors this sounds like a major release. But in the hands of Milligan it isn't quite that good. That being said from my exposure to his films this one is actually pretty good. Even the acting, while not Oscar worthy, is pretty good. In particular Jessica Straus as Jenny does a great job. Fortunately she's gone on to a huge career in voice over performing. The movie still has that home-made feel to it. It also has that loving attempt be Milligan to make an actual movie while still confined to the exploitation genre. There is plenty of gore effects on display here like a severed head featured in the artwork for the movie but most of it, while effective, is pretty tame and simple. As I stated in my review for MONSTROSITY Milligan falls into that category of film makers most define by how bad their films were. But the invention of first VHS and now disc has changed viewers so that fans of the offbeat, the strange and the different are now able to view movies like these and enjoy them for what they are, movie made by people who love movies but who lack the technical expertise and budgets to make them perfect. Yeah it's not Oscar material but it can still be fun. I also mentioned the fact that Garagehouse Pictures is the little engine that could and I still hold that they deserve that title. Not rushing titles out, not overloading a market with substandard versions like we saw happen when VHS made its debut, they are taking the time to restore and present movies like this in the best mode and shape possible. They've done that with this film, one that a vast majority of people aren't seeking but tried and true movie fans are clamoring for. It's offering the film for the first time in HD with a restoration created from the original camera negative. One of the extras included even shows the difference their restoration has made on the film presented here. Other extras include an audio commentary track with producers Paul Maslak and Neva Friedenn, make-up man Rodd Matsui & actor Patrick Thomas, an audio commentary with film historian Keith Crocker moderated by George Reis, "Matsui s Monstrosities: An Interview with a Make-Up Man: Part 2", trailers of other Andy Milligan films, trailers of other Garagehouse Pictures films, cover art by Stephen Romano and a limited edition slip sleeve art by Justin Miller. Once again they are limiting this to just 1,000 prints so if you're interested make sure you order your copy today.

My review was written in February 1990 after watching the movie on Raedon video cassette. Goremeister Andy Milligan is in a relatively restrained mood for "Weirdo", an okay psychological thriller released direct to video. His higher-brow fans will mull over the scene of a preacher's wife stabbed in the chest with a huge crucifix. Steve Burlington takes the title role, a backward youngster who is taken care of by kindly Naomi Sherwood. Taunted by other teens, he eventually steps over the line in a romane with runaway Jessica Straus. Convoluted exploitation genre plot has a revelation by hero's mom that his slowness is caused by inbreeding (she had sex with her brother, resulting in Weirdo). Burlington freaks out and kills his mama, just in time because she was in the process of selling him into white slavery in Mississippi (!). Unfortunately for the fans, poor makeup effects are used on mama's severed head.

This is the weirdest feeling movie I've ever seen. It's like Tim & Eric without the cynicism. A few questions: -Why are there 30 year-old bullies? -Why does nothing ever come of the gaping knife wound to Donnie's ribs? -Why did the director leave it open for a sequel? -Which fu**ing universe did this movie drag me to, and will I ever return? Man. If I had to give this a genre it would be Smut-Comedy. There has never been a more original movie. Most movies borrow elements from previous features, but I can't think of a single movie that this reminds me of. I hadn't seen this since grade school, I'm now 25 and just bought a copy on VHS for $20. I still find the same parts hilarious, but I have a certain amount of respect for the total strangeness of The Weirdo than I did back then. BUY THIS MOVIE. While you're at it, burn down your house and kill yourself. You'll thank me later... depending, of course, on if you actually kill yourself.. in which case you couldn't thank me. Just buy the fu&^ing movie at any cost.

A mildly autistic, shed-dwelling loner improbably acquires an equally troubled girlfriend as he smotes his tormentors. During his grindhouse heyday, Andy Milligan could excrete exploitation fare even faster and cheaper than Roger Corman. Unlike Corman, who (at least for awhile) aspired to better work, Milligan was content to line his pockets while expressing contempt for mankind. While predictably dour, THE WEIRDO features two prominent peculiarities. Milligan films are littered with losers, cluelessly trying to claw their way out of hopeless situations. Though retarded, The Weirdo may be Milligan's only character cognizant that he's doomed, doomed, doomed from the getgo. Then, there's the slapping. Punks slap the weirdo. His girlfriend slaps the weirdo. His mother slaps the weirdo. A preacher's wife slaps the weirdo. The weirdo slaps his girlfriend. A caregiver slaps the weirdo. You'll swear that Moe Howard was the technical adviser. The lumpy script bunches up all the killings at the end. Passive characters abruptly turn hostile to warrant a higher body count. The psycho attack scenes are borderline competent, and for a flick with subterranean production values, the blood and flesh wounds look surprisingly good. The inclusion of a cursing cleric was a cool touch, but this sad little film should only appeal to those bitten by the Milligan bug...you poor devils.

I love the quirks in the story setup. I especially love Jessica Strauss and her odd personality and her leg brace. She manages to use the brace as a focal point and it's great. What teen wouldn't love to live with a pretty, quirky girl like her, out in a cozy private spot with no upkeep? But then the sudden over-the-top violence just kills it all. From that point, it's just sad and gross.

If this seems a lot different from the rest of Milligan's sparse 80s output, it's because this is actually a remake of a mid-70s Milligan film that was lost. In many ways it is the ultimate Milligan film, undone by the same elements that did in Milligan's last few films: the gritty, sleazy ensembles of "The Ghastly Ones" and "Fleshpot on 42nd Street" are replaced by bland actors from the fringes of respectable Hollywood. Beyond that the crazy, manic energy of Milligan's early films, the screaming actors, traumatic camera-work, and canned background music are long gone, replaced by a modicum of "professionalism". Unlike his other 80s films, however, there are lots of early Milligan elements: horrible, evil mothers, sadistic and cruel authority figures, freaks (I guess Donnie's crippled girlfriend counts), and Milligan's own obvious identification with the doomed monster. The weirdo, Donnie, is basically a harmless borderline retard a la Hal Borske in "The Ghastly Ones" who is bullied and humiliated before taking his revenge in an oddly satisfying but shoddy manner. If you've read "The Ghastly One" and actually like some of Milligan's films, parts might strike you as almost touching, since so much of Milligan himself seems to be on display here, but that said the high-school cast, awkward dialog, silly 80s gang, and characters who arbitrarily change at the drop of a plot point don't really help matters. Definitely not "the worst film" ever (none of Milligan's films are even close to that), but too lumbering and leaden for its own good. Too bad the original is "lost", I'd love to see it.

THE WEIRDO (2+ outta 5 stars) You know, sometimes there are movies that have terrible acting, bad scripts, a silly story AND lousy direction... and I *still* kinda like 'em. "The Weirdo" is one of those movies... sort of like a cross between "Psycho" and "Marty". As poor as almost every element of this film is... I think it still comes through that the people involved *cared* about what they were doing. So what if the actors have trouble getting their lines out? So what if you can guess everything that's going to happen about 20 minutes before it does happen? So what if the scenes of violence look ridiculously fake? Okay, so I wouldn't exactly recommend this movie to anyone... but I heartily defend its right to exist! The story involves Donnie, the "weirdo" who is constantly harassed by punk teens, busybody townsfolk and an abusive mother. No one ever talks to him... or treats him like a human being... so he is filled with all this repressed rage. Suddenly he meets a pretty young crippled girl who takes an instant liking to him (being somewhat of an outcast herself). They fall in love.. but, too late. All the years of abuse have made Donnie resentful and, ultimately, psychotically violent to those who have wronged him. He goes on a bloody rampage of revenge until he is suddenly beaten to death by the angry townsfolk... or... IS he dead???

Scanning through the threadbare plot: Mildly retarded man falls in love with troubled girl, is pushed around by town bullies and then, eventually snaps, murdering those who caused him pain. THE WEIRDO, made by one of the most reviled directors in cinema history - Andy Milligan - should be taken with a grain of salt. He has a passion for the odd and makes due with what he's given, but we all know he doesn't have a talented bone in his body. Here, in THE WEIRDO, Milligan's budget seems to have been "upped" significantly since bad movie epics like THE BLOODTHIRSTY BUTCHERS and GURU THE MAD MONK. Fortunately, those schlocky aforementioned films had a certain flare in 'em, while THE WEIRDO is nothing but talk, talk, talk without pay-off. I had hoped in the final massacre it'd be in brutal and spectacular fashion. Unfortunately, Milligan seemed more in interested in making a drama about Donny's torment, pain and involvement with his romantic interest, so little focus was on the actual revenge theme. I'm pretty sure I dozed off at some point, but in a movie like this, can ya blame me? Really, this is bottom-of-the-barrel material. Apart from the interesting highly derivative] concept, THE WEIRDO has absolutely NOTHING of worth.

The Weirdo MUST go on everyone's top ten worst film list....It is simply DREADFUL! From the opening credits that read: The Weirdo-The Beginning!?????? to a hand chopped off by butter knife to the ludicrous plot? twist.....this movie is just abysmal! I laughed, then cried....I wanted to poke my eyes out with my very own butter knife! How this film ever got financed is anybody's guess...someone must have decided that spending five hundred bucks on crapola was better then burning it......They were wrong!