Born of Fire - 1987

 The Astrologist and this film put me into a headspace as I watched, one where I began to wonder what is the weirdest movie I've ever seen?

This is a highly subjective question, and one which also needs to take into account all of the different definitions of "weird" and what we might consider "weirder" as a pyramid - is a film without actors weirder than a film with animal actors?  Is a film with no plot weirder than one with a highly confusing and nonlinear plot?  

Obviously I am going to talk here of my own personal interpretation of weird and also the allure of weird.  So first that last point.  I think a movie like Born of Fire, The Astrologist and one movie I reviewed The Shout keep coming back to me because they look good - they show true craftsmanship behind the camera, behind the acting, behind the stylization of the flick, whilst being utterly incomprehensible as well.  A movie like Ray Dennis Steckler's The Hollywood Strangler is not only narratively thin but also production value is zilch - it looks like what it is, whereas the other aforementioned films look good.

In a way, the real qualities the other films have make them more unsettling then, it is the familiarity and trust we place in the basic system of film which allows us to truly key into the psychopathic weirdness of Born of Fire.  It's not grainy handheld shots with visible boom mics which make us keenly aware of the amateur quality and thus prepare us for the idea that this may not be conventional.  It looks conventional, even professional, thus the weirdness is more disarming.  It is the same reason David Lynch, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Gaspar Noe shock us.  There is clearly a trained and knowledgeable eye behind the camera, so why are they showing us such bizarre images?

Born of Fire is of this vein; that of a clear artistic talent with a clear idea here - what it is, you know, maybe a bit confusing, but it's there.  

Flutist Paul is playing one day and hears a phantom song coming from nowhere.  So does a mystery woman who confronts him and takes him to this weird mystery land where maybe an evil djinn has arisen and only Paul can confront the evil, through his power with the flute.  He'll team up with her and The Silent One to stop the djinn.

I mean...  like I said, this is one of the weirder movies I've ever seen.  Shot beautifully, well acted, and with unexplained hypnotic power, this thing pulls you in and keeps you there as the strangeness builds.  It is in that bizarre pocket with Jodorowsky movies of these otherworldly psuedo-religious inspired experiments that feel like you've truly walked through a portal into another realm.  For all that... 4.5 stars.