Under the Radar DVDs: 2010’s oddest of the odd

Each week sees literally hundreds of new releases on DVD. Big-bucks advertising and studio clout propel sales of the most high-profile DVDs. But the oddball releases that fly under the radar are often the most fun. Those bottom-of-the-list releases have been spotlighted during 2010 in the “Under-the-Radar DVD Release of the Week.”

This week, here are 10 of the oddest of the odd DVD releases from the past year:

“I Bought a Vampire Motorcycle”

This 1990 low-budget British horror spoof plays like an unlikely mash-up of conventions from pulpy horror movies and “Popular Mechanics” magazine.

“Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead”

This spicy bit of lunacy describes what happens when a fast-food chicken franchise is built on a sacred American Indian burial site that is rife with restless spirits. The result: zombie chickens!

“Dirt! The Movie”

Dirt is not dirty, declare the makers of this light-hearted yet serious-minded documentary that examines the “skin of the earth” and the “ground beneath our feet.”

“This Is Primal Rap”

Crank the amps up to 11 and brace yourself for some hip-hop hijinks in this lively mockumentary that hopes to do for rap music what Rob Reiner’s landmark 1984 comedy, “This Is Spinal Tap,” did for heavy mental rock.

“Goatsucker”

Joining a rogue’s gallery of mystery monsters that supposedly stalk the wild nether regions (count Bigfoot or Sasquatch, Yeti or the Abominable Snowman and the Loch Ness Monster among them) is a mysterious creature called Chupacabra. The name translates into English as “goat sucker,” and it’s described in folklore as a nocturnal, reptilian predator that leaps upon and sucks the blood of livestock, especially goats.