BAGHEAD

BAGHEAD is a low-budget horror comedy. Rated R for its strong foul language and brief nudity rather than its violence, the movie is somewhat experimental in its comic tone, so it may not attract modern-day horror fanatics, especially those who love to wallow in gore and blood.

The story opens at the showing of an independent movie being watched by two couples. In the last scene of the movie, a man gets totally naked for the girl he loves, who takes off her top.

The four people watching the movie, all of who are struggling actors, are inspired by what they saw. Matt, the handsome leader of the group, convinces his best friend Chad, Catherine and Michelle to go up to his parents’ isolated cabin in the mountains outside Los Angeles, where they will write a script for a movie where they all can star.

At the cabin, it becomes obvious that these actors are not writers. In fact, only Matt seems to be inspired about the project. Complicating matters is the fact that Chad likes Michelle, but Michelle likes Matt, and Catherine wants to get back together with Matt, but Matt considers their old relationship to be over.

That night, Michelle gets sick outside the cabin after drinking too much, then dreams she saw a man with a bag over his head lurking outside. Or was it really a dream? Matt thinks that this is what their script should be about, a man with a bag over his head who terrifies four people in a cabin.

That night, Michelle is actually visited in her room by a man with a bag over his head. She thinks it’s Matt trying to play a joke on her. So, she takes off her top, but the man leaves the room.

Downstairs, Michelle accuses Catherine of playing this prank on her, but Catherine denies it. The next morning, Catherine disappears and so does Chad. And, the battery goes missing from Matt’s car, their only transportation back to civilization.

Is someone really stalking these four actors, or is this just a series of elaborate pranks in danger of going wrong?

This story takes a while to lift off, but it offers some surprises once it gets going. And, the last couple scenes are surprisingly touching. The editing, photography and camerawork are decidedly low budget, however.

BAGHEAD veers from comic horror to scary horror, but there’s not much actual violence in the movie. In fact, there is no gore and only a very little bit of blood. Thus, the filmmakers rely more on potential violence to generate the movie’s thrills, which include comic thrills, scary thrills and suspenseful thrills. Its not the scary moments nor the violence, therefore, that make the movie’s content excessive, it’s the full male nudity in the shot from the movie within the movie at the beginning, the shots of upper female nudity in two scenes and the strong foul language throughout the dialogue.