EIGHT HEADS IN A DUFFEL BAG

What can keep your stomach turned and your eyes shut in disgust for 90 minutes? EIGHT HEADS IN A DUFFLE BAG. A one-joke sick movie, it constantly offends with actual depiction’s of severed heads and a brutal and profane villain protagonist, named Tommy, played by Joe Pesci, who gets away with murder.

Tommy has been told to deliver 8 heads in a duffel bag, the proof of a hit, to San Diego. On the flight, Tommy sits next to a college student named Charlie, played by newcomer Andy Comeau. Charlie innocently is going on vacation to meet his girlfriend, Amy (Kristy Swanson), and her parents, Dick and Bear (George Hamilton and Dyan Cannon). Charlie has a duffel bag that looks identical to Tommy’s. In San Diego, Tommy takes Charlie’s bag, and in Mexico, Charlie takes Tommy’s bag.

Charlie is worried about meeting Amy’s parents because he already feels that they don’t like him because he doesn’t know which career direction he is going to pursue. In Mexico, his fears are realized. They don’t like him, and when Bear looks into Charlie’s duffel bag, she sees the heads and becomes convinced that he is a killer. She flips out, and the motel staff give her a sedative. Charlie soon discovers his gory luggage, and he and Amy try to devise a plan to get rid of the heads. Meanwhile, Tommy goes to Charlie’s college and forces Charlie’s roommates to locate him. Charlie is located, but through mishaps including a dog and a laundry lady, some of the heads end up missing. Tommy gets upset at this, knowing he must deliver eight heads, and so he and the roommates go to a cryogenics lab to get more heads.

In Mexico, a head is discovered, and Dick is arrested and allegedly tortured and condemned to death for murder. Through quick thinking, Charlie now must deliver the remaining heads to Tommy and rescue Dick from being killed.

This movie is so tasteless and sick that it is difficult to mention any positive production qualities. All acting is merely perfunctory and besides the subject matter, the one joke is carried on ad nausea. This premise might be slightly tolerable in a 5 minute sketch without showing the heads, but after the initial shock of the set up, which is tastefully photographed and told, the movie quickly becomes tiresome and weary with many depictions of the heads including blood, eyes and tongues.

Many years ago, this reviewer walked out of the theater while watching the movie HEATHERS. The subject matter was a candid look at suicide. It was a terrible theme, but I was morally troubled at the audience reaction. People cheered when a person committed suicide, and that made me want to leave the theater. I wanted to leave EIGHT HEADS IN A DUFFEL BAG because many people were laughing when heads rolled around in a washing machine, or when they rolled around the floor. This movie had complete disregard for the body parts. In once scene, Tommy brutally kicks a bag containing human organs carried by a medic. In another scene, Tommy throws a woman out of a moving car over a cliff. Both these scenes are played for laughs, but they weren’t funny. Finally, in the end, though Tommy didn’t personally kill any of the people whose heads he carries, he does function as a representative of someone who did, and Tommy gets away with murder. It is possible that the same crowd who like HEATHERS may like this film, but since most Americans like moral movies, this movie will be dead at the box office.