Headless (2015)

I am very excited to to finally watch "Headless!" Early last year I finally got my hands on a movie called "Found." This is an indie movie that was making a splash in the Film Festival circuit. I had heard that it was a very surprising movie in that it was a coming of age movie, with some extreme horror sprinkled in for a unique overall movie. I watched "Found" and really enjoyed it. Within the movie "Found" the characters watch a movie called "Headless." The filmakers of "Found" decided through popular demand to bring "Headless" to life. They did this through Kickstarter and they were able to make this movie. I must say that this movie was exactly what I had hoped for and more!

Here is the IMDB synopsis: "In this "lost slasher film from 1978," a masked killer wages an unrelenting spree of murder, cannibalism, and necrophilia. But when his tortured past comes back to haunt him, he plunges to even greater depths of madness and depravity, consuming the lives of a young woman and those she holds dear."

The Grade: B+ (Very good grindhouse style throwback movie with some flaws)

The Good:

Grindhouse! Yes folks this is a throwback to the 70's grindhouse style movies! For those that do not know, Grindhouse is a term related to theaters in the 60's and 70's that showed exploitation films mainly. These are ultraviolent, low budget, no holds barred films. I love grindhouse movies! I frequent a local theater that shows old grindhouse movies all the time. The way the filmmakers were able to capture that style today was impressive as I watched. They added grainy effects to the film. They had a crazy funny faux trailor before the movie started. It was just so fun to watch because of this style, and I truly believe that's the only way to make this movie work! You have to understand that in grindhouse movies you usually get the following: bad acting, lots of violence and gore, nudity, characters that are really just "characters" and really just all around "schlocky" fun. This is what adds a certain "charm" to these movies. You can't mark them down for this. I loved the dream sequences and the score of the movie. The score really reminded me of movies such as the original "Halloween." Simple piano music tones, and at times an almost operatic style of score. I really enjoyed that the movie shows you why the killer is doing what he does. They give you a very trackable psychology that works! The gore, if you like such things was mostly pretty amazing with no CGI that I could detect. Yep all practical effects, thank you so much for that! Also liked some of the settings like a roller disco, and the isolated woods. All said and done, this movie matched the style it was going for perfectly!

The Bad:

While I can forgive many things in a grindhouse film, this movie is not without it's flaws. The gore effects were spectacular most of the time. However there are times when severed heads etc just come off too "rubbery." Perhaps my chief complaint would be that when the killer would "attack" his victims, it never quite hit. What I mean by this is that he would strike at them rush style. However, the initial attack was lacking in execution. You could see that he wasn't really hitting them and it kind of came off a bit like what you'd see in WWE Wrestling or something. This happened a handful of times, and it somewhat took me out of the film. However, the other violence which was extreme and morbid, was done very well!

The Ugly:

Lets talk about an ugly term: "Mysogyny." The horror genre gets accused of mysogyny all the time. This movie is particularly mysogynistic. HOWEVER! I believe that the story gives us more than enough evidence of why this killer would hate women. Like I said previously, the movie actually gives you a very trackable psychology for the killer. This is not a mysogynist movie, but rather a tale about someone driven to such hatred. Also notable for this section, is eating and popping eyeballs is gross! Don't eat during this movie! Seriously though, if you are not a fan of gore then this movie is not for you! It's extreme and it's deliberate. I for one can handle it and respect it when done right.

In Conclusion:

This movie was a great time! You just have to turn your brain off and enjoy all of it's cheesy, bloody, gory, sadistic, crazy as hell, fun! It's supposed to be dated. It's supposed to have gritty film, and bad acting etc! It's charming! I highly enjoyed this movie! I will be showing it to my "Horror Movie Club" on Meetup.com. They will get a kick out of this! I bought this on blu-ray signed by the filmakers and I couldn't be more delighted to add it to my collection. Thank you to the filmakers for making such a fucked up movie and not being afraid to go all the way with it!

#Extreme #Gore #Slasher #Indie