Baghead Reviews

(MU) De lo mejor del 'mumblecore' porque no es mumble a secas: hay comedia y horror, y ars fílmica indergroud porque uno de ellos es realidad estaba haciendo una película. Trivial y redonda.

A weaker effort from the Duplass brothers but entertaining and the ending makes up for the slow pace of the rest of the movie

Lately, I’ve been trying to avoid mainstream horror films, and instead go for the obscure and unknown. The longer Hollywood continues to produce the same old formulaic material, filled with washed up, overused devices, the more I’ll make attempts to stray away from them. I have given many of last decade’s films chances, and some surprised me to the extent of actually crowning them as a personal favorite. Those are few and far between, however, and I just can’t wait until the day when original becomes a factor in the horror department again. You all know the clichés, the predictable scares, and the pure stupidity that are implemented in almost all of them, so complaining about that would just become tiresome, in fact it’s already grown very old after seeing it so often, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to know what I’m talking about.

“Baghead” is a film in which I don’t think anyone’s ever heard of, with the exception of those who search out such obscure flicks obsessively, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, especially when you happen to run into something that’s actually worthwhile. I found “Baghead” recommended on a website when looking around the web for films similar to “Funny Games”. I’m a lover of the naturally thrilling films, opposed to the supernatural. I really enjoyed the re-make of Funny Games made in 2007, so I decided to check out some other “Killer’s on the hunt” type of films, especially those involving a desolate house, or a groups of friends running into chaos with unhappy residents in an unknown town. An example of a well executed film like that would be “The Hills Have Eyes”. When I saw that Baghead wasn’t rated too poorly on IMDb, (5.9) I decided “Oh, what the heck” and gave it a whirl.

The beginning of the film shows an audience viewing a homemade movie made for a film festival. The director’s name is Jett Garner, played by an actor I’ve never seen before. He graciously walks to center stage, takes some questions about his work, and then the four main characters are shown glazing up at him. Two of the aforementioned actors I had seen in films prior to this one, but mainly the cast is completely unknown, which just happens to be a good thing, for me. They’re all close friends, three of them in which have been in a love triangle for quite some time. That leaves one outcasted guy attempting to have a good time whilst being the only person with no love interest. He is also crushing on one of the girls throughout the film. After the flick concludes, the group of friends attempt to enter a V.I.P type of party packed with “important” people, including one Jett Garner. Needles to say, they aren’t omitted in. They decide to have some drinks at a local restaurant, and begin discussing a script to write for a low budget film. They head up to an isolated cabin with a few rooms and start brainstorming.

"Baghead" is filmed in a similar fashion to that of "Cloverfield" or "Rec." Handheld, rapidly moving around and at times difficult to keep track of. A lot of viewers don't like that, I happen to think it adds more realism and tension. The plot devices aren't completely original. I mean, a desolate cabin? but from there it really gets smart, and starts to unravel as a more sophisticated film than your run-of-the-mill stuff. Each and every character is completely real, smart, and almost frighteningly believable. Low-budget flicks usually lack that, so it came as a positive surprise. Eventually, they decide to create a picture about a psychotic killer disguised with a bag over his face, hence the title. At first, this is a horror film. The director's at the helm; The Duplass brothers, really do a great job at portraying that, as if it really is just a straight-forward horror. I gained a lot of respect for them as the film progressed, because they manage to keep the audience enthralled even when not a lot is happening, then completely throw us off with what happens thereafter. I'd say about thirty percent of the viewers will turn this movie off after the first 20 minutes, due to the fact that it takes time to build up. More experienced viewers will enjoy the quirky, fun-loving characters that just happen to drive this film home. I'll admit that I jumped a few times during this, as there are a decent amount of scares.

Those of you looking for a cliched, by the books slasher shouldn't even consider seeing this. "Baghead" is a notch smarter than most, and should come as a surprise to those who give it a chance.

7.4/10