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Headless
USA 2015
produced by
Kara Erdel, Scott Schirmer, Timothy J. Bowen (executive), Nick DeCarlo (executive), Purple Rae Sheldon (executive), Jason West (executive), Shane Beasley (associate), Nathan Erdel (associate), Christina Land (associate), Sam Sturgeon (associate), Leya Taylor (associate) for Forbidden Films, Gentleman Monster Productions
directed by Arthur Cullipher
starring Shane Beasley, Kelsey Carlisle, Ellie Church, Dave Parker, Kalden Miller, Jennifer Lee, Haley Madison, Brian Williams, Matt Keeley, Emily Solt McGee, Jessica Schroeder, Olivia Arnold, Nathan Erdel, Ben Monticue, Mike Anderson, Angela Denton, Brigid Macaulay, Bob Conley; Wolf Baby-trailer: Kelsey Carlisle, Shane Beasley, Mike Wats, Warner Costley
screenplay by Nathan Erdel, based on characters and situations created by Todd Rigney, music by Mike Anderson, James Nash, Arthur Cullipher, songs by Sweet Teeth, Andy D, special makeup effects by Clockwerk Creature Company, cinematography by Leya Taylor, edited by Arthur Cullipher, Scott Schirmer
review by
Mike Haberfelner
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Skull Man (Shane Beasley), as I'd like to call the killer of this movie
in lack of a better name, had a truly miseralbe childhood: His mother
(Emily Solt McGee) and sister (Olivia Arnold as a child, Jessica Schroeder
as a teenager) treated him (Kaden Miller as a child, Matt Keeley as a
teenager) like pure shit, just because he was mentally challenged, and
they even keep him in a cage - no wonder he eventually snaps ... Now (in
this movie 1978), Skull Man waits in the shadows, alwas more than eager to
get his hands on lovely girls by whatever means necessary to drag them
home, decapitate them and have sex with their skulls. Jess (Kelsey
Carlisle) is torn between everything these days: At one hand she's madly
in love with Pete (Dave Parker), on the other hand he's a musician so she
pays for all their bills, on one hand she doesn't like him getting stoned
all the time, on the other she never says no to a good smoke, on one hand
she hates her job at the roller rink she works at (and especially her
sleazy boss [Brian Williams]), on the other hand she's proud to have a job
and thinks her boyfriend should have one too, and at one hand she listens
to everything her colleague (Ellie Church) tells her about relationships
... but on the other hand, her colleague screws their sleazy boss. Eventually,
these two worlds collide ... Headless has a rather
original origin: It started its cinematic life as snippets within the film
Found, as an extreme slasher movie
from 1978 ... and somehow the ball was picked up from there, with Headless
indeed being an extreme slasher movie like it might have looked like back
in the late 1970's, with an emphasis on crude violence and very visceral
(and very practical) gore effects, simplified psychological backdrops,
nude scenes every now and again, and a predilection for the grotesque
rather than too stylish violence. And frankly, all of this is an
experiment in today's world of horror - but in the case of Headless,
it works out, as it relies on a story that might be simplistic enough to
fulfill genre expectations but tells an interesting enough story all the
same, it pays tribute to its era rather subtly, without falling back on
garish costumes and wigs, stays away from being in-your-face ironic, and
is actually rather well-acted. You might still want to be a fan of 1970s
horror to 100% appreciate every aspect fo this one, but even today's
horror fans and gorehounds will find at least something likeable about
this ...
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