Premonición

"Premonition" (aka "Head") is a living proof that you don't need much to make a decent horror film with a limited budget as long as you know what you're doing and you know how to built suspense and thrills without overcomplicating with your story. What appealed to me the most in this film was that it was a compelling drama with glances of horror rather than creatures/gore shocker show common in the 1970's. Disciple of one of the godfathers of the Independent Cinema, the late Robert Altman, the undervalued Alan Rudolph started his director career with this film which is far from everything he would make in the years to come (examples: the unconventional romcom "Choose Me; "Mortal Thoughts" (1991) and "Afterglow").

Anyway, to the heart of the matter. It tells the story of three musician friends who start to have recurring dreams that predict their deaths, and the probably cause in at least two of the guys is that they made some experimentations with a drug plant found by one of them during a mysterious expedition on an indigenous territory. The leader of the group desperately tries to make them stay sober and focus on their music but getting rid off of those images won't be that easy.

"Head" (as I prefer to call it) is a concrete drama about addiction and how it affects not only the addicted person but everyone around him. I think the horror, represented in the fuzzy, noisy and scary images of a group of small women slaying the men, is just a way to approach viewers from such a story. You care about the characters and what they go through, it looks real and not some imaginative and complex monstrosity. Rudolph doesn't need much to haunt you, sure it has that 1970's B horror movie kind of feel, stiff acting but there's some strong effects as well - the use of sound itself in the dreams and the expedition sequences are terrifying. I liked Carl Crow's performance as the main character, he was the most convincing on scene, and sad to know that it was his last performance - no much information about what happened to him except that he died at a young age.

There's plenty of things to be learned with this film, film students pay attention to it. It's conciseness is very hard to be found these days. The version available comes from a poor VHS version but manageable to watch nonetheless. 7/10

I know that Alan Rudolph disowns his first two low-budget horror movies "Premonition" and "Barn of the Naked Dead",but the premise of "Premonition" is certainly fresh and interesting.Red flowers cause three hippie musicians to have premonitions when they see their own deaths.They then start dying in the manner of their earlier premonitions.Virtually forgotten "Premonition" offers some eerie hallucinations and visions.The storyline is often disjointed and the hippie culture of early 70's is well-captured.Very eerie electro score is another highlight of trippy "Premonition".So if you enjoyed "Barn of the Naked Dead" like I did don't hesitate to check out Alan Rudolph's psychedelic debut.7 red flowers out of 10.

A sidestepped horror film mostly noted as an early effort from Alan Rudolph, PREMONITION is a hazy, mystical horror outing which involves a hippie music group taking residence in the pastoral outlands of the San Francisco Bay Area. Various interpersonal hostilities are vented, and numerous doobies passed around before they begin experiencing collective nightmares/hallucinations of impending doom. It's implied that this is a paranormal brain response triggered by exposure to strange red wildflowers, though there may be some nebulous connection to a malformed skeleton unearthed by one of the band members during an archaeological excavation some years earlier.

PREMONITION is a distinctly early-70s product, alight with post-psychedelic artistic pushiness and intermittent brushes of electronic music by pre-famed Harold Budd. It's an ambling, occasionally intriguing work of psychotomimetic vagary, and probably too experimental and ambiguous for mainstream audience appreciation. While the film has definite handicaps, primarily with pacing and concatenation, it does possess a gauzy "will-o'-the-wisp" eeriness which is unique and variably effective.

Possibly the most tranquil horror film you'll ever see...it's a peculiar one, to be sure. 4.5/10

I found a VHS copy of this film for the equivalent of 50c when I was a kid at a junk sale with the title "Tales of Terror - The Impure - Wild Rider" and it became a mystery to be unravelled for this particular small town boy from England. It seemed so strange and other-worldy. The film itself is a hippie-fied self indulgent psychedelic mess but is entertaining all the same, especialy the freak out festival scene. This got played in the background at more than a few parties of my youth. I always wondered who would make and appear in such a film and now thanks to imdb I know. It was sad to hear Carl Crow drowned in 1978.But I'm interested to find out more about what the rest of the cast went on to. Be warned the electronic music which starts up when the deadly flower comes into view and that accompanies a lot of the dream sequences is very annoying to 21st century ears. That said your chances of finding a copy of this film and seeing it or of reading this review are pretty slim.

Was slow---the horror part was dead--however there were positive aspects: i liked the settings, the houses, the green hillside where the concert took place, the characters (they had a cool way of behaving and talking and conveyed intelligence). The characters were truly "mellow." Also the music was high quality.