Baghead

Ok first some praise: Freya Allan is a talented young actress. Unfortunately she's the only good thing in the movie.

I love a good horror film in fact I love plenty of horror films that many people consider bad but sadly this won was below the level of quality to even be entertaining.

It's a shame because the concept itself could have been interesting. Having the ability to bring someone back from the dead but only for a brief time is a good idea and could have been used to great effect Especially if the downside of this lead to being haunted by a Grudge style entity etc.

The plot just wastes its own concept with one boring character and very few different people are even brought back from the dead at all. What we get are endless repetitive scenes of the shapeshifter jumping out with a loud noise.

The best friend is a pointless tedious character that serves no purpose at all.

I guess the first 20 minutes were reasonable but after that it runs out of steam and never provides even one genuinely scary moment.

Well, the premise certainly is original, there's a seriously creepy atmosphere, the colossal ancient building and the cellar give an almost gothic feel, and Freya Allan and Jeremy Irvine both do a fine job. And the CGI of the bag-person (witch or demon or whatever) in her various horrifying appearances is very well done. But I had also some reservations. The sound-bursts to accompany the intended jump scares were almost deafening, I left the cinema with my ears popping. And at times the logic behind the use of the bag-headed lady eluded me, like the two-minute rule that constantly got violated without immediate consequences, or the strict rule never to enter the hole in the brick wall, but Iris did so unharmed. Or why couldn't she simply sell the house so that the curse would fall on a new owner, surely real estate investors would have jumped on the occasion!

Resuming: not bad at all, but with some flaws.

Ok maybe i'm way off on this one. But i went into this movie blind and knowing absolutely nothing about it, and came out liking it more than the people who took me to see it and were looking forward to it.

I mean its not a perfect movie, and it did have a couple of lame familiar moments. But overall it tried it hardest to be different and avoid the same old thing we've seen time and again. It had a decent plot with a couple of twists, and good acting. But is a mild horror really. So won't keep all fans of the genre happy.

Its a strange one as there's nothing terribly old but nothing amazingly new in the movie. But i'd say its worth a one of watch. Even if my friends would say it isn't.

Giving this an 7/10 rating

Clever and grim, horror film is set in just one location, a very slim cast and this means getting to the point with no messing about. A college drop out has to take over a ancient pub from her father who has died, but the pub has a secret with it, and evil with it.

Like 'Night Swim', this is based on a short movie. Guess this a real trend now, which is fine, so long as they are good. It's very fast and simply done, with good production design that you have to pay close attention too.

The cast of Freya Allan, Ruby Barker, Jeremy Irvine and the great Peter Mullan and Saffron Burrows are tormented good, Anne Muller is excellent as the 'Baghead' in question. Humans are shown as real scumbags as they all are in this, and this is important for the narrative.

Never thought Peter Mulanwould do a horror film, but he is very good in this, plays with his role with the authority he needs, look forward to more from Freya Allan, she displays proper emotion, given the role she must work in, A simple enough horror film, it's fine film fun, but really scary all out.

To get this out of the way... there are obvious parallels between this film and Talk to Me that are going to be drawn, but to be fair I think we have to keep in mind that they came out less than nine months apart from each other on opposite sides of the world... so the likelihood of one being influenced by the other is slim to none.

I seem to be far more impressed and entertained by this movie than the majority of the reviews thus far. I am also quite biased to a sub genre of Gothic horror and anything magic. I thought the concept here was really intriguing, entertaining and exciting. They also melded said concept into a storyline that made sense and was cohesive.

While the movie as a whole wasn't particularly scary, there was definitely something to be said for the consistent feeling of dread it cultivated. I also thought this was quite successful aesthetically. Again, while not particularly scary it was most definitely creepy and I think the main players in that were the way the sets were, its general atmospheric nature, and while simple, I also quite liked the look of the witch. The acting was also quite solid from the whole cast. Nothing extraordinary but no one stuck out negatively to me.

I did start to get somewhat of a silly/hokey vibe around what felt like the beginning of the third act, but that seemed to fade away towards the end. I found the ending, if not semi predictable, still clever and satisfying. If anything, I would've just loved a little bit more to the lore. There were definitely some loose ends that I would have loved a little more elaboration on.

I have been anticipating this release for quite a few months and was personally not disappointed. For most, this may land closer to a 6... however due to my prior proclivities I am going with a 6.5 rounding up to a 7. Would recommend.