Headless

I write this review as a horror fan, seeking to inform other horror fans of what to expect with this film.

I'll be brief: like so many others here, I am drawn to extreme cinema, with visceral, shocking sequences of gore and violence. Honestly, I'm even down for cheesy, B-Movie style special effects. I love practical special effects, I love slashers, I love horror, and I love films that seek to push the limits. Naturally, Headless made its way onto my radar by seemingly checking all of these boxes. Like others, I had heard a lot of hype about this film, and was very excited to get my hands on it. (Minor spoilers ahead)

First the positive: The first 10ish minutes of this film are truly shocking and captivating moments of violent cinema. There are some unforgettable images in there, such as the killer sitting underneath the blood pouring from a body above him, the removal and eating of eyes, the infamous "head-hump", etc. The grain-y, 70s film visuals really work here, and the vibe is chilling and effective. A grim, fantastic start.

Now the bad: Not only does the film go absolutely nowhere here, but it's shown you most of its tricks and surprises right out of the gate. There's more eye-eating, more decapitation, more severed-head-copulation, but its nowhere near as effective as the first sequence. The directing gets really questionable here too, especially during kill scenes (disorienting is one thing...sloppy is another entirely). There's a backstory, but its pretty boring and predictable. There are other characters, but the cheesy acting and dialogue rarely comes off as funny/charming, and is almost always forgettable. It becomes clear almost immediately that this idea cannot sustain a full film. And yet here we are.

At the end of the day, this film's cardinal sin is simple: it's boring. Despite all of the gore and torture, this film will really struggle to capture your attention, and for a film like this, that's really not a good sign. It just goes to show that there needs to be SOMETHING more in order for a film to be truly shocking, sick and scary, and that "something" is not recycling the same 5 special effects tricks over and over.

The first 10 minutes are worth your time. After that, switch to something else. Truly wasted potential.

I don't get the hype that some people write about. The movie is average and somewhat boring. The acting and dialogue (for what there is) are not so good. The story is also dull and gets repetitive. But, there are also some good things to say. Practical fx are on point and the music is well done.

Indeed a movie for real lovers of the genre, but it isn't groundbreaking.

From the director of Found (2012), a great piece of horror cinema that explored relations between an elder brother (murderer) and younger sibling, comes this train wreck.

I had high expectations for this film, as I loved the brutality met with character relationships and development that was found. However, this film fell short, very very short, of my expectations.

This film lacked any significant plot or conflict, and instead depicted simple blood and gore tactics; something that's been done a million times before. So if your looking for another run of the mill gore plotless horror film; this should hit the spot. If not, I'd advise moving your attention to Found and stopping it there.

Follow up.. Even the murder methods and gore scenes in this film were repeats of Found's "Headless" movie depiction. We get it, guy likes to eat eyeballs that go squish, and explore severed heads with his eggplant.

3/10 no effort film, bad acting, recycled gore.

This is the type of film which lends itself to a bullet point review:

1. "Found" as a film was a solid offering with a pretty decent backstory and it led to some unrealistic expectations of "Headless".

2. The first ten mins both identified potential, which was unfortunately not build upon, and demonstrated how long and boring a "one trick pony" film can become.

3. Visual effects was a hit and miss. Some of it was really good (eg deep stab wounds) and some really bad (eg those "money shot" eye popping scenes) 4. Cinematography was often disastrous, especially in as far as angles were concerned. The 70s effects / found footage elements were decent.

5. Acting, in general, was terrible and the dialogue on par with an average porn film.

7. Some of the most extreme aspects of the film happened off camera which somewhat detracted from the entire extreme cinema intention.

8. The total absence of suspense in a slasher film just made it feel long and boring.

9. The score was actually decent but in consequence of the paperthin script, rigid acting and dodgy cinematography, it stood no chance of creating any atmosphere in vacua.

10. Direction was all over the place, but I must admit that the script did not really create opportunities.

Two stars only for two reasons: Some of the gore effects are alright, and the first victim and Jess look hot. Everything else in this movie was terrible. I actually really enjoyed Found, because Found has a message it's trying to send out, and the plot really wasn't that bad. This in other hand was nearly plotless.

The plot makes no logic. A mother and her daughter are torturing her child son, because she deemed him as evil, and cuz her husband left him??? That makes zero logic, and then the sister wants to have intercourse with her brother, and she lets him go? The same man she pissed on, and tortured him with her mom, she lets him go?? Of course he is going to kill you, where's your logic?

Then the screaming, we get constant scenes of the killer just screaming for no reason, and i had to turn the volume down to nothing, and he still yells like a infant. In this movie you'll see eyeballs being pulled out, about 5 times! You know instead of having 5 average eyeball scenes, why not focus and make one good eyeball scene that looks realistic like in Guinea Pig, that eyeball scene was actually terrifying, or Mai Chan Daily Life eyeball scene.

Lets talk about our victims? None of them have any depth, and none of them have any personality. All of them are there for the sake of being there, and none of them seem to care. They are forced into this movie.

What made Headless a sinister good watch in Found, is it was made as a Snuff Film, it was similar to Guinea Pig, Grotesque and The Butcher, here we got a slasher gore nonsense boredom fest. Hey if you are one of the people that likes crap like The Collector and Crazy Murder and slashers in general, this is for you. As for me, no. Really i just wasted my time with this.