Review: ‘Baghead’ LAFF 08

‘Baghead’ gets a little meta right from the start; after our formal introduction to it by our festival announcer and the film’s directors last night, the movie itself began with the same scene. The difference being the film screened at the beginning of “Baghead’ is a little black and white art film called ‘We Are Naked’. Viewing it are a group of four struggling actor friends, Matt, Chad, Michelle and Catherine. 3 of them see this bloated piece of pretension for what it is, but Matt, the group’s inspired leader, sees a chance for something more for themselves right there in the grainy flickering footage of a man pulling his pants down. Within a matter of hours, the group is heading off to Big Bear, California to put together a film of their own, one they hope will finally separate them from the endless sea of extras filling the backgrounds of every film they work on. Things start to go downhill as the group’s sexual dynamics cause some serious tension between them, and that’s well before the appearance of a mysterious figure in the woods with a bag over his face and his intentions unknown.

‘Baghead’ is the second film from Jay and Mark Duplas, who got their start with some very low budget short films at Sundance (redefining cheap at a budget of 3 dollars for the first short), along with their first feature ‘The Puffy Chair’. Baghead sees a return to their quasi-documentary, Casavettes-ish aesthetic as the film follows its characters in a no-frills filming style that not only keeps the attention focused on the performances, it offers a pared-down alternative to the overly-flashy sheen of most recent horror films. Here we have a film where the filmmakers have lit everything from 360 degrees for the freedom to shoot their actors interacting unhindered by set issues, a film where the villain’s look must have cost someone a whole 39 cents, a film with one hand in the slasher genre that dares to not offer its viewer one iota of the usual gore and guts and yet still managed to scare the shit out of its audience last night on a couple of occasions more than anything I’ve screened in recent memory.

The film’s strength rides on the Duplas Brothers’ intent to create characters you can care about, without that being the usual lip service. The care in orchestrating the groups’ fears, desires and personalities is so well maintained, that the fact that we are expecting the eventual arrival of the titular character almost becomes moot for awhile. When it does come, it’s that much stronger for what’s been laid out before. We have become comfortable with these people, so that we are no longer anticipating violence upon them. They’re not the disposable teens of so many b-movies, ready fodder for an audience’s blood lust. All the more shocking then when Baghead finally makes his move, and shatters our comfort with all the real world dread of watching something horrible happen to someone you care about. ‘Baghead’ may not find an audience with the current fans of heavy blood-flow films like Saw or its ilk, but those who appreciate a return to the days of good old fashioned, genuine creepiness will appreciate not only the way in which the film’s scares are orchestrated but perhaps the fact that the film makers cared enough to not abandon their characters on the kill room floor like so many others, but instead opted to give them the dignity of real people to the very last frame.

[rating: 4/5]