Baghead review.
Shudder’s latest offering has an intriguing premise and decent build. It goes off the rails a bit in the end…and not in the fun way.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
Baghead
Directed by Alberto Corredor
Screenplay by Christina Pamies and Bryce McGuire
Starring Freya Allan, Jeremy Irvine, Ruby Barker, Peter Mullan, Anne Müller, Svenja Jung, Ned Dennehy and Saffron Burrows
Baghead Review
Baghead is the kind of movie that you watch and think “oh…this is going to get good”. It never really does. That’s not to say that it’s a bad movie. It offers an interesting concept and a strong antagonist. It even manages to deliver a good final image to close out the story. What weighs it all down is a lack of emotional connection to its characters and a messy third act leading to that finale.
In 2017, director Alberto Corredor made a short film called Baghead. It involved a grieving man who meets the titular Baghead who could channel the deceased. Corredor returns to helm this feature length expansion of the story. I haven’t seen the original short…but I suspect is plays better in that format. While Baghead could surely work as a feature…this attempt at doing so fails to flesh out much of the world it is intent on expanding. It’s a narrow story full of warnings and surface level attempts to expand lore and deepen characters. But the core concept is very strong. That, I suspect, is why the 2017 short was so successful.
Iris (Freya Allan) inherits an old pub after her estranged father dies. Instead of selling…she feels compelled to take ownership of the property. She isn’t aware of what she is signing her name to. The basement of the pub has a secret…one that Iris is now attached to. A creature with a sack over their face that can channel the dead for a short time. Despite ample warnings, Iris decides to use Baghead to make money…unaware that the cost is higher than she thinks.
The first thing to know about Baghead is that Iris makes some incredibly bad decisions. If watching characters act very stupidly in horror movies is a turn off for you…that’s what makes up most of Baghead. Now…there is a catch to that statement. The movie knows that Iris is acting foolishly. It isn’t a flaw in the script…it’s something that happens for a reason. You won’t know that until 90 often infuriating minutes of the movie go by…but the story has a clever design it can’t reveal playing out behind the curtains.
What ails the first two acts of Baghead most is a failure to make the characters interesting enough to get to the fun stuff. Iris has a backstory with her father that the movie brings up repeatedly. It rarely works. Aside from one seen where she talks with her dead father…it feels like its missing an emotional connection between them…and therefore the viewers. The storyline makes sense…you just can’t feel it. Same can be said for Neil (Jeremy Irvine) …a patron of Baghead’s services who seemingly exists just to introduce Iris (and us) to the lore of the world. His story evolves over time…but never deepens to the point of offering that needed connection.
Neil’s story also becomes a problem in the messy third act. It unravels in some unexpected ways…but it does so too rapidly to, again, connect to it. Everything about his story feels perfunctory. It moves the plot in the directions it needs to…even if that means a jarring turn here and there. It’s all done in service of Baghead’s grand design…which leaves us in an inevitable place of understanding. That’s the good news. Enjoying, however, is a different story.
Baghead could have worked wonderfully with the bones that it is built upon and the ending it is building too. It would have required a better pass at character development and a reworking of the B-plots. Iris’s friend Katie (Ruby Barker) is along for the journey and her story is another surface level reason to get from point A to point B. She’s there to tell Iris this is a bad idea. Eventually she gets something to do in the form of a light investigation. That too is shelved in service of reaching her point B. Another frustrating plotline that works better in retrospect after the film ends…but is difficult to enjoy while watching.
Those are the negatives. Baghead does have some positives. It’s a new entry in the budding “inheritance horror” subgenre. It joins The Tank and Unwelcome as recent stories about inheriting a curse. Movies where the main characters didn’t do anything wrong…and end up screwed anyway. There is also a slew of unheeded warnings for fans of those tropes. Don’t use the creature for more than two minutes. Don’t let it leave the basement. Never enter that hole in the wall. Using Baghead will allow it to get in your head. In fact, not using it is the only way to survive. Whenever there are rules…you can be certain they will be broken. As mentioned, the story has an explanation as to why this time.
Baghead starts out with a hot opening. Literally. We see how Iris’s father dies. In a fire of his own making…an attempt to free himself from this curse. We learn Baghead obeys the rightful owner of the pub. Now that Iris owns it…she’s in control. At least, she’s warned, for a time. The creature itself is the highlight of the movie. It’s unique and creepy and mean spirited. It uses its powers in some interesting ways that are entertaining. Bahead’s story is the best written, most competently plotted in the story. I guess that’s why it’s the titular character.
Scare Value
In the end, Baghead is an interesting story that fails to deliver enough of a connection to its character to have an impact. There’s a great idea behind it…which leads to a strong ending. The road there, however, becomes too bumpy to enjoy during the third act. It does create a unique monster to play with…and all the unheeded warnings you could ever want. Worth a look.
2.5/5
Baghead Link
Streaming on Shudder
