Review of Baghead (2008) by Tammy G — 21 Jul 2009

This movie has some problems that you don?t exactly realize until the film?s conclusion. Unlike a film like ?Spider-Man 3? where you at the exact moment of the problem you know what it is that sucks.

?Baghead? is going to a little difficult for me to review. I will have to break my personal problems with the film up into sections so this review doesn?t feel all over the place at once. But knowing what this movie gives me to work with, this review will most likely come off as just that.

Just listen to the plot. Four beginning filmmakers (Matt, Chad, Michelle, and Catherine) decide to head out into someone?s uncle?s cabin and write a film in a weekend. They all realize that it will not be as easy as they had thought and hoped and just laze around on the first night. Then Michelle thinks she has a dream in which she runs outside to puke (why not just use to toilet) and sees someone with a bag over his or her head walking through the woods. She wakes up in the morning to tell the group and they turn it into a plot for their movie. But as more and more strange accounts occur with seeing this person with a bag on his or her head, they all start to freak out.

I want to take a moment to go through the characters one by one. Matt (Ross Partridge) is the ?cool? guy. No real depth comes to this character even though he is believable as a person. I never really liked or disliked him. To me he was just there. Then there is Chad (Steve Zissis). I thought he was a good guy and all, but he did come off as annoying sometimes. Very annoying. Also there is Michelle (Greta Gerwig). I liked this character a lot. She was one of those drunk, hyperactive, fun people who I felt was one of the only good things in this film, and no, not because I was forced to see her breasts (I covered my eyes). And last is Catherine (Elsie Muller). I really don?t want to pin this all on Elise Muller, who is a fair actress, but her voice was distracting to me. That pulled away from her acting. But that problem is nothing compared to what?s coming up.

I was very excited when I rented this movie. I mean, from what I just said, to most people, it would sound like an interesting idea for a film. And it is. Let me say that again. This is a wonderful concept for a film. But there are a couple things in the trailer and in the critic?s reviews that they don?t say about this movie. From what I just described you would think that this is a horror film. This is not the case.

The first 5 minutes of ?Baghead? was good. It was funny, I could see the characters as real people, and I was ready to see what direction the thing would take. Then after they were introducing the conflict (Chad likes Michelle but Michelle only sees them two as friends and Matt and Catherine not putting a ?label? on it, but they were obviously in love) then they showed the title ?Baghead?. They then cut to a scene of them heading to the cabin. I was already strapped in for a well-crafted thriller, but little did I know that I on the wrong ride. If I could pick a genre to place this movie in it would have to be ?soap opera?. Long, disappointing, soap opera.

Almost all the movie is relationships. Which is sad, because the very few parts with the baghead where simple yet perfect horror. Two scenes I want to bring to light here. One is where the guys charge at baghead in the dead of night, hoping it would scare him away, then the baghead chases them with his knife back into the cabin. The characters then move the furniture in order to block him out. The other is at the end where the characters are walking to near civilization (they can?t call anyone because the phone is dead) when they find a car, try to hotwire it, and then the baghead appears and stabs Matt to death. I wondered why they didn?t stick to focusing less on the idiotic relationship shit and more on the horror after watching it and the only thing I could think of was that Jay & Mark Duplass didn?t want it to be a complete horror film.

Okay, now for the ending. It turns out that Matt faked his stabbing. The baghead was a director making a hidden camera movie. But the others don?t know this yet. They just saw one of their closest friends get stabbed, and they are running for their lives. When they run across the street Chad tries to flag down a car but gets hit by it in the process. They rush him to the hospital. There, Matt visits Chad and apologizes to him for what he has done. Chad sees the footage and then says to Matt that he needs to edit it and enter it in festivals. Then the film closes to us knowing that Chad and Michelle will never be together.

Let me go over that. I am still disappointed that the film left it at ?it was all a prank?. Why? That takes away from the few horror scenes we saw. That plot twist belongs in another movie. Not this one. Chad isn?t mad at Matt for making them all scared shitless, them having to walk all day to civilization, for fearing that one of his closest friends is dead, having a moment where he wonders if he is going to die or not, putting him in a hospital, and last but not least, filming all of it! It doesn?t matter if they?re close friends or not. It was not realistic for Chad to be this forgiving to his douche of a ?friend?. Then he gives permission to edit it and enter it into festivals. And last, Chad will always love Michelle, but she will not feel the same, and we can make a fair guess that Matt and Catherine will stay in their ?unlabeled? relationship.

Why in all of hell would you go through this bullshit soap opera relationships story only to end it with the relationships staying exactly the same at the end as they were 80 minutes ago?! Why didn?t you use this time for chilling scenes of horror if you weren?t going to change a thing?! I hope your watching this, Duplass brothers! You have a brilliant shot at being masters of making a suspense thriller! Don?t waste your talent on shitty relationship things like this! Hopefully you guys realize this and become the next Coens! If not I can only say that I warned you.

All I really have left to say is that the word ?hate? is a little strong to use here. There are some good things about this movie. Greta Gerwig?s character combined with her performance is not that far from the awesomeness of Lizzy Caplan in ?Cloverfield?. Also the few minutes of horror in this film is chilling. But all the problems fill this thing up to the point where it doesn?t let you remember the few good aspects of the film, but the boringness of the relationships. I don?t know what other films they made, but I think a transformation to suspense/thriller/horror, and even a remake of this film would be entirely appropriate for the Duplass brothers to do.