Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm gonna be covering a horror movie from 2009. That movie is "Skull Heads".
The only thing I can tell you guys that I know about this movie is that it was produced and directed by Charles Band. And it's also another film under Full Moon Features. And thinking about it now, I don't think I've actually covered a Full Moon film in a long time. I think the last time I did review a movie from Full Moon was back when I did my "Full Moon vs. Troma" marathon from several years ago. I've reviewed a few Troma movies since then, but nothing from Full Moon. So, I think they're well overdue on getting more spotlight for this series.
So, I'm hoping that this movie will be a good return from Full Moon for this series, seeing as how I've kinda neglected them by accident. Like I said, I don't know very much about this movie other than what I've already said about it. So, I'm going into this one completely blind. And I'm hoping that it's worth it. But the only way I'm gonna find out for sure is if I shut up and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Skull Heads".
4 minutes later
So, guys, as the opening credits are going on, allow me to sum up what happened at the beginning. Some guy was torturing a girl for simply having a cell phone on her. Now I'm going to assume that was suppose to be father and daughter, and he was using a rack to torture her. I'm curious to know the context behind it, other than the father's explanation of "cell phones are the devil's work", or something like that. Still, I am intrigued to see where this goes.
9 minutes later
You know, guys, I would probably buy the fact that Peter is sadly crying at the fact that the family is eating his favorite lamb for dinner. However, I can't really do that because he looks to be smiling while he's crying. Just seems kinda weird to me, you know?
9 minutes later
You know, guys, it's funny. The daughter is listening to music on her ipod. And she tries to get her mother to listen to it after discovering that she was hiding it under her pillow. She listens to two seconds of it and says it's just nothing but racket. And the funny thing is...she's right. That music she's listening to is shit. I mean, if the daughter likes that kind of music, that's fine. It's just that I would have to start questioning her awful taste in music now.
9 minutes later
Guys, I'm just gonna say this now, the way that these skulls are moving their heads is actually a little bit creepy. I wonder if every time one of the family members talks to their grandfather that they're also aware of these skull creatures are actually watching over them. I'm really kinda curious here.
12 minutes later
OK, so they are aware that the Skull Heads do exist, and that they are the protectors of this castle that the family's living in. So it's not exactly just a secluded thing where every time someone talks to the grandfather, they just instantly show up. At least they've explained that much about them, and I'm kinda happy that they took the time to clarify that.
2 minutes later
OK, and apparently, one of these Skull Heads can smoke a cigarette...interesting. Never would've known that these things could actually do that. You really learn something new every day, don't ya?
8 minutes later
So not only did Naomi's Dad stop Peter from masturbating to the cook from behind her, he also apparently is a creeper, too, for the cook. I think it's kinda obvious at this point, but Carver is a slimy, demented sick fuck. And part of me hopes he dies first.
17 minutes later
Guys, if I had to pick a favorite Skull Head, it would probably have to be the green one. Apparently, the cigarette he was smoking also serves as blinding someone's eyes out and can also shoot lasers out of his eyes. I actually kinda want a replica of this particular Skull Head in my room somewhere. He's just that awesome.
The Review
Well, guys, that was "Skull Heads". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off now...OK. Well, I am gonna say out front that I really enjoyed this movie. And it's interesting that I say this because, prior to most of the other Full Moon films that I've covered for this series, a lot of them have been garbage, save for stuff like "Arcade" and the tenth "Puppet Master" movie. So going into this one, part of me was fearing that this one was just gonna be another shit movie to add onto the pile of garbage movies by Full Moon. Well, thankfully, I don't have to do that here. This movie was just good enough to where I can actually add it to my DVD collection.
So now that you already know my brief thoughts on it, let's actually go more into detail here and first talk about the writing. Now one thing that you have to know when going into a movie made by Charles Band is that he intends to go for more original stories. Case in point would be the "Puppet Master" series. That it in itself is an original property that didn't come from a novel or anything. In fact, that's where most of Full Moon's filmography comes from. A lot of their movies tend to go for more original ideas. Most of those ideas stem into horror films, while occasionally doing some family friendly stuff. Although the latter was mostly done in the 90's. But still, Charles Band is the head man of Full Moon Features, so you're bound to get more original horror films from that studio. This movie is no exception. It is a project by Charles Band and just about everything about this movie has that kind of weird twisted campy charm to it that just sucks you right in.
Now that being said, the story itself centers around our main character, Naomi Arkoff, who lives with her secluded family inside this castle that they've been living in for their entire lives. She herself wants to go to the outside world so that she can go to college and live a normal life away from her family. Her family consists of her mother and father. Peter, who is, I guess, the hired help for the Arkoff's. It's never quite explained what he does for the family, specifically, other than the fact that he's retarded. And no, I'm not exaggerating that either. He essentially is the "special needs" kind of person. Then you also have the cook, who really doesn't add much here other than being, well, a cook. And also being sex fodder to Carver, unfortunately. I'll get more into the characters in a little bit.
But going back to talking about the story here. So one day, a group of producers comes to the home to have a look at possibly filming a movie here. This gives Naomi an opportunity to introduce herself to one of them named Jensen, who she apparently has an attraction to, and hopefully uses them to get herself out of there. Now, I will say that there are couple of twists in this movie. One of them, which I'm not gonna spoil here, is essentially here just to be cheap shock value. It comes right out of nowhere and there's no hint of it prior to them revealing it. That said, I will say something about our producers. They are not really producers, they are just con artists looking to steal art pieces from the Arkoff's home to make a profit. That's pretty much it in terms of their motivation.
Now let's talk about our characters. The characters in this movie sorta range on being a mixed bag. Our main character, Naomi, is someone who, as I've already said, is looking to escape from her home from her family, who likes to remain in seclusion. And you would think, with a motivation like Naomi's to get away from her parents, that you could find a reason to care about her and hope that she escapes. The thing is, I'm not sure how much of it is really valid. You see, I mentioned earlier about how her Dad brought her down to a torture chamber just because she had a cell phone. Well, later on, during the bit where she gets tied up there again, and while our con artists break into the home, Jensen finds her down there and releases her, and she admits that her punishment is, in her words, "not that bad". Which makes me question if she actually likes it. Now I do know the whole story from, obviously, watching the film. But prior to all that, you really have to wonder if at some point that she actually meant her own words? Maybe it's gotten to a point where, unfortunately, someone who gets punished so much that they end up getting use to it or even end up liking it, as I've already mentioned. I don't know, and I personally don't want to delve too deep into this, but I will say that her validity in words is a little foggy there.
Naomi's parents are some of the most unlikable douchebags in the entire movie. Her Mom basically has a "don't care" kind of attitude for her daughter's own views on what she wants to do. And her Dad, Carver, is someone who, as I've already described him as, a sick twisted demented fuck. And the weird thing is, even though these characters are clearly unlikable, I believe that was purely intentional. And it makes these two characters stand out as the most interesting of this entire movie. Not the daughter who you're suppose to be following and caring about, not her love interest producer/con artist Jensen, or even the other two con artists. It's Naomi's parents. Which probably wasn't the intention when writing the story for this movie, but still, it makes Naomi's parents the most interesting of the entire cast.
I will also admit that the Skull Heads, who, you know, are suppose to be main attraction of the movie, they don't really do all that much. They show up in quite a few scenes, but they don't really do a whole lot, up until the last 3rd of the movie when shit starts to go down. In fact, thinking about it, I don't believe any of these Skull Heads actually have names. The only interesting one that I came across was the green Skull Head that smokes. Other than that, every other Skull Head is just kinda there, really. So, it is kind of a disappointment that they don't really do much, outside of one other thing that I won't spoil because, well, I'm not that much of a douchebag to spoil movies. Unless there was a *really* bad one that I came across. And while I've certainly come across quite a few bad ones to make that happen, I'm not gonna do that for this movie. Mainly because, it's really not that bad of a movie.
So yeah, writing here here is decent for what it is. It's not exactly great, but it still has enough here to where you can kinda overlook some of the flaws that this film has. The acting here is mostly pretty good, outside of a couple of occasions. And those occasions are where anyone has to act emotional. More specifically, anyone who has to feel sad or cry. One of them I've already mentioned is Peter's actor, who whenever he had to cry or feel sad, it looked like he was smiling. Which kinda ruins that bit on what he was trying to do. But thankfully for him, it's only that one time that he had to do it. Our main actress, however, the one who plays Naomi Arkoff is *terrible* at sounding emotional. Almost every time that she shouts or has to express some sort of anger or sadness, it comes across as incredibly hokey and forced. It doesn't sound natural, especially in one scene where she's talking with her mother. And during one bit, she repeatedly shouts "no" to her, and it sounded awful. It didn't sound natural whatsoever, and I understand that sounding like that can be very tough when doing those sort of emotional scenes, but it just doesn't work for her every time that she has to do those scenes. It just doesn't sound right at all.
Now I will say, even though she can't really act when it comes to being emotional, the rest of her acting in this movie is actually pretty good. As is just about everyone else. The best actor would have to go to Steve Kramer as Naomi's Dad. The man knows how to act both slimy and awful at the same time. And when I say 'awful', I obviously don't mean that he was phoning it in or anything, I mean that whenever he treats his daughter like shit. He is great at this role and clearly had a lot of fun with it. The acting here from everyone, like I said, is overall pretty good. So at least there is that. It's not all great, but I've also heard far worse, too.
Special effects are mostly decent. The main feature when it comes to the Skull Heads is the puppetteering. And it actually is pretty good. Which is interesting to me because this movie came out in 2009. About a year later, "Puppet Master: Axis of Evil" came out, and the puppetteering on most of those puppets were cheap and mostly shit. Part of the reason is because you could actually see the strings that are suppose to be invisible, yet you could clearly see them. In this movie, you don't see that here. The puppetteering in this movie looks really good. And the designs on most of these Skull Heads look really cool, too. The obvious stand out being the green Skull Head that is smoking a cigarette. Now granted, you could obviously tell that a lot heads on these skulls look hand painted, and it can look kinda off-putting at first. I will admit to having that sort of feeling myself when I saw a couple of the skulls that looked obviously hand painted. But honestly, this is a minor nitpick because the designs look really cool, despite the obvious paint job that's done to them. So yeah, the designs of the Skull Heads look really cool, as is the puppetteering being really good, too.
Makeup effects and bloods effects are, surprisingly, very low here. Most of that doesn't show up until the last, I'd say, 10 minutes of the movie. And even then, they're really nothing to write home about. It's not horrible, it's just something that's not gonna jump out at you or anything. It's just kinda there, really. Our sets, though, when it comes to being in the castle looks great. Everything looks and feels like you're inside a reclusive castle. It really does look cool.
Camerawork here is pretty good. Lighting here is lit fine. The sound-mixing here is good. The score here is also pretty good, too. The score was done by Richard Band, who has done a lot of composing work for other Full Moon films, such as the "Puppet Master" movies. It's pretty good, and it does set the mood for the film. So the music here works perfectly fine.
Overall, guys, when all is said and done, am I able to recommend "Skull Heads"? Yes, I most certainly can. While it's obviously not on the level of awesomeness that are the first 5 "Puppet Master" movies, it's still a really entertaining film, especially coming from Charles Band. Granted, I kinda wanted to see the Skull Heads do more in this movie, but still, what I did get from them is pretty cool stuff. And again, I would love to have a replica puppet of the green Skull Head. It really did look awesome and also, in case you don't know, green is my favorite color. So I kinda like it even more now. But anyway, getting back on topic, if you're a fan of B movie horror films, I could definitely say it's worth checking out, if at least once. As for myself, well, like I said, I really enjoyed this movie enough to add to my ever growing DVD collection. And speaking of, I feel like watching something else right now. And well, since I keep mentioning the "Puppet Master" movies, I think I'm gonna go and marathon a couple of those movies right now. Not sure if I wanted to start from the beginning or do "Axis of Evil" then "Axis Rising". Either way, I'm in the mood to watch something "Puppet Master" related, so that's what I'm gonna go do next.
And with that, guys, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.
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