In Baghead, Iris learns of the passing of her father, whom she had not seen or spoken to in years, and finds out she has inherited a pub in Germany, good timing as she has recently been evicted from her flat and had nowhere to live.
Upon signing the deeds she goes to the old pub and finds an old videotape with a message from her father which states that upon inheriting the property she is now the keeper of an unusual tenant kept down in the cellar.
This tenant is special, (her face concealed by an old sack, nicknamed “Baghead”) in that she can summon the dead when given a personal item belonging to them. But the catch is that you can talk no longer than 2 minutes before bad things start to happen.
She is convinced to use the creature to make money after being offered by someone, played by Jeremy Irvine, £2000 for two minutes with his dead wife, but things soon escalate when she decides to summon her recently deceased dad and finds out that this entity will do anything to escape.
The film certainly has a good atmosphere and the idea has merit but the scare factor is pretty low after a good first-half-hour build-up. It is well-made, and stylish, with a good cast but has far too many subplots which don’t go anywhere and clog up the narrative.
Freya Allan is great as Iris and it is always good to see the great actor Peter Mullan, but apart from some good and creepy set design and spooky atmosphere, it ends up a bit flat with lots of untapped potential. So much more could have been done with the shapeshifting creature but the result at the climax especially is a letdown.
The Blu-ray has a good 1080P transfer murky as it should be but clarity is still good. A great surround mix also adds to the tension. Extras are very disappointing as only a trailer is provided. This movie was based upon a short film which was a festival hit and you wonder why this was not featured in the extras.
Not a total loss, Baghead is worth a watch but could have been so much more.
FILM – 7 / PICTURE – 8 / Audio – 8 / Extras – 1
CLICK HERE TO ORDER THE BLU RAY
