I have been following Anthony Spadaccini's work over the past few years and watched him grow as both a filmmaker and a storyteller. His previous work has covered such hard topics like hate crimes, depression, suicide, guilt, etc. I've also seen some of his funnier stuff like his two silent films and it's clear that this is a filmmaker who likes to work in many different genres and be one of a kind. So when I read on his Myspace page that he was making a horror film, I couldn't wait to go see it. I had an opportunity on Sat night at the Newark FF world premiere to check out his newest film Headcase. It's very different from his other movies. It is a collection of home videos shot by a married couple who have two kids, but also like to kill people on the side and film their crimes. I've never seen a horror movie quite like this before. It's longer than the typical one, it moves slower than your average one, but in this case that's a very good thing. It allows us the viewers to learn about who these people are and connect with them, which is really pretty sick considering how truly sick they are. There are many surprising plot twists, including a really disgusting and stunning one about midway through the movie that changes everything for the characters. I thought the acting was very very good (Paul Mccloskey and Barbra Lessin were very very realistic), the movie has plenty of blood and gore, lots of disturbing moments, and a surprising ending that is also atypical of a horror movie. I also liked how not everything was explained, it allowed us the viewers to draw our own conclusions (like whether or not the son Todd knew about what his parents were doing and what happened to him after the conclusion of the film, or what the meaning of the scene at the abandoned house really meant). I highly recommend Headcase to anyone who is tired of the horror genre and looking for something unique and different and really really disturbing.
Review of Head Case
