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Imagine thinking this was a deep, intelligent film. What a world these reviewers must live in. OOOOH IT'S ABOUT INTELLIGENCE AND IT HAS A BUNCH OF COMPLETELY NONSENSICAL, UNEXPLAINED SCENES THAT ARE LEFT UP TO YOUR IMAGINATION SO IT MUST BE DEEP AND METAPHORICAL AND I MUST BE CLEVER SINCE I LIKE IT! No, dudes, that's not how it works (and don't think that no one's noticed that no one here talking about how clever this movie is can even slightly explain what exactly they think is clever about this movie or what the actual plot is).

This isn't some clever psychological thriller where all the strange things we see are just in the main character's head. We are directly shown over and over again that the monster literally exists and that unexplained supernatural things are occurring for other characters when the main character isn't around. This is just a cheap monster movie, and not even a good one.

It's just your everyday, generic time-waster of a budget horror film. Awful, annoying characters sit around talking for the majority of the film padding out the run time and every once and a while someone gets killed off camera with just a brief glimpse of a rubber monster hand. Movies like this are a dime a dozen. Just another forgettable 3/10.

Where do I start...??? Very simply: Decent concept that could have been very intriguing EXCELLENT beginning to set the pace of the film I really like chess, so I thought that would be a neat added element to the film... GEEEEEEEEZ...

TOTALLY disintegrates into an EXTREMELY poorly written, directed, and acted film. PERIOD.

Very sad too; I REALLY, REALLY wish I had read more of the comments and especially the message board MUCH more carefully. Usually I do, but I musta REALLY screwed up on this one : ) I can excuse a film completely for being aimless and even pointless, ***IF*** it at least has style, mood, and is done with SOME bloody competence. It is SO dang funny how some of these film makers snag a bunch of these 'B' actors whom we'd immediately recognize and then they have a combined screen time of about 8 minutes. When will I learn... I felt sorry for Sean Young; she had all of, what..., 3 minutes. Sad...

Anyway, by the end, if you have ANY vestige of intelligence left (which is bloody unlikely) this is one of those cases where you will TRULY be sitting there stunned wondering what the HELL you just did with the last 90 minutes or so...

I'm serious here. Believe me on this one...

I'm not normally hateful or unforgiving when it comes to film and Especially the 'Horror' genre, honestly. But this one fails on almost EVERY level.

Anybody can explain why such poorly made films ever appear? Slow tempo, bad plot, very bleak actors' play, and on top of that all, the total absence of any of the reason why on earth it was made... The film has a vague, unexplained beginning, likewise, the vague final part, and the very idea that two beloved brothers could not recognize each other all the film is simply foolish. The horror element is also very weak, all those funny horned monsters are not scary for kids even, and the bloody scenes made me laugh. And finally, why Mr. Udo Kier wasted his time, ruining his prestige with such a bad, short and senseless cameo appearance? All in all, just a low-budget 3-rate cheap pseudo-psychological horror sleek movie. A total waste of time...

Before I even properly read what exactly the story of "Headspace" was about, I already knew damn sure that I wanted to see it, simply because it assembles one of the most impressive B-movie casts of the last 15 years! Even though they all just appear in supportive roles, "Headspace" managed to snare legendary names such as Olivia Hussy (who still looks yummy even though well passed 50, I may add…), Udo Kier, Dee Wallace-Stone, Mark Margolis, Sean Young and William Atherton! With names like that, who needs extra motivations to buy a ticket? Now that I've seen the movie during a festival screening, I regretfully can't claim that it's a genuine masterpiece but nonetheless it's a truly creative and intelligent production that definitely has more trumps than just an attractive cast. Young director Andrew Van den Houten dedicated an equal amount of energy to telling a good story AND supplying the film with exhilarating gore! We're introduced to Alex Borden, a confused young man who carries some severe childhood traumas around with him. Every morning when he wakes up, Alex discovers that his intellect and storage capacity has remarkably increased but; even though this sounds fantastic, he begins to suffer from terrible headaches and nightmarish visions about demons. When people in his surrounding start to get brutally slaughtered, Alex (righteously?) fears that he might be the murderer without fully realizing it. The ideas and sub plots of "Headspace" are so many-sided that the film might have worked even better as a mini-series! Now some of the potentially very interesting story lines (like Alex' family background or the dubious intentions of his doctors) look slightly underdeveloped even though I'm sure they were initially meant to get processed more carefully. But hey, I'm really not complaining since this probably resulted in more action and gore! "Headspace" contains some very effective shock-moments and graphic make up effects that will surely appeal to all horror fans! The set pieces and locations are convincing, with a very nice portrayal of typical New York City suburbs and street life. The camera-work and choreography is terrific, at times even downright artistic, and the screenplay even manages to be educational! How many horror movies can honestly say that teach you interesting facts about the game of chess? Recommended!

I first became aware of the film Headspace back in early 2006 after reading a featured article in Fangoria, one of my favorite horror mags. The article was interesting, as they usually are, but what enticed me most about this little, independent gem was the insanely original storyline, which we'll get to shortly. I was also attracted to the filmmakers themselves and the producers, writer and director all seemed very self motivated, intelligent and determined to make an awesome film. So, you could say I was expecting a little more than usual going into Headspace.

Let me fill you in on the plot. We see a young, troubled guy known to the world as Alex Borden, played by Christopher Denham. By troubled, I mean a pretty rough childhood which, at one point, involves him and his brother viewing their dad blow their mom's face to smithereens with a shotgun. Serves her right for getting too far away from the kitchen… Alex has been a smart guy all his life but, at the age of twenty-five, his intelligence begins increasing by the minute. This dude reads books in minutes, learns how to master chess in a day's time and can even understand women. Actually, I'm kidding… Nobody's that smart. Eventually, Alex learns that he can see events that have taken place in the past and, towards the end of the film, can even see into other dimensions, which is where the crap really hits the fan.

This Good Will Hunting Gone Wild tale could have easily been a disaster if it were not for the TLC given by the people involved. The look of the film really enhanced the quality for me. Headspace looks like it cost five to ten million to make and I would bet my dead rabbit Penny's water bottle that the budget was nowhere near that amount. Headpsace recently took home the Best Cinematography Award at the New York Horror Film Festival and with good reason. The film is colorful, shot well and looks magnificent over all.

Another element that boosted the quality of the film for me was the casting. It seemed like every five minutes, some blast from the past was popping up. We have Olivia Hussey from Black Christmas, William Atherton from Ghostbusters, Sean Young from Bladerunner and Dee Wallace-Stone from The Hills Have Eyes. I could keep going but I think you get the idea. These seasoned vets not only make the film more fun because of that, "Oh I remember them!" factor but, they also bring some serious acting chops to the table. Newcomer Christopher Denham definitely holds his own as well and he's interesting to watch as he manages to find a balance between the nice guy next-door and the freak with the expanding brain. I mean, I liked the guy throughout the entire movie but I wasn't sure if someone should spend time scouring the Earth for the best doctor available or just drag him in the back yard behind the shed and put him down Ol' Yeller style! It was a nice dynamic.

With all this being said, the bottom line is that I really respect the filmmakers of Headspace for truly caring about the material. They set out to make one of those B rated monster movies that we all remember as kids and they nailed it. It was like watching USA's Creature Double Feature night with the only difference being that it was Tuesday and there was only one featured Creature Feature as apposed to two featured Double Creature Features. Huh? Anyway, those films were never this well done. Bravo!

Overall, I really enjoyed Headspace and feel very comfortable recommending it to everyone, even the casual fans of the genre. One thing to the gore lovers though; these characters spend a lot more time talking than chopping so, if you're looking for a blood bath, try something else. I highly suggest watching the film in the dark on a Saturday night with a big fat bowl of popped corn floating in butter. It's that kind of film!

Headspace isn't a completely successful film, but if there was an award for 'most ambitious screenplay', this flick would certainly win it. Andrew van den Houten's debut feature demands respect from the audience for its charming originality, and for the way that it manages to pull many different story elements together. The film is definitely hard to categorise, and works from a psychological base, which is backed up nicely by some good old fashioned scenes of gore. I'm guessing the director was hampered by budget or pressures from elsewhere, as several elements of the film don't feel properly fleshed out, and given how much thought has gone into the film; I find it hard to believe that the writers would just neglect some areas. The film focuses on Alex Borden; a young man who meets a chess player one day and suddenly finds his intellect expanding. This, however, leads to nightmares, and Alex soon finds his world crumbling around him when past traumas meet with real threats from 'demons', which Alex has began to see; and which are killing off people he knows.

The great thing about watching this film is that it's never clear where it's going, and director Andrew van den Houten does a good job of building up the mystery without ever giving too much away at once. I'm deliberately focusing more on the good elements of this film simply because the majority of horror movies coming out recently are tired and derivative, so it's nice to see one that tries its best to do something original. I guess the main negative element of the film is that, while the story plays out well, there's no real resolution to the film, and while messages such as 'ignorance is bliss' stand out from the story, no actual messages are played with much. The director has assembled a strong cast of lesser known stars, which help to provide the film with a lot of cult value. Unknown actor Christopher Denham does well in the lead role, and he's backed up by such cult stars of the past as Sean Young, Olivia Hussey, William Atherton, Dee Wallace and, best of all, Udo Kier; who lights up the screen with a cameo performance mid-way through. Overall, Headspace might not be completely successful; but it's a great attempt, and I'll be keeping my eye on what van den Houten's does next.

This movie isn't really very good. It starts out good, but goes downhill within about twenty minutes. Dee Wallace is in it, which is what drew me to the movie. The story starts as a young man, Alex, who has well above cognitive level and intelligence.

Frankly, the film doesn't make a whole lot of sense in less than a half hour. If you have a free afternoon, watching this on cable might be OK, but don't waste your money purchasing this.

If someone who has seen this could explain the final scene with Alex and his final doctor, Olivia Hussey, I would love to hear it. Again, that was another scene that had absolutely nothing to do with the plot of the film.

And i don't even know how to justify the 1 i am giving this movie, the scale wont let me go lower.

OK, we have everything here, poor acting, lame disjointed storyline, poorly managed blood scenes, nothing realistic, nothing makes sense, characters weren't interesting just plain dull or ridiculous. But the biggest disappointment of all was when we finally got to look at the "scary beast", well into the movie it turns out to be some rubber pig-faced recycled costume, it reminded me of those monsters on the early seasons of the Power Rangers, God that's when you realize that your initial gut feeling was in the right, it was a crap movie.....

Someone here mentioned that you usually get these sorts of movies in English language, i could not agree more, any good horror clip that i have seen has not been in English, Thailand has a very good horror movie industry for example, it is also interesting to note that the only people who are giving good ratings to this piece of garbage are either American or English... i think you guys should go have a look at the international section on your local videoshop, you might be surprised of what other people can produce.

I can't even think of what to say to explain this waste...it's that boring/lacking/stupid.

I sat through this entire thing, hoping that it would come around at the end and at least salvage some dignity, but it didn't. It actually just goes from bad to worse.

My main complaint is that it gives off this whole intellectual/psychological vibe and then it doesn't deliver. The story makes absolutely no sense at all.

Spare yourself if you haven't been submitted to this yet, do something more enjoyable like bashing your head against a wall repeatedly, I'd rather do that then watch this again.

"Headspace" is a strange little creature feature that I decided to give a rent when I saw it at the video store. The film centers around Alex Borden, a normal guy in his mid-twenties living in New York City. While Alex may appear to be normal, but his life is slowly spiraling out of control. After meeting a mysterious artist/chess-master, Alex begins to gain more and more knowledge and becomes smarter and smarter, to the point where it's no longer for his own good. Something is causing him to tap into a different region of his brain, and he suffers from horrible headaches and night terrors because of it. After being referred by Dr. Bell (Dee Wallace-Stone, of "The Hills Have Eyes" and "E.T".), Alex visits a psychologist, Karen (the lovely Olivia Hussey, of "Black Christmas" and "Romeo and Juliet"), who studies patients similar to Alex. But soon after, people around Alex begin to die in horrible ways, all murdered by a savage, unseen beast. Is any of it related to Alex's troubled childhood? Or what really is happening to him?

I mainly decided to rent this film because, 1) the cover art was creepy, and the back of the box had nothing but praise for the film, and 2) Olivia Hussey and Dee Wallace-Stone were listed in the cast. While the film wasn't a complete waste, it wasn't wonderful either. The storyline to the film may sound interesting, and I thought it did myself. While it is interesting, it's also a little bit cloudy and some things are far too unclear, left without any explanation at all. The problem with this is that these elements in the story need some type of explaining, because otherwise they make little to no sense. The plot is a little convoluted, but this film does have some good offerings too. The cinematography is nice and stylish, and the creature in the film is presented realistically. It's normally difficult to make a monster movie where the monster itself is presented in a way that doesn't throw all logic out the window, and this film succeeds at that. The monster isn't too overdone and it's believable enough.

There is quite a good amount of gore in the film as well, there's more than plenty of monster mutilations to please all of those gore hounds. The film boasts a mildly impressive cast, including two well-known actresses in the horror genre. The lead, Christopher Denham, who plays Alex is convincing in his role as the troubled young adult. Dee Wallace-Stone has a fairly small role as a doctor, and is also excellent in her short on screen time. And Olivia Hussey, who starred as the lead in my favorite horror film of all time, "Black Christmas", plays Alex's doctor/friend. She is given very little to work with, but she is also wonderful in all of her scenes (which also wasn't a whole lot, I would have liked to see her a little more often). The film's surprise ending caught me off guard, and while it took me a minute to understand what had happened, it was a fitting way to conclude the story.

All in all, "Headspace" is a just about average monster movie. It's not too overdone and is far from being corny, but the plot becomes a little cloudy at times and is hard to follow on some occasions. It does boast some very good actors though, and plenty of monster-murders for anyone who enjoys a good creature feature. I'd say it's about average, but I have to admit it was better than I was expecting. Trust me, there's much worse out there. Worth a rent if you're into this kind of stuff. 5/10.

When u compare this movie to just any other horrorflick, it may be a bit above the rest. When u would compare it to any decent film in whatever genre, it should not even get the 2 I'm giving it.

But thats the problem with this genre. The very few really worthwhile horrorflicks I've seen, were not even in English.

The problem with Headspace is (1) the incredible meager story which could be summed up in one or two sentences and which is far from original. (2) The pathetically looking 'scary' beasts from hell. I don't believe that with all the Buffies etc being on television on a weekly basis, u can dress up an actor in a rubber suit which was obviously made in the 60s and try to pass that as scary.

The only redeeming quality was (1) the way this movie was shot, although some of the editing was quite out of place. (2) The overall acting which made this film almost bearable to watch.

Just another pointless Horrorflick which u wont be able to remember the day after you've seen it.

2/10

A young man, Alex, has incredible mental capacity that seems to grow by the second... while at the same time his migraines become more and more frequent. How is this connected to the monsters that have recently appeared and began killing off his acquaintances one by one?

I received this film as the result of a contest at Killer Reviews (where I have since become a staff member). I had never heard of the director, never heard of the film, was a bit wary of the so-called "awards" listed on the back. I knew who Dee Wallace and Udo Kier were, but didn't know if that was enough to make a movie work. In short, I had expected this film to be watched once and filed away behind a copy of "Point Break" or "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days". I was wrong.

The film starts with some short shots that fade in and out (which I didn't care for but they end after the intro). Then, in the first ten minutes, we get the goriest scene in the movie and one of the better gore scenes in a horror movie I've seen lately (let's just say it's like the suicide from the remake of "Texas Chainsaw Massacre", but better).

The gore is toned down after that (which is too bad, because many times -- especially the restroom scene -- were just begging to be bloodbaths). But where the blood stops a deep and complex storyline begins, that you may not be able to figure out in your first viewing. Some aspects are guessable but the entirely film demands close attention if you want to even catch a fraction of the underlying plot.

There is a subplot concerning a chess game (or rather multiple chess games) I found to be very interesting. I didn't understand some of the technical dialog in these scenes (discussions of past chess players' defenses) but this really drove home the hyper-intellect aspect of the film and I appreciated that.

Udo Kier appears as the creepy German guy, just like most of his other films. And he makes it work, being a priest in this case. Dee Wallace plays a doctor, but her character does not really stand out much so other than a nod to her earlier horror work it wasn't really necessary to cast her. All the other actors (whose names I don't know) were perfect: there was nothing amateur or independent-looking about this production.

Andrew VanDenHouten is a great addition to the horror world, and is sadly being overlooked due to the mainstream work of such people as Rob Zombie and Eli Roth. Maybe "Headspace" will be for VanDenHouten what "Dog Soldiers" was for Neil Marshall, and in another year or two he will be a name known in the dark underbelly of film.

When I was in the first minutes of this flick i thought this was becoming a hell of a movie. Sadly after the opening credits it became one dull flick. Just the last 10 minutes were fun to watch again as a horror buff.

How is it possible that a flick with such a gory opening sequence could fall into a blah blah flick were things happen off-screen. And teasing us with Udo Kier and Dee Wallace-Stone didn't save the flick either. they are only a few moments in the flick.

Christopher Denham was worth mentioning, his role as Alex Borden was believable. But it was really the script that teared this into a sad boring flick. Too much of chess I saw. Even a few things that I won't spoil were predictable.

The creatures also looked a bit ridiculous and the hallucinations of seeing creatures or people didn't work either. For the geeks one thing is worth seeing, a full nudity love scene that you can watch as a peeping tom. As gratuitous as it could be 'cause it added nothing to the story. Headspace is about headache, a thing i noticed after watching it.

Gore 0,5/5 Nudity 1/5 Effects 2/5 Story 3/5 Comedy 0/5

I'm not sure what's more disturbing; this terrible, terrible movie or the fact that people are actually rating it positively on this website.

What is going on? Is this the first film you people have seen, or are you on drugs? This film is 100% complete and utter GUFF! Oh Christ! What makes it all the more unforgivable is that both the trailer and the first 15 minutes of the film create the impression that this is actually going to be a good film - but then it simply slides and just gets worse and worse and worse. By half way through the film you just want to switch it off.

Whatever you do, don't watch this film. It's not even one of those bad films that you have to watch because they're SO bad its amazing (like The Postman) - its just plain RUBBISH.

The person who made this film should go back to whatever they were doing before.