Baghead

In London, Iris Lark (Freya Allan) is an unemployed young woman without any possession and evicted from her room. Her best friend, Katie (Ruby Barker), supports her and offers Iris to stay with her. Out of the blue, Iris receives a phone call informing that her estranged father, Owen Lark (Peter Mullan), has died and asking her to identify his body. Iris travels to Berlin, where her father lived, and the lawyer tells her that she has inherited a four-hundred-year-old bar and offers to sell the estate. However, Iris asks to stay for a period in the building and signs the deed. She calls Katie and her friend decides to travel to Berlin to meet her. During the night, a man, Neil (Jeremy Irvine) asks to see the creature that lives in the basement and offers 4,000 Euros to Iris. She tells him that she does not have the key but schedules his visit on the next night. Katie arrives and they go with Neil to the basement. They meet Baghead (Anne Müller), a witch that is capable to summon the dead and shapeshift her appearance for two minutes, provided the consultant brings some object that belonged to the deceased. She only obeys the owner of the bar, Iris presently. Neil brings a ring that belonged to his estranged mother before belonging to his wife Sarah (Svenja Jung) and his mother comes instead. He says that he committed a mistake and offers another 4,000 Euros to Iris to meet Baghead again. Iris finds a videotape from her father warning how dangerous Baghead is and to not use her powers, but the money tempts Iris, and she continues to see Baghead despite the warning received.

"Baghead" (2023) is a horror movie that deserves to be watched. The creepy story is original and the only problem, in my point of view, is the lack of charisma of Iris and Neil. Katie is the only character that the viewer may connect and feel sorry for her. Iris is warned by her father to the danger that she is exposed but is more interested in money. The viewer sees that she is poor but risking her life to raise money is not an intelligent procedure. The conclusion indicates a possible sequel, with Baghead outside the basement. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "A Bruxa dos Mortos: Baghead" ("The Witch of the Dead: Baghead")

Ok first some praise: Freya Allan is a talented young actress. Unfortunately she's the only good thing in the movie.

I love a good horror film in fact I love plenty of horror films that many people consider bad but sadly this won was below the level of quality to even be entertaining.

It's a shame because the concept itself could have been interesting. Having the ability to bring someone back from the dead but only for a brief time is a good idea and could have been used to great effect Especially if the downside of this lead to being haunted by a Grudge style entity etc.

The plot just wastes its own concept with one boring character and very few different people are even brought back from the dead at all. What we get are endless repetitive scenes of the shapeshifter jumping out with a loud noise.

The best friend is a pointless tedious character that serves no purpose at all.

I guess the first 20 minutes were reasonable but after that it runs out of steam and never provides even one genuinely scary moment.

Shame. I really wanted to enjoy it more.

Intriguing premise. A creature that can bring the dead for 2 minutes! And only 2 or it will take control (But doesn't that sound familiar? Talk to Me, anyone?)

Freya Allan (The Witcher) did her best as did the supporting cast, featuring the likes of Peter Mullan (Tyrannosaur) and Saffron Burrows (Deep Blue Sea).

Unfortunately the film lacked any real tension or suspense and despite its surprisingly short length, it felt like a real slog. Relieved by a few jump scares.

I just wish more time was spent on the origin of the creature and character depth to actually feel anything.

It just seemed to go through the motions with the same ol' predictable hokum and some bizarre 2000s visual effects from The Mummy films.

A shame. It killed the time but it won't be haunting my memories for long.

To get this out of the way... there are obvious parallels between this film and Talk to Me that are going to be drawn, but to be fair I think we have to keep in mind that they came out less than nine months apart from each other on opposite sides of the world... so the likelihood of one being influenced by the other is slim to none.

I seem to be far more impressed and entertained by this movie than the majority of the reviews thus far. I am also quite biased to a sub genre of Gothic horror and anything magic. I thought the concept here was really intriguing, entertaining and exciting. They also melded said concept into a storyline that made sense and was cohesive.

While the movie as a whole wasn't particularly scary, there was definitely something to be said for the consistent feeling of dread it cultivated. I also thought this was quite successful aesthetically. Again, while not particularly scary it was most definitely creepy and I think the main players in that were the way the sets were, its general atmospheric nature, and while simple, I also quite liked the look of the witch. The acting was also quite solid from the whole cast. Nothing extraordinary but no one stuck out negatively to me.

I did start to get somewhat of a silly/hokey vibe around what felt like the beginning of the third act, but that seemed to fade away towards the end. I found the ending, if not semi predictable, still clever and satisfying. If anything, I would've just loved a little bit more to the lore. There were definitely some loose ends that I would have loved a little more elaboration on.

I have been anticipating this release for quite a few months and was personally not disappointed. For most, this may land closer to a 6... however due to my prior proclivities I am going with a 6.5 rounding up to a 7. Would recommend.

Giving this an 7/10 rating

Clever and grim, horror film is set in just one location, a very slim cast and this means getting to the point with no messing about. A college drop out has to take over a ancient pub from her father who has died, but the pub has a secret with it, and evil with it.

Like 'Night Swim', this is based on a short movie. Guess this a real trend now, which is fine, so long as they are good. It's very fast and simply done, with good production design that you have to pay close attention too.

The cast of Freya Allan, Ruby Barker, Jeremy Irvine and the great Peter Mullan and Saffron Burrows are tormented good, Anne Muller is excellent as the 'Baghead' in question. Humans are shown as real scumbags as they all are in this, and this is important for the narrative.

Never thought Peter Mulanwould do a horror film, but he is very good in this, plays with his role with the authority he needs, look forward to more from Freya Allan, she displays proper emotion, given the role she must work in, A simple enough horror film, it's fine film fun, but really scary all out.