Head Trauma

I'm always on the prowl for a great undiscovered indie. So many are made, so few live up to their promise. Open Water and the Blair Witch Project, while marketable and financially successful, did not feel like professional efforts. They were not engrossing, the writing was simplistic at best, and most people I've spoken with were left unsatisfied.

Head Trauma is an example of smooth masterful direction, coupled with logical and clever writing that turns what could've been just another rushed indie effort, into something much more satisfying. I was very pleasantly surprised. On the downside, the lead actor, while satisfactory, clearly isn't a professional. At the same time, he might be just be effective enough to keep the film afloat.

The film moves at a slow deliberate pace, and managed to keep me engrossed the entire running time. Some of the scare moments are very effective, and the ending, is far more logical than any of the resent Hollywood entries to the horror genre.

Highly recommended.

George is a troubled homeless man, returning home after 20 years. And to an empty house trashed by squatters and host to terrifying visions of violence. On a seemingly Sisyphean quest to clean up the house and earn it a reprieve from municipal demolition, George is more effective at uncluttering an old mystery.

Head Trauma is a great indie with plenty of moodiness. The alcoholic loner, George Walker could have been rendered with repellent creepiness; yet Vince Mola is superb at playing him as a sympathetic victim of horrific circumstance. The rest of the performances range with varying success.

Unfortunately - as is true of so many low-budget movies - sound design replaces any music, and it's mixed to push the visual scares. At the same time, one strains to hear the dialogue, which could have been recorded through a box of Kleenex.

The bleak cinematography is well-shot, though the visions are over-tweaked with After Effects. But no matter how much effort was put into the visual editing, we are still missing considerable back-story. And that's a serious omission given the ending.

All in all, it's worth a watch.

Here's another pretty unique horror film, that you don't see much about. Here is the synopsis; After a 20 year absence, drifter, George Walker, returns home to settle his grandmother's estate. As if awakening from a long dream, he finds his childhood home condemned and littered with the remnants of squatters. In the midst of trying to save his past, George falls and strikes his head, triggering an onslaught of vivid nightmares and waking visions. As the horror intrudes on George's reality, his conviction grows that someone or something is trying to kill him.

The movie moves at a slow pace but builds up the tension very nicely, and begins to get disturbing as hell. George's nightmares and visions are indeed horrific, and until the end, it appears the story has moved into the supernatural. There is a couple of pretty good scares which add to the fun, and the movie reminded me in a strange way of "Schramn", not the story but the way the movie moves along. The good thing, is after it is all over, everything makes sense and explained in full, so you don't go away from the movie shaking your head. With a super low budget, the filmmakers used their money well, and created a memorable exercise in psychological horror. The movie came highly recommended to me, and now I recommend it too.

I've seen a lot of low-budget horror films and most are mediocre at best. This is the exception. First of all, it has an unusual story line, not your average vampire or monster, or mad slasher either. And though not high-tech, the effects are skillfully executed. I found it to be both scary and intriguing. Some moments were genuinely frightening.

George (Vince Mola) is suffering from a head injury and it has affected his brain. He is having scary visions. He shows up at his dead grandmother's old house which he inherited but which has been condemned by the city. George wants to fix it up and live there. The house is dilapidated and spooky enough, but George's visions are getting worse and strange things are happening at night. We don't know if he's becoming mentally ill, if he's haunted by the ghost of his dead grandmother or if he's recovering memories from his past. George doesn't know either and goes about trying to find answers in his rather disorganized, mentally compromised way.

Mola is just right for the part of the confused George. The atmosphere is perfect and I was impressed with the considerable skill with which the story unfolds. This film is definitely worth viewing on a rainy evening.

Nicely done indie from out of left field. I wasn't sure what I was watching at first, was it supposed to be horror? Drama? Thriller? It begins a bit on the slow side, but quickly starts to set a nice pace and pulls you into the story. Quite different looking visually by independent film standards, it is presented as a dismal existence for the main character "George", who is played wonderfully by actor Vince Mola. I found his acting refreshing and quite believable, as he is not your typical leading man, but rather a portrait of a 30 something slacker set against a horrifying reality. Jamil Mangan and Mary Monahan are equally convincing in their supporting roles and help the story unfold in a believable fashion. Director Lance Weiler seems to have a knack for only showing the viewer as much as needed at any given moment, then turning on all cylinders and pushing forth the horror. Very much in the same realm as "Stir of Echos", "Head Trauma" is a well crafted ghost story that delivers the scares on an ever changing plate of circumstances.