Head of the Family

This is one of those movies where the point is to embrace the campiness. Yes, this is a B-movie; what were you expecting, Shakespeare? Not all of the acting holds up, it is true, but the leads do a fair job of selling their characters, and there is full awareness they are doing parody. To be honest, the plot holds together a lot better than a lot of wide-release horror movies with "name" talent. And yes, if you don't get distracted by her lovely form, Jacqueline Lovell is doing some honest-to-gosh acting here. If anything, the flaw with this movie (despite the premise of the title villain), is that it's not quite bad enough to be truly campy.

I know in my head, Head of the Family is a bad movie. My heart however has a different viewpoint. The movie has no real plot, generic kills, and some terrible special effects. (The head is amazing though)

It's just such a fun movie, and very unique. The dialouge between Blake Adams, and the head had me rolling laughing the entire runtime. I've always been a fan of B movies. A person could argue that this is less of a B movie, and more a C movie. However my mind on it won't be changed. If you don't mind your Horror/Comedy being mostly comedy, then I say this is at least worth a watch. I've seen far worse movies with a lot bigger budgets.

That's a line from the movie, and that's what it is. This movie was wacked out from the start. The Stackpool quadruplets each have an odd abnormality. There's Wheeler, whose sense of smell, sound, and sight are incredibly enhanced. Otis has the strength of ten men, Ernestina (?) has, well, some special physical talents, and Myron is a giant head with a tiny body. Myron has cleverly dubbed himself "head of the family" because his special talent is an infinite intellect and he has the power to telepathically control the other 3. What a privilege. This is most definitely one of the oddest films I have ever seen. The southern one-liners are all over the place, and there isn't enough horror to classify this as a horror movie. However, the scene where Myron's big nasty 3 foot tongue slobbers all over Jacqueline Lovell's breast was rather horrifying. While this film was definitely , well, different, I must admit I got some enjoyment out of it.

Don't get me wrong. I've got a considerable soft spot for the works of Charles Band, both as producer and director. But you've got to raise an eyebrow when the man who was willing to put his name to "Dollman Vs The Demonic Toys" sticks a pseudonym on anything. As a bit of bad-movie fun, "Head Of The Family" is rather lacking, although it is better acted than you might expect. Jacqueline Lovell is a definite talent who deserves better than these kinds of movies. J.W. Perra is also quite funny as the titular monster, though for such a superintelligent being he does get hoodwinked quite easily. Y'know, I'm nitpicking because the rest of the movie is so sharp and witty of course....

And having a lead character called Lance Bogan? Nice one guys. We didn't know you Americans knew that piece of slang!

A muscle man, a trollop, a big head brain, and a sensitive guy, make up the ultra-weird Stackpole family. They get their chuckles by waylaying strangers, giving them a lobotomy, then caging the victims in the basement for their amusement. Enter a diner owner, who's fooling around with a psycho biker's wife. Blackmailing the Stackpoles into getting rid of the brutish biker, he then puts the bite on them for money, which forces the plan to quickly spiral out of control. "Head of the Family" is outrageous and has enough dark humor to satisfy the "black comedy" crowd. There is very little gore, but be prepared for at least a bunch of nudity, including full frontal. Recommended of it's type. - MERK