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.

Head of the Family is cheesy B-movie trash at its best, the plot if there is one revolves around mutant quadruplets that are control by their brother who just happens to be a giant disembodied head. The plot good as it sounds really takes second stage to a number of cheap special effects and several sexy scenes. The star of the film is ex-porn star Jacqueline Lovell better known as Sara St James who plays a cheating wife looking to have her husband killed. Lovell gives a performance worthy of better source material and she gives the you the impression that a name change and a career move could prove very worthwhile for her. The film works because it doesn't take itself seriusly, the plot is crazy, the characters are shallow, the effects will make you laugh and the girls are sexy while losing their clothes at every chance they get. Despite of all of this you laugh with the film, its a bad film and it doesn't pretend to be anything else. The film while never rising above its B-movie roots does entertain for 82 minutes and if you want a Friday night popcorn movie you could do much worse than this.

I was suprised at all the negative reviews, this is actually a darn good film from Mr. Band. "Benjamin Carr" coughs up a decent enough screenplay full of quirky characters and clever one liners. The head is genuinely creepy and the other characters are completely sleazy. Highly recommended, one of full moons better films.

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