This is a review for the 2024 movie “Baghead”.
My favourite movie from 2022 was Zach Cregger’s “Barbarian”. To me, it was the perfect balance of a horror that was genuinely frightening, while also being extremely fun. Depending on the day that you ask me, I may tell you that it’s one of my favourite movies of all time. The movie did well for a small horror movie, though it was hardly a cultural moment. So, when I saw the trailer for Baghead and how heavily they leaned on the “from the producers of Barbarian” – I was interested. That’s a message to horror fans that says “you liked that? check this out!”. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but a tiny part of me thought that maybe, just maybe, this could be a surprise gem.
Unfortunately, that didn’t turn out to be the case.
What is Baghead?
Baghead (2024) is a movie from English director Alberto Corredor, based on his short film of the same name. The movie follows Iris (Freya Allan), a young woman who inherits her estranged father’s pub after his mysterious death. However, the pub has an unexpected guest in the basement – a woman who allows people to speak to the dead. Despite the naysays of her best friend (Ruby Barker) and the ghost of her father (Peter Mullan), she allows people to pay her money, to speak with this woman. As you might expect, things start to spiral out of control.
Iris must obey very specific rules when dealing with this woman. Don’t cross the line, don’t let her speak for more than two minutes and under no circumstances, let her out of the basement. It draws a lot of comparisons to 2023’s Talk To Me – which had a similar “speak to the dead” concept. It would be unfair to say that this movie is a copy, as the timeline doesn’t back-up that up; but it’s difficult not to compare the two, due to the similarities in their concept.
Baghead Review
Talk To Me (2023) was very clever, in that it used the concept of “speaking to the dead” as an allegory for addiction. We watched a group of teenagers become hooked on this, and watched as it destroyed them. What made it so tantalizing was how fun everything looked. There is a brilliant sequence in the movie, where the group are speaking to the dead; and having a great time – and we are having a great time along them. It’s a movie that wears its themes openly, has a lot to say and executes it smartly. It’s clear from watching Baghead, that it also has a desire to tackle some thematic issues. The problem is, that it lacks the precision and the intelligence that the Philippou brothers inserted into their story.
It is obvious which pies Baghead has it’s fingers stuck into. While Talk To Me spoke about temptation through addiction, Baghead takes a more “temptation through capitalism” – as Iris finds herself pressured into exposing herself to danger, for money. There’s also a lot of drawing towards familial abandonment, with two of the main characters having an absent parent; and having lingering feelings towards that. You may, also, pick up a hint of a feminist message, especially with the story of a secondary villain. It’s obvious that Baghead has a lot of things it wants to talk about, but it never bothers to actually talk about them. It’s only statement on temptation through capitalism is that it’s bad. The only thing it has to say about familial abandonment, is that it makes people sad. All it can say about feminism, is that men can be abusive sometimes.
To draw a comparison with Barbarian (2022), that movie had a lot to say about men’s exploitation of women. It has a lot to say about race and about the #MeToo movement. It says a lot more about all of that, than Baghead does, and does so in much more subtle and interesting ways.
See Related: Barbarian (2022) Review
Okay, but it’s fun – right?
Even if Baghead is trying to be deep and interesting, I can forgive a failure in this area; if the resulting movie is fun and interesting. Thanksgiving (2023) had nothing interesting to say, but it was a damn fun time at the movies. Unfortunately, Baghead is a slog to get through. The dialogue is wooden and the acting isn’t good enough to elevate the weak script. Story-wise, it does nothing interesting and if you were to guess how this movie goes beat-for-beat, you’ll probably be right. The script lacks coherence; every rule established being thrown out of the window, if it means that there’s the potential for a jump-scare. Even then, I might be forgiving if the jump-scares were effective. They aren’t.
One particularly baffling sequence involves a character going on a side adventure to find out about the history of the pub. She finds some information on the man that she needs to speak to, after travelling to a new location. She then uses the woman to speak to this man. The man then tells her he can’t help her, and she is then killed. We learn nothing from this side-plot, it doesn’t advance the plot and it’s not even fun. What was the point of this? How much money did they spend on these extra locations, that were completely pointless? This is just one of many baffling decisions, that infuriate me, when I try to understand what the director was trying to do.
In a good story, A happens which leads to B happening, which leads to C happening. In this case, there’s barely a link at all. A happens, and then B happens and then C happens. I confidently believe that I could piece together a version of this film that has the same beginning and end, which is no more than twenty minutes in length. That version would be just as good as this one, if not better. So much of what happens is unimportant, uninteresting and deeply, deeply boring.
Fixing Baghead
I’m not a screenwriter, or a director, so my ideas are worthless. However, with all of the potential on the table – I couldn’t help but wonder about what could’ve been done differently. This is a huge misfire of a movie, but if I want to criticize it, I should be able to suggest what could’ve been done more effectively. In my mind, there are two alternative paths that would’ve made this movie hit harder, for me.
The first is by making the relationship between Iris and the bag-headed monster more interesting. Iris feels like a reject and an outcast, and this woman has been locked away in a basement for centuries. Given how much the movie loves repeating that “you’re her curse, as much as she is yours”, it would’ve been genuinely interesting to see a relationship form between the two. To see the two bond over their shared captivity, and perhaps lament the role that the men in their lives have played in leading them there. You can then either take it in a girl-boss “man is the real monster” direction; or have her use this resentment towards her father to manipulate Iris – a powerful message on hate. Right now, “Baghead” is just a generic monster, there’s nothing interesting there.
The alternative would be to go more “Talk To Me”. Show us the full potential of Baghead’s power, especially as a tool to make money. Show people finding use out of it, and paying Iris swimmingly. Then, have something go wrong and have Iris make the decision to cover it up; to protect the money-making scheme. Have that be her undoing.
Neither of those are truly unique, but I think the end product from either would be far more effective than what we have currently.
Who should watch Baghead?
Unless you’re a horror completionist, I don’t see a point in this movie for you. It doesn’t do anything that isn’t done far better by other modern horror movies. We will forget about it as quickly as it came, unfortunately. I had really hoped that this movie would prove to be a surprise, in the same way that Barbarian did. Sadly, it’s simply too played-out and risk-averse to be worth your time.
Rating: 2 / 10
This was a review for the 2024 movie, Baghead. Did you enjoy Baghead, or did it make you want to light yourself on fire? Let us know in the comments below.
