Baghead
Over the past year or two, the trend of young women discovering mysterious entities & conversing with the spirit world has become a major theme in the horror genre. One of the most recent films to explore this trope is Baghead, a spine-tingling horror flick that tells the story of a derelict pub with a sordid secret that is left as inheritance before a nightmare ensues.
Although eerily similar to last year's Talk To Me, where teenagers use a malevolent spirit to converse with the dead, Alberto Corredor's Baghead is anything but a poor imitation. In actuality, Baghead is an extension of Corridor's own idea, which was first expressed in his 2017 short film of the same name.
In Baghead, Iris (Freya Allen of The Witcher fame) is a woman seemingly searching for a stable path in life, when she suddenly inherits a derelict pub. However, her good fortune is short-lived, as she soon discovers the pub has a terrifying & malevolent resident lurking within its bowels. This resident is common knowledge for those people who are willing to pay a fee to the publican for an opportunity to spend a little longer with their deceased loved ones.
As the film progresses, the lore of our burlap sack-wearing monster is revealed through exorbitant lore dumps. Though these moments are necessary, they come across as clunky & lazy afterthoughts. Overall, Baghead is a solid & entertaining exploration of generational trauma, guilt, grief, & secrecy. The sudden frights that pop out will have you on the edge of your seat, jumping out of your skin.
One thing that sets Baghead apart from other movies in the same vein is the potential of its monster. Will Baghead suffer under the sins of the father, or will it prove that "we all come back"? Only time will tell.
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