Audience Member
A great deal of potential, a fairly novel premise and some excellent performances elevate what would otherwise be a non-remarkable film.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
02/22/23
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Audience Member
Great development, poor pay-off. It had me until the end which falls into that oh-so-typical "surprise" ending.
Rated 2.5/5 Stars •
Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars
01/26/23
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Audience Member
well, not so extremely good, but still makes it watchable
Rated 2.5/5 Stars •
Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars
01/28/23
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Audience Member
Mundane, occasionally amusing horror flick that never quite gets its act together.. The premise is familiar territory; some people are possessed by demons, but not everyone can see them. A young man can, though, after a head injury and reunion with his long-lost brother (who can also see them). Nobody believes either of them, of course. Th same head trauma that has given the main character this ability has also turned him into a phenomenal super-genius who can predict people's thoughts and read books by flipping the pages. But the demons, who maintain tastefully-decorated apartments when they're not mutilating people in public restrooms, want him gone. The demons are so obviously actors in poorly-fitted plastic suits that they're more humorous than frightening and Christopher Denham's mopey, woe-is-me character gets old fast. There are some good ideas at work in Headspace but the execution fails when it comes to direction and dialogue. Udo Kier is underutilized, though he does die the film's most memorable death, and the overall gore content is one of the film's saving graces.
Remember, kids, wear that bike helmet lest you end up a haunted genius pursued by rubber demons!
Rated 2.5/5 Stars •
Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars
01/30/23
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Audience Member
HeadSpace There is always a certain urge, controllable, yet always persistent in everyday thoughts that deviates from the norm, sets itself at a distance and realizes the ridiculousness of common event. The urge, it takes it's shape as a distortion, an unrealistic fascination that changes our perception of a constant moment. This quandary of the human mind is a focus of the horror genre.
It takes a lot of guts, so to say, to step into the horror genre, but not a lot of wit. Anyone is capable of tricking someone else, easy to pop out behind a closed door, simple even to cue the wolf's howl on a dark moonlit night. The movies, then, that truly stand out in horror, are those that not only stay on a well-founded formula, but continue the internal analytic deviation in the voyeur's eyes by stretching the limits of what is believable.
Then, there are the movies, such as Houten's HeadSpace, starring Christopher Denham, that go and above and beyond the dilemma of how to make a monster unbelievably horrific, but to make the story real, to take back that previously forsaken realm of storytelling. Without abandoning the human emotions of empathy, sympathy, and character attachment, HeadSpace delivers a full force horror entourage. The most actually interesting thing about the story, aside from the numerous sub-plots, is that the story on paper, might even sound believable for a moment. The only thing bringing us away from the dangerous precipice of the "normal" belief suspension commonly used in film, is that it is indeed, only a movie.
The story follows Alex, a mid-20's inner city male. The striking yet correlated traits of confused innocence, uncouth arrogance, selfless helplessness, stand out amongst the youthful characters he surrounds himself with. He is a homesitter, and artist, who collects unemployment, and drinks himself silly some nights, while still maintaining certain hidden truths about his life and future. The trouble begins one day while playing chess in the park, but by the time the story ends, we're taken into a world where we are all just pawns to a game of life and death played in realms we do not belong.
My advice for approaching this film, is to pay attention to nuance. The dialogue is phenomenal for character development, the most crucial part of a horror/slasher film, and the plot that intertwines religion with metaphysics and science, is genius, but don't forget to watch everything else. The score is great, although not the best, and the cinematography is simple and effective.
"Checkmate." 10/10
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
02/03/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Didn't care for this one..
Rated 1/5 Stars •
Rated 1 out of 5 stars
02/18/23
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