Baghead (2024)
Writers: Christina Pamies, Bryce McGuire, Lorcan Reilly
Stars: Freya Allan, Jeremy Irvine, Ruby Barker
Where to Watch: VOD
Synopsis: A young woman inherits a run-down pub and discovers a dark secret within its basement - Baghead - a shape-shifting creature that will let you speak to lost loved ones, but not without consequence.
Thoughts: With roughly twenty new release horror movies coming out every month, there's only ever a handful that I am genuinely excited to watch - and Baghead was one of them. Moody and atmospheric, with a pretty creepy basement creature, there’s a lot about this movie that was really enjoyable. The main actress, Freya Allan (apparently from The Witcher series), was an onscreen delight as both a young woman disassociating herself with common sense so that she can make some fast cash, and as someone who is trying to understand her abandonment as a child in order for her to heal. The rundown pub was a fresh setting and its giant cavernous basement with a black hole in the wall was very effective in giving off “don't go in there” vibes.
But Baghead is another “rules based” horror movie - much like Talk to Me, Truth or Dare, It Follows, Smile etc. So there’s the obligatory research mode part of the storytelling where things get laid out pretty clearly for the audience, and then it’s just up to our characters to make poor choices and break the rules so that the horror can commence - game, set, match. There’s a certain amount of predictability in this formula that must be fought against in order to surprise its audience. Unfortunately for Baghead, the fight was weak and so predictability reigned, save for one thing - the ending. Midway in the movie we discover the origin story of the creature in the basement, and from that moment on I was genuinely rooting for Baghead. The ending was a nice little fist-bump to baddies everywhere who were made, not born, and so I say - those sonsofbitches had it coming.
3 out of 5 💀s
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