‘Baghead’ Blu-ray Review
Stars: Freya Allan, Jeremy Irvine, Ruby Barker, Peter Mullan, Saffron Burrows, Ned Dennehy | Written by Christina Pamies, Bryce McGuire, Lorcan Reilly | Directed by Alberto Corredor
Director Alberto Corredor expands his own award-winning 2017 short for this original British horror. In addition to delivering a steady flow of creepy chills, it also has significant franchise potential, and if that happens, sales of potato sacks are going to go through the roof come Halloween time.
Baghead is set in present-day Berlin, where cash-strapped 20-something Iris (The Witcher’s Freya Allan) inherits a large run-down pub, after the horrific death of her estranged father, Owen (Peter Mullan). The manager of her father’s estate (Ned Dennehy, unsettling as ever) is keen to offload the property, but Iris decides to stay, inviting her best friend Katie (Bridgerton’s Ruby Barker) to join her.
However, they soon discover that the basement of the pub is home to a sinister supernatural presence, a woman with a bag over her head who has the power to transform into a dead loved one for two minutes, if she consumes something owned by the deceased. And when a grieving young man (Jeremy Irvine, as Neil) offers her a large amount of money to talk to his deceased wife, Iris finds herself drawn into the bag-headed woman’s mysterious background, with deadly results.
There are strong shades of last year’s hit Talk To Me about the set-up here, because both films put an original spin on a familiar idea, and both films take the same pleasure in setting up a strict set of rules…before breaking them with chilling consequences. There’s also a thematic similarity, in that both films explore ideas of grief and guilt – familiar tropes for horror, admittedly, but deployed effectively here.
The performances are excellent across the board – Allan gives Iris a harder, spikier edge than the standard horror heroine, and there’s a suggestion that she’s drawn to the darkness, in contrast to Katie, who immediately wants nothing to do with it. Similarly, Irvine transcends his usual period drama pretty-boy casting, delivering a much darker performance than we’re used to seeing from him (Neil’s desperation is palpable, constantly teetering on the edge of insanity), and there’s reliably superb support from Peter Mullan in prologue and flashback scenes, as well as a crowd-pleasing cameo (for Deep Blue Sea fans, anyway) from Saffron Burrows.
Corredor maintains a suitably chilling atmosphere throughout and proves a dab hand at orchestrating a suspense sequence, most notably when Katie breaks one of the key rules surrounding Baghead’s captivity. In addition, the script – by Night Swim writers Christina Pamies and Bryce McGuire – continually keeps you on your toes with a variety of twists and turns, up to and including a gripping finale that leaves the door wide open for a sequel.
In short, Baghead is a smartly directed and superbly acted British horror that introduces a chilling new supernatural entity (complete with its own bargain basement costume) and deserves a shot at a franchise. Here’s hoping it finds the audience it needs for that to happen.
**** 4/5
Baghead is out now on DVD and Blu-ray from StudioCanal.
