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"Head Trauma" DVD
If you’ve ever
taken a surprise blow to the head, you know very well how seemingly
fragile the nature of reality actually is. Even if you haven’t,
you may well have had those moments of unreality that cause you
to think twice about where you are and what role you play in that
particular locale.
“Head Trauma” is going to have you feeling that disconnection
all over again, and this time, loving it.
So what we have here plot wise is the story of a drifter, George
Walker, who’s come back home after a good long while of drifting
to stake his claim to his deceased grandmother’s abandoned
house. Which is probably pretty good for a drifter—chances
are he doesn’t actually have one yet, and the first two minutes
will prove that pretty solidly. Anyway, this new house gives George
a shot at the American Dream, and he tries his best to live up to
it. He’s fixing up the somewhat rundown and very much boarded
up place by day, but by night, he’s having some really unpleasant
dreams / hallucinations / tequila comas about a hooded figure that
he sees on a comic book left behind in a phone booth, much in the
same fashion you occasionally find those Jack Chick tracts lying
around. And then, twenty minutes in, you actually discover that
it’s exactly like a Jack Chick tract.
Now, this is actually a cool little detail, because included in
the DVD, just behind the front jacket, is a little kind of mini
comic book explaining a bit more about the movie and its assorted
origins.
Inclusion of the comic was definitely a good idea. When you consider
the nature of the movie as the whole, the unreality of the whole
thing, adding a bit of the movie into reality is definitely a touch
that increases the unreality of it all. It would be like watching
“Evil Dead II” one day and getting your very own copy
of the Kandarian Demon incantations on a CD inside the DVD jacket.
Plus, the feel of the movie is like half David Lynch movie, half
“This Old House” rerun. It’s surrealist with just
a touch of home improvement.
Check out the action at twenty-two minutes and fifty-seven seconds—it’s
that kind of sequence that really makes you question the reality
of what’s going on here. Which makes sense—we’re
questioning what’s going on just as much as George is. Within
the next four minutes, you really start to question the reality
of things around here in a truly bone chilling fashion.
Kudos to Weiler and company for a fantastic scary shot at thirty-three
minutes and twenty-four seconds. Only rewind and frame advance could
prove just what that was, but man, it made me jump. As if that weren’t
enough, check out the action at the forty-seven minute mark as we
get no less than a three-stroke scare sequence. One scary thing
that leads into another that leads into a third. It’s fantastic
work—nothing but.
And of course, the more we see of George’s return to his grandmother’s
old house, the more we begin to wonder how much of what he sees
is real, and how much of what we see is the result of his own brain
damage. Check out the scene just ahead of the one hour and four
minute mark. That one will have you questioning reality left, right
and center.
The ending is nothing short of mindblowing, with a couple of really
spectacular sequences, and does a surprisingly good job of tying
up all the loose ends spawned by the rest of the movie.
The special features include featurettes “Blowing Up a Car,”
“Shooting in the House”, “Johnny Madgic and His
Amazing Flying Machines”, “S.R. Bissette Discusses the
Art of Head Trauma”, cast interviews, a piece on the music
of “Head Trauma”, and trailers for “The Last Broadcast”
and “Head Trauma”.
All in all, Weiler’s “Head Trauma” will leave
you scratching yours in the midst of a fantastic, scary ride that
leaves no unanswered questions and does its job with the utmost
competence and sheer unalloyed glee. Great stuff by any standards
and thoroughly worth your time to rent.
Head Trauma
DVD
****
Directed by Lance Weiler
Written by Lance Weiler, Brian Majeska
Starring Vince Mola, Jamil A.C. Mangan, Mary Monahan, Jim Sullivan
Produced by John Stefanik, Lance Weiler
83 mins
NR
2006
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