Head Trauma

Released by: Heretic Films
Released on: September 26, 2006.
Director: Lance Weiler
Cast: Meryl Lynn Brown, Steve Garvey, Jamil A.C. Mangan, Vince Mola, Mary Monahan, Brandee Sanders, Jim Sullivan
Year: 2006
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The Movie:

Lance Weiler, co-director of The Last Broadcast and the man behind The Ghosts Of Edendale is fast making a name for himself as an inventive and innovative director of low budget shot on DV horror films. His latest effort, Head Trauma, shows the growth and maturity that comes with the experience he's managed to get under his belt the last few years and while it still has some flaws, it's an interesting psychological horror film with some memorable imagery and great atmosphere.

We don't know much about George Walker (Vince Mola) when we meet him. We know he's got a penchant for booze as he tips the flask a little more than a should and judging by his appearance it's probably safe to assume that he's seen better days. He returns to the town where he spent his summers as a youth, five years after the death of his grandmother, hoping to refinish the run down old house that she left to him so that he can sell it and make a quick profit. The problem is that the house has been condemned. There's no electricity and the city has it on the short list of rundown buildings to be demolished.

The first night that George spends in the house finds him running into Julian (Jamil A. C. Mangan), the granddaughter of the kindly lady who lives next door. They get into a fight and Julian tosses him off the porch where he lands on his head. From here on out, George has some pain in his head and he starts to see things in the house. He has dreams about someone or something wearing a hooded winter coat trapsing through the house and dragging someone or something through the woods nearby. The next day he wakes up to find that his basement has flooded. He heads to the hardware store and, by chance, runs into his old flame, Mary (Mary Monohan). They talk and she promises to get him a pump in a couple of days not realizing that her ex-boyfriend, who lives across the street and wants the old house torn down, will hold it hostage.

Soon though, George's visions start to get out of hand and they all seem to relate to a religious pamphlet that he found in a phone booth. As George's madness seems to be progressing to the point where his actions are becoming increasingly strange, Julian tries to help him get the house together in time for the city inspection but that hooded figure just won't leave him alone and the line between his visions and reality is fast becoming a very blurry one.

Head Trauma is far from a perfect film. The movie relies too much on some rapid fire cutting and editing tricks that, after you see them a few times, lose their effect. The film also borrows a scene from Hideo Nakata's Ring pretty blatantly to the point where, if there had been a TV behind the character, would border on plagerism. Even with those flaws, however, Lance Weiler has made a pretty interesting film. The movie does a good job of not explaining George's background and letting us figure things out on our own. It doesn't spoon feed the story to us, instead it pulls us in slowly and makes us think to figure it all out - and it works. The script is interesting enough and clever enough that even if George is a bit of a jerk sometimes, we still want to know what happens to him.

Vince Mola's performance is quite good. His George isn't a nice guy, he's not a flawless hero and instead is portrayed as a very normal, rather unattractive person. He looks the part of the drunk loner who knows he's squandering his life and the indifference he shows to most of the supporting characters (save for Mary), while far from charming, is at least representative of someone who just might have a legitimate drinking problem.

Head Trauma also looks quite good. Weiler makes the most out of his location shooting and the house sort of takes on a life of its own while the story unfolds. The scene in which the car explodes looks great as do a few scenes where we see a body floating, almost in a crucifixion pose, down in the basement of the home. There's some very startling imagery in the film and some very slick camera work as well.

Video/Audio/Extras:

This 1.85.1 transfer is not enhanced for anamorphic viewing and has a tendency to look soft and compressed at times. There are also a few scenes where the lights go off and during these moments some of the detail gets muddled by the shadows. Part of the reason for this appears to be because the film was shot on digital video as the authoring seems fine in that there aren't a lot of compression artifacts or edge enhancement issues. Daytime or scenes with enough light in them fare quite well but the dark scenes are definitely lacking at times.

The Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound mix isn't bad at all. Dialogue is pretty consistently clear except in a few scenes where you can notice some echo (listen to the scene where George is in the hardware store). The leves are well balanced and there aren't any problems with hiss or distortion and there are some nice directional effects that come into play a few times during playback that the DVD handles very nicely.

Heretic has done their usual bang up job with the supplements on this release. First up is a full length commentary track from Lance Weiler who discusses where the inspiration for the movie came from and how he went about deciding to film it. He covers what was shot on set and what was tinkered with in post production and more importantly he tells us why. Some of the symbolism is explained and he also tells us about the house that they shot most of the movie in and some of the history behind that building.

Up next is a series of short featurettes, each taking a look at a different aspect of the production. Blowing Up A Car is first and, as the title implies, it's a document of how the scene in which the car collides with the tree and then explodes was done (and more interestingly, how they got away with it!). It's an interesting piece, if a little on the technical side, that clocks in at roughly eight minutes in length. The best featurette is Shooting In The House, which is also roughly eight minutes. It takes a look at how the primary location was found and used for the feature and Weiler gives us some interesting background information on the place and explains how they managed to accomplish what they did in the basement. Johnny Magic And His Flying Machines is a quite three-minute look at the aerial photography that is used so efectively for certain scenes in Head Trauma while The Art Of Head Trauma is an audio interview with Stephen Bissette (look for a copy of his Spider Baby Comix in the movie!) that plays out over stills of some of the artwork from the movie. There's also a brief three minute featurette on The Music Of Head Trauma in which the composers discuss their work on the film and how they tried to do something a little different with it.

Cast interviews are up next, and they include discussions with the three principal actors from the movie: Vince Mola, Mary Monahan, Jamil A.C. Mangan. They each explain what they liked about the project, what it was like working under sometimes adverse conditions and how things were on set with the director and one another. Also included are trailers for Head Trauma and The Last Broadcast.

Aside from what's on the disc, Heretic has also included an insert booklet including some liner notes as well as some of the Bissette artwork that was used in the film. The cover art has the chapter listings on the back that we can see through the clear keepcase. A cardboard slipcase with alternate cover art is also included.

The Final Word:

While there are a few spots where the acting isn't perfect and the film does have a few flaws, Head Trauma is never the less a well directed film with a good performance from its lead and a few eerie moments. There's plenty of atmosphere and the cinematography is very nice and the film is one of the better indy 'head trip' movies to come out in some time.