Shockheaded

Released by: Heretic Films
Released on: 6/27/2006

Director: Eric Thornett
Cast: Jason Wauer, Bette Cassatt, Jerry Chen, Christi Etcher, Demetrius Parker, Debbie Rochon
Year: 2002
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The Movie:

When we first meet Noble (Jason Wauer), he's holed himself up in a dingy motel room where he spends most of his time smoking cheap cigarettes and receiving odd phone calls that are really nothing more than a strange mix of ambient noise and static. From there we find out that someone, or something, is slipping cryptic notes under his door - a tactic that he finds slightly unsettling. He decides to wait it out until the next note appears but is unable to see anyone doing it, a curious phenomena indeed.

As the days pass, Noble eventually paid a visit by two men who look like they could be 'connected.' It seems Noble's room at one point not too long ago was inhabited by an actress and it's this actress that these two tough guys are looking for. One thing leads to another and soon enough Noble's on a quest to track the gal down, but it isn't going to be easy.

He follows a few leads and talks to a few people and one thing becomes painfully clear the more he gets to know about her - she was involved with some weird people. While channel surfing one night he comes across a XXX S&M broadcast and through some keen detective work figures out that a man named Normal (who is anything but) is behind it all and may have ties to the girl's disappearance. To complicate matters further, a stranger in a creepy white clothe mask is wandering around, also looking for our missing girl, but is he real or does he exist soley as a figure of Noble's increasingly twisted psyche?

There are a few obvious flaws with Shockheaded. First and foremost is that the film seems to be trying really hard to feel like a David Lynch style trip, and at times, it gives one the impression that it's trying a little too hard to the point of almost borrowing from the aforementioned director's work. Additionally, the performances are far from strong, with Wauer isn't bad in the lead but his support falls fairly flat, with even the touted cameo appearance from cult movie starlet Debbie Rochon adding little to the proceedings.

Flaws aside, however, Shockheaded is an interesting movie with some merit. First and foremost are the visuals - this is a very polished and very slick looking film particularly for one made without studio backing. The sets look sufficiently grimy, the wardrobe suits the characters, and the few effects pieces that there are come through pretty succesfully. The director has obviously got some talent and it does shine through here now and then, in terms of pacing and suspense in particular - there could be big things in store for him and he shows some serious potential here. What a shame then that the story doesn't go anywhere once it all ends, with Thornett allowing the loose ends to dangle in the breeze. It's one thing to let the audience figure things out for themselves and another to be intentiaonlly vague, as this film is, almost to the point of pretentiousness.

Video/Audio/Extras:

With some scenes having been shot on film and others on video, the 1.85.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer that Shockheaded receives on this disc is a bit of a mixed bag, but thankfully the bad outweighs the good. Black levels are strong throughout, even too strong as they tend to muddy up the fine detail in a couple of spots. Aliasing is present but never overbearing while edge enhancement and mpeg compression artifacst are not once problematic. There's a bit of grain here and there but nothing to worry about, overall the image is pretty clean and pretty sharp.


The English language Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo track does a pretty nice job with the score and the dialogue though there are one or two scenes in the movie where the levels get a bit funky and the performers get buried just a bit in the rest of the mix. Thankfully this happens rarely and it's never so severe as to make the dialogue unintelligible. Aside from that, no complaints here. For the most part things sound good, there are no problems with hiss or distortion, and the music sounds nice and punchy.


First up on the disc is a commentary track with director Eric Thornett, composer Jason Russler and lead actor Jason Wauer. While at times things are a little too scene specific and a tad self congratulatory, for the most part this is a pretty interesting discussion about the ins and outs of low budget filmmaking. Thornett has the most to say, which makes sense as this was his baby, but Wauer and Russler get a few words in about their respective parts in the process as well. They cover some of the sets, locations, casting, budgetary problems, and effects in a bit of detail and if you're into independent low budget movies, this is an interesting examination of how one was made.

Up next is a short film entitled Spider Ghost which revolves around a man who finds himself haunted by the ghost of a dead spider. Go figure. It starts off in a fairly macabre manner but soon turns into a bizarre comedy. Though the premise is an odd one, it works well and the humor is twisted enough to be enjoyable here.

Rounding out the supplements are some deleted scenes, a brief featurette in which Debbie Rochan talks about her part in the film, trailers for Shockheaded and for a few other Heretic Films releases, animated menus, and chapter stops.

The Final Word:

Shockheaded is definitely a derivitive film as it borrows from some better known surrealist filmmakers pretty heavily. That being said, it gets enough right that it somehow manages to be watchable despite its shortcomings. Heretic has done their usual top notch job on the release, and it's probably safe to expect big things from Thornett in the future - there's serious potential here, let's hope that his next effort unleashes a little more of it than Shockheaded did.