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Quote:

Zombies are the middle children of the otherworldly family. Vampires are the oldest brother who gets to have a room in the attic, all tripped out with a disco ball and shag carpet. Werewolves are the youngest, the babies, always getting pinched and told they're cute. With all that attention stolen away from the middle child zombie, no wonder she shuffles off grumbling, "Marsha, Marsha, Marsha."

- Kevin James Breaux

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Film Review: HEAD OF THE FAMILY (1996)



The clan of Full Moon Entertainment’s Head of the Family (1996) is very much the same as Tobe Hooper’s Sawyer Clan of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre…only more “PC”.  Myron is the literally the “head” of his family as he is one of a quintuplet that each share the same brain but have different bodies.  Myron (the brains), Otis (the brawn and muscle), Wheeler (the eyes, ears, and smell), and Ernestina (beauty with the body) like to abduct strangers for their own personal experimentation and fun.  When local sleaze Lance (Blake Adams) secretly watches the family in action he decides to capitalize on the family’s misfortune by blackmailing them to make the husband of his mistress Lorretta  (Jacqueline Lovell) disappear. 

Myron doesn’t like being blackmailed and used and will do everything in his power to bring Blake down.  Like the Sawyer clan Myron’s clan each have their own strengths and weaknesses that are used to great effect in the film.  Myron plays a mental chess game with Blake to see who can out smart whom; he uses Ernestina to seduce men at their weakest moments; Wheeler is used to spy on Blake and get information with his super skins and Otis is the muscle that forces himself upon others (he is the Leatherface of the group).  They live in complete obscurity from the rest of the town but instead of cannibals they experiment on the people they abduct.

The film is actually better than expected as the film is anchored by the performances of Adams and Lovell  who have great chemistry with one another for a couple having an affair and Adams and J.W. Perra (as Myron) have equally great chemistry in their scenes.  The makeup effect are great and the film is better than most of the average Full Moon films.  The film also has a whit to it missing from these types of films that are aware of themselves giving it a charm that makes it worth seeking out if you haven’t already seen it.

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