Shrunken Heads – review

Director: Richard Elfman

Release date: 1994

contains spoilers

So recently I was contacted by Matt from Vampire Film Reviews who mentioned the Full Moon Pictures' movie Shrunken Heads. Indeed, I’ll let Matt’s words speak for themselves when he said “I recently had the misfortune of watching Shrunken Heads. There is so much wrong with this film it's hard to know where to start.

“Anyway... the eponymous, crime-fighting "shrunken heads" eventually show up in the film, and each of them has specific characteristics/powers not shared by the others. One of them has fangs and attacks people by biting their neck and (presumably) sucking their blood. It is only a very minor aspect in the film, and I am not sure if it fits into any of your fringe categories (Hon. Mentions; Vamp or Not). I just thought I should let you know in case you did not know this film ((although I fear that you will never forgive me if you sit down and watch that tripe)).”

the eponymous Shrunken Heads

And overall it is a good précis of the film but I am never sad if someone directs me towards a film that may be vampire, the film might make me sad – but not the tip and so Matt has my thanks for directing me to this. Now, I did consider looking at this under “Playing with Tropes” as it does… but you know what, though the aspect is minor in the film, the character himself is a main player and is there (either human or head) through the film and so this one deserves placing on vampire filmographies.

the kids

Looking at a more detailed synopsis we are in New York and meet Tommy (Aeryk Egan), his friend Bill (Bo Sharon), and new friend just moved in to the neighbourhood Freddie (Darris Love, Buffy the Vampire Slayer & Angel). These are the good kids who like comic books – in fact they go over to a newsstand run by Mr Sumatra (Julius Harris). There are also the bad (and older) gang, the Vipers, run by Vinnie (A.J. Damato), who are petty criminals and bullies. Sally (Rebecca Herbst) is Vinnie’s gal but is at heart a good girl – and Tommy has a bit of a crush.

murder

Cutting the opening down a bit, essentially the good kids manage to shop the Vipers to the police and get them arrested but the gang are bailed through local mobster Big Mo (Meg Foster). Tommy and Co. are taken hostage by her (to scare them) but manage to get away with a sack of slips from Mo’s numbers racket. She sends Vinnie after them with the task of dealing with them and he and his gang murder the three kids – they aren’t caught. Rumours had gone around about Mr Sumatra, that he was a cop in Haiti. Certainly he is the only small business not paying protection, quite happy to face the gang down, and was a member of the Tonton Macoute and is a Vodou Bokor. We see him attend the funeral of the boys and here we get to the main thrust of the film.

lightning bolt

Off camera he takes the boys’ heads and over a period of time prepares then, shrinking them and reanimating them so that they can take revenge on those responsible for their deaths and clean up the neighbourhood generally. The three heads levitate and fly around (reminiscent of a Krasue, without the guts and heart dangling beneath) and have different powers – Tommy, for instance, can blast a lightning bolt from his forehead. For our purpose we are interested in Bill.

fangs

In life Bill was obsessed with jelly beans – indeed he doesn’t animate immediately and his spirit is enticed into his flesh with a (blood covered) jelly bean. It is (kind of) logical therefore that his head develops fangs. We then see him, on attacks, biting into necks and, though not explicitly stated, we can presume (as Matt suggests) that he also sucks their blood. They are sent out into the night to get their first victims and we discover that the villains they kill return as zombies who wish to clean up trash.

zombiefied

So essentially, we have three tropes seen in the genre – firstly the fangs, secondly the presumed blood drinking (or at least biting the necks) and lastly the creation of zombies. The latter isn’t common, of course, but is a part of some vampire vehicles – notably Rabid where the vampire is patient zero for the zombie/infected plague. But is the film any good?

Julius Harris as Mr Sumatra

My first reaction was relayed to Matt as “Just watched it and it was oh so bad and yet strangely compelling” and I stand by that. It is poor but it is Full Moon and they specialise in poor horror films that, when they work, are absolutely watchable. This has some interesting elements – the queering through the character Mo is very interesting, for instance. It has an ethical dilemma at its heart by using a member of the Tonton Macoute as a primary force for good, having his pathway to vengeance be through dark arts and, of course, it is vigilante and has forced zombification as the punishment. Elfman’s brother Danny created the main theme – which is a pure Elfman score – and Richard Band did the rest of the soundtrack, which worked well. Of course, the sfx were not as good as they might be and the dialogue was challenging at times but it is generally delivered with gusto. But compelling, as I say. 3.5 out of 10 (despite Matt being right, it is Tripe).

The imdb page is here.

On DVD @ Amazon US

On DVD @ Amazon UK