After leaving Marvel Comics in 1986, legendary artist Jack Kirby worked on concept art for potential films at Empire Pictures. The films were a Doctor Strange-inspired story called Doctor Mortalis and Mindmaster, about a paraplegic kid controlling a robot. Unfortunately, neither movie got made since Empire Pictures couldn’t secure financing from Vestron, and they eventually went bankrupt. Charles Band would eventually rework the Doctor Mortalis concept into 1992’s Doctor Mordrid starring Jeffrey Combs and Brian Thompson. Two years after Jack Kirby’s death in 1994, Band went to frequent collaborator Benjamin Carr about a new concept. By pure coincidence, Band’s idea was similar to a Kirby story from 1954 in Black Magic Volume 4 #6. Whether coincidental or not, Carr and Band set to work on what would become one of Full Moon’s weirdest movies. In November of 1996, Head of the Family hit the video store shelves nationwide.
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Synopsis
Loretta (Jacqueline Lovell) is cheating on her biker husband Howard (Gordon Jennison Noice) with local conman Lance (Blake Adams). While driving after a nightly fling, they witness the Stackpools, a family of misfits, dragging a man into their home. Suspecting foul play, Lance decides to investigate further and learns the horrible truth about the family. Siblings Wheeler (James Jones), Otis (Bob Schott), and Ernestina (Dianne Colazzo) are mind-controlled by brother Myron (J. W. Perra). Also, Myron has a giant head, is confined to a wheelchair, and experiments on his victims for a new body. Seeing an opportunity, Lance hires the Stackpools to dispose of Howard in exchange for him keeping quiet about their exploits. They succeed, but Lance decides to extort them for the prominent fortune they’re sitting on, threatening them with legal action. Unbeknownst to Lance, Myron has something grand in store for him and Loretta.
Review
Compared to the rest of Full Moon’s library, Head of the Family is by far one of their weirdest movies. Admittedly, its story is pretty basic, but the strange characters and odd mix of campy and creepy elevate it. Right from the opening themes conducted by Richard Band, you know this will be both wacky and weird. In the middle of this tale of extortion and blackmail, you’ve got all these strange beings lurking around. J. W. Perra sells it as the maniacal Myron, acting like a cross between Orson Welles and The Brain. What also helps are the makeup effects and camera tricks used to make him look convincing as this character. While they don’t have many lines, Jones, Scott, and Colazzo stand out in their roles just for their sheer weirdness. Seeing them stand around with their blank expressions is pretty frightening.
Blake Adams and Jacqueline Lovell work well as the straight players against the strange things around them. Blake is very charismatic and entertaining as the sleazy conman who will stop at nothing to get what he wants. On top of being more than willing to get naked, Lovell is charming and funny in her sardonic role. The effects are surprisingly decent for such a low-budget film, although a few look pretty cheap by comparison. It doesn’t help either that there are times where they have to add fire to some scenes digitally. Directing-wise, Charles Band does a decent job using shadows and lighting to create a compellingly spooky mood. At times, the movie does stretch things out to hit its 82-minute mark, but it gets the job done. Overall, Head of the Family is an oddity, but it’s an oddity worth seeking out for Full Moon fans.
Buy Head of the Family from Amazon: https://amzn.to/3tuLiV8.
