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Overall Rating : 6/10
Directed By : Paul Tarantino
Kristi Clainos
Benjamin John Parrillo
Ralph Lister
Mark Aiken
Supplied By : Xenon Pictures
Film Reviewed By : Rick L. Blalock
Date Reviewed : Sept. 6, 2006
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| PLOT Ambitious young go-getter Ben Caruso signs on with sexy corporate headhunter Sarah Tierney, who finds him a great job with great pay and only one drawback: It's the graveyard shift. But, he quickly learns that his co-workers are actually the tormented souls of Sarah's previous conquests, and that his real job is to find a missing head - or lose his! |
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| THE REVIEW In HEADHUNTER, Ben Caruso, is happy with his job at an insurance firm, but just as everyone else, he wishes he got paid a little more. Well it seems like that wish may very well come true whenever a friend by the name of Doug Bennett suggests that he meet up with this corporate headhunter of whom agrees to pay him more money than his current gig. Ben can't believe it and believes the job to be to good to be true and after awhile, his suspicions reign true. The woman that appoints him the job, Sarah Tierney is somewhat mysterious, and when Ben has doubts about her, he asks around but no one even seems to know who she is, also the office building he works at seems normal during the day shift, but once the graveyard shift starts(the one in which Caruso work) the office turns into his own personal hell, and ghosts walk the halls of the office. A frightened been does some further investigation and learns that Sarah Tierney, is actually a murder victim and has been deceased for 10 years. A victim of decapitation, Tierney haunts Ben(and also seduces him) all in persuasion for him to find her dismembered head and return it to her......making Ben Caruso a true "Head Hunter". Well to be honest I have had my screener of HEADHUNTER for about a month now. I wasn't very impressed with Xenon's previous release BLOOD RANCH, so telling the truth I had no enthusiasm to review this one..... in fact I almost did not. But oh how wrong I was about this one, as HEAD HUNTER was quite fun! It is presented in a somewhat quirky and silly way, with a few moments of seriousness thrown in - It reminded me of one of those late night Horror showa like TALES FROM THE CRYPT or even MASTERS OF HORROR a bit. The film itself looks to be shot on digital and you can definitely tell they were shooting on a tight budget(the office only had two workers, and the buildings quarters were rather small) both the make-up effects and CGI are cheesy...sure... but despite that the film progresses rather nicely and at times is a great little psychological thriller. The acting here is quite mixed as some performances are greater than others. One performance in particular I was impressed with was the performance of Benjamin Parrillo, as his he portrays his character, coincidently whose name is "Ben". I feel he did a very good job of playing an average Joe, who is thrown into a world he doesn't want to be in. At first a normal guy, with a normal job, and a pregnant wife....he is suddenly given a huge burden in which if he doesn't resolve could cause him his life....or so he believes. Parrillo, does good in making the character his own and even realistic in a film that is at times silly. Kristi Clainos was also intriguing as Sarah Tierney, although her role is not as defined as much as the character of Ben Caruso, her character is what keeps the film enjoyable and if her performance would've falters then this film could've very well been a disaster in the making.... Overall, Paul Tarantino, delivers a fun, old style Horror film that moves quite nicely, I think that it is not intended to be taken 100% serious(or so I gather). but it rather just meant to be a rather fun throwback and in that it delivers....... |
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| GORE
METER 5.5/10 To me the blood and gore here is executed quite nicely, while still not pouring it on excessively.... there are quite a few decapitations along with a great scene in which a hand is caught in a garbage disposal.... |
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| MUSICAL
SCORE 5/10 The score is rather fitting I thought, at times very gothic and it was used very well...` |
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| OVERALL
IMPRESSION OF THE FILM Well this shows that some films that you don't expect much from can turn out to be really entertaining... as is the case for me here. I will say that not everyone will like this, as it sometimes drifts off into a somewhat quirky manner as I have mentioned, fans that do not enjoy a good B-Movie every now and then may not enjoy this film. But as far as I go, I really enjoyed the director's approach here, I feel it was well polished for the budget...I would definitely recommend! |
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