Crinoline Head (Review)

Director – Tommy Faircloth (Generation Ax, The Cabin)
Starring – Richard Abbott, Tommy Faircloth, and Billie Fontanez
Release Date – 1995
Rating – 3/5

Tagline(s) – “You’ll laugh so hard you’ll lose your head!” and “Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the woods”

  I’ve said it before and I will say it again, the slasher sub-genre is the strongest and most determined of all the horror sub-genres. This particular sub-genre will not die while others have come and gone.  Most of the sub-genres suffer dry spells and can go several years and even decades with only just a few films popping up here and there.  However, the slasher film has always supplied their faithful followers with new films to watch.  They may not always give us a slew of films like the current state of zombie films but we do not go without.

Things have not always been that way for the slasher film.  During the 80s the slasher sub-genre was releasing films in abundance just like the flux of shitty zombie flicks now but as the 90s picked up the slasher sub-genre had played out.  However, instead of die off like so many pot-smoking teens at Camp Crystal Lake, the slasher kept on trucking.  The films were dwindling but not completely dead.  That being said, the 90s brought about slasher films that were completely different than those made in the 80s.  These slasher films were completely self-aware and rode the typical cliches of what made slasher films so special.

**Spoiler Alert**The film follows a group of college students as they head out for a weekend getaway to a home in the woods.  Most of the group does not get along with each other and bicker amongst themselves most of the time.  Once they arrive at the home the one whose family owns it tells them a story that suposedly took place nearby 15 years prior.  The story is of Crinoline Head.

A young boy whose mother passed away and with no one to take care of  and provide for him turns to cannibalism and eats on his mother’s corpse.  The group chalk it up to an urban legend and go out to explore their surroundings.  Sadly, Crinoline Head is real and the college students get more than they asked for when he starts killing them one by one.  The group, in dwindling numbers, try to fight for their lives but can they survive the onslaught of Crinoline Head?**Spoiler Alert**

When I watch slasher flicks I don’t expect to see a lot of originality but I do expect to see a killer that stands out from the others by using a different back story or mask and a shit ton of kills. That being said, I also wanna see a killer that that can be menacing unless the film is a straight forward comedy.  You expect to see a killer wear a horrifying mask or a mask they can make horrifying and this movie let me down with that.  If the film would have been a comedy, or even a black comedy, the killer and his mask would have been more effective and the viewer would have had a few more chuckles.  However, that was not the case but it does not ruin this film here.

This slasher has that 90’s look that now seems retro.  That 90’s look adds to the atmosphere to make a great overall feel that is a little different than your normal slasher which is what I think the director Tommy Faircloth was going for.  By giving us an un-menacing killer cutting up college age students on a beautiful summer day contradicts everything slashers stood for.  By knowing this and knowing how self-absorbed 90s slashers were really makes this film stick out.

The acting in this one is not consistent.  Most of the cast did a great job in their roles even though they do show inexperience.  The remainder of the cast shows even more inexperience but that does not take away from the film.  The story is nothing new but did adapt with the coming times of the 90s.  I am not stranger to Faircloth and after watching his short, The Cabin, I see now that he likes to play with horror cliches and in what can really be a fun way.

Finally, those looking for amazing kills and special effects will not find them here.  The on screen kills are your typical slasher-esque kills and brings nothing new to the game.  The special effects go along with those.  They are nothing special but fit the kills well.  Overall, this is a fun slasher that is opposite your typical slasher like day and night.  The movie takes the typical cliches of slashers and turns them completely around to give the viewer something different than what they were expecting.  I highly recommend it.