"The Edge" in Dallas, Texas
By Carl T. Ford
Every so often one catches a relatively unexposed underground short that reeks of talent. Sharing the DVD with fellow horror movie "Freak" is HEADCHEESE, directed by Duane Graves and Justin Meeks, and it is quite astounding. Filmed on both 8-mm and 16-mm black and white film stock, this 22 minute observation of a schizophrenic serial killer, wandering desolate Texas backwoods and farmland, combines the visual excess of underground classics such as Richard Kern's SUBMIT TO ME (1985) and FINGERED (1986) and thematically resembles Nico B and Rozz Williams' PIG (1988) another movie exploring the tortured mind of a serial killer and his spiritual quest for truth.
We are introduced to side-burn sporting nomad, Legion (Justin Meeks), who wanders into a garage to buy some beers, and shades (that grant him an uncanny resemblance to Elvis just before he went on to find peace in the valley) before setting out on head trip that sees him kill an unsuspecting driver who picks him up, and traverse the barren fields, accompanied by grim voice-overs that have our psycho plead forgiveness for his crimes and launch into a series of surreal masochistic tortures (imagined and enacted) involving bondage with chains, impalement, and disfigurement via assorted objects found on the way.
The violence is conducted ritualistically and at times resembles a bizarre mix of tortures as visited upon Christ in the Chapters according to St. Luke (an excerpt of which opens the film), Satanic worship, and Elvis stage act (the scene where Legion drapes an animal skull round his shoulders and starts a bout of karate poses atop a burned out car, parodies the Memphis legend wonderfully) and is beautifully staged against the foreboding Austin lots that featured prominently in THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE.
It comes then as no great surprise that Graves and Meeks were students on TCM writer Kim Henkel's screenwriting and film production courses, and that Henkel is the producer. In the liner notes accompanying this Shock-O-Rama DVD Henkel praises the directors talents; "those boys are going places". I couldn't agree more, and all fans of cutting edge cinema should rush out and get hold of this excellent double feature presentation pronto!
By Merle Bertrand
"There's a killer in Texas," the song on the radio sings as "Headcheese" opens. Yet, by the time this creepy, offal-tinged short from directors Justin Meeks and Duane Graves oozes to its conclusion, it's obvious that at least this killer, if not the viewer, believes that he's the Evil One himself. Legion (Meeks) is his name; a brooding loner obsessed with masochistic visions who combs the back woods exterminating human waste and exploring the detritus that they leave behind.
This evil ode to darkness is more a provocative, quasi-blasphemous character study of this tormented serial killer than a story-driven narrative. Accompanied by an ominous, vaguely threatening voice-over, the film festers with violent and disturbing imagery that hearkens back to the films of Richard Kern and the "height," as it was, of the New York Underground movement.
Yet, Meeks and Graves are Texas filmmakers; their well done and surreal portrayal of evil on the prowl as rancid as armadillo road-kill. "Headcheese" is a head trip.
By E.C.
HEADCHEESE: Trippy, moody, black-and-white, pretentious, devilish, stylized, spiritualized, Elvis chops on a suede-jacket-wearing dude who eats flowers, throws tires, drinks beer, smokes, wears shades, talks like Vincent Price funneled through Freddie Prinze, screws a cow's head with a drill before drilling himself in the head. What's not to like?
By George Baker
I have been a f an of horror films for nearly 4 decades, and have seen and enjoyed the psychological terrors of Vertigo, the monster films Frankenstein, Dracula etc, and the slasher, slice and dice and gore films including Nightmare on Elm Street and Black Christmas. This film, in 22 minutes of stark black and white footage, left a more disturbing shadow in my mind than even such tripe as Cannibal Holocaust.
No, I am not declaring this film, HEADCHEESE to be on a level of Cannibal Holocaust, for it is far above that. It does not, however, reach the lofty heights of the Hitchcock contributions either. What it does is tell a story, a very disturbing story of a man's battle with his demons, and show how he deals with them, or tries to deal with them.
For those of you who are Texan Chainsaw Massacre fans (and who isn't), there will be a lot of familiarity about this film. Not that it is a remake or a tribute to TCM, but if you watch the images closely, you will see many familiar places. Much of the film was shot in Quick Hill, Texas, the home town of Leatherface. But that is where the similarities end.
Perhaps the most disturbing thing about this film is not the visual images, but the fact that by eschewing dialogue (used only in one sequence) in favor of narrative, the film makers have taken us beyond the screen, into the very mind and soul of the lead character. Unfortunately, for those of us making the trip, that mind is deranged, borderline psychotic, and we are on the inside. We feel with him, we fear with him, we scream with him, and it is all in our minds, as it is in his.
In the past year, I have probably viewed over 200 feature length films, in many genres. Some have moved me to laughter, others to tears. Watching, for the fifth time Silence of the Lambs and for the twelfth time Vertigo brought me to the edges of mental and psychological terror. Headcheese pushed me over that precipice.
This is not a film for the borderline psychotic. That individual might not survive it. It is a film for the strong willed, and stronger minded, ready to deal with the daemons that all of us face. For though our demons may not be those faced by Legion, this film forces us to recognize that demons have we, and deal with them, we must.
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