Horsehead
Horsehead
NR | 18 September 2014 (USA)
Horsehead Trailers

Since her childhood, Jessica has been haunted by recurrent nightmares whose meaning escapes her. This peculiarity has led her to study the psychophysiology of dreams and to follow a therapy with Sean, her mentor and boyfriend, to try and understand the origin of her nightmares. Following the death of her maternal grandmother she hardly knew, Jessica reluctantly returns to the family home. Jessica then begins to wander in a nightmarish world inhabited by twisted versions of her family members. She gradually improves her skills as a lucid dreamer and investigates to solve the mystery that gnaws her and haunts the family home...

Reviews
ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.
ChanFamous I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.
Billie Morin This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows
Scotty Burke It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review
Cathex Visually this film is at times quite stunning, but beyond that there's not much else to recommend it.Unfortunately one reviewer had to compare it to Dario Argento's work, which then started a trend. In reality it is only the director of photography that resembled Argento in this film, the actual director had some nice ideas but fails to hold the film together. The comparison with such a brilliant director is nothing short of total nonsense.The cinematography was the best part of this movie, providing a powerfully attractive opening scene which exquisitely recreates Fuseli's 18th century oil painting, The Nightmare. After this point however the film is gradually let down by weak acting, a poor script and an overall immature plot.That's unfortunate because it seems this film had potential, taking iconography from sleep paralysis, some interesting ideas provided by Jungian psychology and consistently attractive scene construction. But all of this gets flushed down the pan by a director who seems determined to compromise everything this film could have been with an over reliance on visual effects and music apparently compensating for a lack of any real substance.This film is the work of a great cinematographer and a director that needs to develop his ability, especially his screen writing.
kosmasp While for some the most famous Horsehead will still remain one that can be seen in Godfather, is this movie an "offer you can't refuse" to watch? That depends on your viewing taste obviously. The movie itself has wicked ideas and some crazy story elements to it, that are not something you are used to see in "normal" movies.It's still not really great, even though the acting is decent enough and there are enough good effects (not really for the squeamish, even if there are more explicit movies out there). There's also nudity involved, though with all craziness going on, I'm not sure that's something to be upset about or looking forward to. Decent effort, that might not make sense to everybody (which I reckon was intended)
Ruben Myers A stunningly terrifying visual experience like no other. The cinematography was breathtaking along with the haunting musical score. I have never been so entranced by horror film before and that is just what Horsehead did to me. I was captivated by the whole film and was locked into this lucid nightmare. The film was a dreamy jolting ride into the dark side of our subconscious and nightmares. There were mesmerizing colors and frightening images shot with such beautiful detail that it echoed the great Dario Argento. I do not need to get into the plot to say why the film was good, but the actors did a phenomenal job accomplishing this beautiful believable visual nightmare. I recommend everyone give this film a chance and prepare for an enticing visual nightmare for all the senses. I simply describe the film as the acid trip of your worst nightmare.
angiris As my supremely long title highlights I view this as a complete mess.I've read the above reviews. 9 out of 10. Fair enough. Can I ask why? What makes you think this film's story...and lets start there... can compare to some of the BEST films ever made? Because these reviews sure don't express why that is. They just praise it. Slap a tall rating on it. No indication as to why specifically... I'm gonna tell you exactly what you're gonna get here. And I'm not dazzled or smitten by the "artisticness" of this film. This "masterpiece" takes place in our main protagonists mind for 95 % of the entire film. As we all know dreams as well as nightmares consist of immaterialistic states (no solid fundament) Now...imagine a 90 minute film like that. The film is all over the place. We got symbols of nature, of chaos, of death, of religion both biblical and satanic. This all sounds interesting right. Now...imagine all this without a red line. THAT...is where the fun stops. You will have no clue as to what is going on for 70 % of the time during each scene. In regard to putting this film into perspective I'd like to highlight a little film called Haunting of the Innocent.This is ALMOST the level of sheer chaos I'm talking about. I am so tired of films that are pumped with "artictic features" to make it strike you as if the director as well as writer had great plans for it WHEREAS the execution is nothing short of mad pandemonium.In the start of the film we are explained about 1 big feature of her dreams in a way. The horse. Its meaning as a messenger of death and more. Ferryman even. But shortly afterwards we are pushed into the deep end of the pool where were struggling for breath. The film phases back and forth between her various dreams. We jump in small lengths of time.Alright. Here's what you'll see basically. We see all these various scenes jumping from mythological and biblical torture to swimming, to drowning, to near lesbian intimacy during a bathtub scene, to a demonic horse headed creature stabbing people for...reasons... to a wolf walking around without any clear point or purpose (since its her dream) And then we got a red riding hood scenario (Im not joking) Except the wolf is the good guy and it gets killed by the horse demon thing. And during this dream! You got the main protagonists mother trying to stuff her full of pills. Then she goes back to dreaming or having nightmares... and the freak show continues because....well... In the words of the show must go on? She then goes on to find a key to SOMETHING inside the wolf's body. She goes on to this big church she's near and walks inside to find the her mother giving birth to her and another child whilst Satan or someone is cursing the birth. Ultimately she uses this key which transforms into a massive object to kill the horse monster, then twist it to unlock his body to open a door which leads her to a copy or twin of herself. Probably her lost sibling we saw from her dream. Then the entire film ENDS...filming the sibling get reborn and our protagonist die.THE ENDThat, ladies and gentlemen... is my own personal definition from this moment on of what a true, certifiable mind blown experience is like. And I don't mean that positively in any regard. Holy mother of god.Now. I'd like to highlight I know the symbolic meaning of many of these animals. I appreciate the concept of compiling in a particular context. But I cannot approve of something that is executed this manner. It is mindless and utterly incomprehensible for most of the time and you will at no point be introduced to the greater meaning of ANYTHING of this. We are...(and I have no other way of putting it)... ALL over the place in this film. And as any good grammar teacher would tell you; You must have good structure and a red line through the stuff you've written because you gotta make sure people can understand it first and foremost!. Well you wont find that here. You might get smitten by what the director many included features and mind numbing visuals but you gotta ask yourself; is that really what you wanna take away from a film? Opium to numb your brain thinking you love what you just saw due to the effect? Or did you just watch an utter mess with absolutely no rime nor reason to it WHICH has zero replay value on top of it. Incomprehensible madness, ladies and gentlemen. Incomprehensible...madness. Its my opinion that if you watch something like this and you're like: ohhh and ahhh. This is some sorta masterpiece for sure. The music, the scenery, the symbolic meaning of the creatures we are introduced to is blowing my mind. I bet you are dazzled by the sheer chaoticness of this mess and not fully understanding what you are dealing with so you just rate it high because...you think its a masterpiece without TRULY grasping what you're dealing with. I cannot stress the meaning of "non-sensical" to critically significant extent. Anyway, my dear readers. That is the film. That is horse head. Evidently horse head has a symbolic meaning to it. A jail-ish symbolic gesture of a sort though I have never heard of anything of the sort. Apparently the Director and Writer have so thats fine...You have this review based on my own personal experience watching this plus some more. Judge for yourself. Have a good one guys. I gotta get some air and re-evaluate what I'm doing with my life.