Head of the Family (1996)

Charles Band's Full Moon Pictures had its heyday in the early 1990s.  By the middle of the decade I had stopped watching many of the films because they became an endless stream of one property versus another.  While many of them sound interesting the good ideas didn't go further than the titles.  Still, occasionally something intriguing popped up, even if it still wasn't very good.

Lance (Blake Adams) has a major problem.  Local gangster Howard Oates (Gordon Jennison Noice) is married to Lance's girlfriend, Loretta (Jacqueline Lovell).  The lovers are afraid of what may happen if Howard finds out, so Loretta convinces Lance to kill him.  He is reluctant because he is sure everything will lead back to them but comes up with an idea when he sees a strange local family abduct a man and decides to use that as blackmail.  

The family is the Stackpooles, consisting of four siblings: the super-strong Otis (Bob Schott), the hypersensitive Wheeler (James Jones), the irresistible Ernestina (Alexandria Quinn) and the titular head and brains of the family, Myron (J.W. Perra).  Lance comes up with a plan to have Howard dealt with while making himself rich on the side courtesy of the Stackpooles.  What he doesn't understand is that Myron has big dreams and, to him, this is just one more minor inconvenience.

This is played more as a strange comedy rather than straight horror.  Charles Band himself directs under a pseudonym, and a good amount of the first half of the movie deals with the love triangle.  Although Jacqueline Lovell is naked through a good part of the film it is filled to the rim with exposition whether she has her clothes on or not.  It takes a while to introduce Myron and, as a pleasant surprise, he doesn't disappoint.  The makeup work is well done, and Band obviously spent most of the budget on it because Wheeler just gets novelty store eyes for his big reveal. 

Even though the second half gets much better there is still much more talk than action.  Myron ultimately reminds me of the Brain from the classic cartoon, with the same penchant for world domination.  It also feels like Band had a good idea for a villain but not enough script, as many scenes in the movie seem to be there to try to stretch this out to 80 minutes.  That's disappointing as this could have been the surreal horror comedy Band wanted with just a bit more effort into the script before filming.  

There is still some fun to be found and, supposedly, a sequel is in the works.  However, it still does not stand up to many of the more ambitious films Band was directing and producing earlier in the decade. 

Head of the Family (1996)

Time: 82 minutes

Starring: Blake Adams, Jacqueline Lovell, Gordon Johnson Noice, J.W. Perra

Director: Charles Band