Product Details

• Actors: Ross Partridge, Steve Zissis, Greta Gerwig, Elise Muller, Jett Garner
• Directors: Jay Duplass, Mark Duplass
• Writers: Jay Duplass, Mark Duplass
• Producers: Jay Duplass, Mark Duplass, Jen Tracy, John E. Bryant
• Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English
• Subtitles: French
• Region: Region 1 encoding (US and Canada only)
  PLEASE NOTE: Some Region 1 DVDs may contain Regional Coding Enhancement (RCE). Some, but not all, of our international customers have had problems playing these enhanced discs on what are called "region-free" DVD players. For more information on RCE, click here.
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Sony Pictures
• DVD Release Date: December 27, 2008
• Run Time: 84 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B001ILHY3G
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #49,478 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Baghead" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

In their indie sensation The Puffy Chair, writer/directors Mark and Jay Duplass used the retrieval of a piece of furniture to explore the relationship between a close-knit trio. Their studio follow-up represents something both fresh and familiar. Not to be confused with the children's book of the same name, Baghead retains their emphasis on character over plot mechanics, but this time they infuse their humorous approach with horror overtones. Matt (Ross Partridge), Chad (Steve Zissis), Catherine (Elise Muller), and Michelle (Greta Gerwig, who appears with Mark Duplass in Hannah Takes the Stairs) work as extras in Los Angeles. Matt convinces them to accompany him to his family cabin to write a script in which they all get to star. As they collaborate, it becomes apparent that Chad has eyes for Michelle and that Matt and Catherine have been an on-and-off thing for years. The screenplay becomes an excuse to organize their personal and professional lives, until Michelle spots a man with a brown paper bag on his head skulking in the woods. Is he a manifestation of the emotions roiling between the quartet, a psychotic killer, or a friend playing a cruel trick? Baghead turns into a frisky take on The Blair Witch Project, except the Duplass Brothers have more than thrills in mind, since it takes a spooky dude to remind these self-absorbed actors about the importance of friendship. The concept may be slight and the execution rudimentary, but the makers of Baghead have devised an unexpectedly poignant romp. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Amazon.com
What does one make of a movie whose plot revolves around second-rate actors who scare each other by wearing bags on their heads? This conundrum and more are exploited to strong effect by young directing team Mark and Jay Duplass, in their low-budget, grade Z cult comedy, Baghead. This follow up to their debut effort, The Puffy Chair, stars two couples who head to their parents’ cabin in an attempt to make their own horror film free from the constraints of the film industry. Brothers, Matt (Ross Partridge) and Chad (Steve Zissis), host bimbos Michelle (Greta Gerwig) and Catherine (Elise Muller) on a weekend adventure that is less than intellectually stimulating. As sexual tensions increase, brown paper bags are busted out and the characters seek revenge upon each other by pretending to be masked peeping toms. This meta-narrative of a movie about the making of the movie is further confused when the bunch suspects that there is an extra baghead on the scene, a really psychotic one. A few actually scary moments add gusto to this film that mostly feels like a po’ man’s rendition of Blair Witch Project, with its hand-held camera stylings. Highlights throughout involve Chad, the nerdier, uglier brother who manages many funny lines and boosts the humor bigtime. That Baghead is a fairly terrible film, with slow, moronic dialogue and long scenes in which little or nothing happens, may well be intentional. It’s impossible to judge. Baghead is so ripe with irony that it bags the idea that it’s cool to strive towards making a fine film, and the story gives up on trying to be good before it even tries. The characters start washed-up and stay washed-up, as does the movie. But this strange resignation that makes Baghead awful is also what makes it conceptually unique; the Duplass brothers did, after all, complete the film and release it. One wonders why directors bother making a movie that presumes itself worthy of wearing a baghead? This is Baghead’s virtue—it left me feeling as if I had a bag over my head, dumb for missing some bit of subversive genius. --Trinie Dalton

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Filmmakers Mark and Jay Duplass have written a celebrity blog for us to promote their new film, Baghead.

Why the hell are we trying to make a horror film about a guy with a paper bag on his head? This, even more than “to be or not to be” was the question for myself and my brother Jay going into shooting Baghead. We had just come off of our first micro-budget feature The Puffy Chair, a sensitive, funny, quirky relationship movie that wowed Sundance, sold big, played incredibly well in theaters, DVD, and TV, and gained us favor in the indie world the world over. So, again, why would we be so stupid as to make a horror movie based around a guy with a bag on his head?

I’m still not quite sure. When I look back, what we should have done is clear… we should have made another relationship movie to cash in on Puffy’s success. But, we were compelled to make Baghead, so we did it. And then something really interesting happened. We discovered that we are hopelessly and helplessly ourselves on set. For example, even if something terrifying was happening in the horror plot, we couldn’t help training the camera on all of the little personal dynamics happening among the 4 lead characters, just like we did on The Puffy Chair. No matter how eerie or cool-looking our lighting got, we were infinitely more obsessed with the chubby guy whose advances were being rejected by the hottie girl.

About a week into filming, we realized we had something VERY different on our hands. We had a horror movie shell… “guy with bag on head comes to get 4 people in a cabin in the woods.” We all know this set-up, right? Not too original. But, we were making a highly sensitive relationship dramedy inside of this horror film because, in the end, that’s what Jay and I know how to do best and that’s what we love showing.

So, basically, we started panicking. How do you make a movie work that’s scary, funny, and (ultimately) endearing and touching as we understand the nature of our desperate, sweet, tragically flawed lead characters? The answer was… I hope we don’t @&*# it up.

On week 2, we happened to catch a glimpse of the film Saw on TV, and it became clearer to us how Baghead could be a really interesting film for this time frame in cinema. Saw is great in its own right, but it’s mean, it’s gory, and it’s not really scary. Somehow, the crazy sound design, gore, and effects, took the film further and further away from being actually scary. Whereas, with Baghead, we somehow stumbled into something genuinely frightening, with our $50,000 budget, no sound f/x, no score, no make-up… just a ridiculous paper bag and the question of “who the hell is under that bag?” So, we started to feel smart. Confident. Inspired in new ways. We even waxed philosophical about how brilliant we were to “come up with his concept” (that we totally lucked into, btw)…

On week 3, we finished the shoot and all looked at each other a little shell shocked. What did we just do? Is this movie even gonna work? Cut to a year later. We’re opening the film at the Sundance Film Festival and every buyer is calling us, making insanely inflated offers, asking us how we came up with such a brilliant, genre-smashing concept.

I guess it kinda comes down to the old adage our dad used to tell us… “I’d rather be lucky than good.”

--Mark & Jay Duplass

Product Description

While the Duplass Brothers were shooting their last feature film The Puffy Chair, a crew member raised the question "what's the scariest thing you can think of?" Someone immediately said "a guy with a bag on his head staring into your window." Some agreed, but some thought it was downright ridiculous and, if anything, funny (but definitely not scary). Thus, Baghead was born, an attempt to take the absurdly low-concept idea of a "guy with a bag on his head" and make a funny, truthful, endearing film that, maybe, just maybe, was a little bit scary, too.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The very low budget film gets a good treatment on DVD, December 30, 2008

By	Dennis A. Amith (kndy) (California) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

Robert Rodriguez was among the first that truly was an inspiration of creating movies with a low budget. It just takes some creation and a well-written story and who knows where it can take you.

For the Duplass Brothers, independent filmmakers known for their hit "The Puffy Chair" comes "BAGHEAD", a low-budget horror film that parodies horror films but manages to captivate you with its humor, awkwardness and it stars the queen of mumblecore.

The film stars Ross Partridge, Steve Zissis, Greta Gerwik and Elise Muller as four actors who have not really had any success in their acting careers. After watching a friend's mumblecore (note: a term that means ultra low-budget, shot with a home digital camera) film at an underground film festival, the four decide to write a screenplay but star each of them. So, they decide to go on a retreat to work on this script in a cabin at Big Bear and hopefully it will jumpstart their careers.

The four main characters are:

Matt (Ross Partridge) is the cool guy. He has an off-and-on relationship with Catherine but really wants to make his acting career happen.

Chad (Steve Zissis) is Matt's best friend, also a fellow actor. Low-self esteem, really digs his date Michelle and worried that his best friend Matt may have sex with her.

Catherine (Elise Mueller) is Matt's on-and-off girlfriend and an actress who is not quite happy where her career is, especially as she gets older.

Michelle (Greta Gerwig) is Chad's date and wants to have sex with Matt.

The four try to come up with a script but somehow some are into it and some are not and have difficulty coming up with ideas. Michelle who gets a bit drunk doesn't feel well and goes outside to puke and then she sees a person with a bag in his head. Michelle tells everyone that there is a guy out there with a bag on his head but no one believes her. If anything, Matt feels that a serial killer wearing a bag on his head would make a great script.

But as the four start to flesh out the script, Michelle secretly gives Matt a letter that she wants to see him in her bedroom. While Michelle waits for him, she sees a man but with a bag on his head. Michelle gets scared out of her wits and tells Matt but Matt said he didn't do it and said maybe Catherine did it and thus everyone starts to accuse someone of being the person with a bag on his head.

Next thing you know, the following morning Catherine is missing and then Chad is missing. Perhaps there is a real serial killer outside the cabin who is wearing a bag over his head...

The film, being low-budget, doesn't rely on having much but reliable lighting, camera work that is quite shaky and it seems there is an actual fifth person in the room filming them with a digital camera and good editing to make sure that the cut scenes are done right.

After watching "BAGHEAD", I was actually quite pleased with what the Duplass Brothers were able to come up with. A well-thought out script that was improvised with what the crew had at their disposal, it came together pretty well. Also, the actors seem like friends and not actors trying to act like actors. I hope that makes sense but to simply explain it, these characters are real, genuine people that I can imagine myself meeting at a Hollywood party and talking about creating a script and acting in it (albeit to make their IMDB profile look great).

But overall, Mark and Jay Duplass manages to create a fun film that I enjoyed more on DVD courtesy of their commentary and special features.

VIDEO & AUDIO:

The DVD is presented in 1:78:1 anamorphic widescreen. Because this is a low-budget film, I was not exactly looking for any superb video quality or audio quality. Audio is primarily dialogue and you can hear them clearly.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The DVD has a few special features:

* Commentary with Directors/Writers Mark Duplass and Jay Duplass - I have to admit that it was a blast to hear these two talk about the film. Knowing about the challenges and their feelings about the actors and actresses and overall their film. Knowing how they had plans to have a certain scene but due to losing a light, they had to come up with a different storyline. Knowing about certain scenes they cut out and most of all, learning things what potential filmmakers want to hear in a commentary.
* Mark and Jay Duplass Answers Questions They've Already Answered - This was also fun to watch as the two had their baby daughters with them. How cool is that! The two take their top 10 questions typically asked to them at the film festival circuit and re-answers them for the viewers. Questions such as "What was your budget?", "You two are brothers, can you stand working with each other throughout the film?", etc. And again, like the film itself, these guys are real, not spoiled by the industry and just tells it like it is and often playing with their children during the interview. Overall, quite fun to watch.
* Baghead Scares - Not sure if there was a contest online for this or it was purely user submitted but this special feature shows a few people scaring their families or people on the street wearing a bag over their heads.

For me, having had worked on a low-budget project before, I've always looked at Indie films especially mumblecore type of films to be quite fun. In this case, the Duplas Brothers manage to come up with a low budget horror film, not horror as you may think of in terms of gore and violence but just more or less, a storyline that is quite freaky right until the end.

Interesting ways of how you point fingers at each character of possibly being the baghead or wondering how dark or twisted the film could get but in the end, this film is more or less a comedy. A lot of laughs, a lot of fun and for a low-budget film, I have to give the Duplass Brothers some props for working out the cut scenes quite well and really, come up with a solid story without not having the big Hollywood budget.

But most of all, managing to create a film that has a good balance of humor, horror and a bit of campiness but yet effectively telling a story without a multi-million dollar budget. An enjoyable film on DVD worth checking out!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Little Film, June 16, 2009

By	David Butler (Winter Park, FL, USA) - See all my reviews

I did not know what to expect before viewing this picture, but I was very pleasantly surprised. This little low-budget gem is well-made, with great actors in the leads and a build up to a very satisfying conclusion.

Following a film festival, four friends travel to a distant cabin to brainstorm ideas for their very own screenplay. On the first night, one of the girls has a dream where she sees a man wearing a brown paper bag over his head watching her from behind some bushes. After telling her companions, they decide to use the dream as the basis for their movie. Before their story can even get off the ground, they each come to believe that they really are being stalked by a man wearing a bag over his head. Then things get pretty intense...

Though the set-up might sound like that of some lame slasher flick, nothing could be further from the truth. At its heart, this movie is about the relationships between the characters. Strained friendships and potential love connections make the audience care about the characters just in time for things to get spooky.

The Duplass Brothers do a super job of both establishing the leads' relationships and maintaining the tension. The story keeps you guessing until the end. If you like Baghead, consider renting their earlier effort The Puffy Chair. Enjoy!

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars If you like indie films, December 28, 2008

By	Jeffery Mingo (Homewood, IL USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Warning: while there is some nudity in this film, the cover suggests an orgy-like celebration of flesh and that doesn't happen here. From the jump, this film celebrates being able to make films on the cheap. Fair enough! Still, this film takes a bit from Blair Witch, Fargo, them Jason movies, etc. A true film expert may find this very derivative. What I did enjoy is how the film investigates a love square, not just a love triangle. A man plays a guitar and sings, "You are so hot!" and the targeted woman burps in response. Whether in film or real life, there is a way that people symbolically push away romantic pursuers. It pained me to see the chubby guy being limited to being "just a friend" and I felt for all his insecurities. It took guts for this chubby actor to play that type of role along with his real-life brother who is thin, and probably deemed more worthy of romantic interest. Also, there is a scene outside a club that is beyond hilarious! I mean, you can't go wrong seeing this indie film, but don't expect to be moved in a "Sex, Lies, and Videotape" or "Joy Luck Club" type of way.