Trail of the Screaming Forehead

This film pays a loving homage to classic B-movies with its wild premise of aliens called "foreheads" attaching to people's heads and transforming them into bizarrely powerful entities. As these aliens gradually take over a small American town, the locals face a series of absurd and comical challenges. The movie is filled with ridiculous scenarios, dry one-liners, and over-the-top action, making it a hilariously entertaining experience. Its embrace of B-movie tropes, combined with its sheer oddity, makes it an impressively watchable gem that celebrates the charm of so-bad-it's-good cinema.

Now I need to find Lost Skeleton of Cadavra from this director.

How anyone could give this amiable parody of a old sci-fi movies less than a grade of 7 is beyond me. Even if it's not to your taste, it's clear that the movie makers knew exactly what they were doing, and they never cheat.

I've seen all four of Larry Blamire movies (he directs, writes and produces them), and, while they're all sublime, I think this is my favorite. In addition to the wit and affection that's part and parcel of these movies, there's a cheerfulness and joy of living that I find is maybe the most appealing quality of all.

So don't miss "Trail of the Screaming Forehead" on DVD today!

I just was at the world premiere of The Trail of the Screaming Forehead at the Seattle International Film Festival (2007), and it was terrific! I was afraid that The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra would be a hard act to follow (probably the funniest movie of the new millennium)…but they did it! The writing was sharp and funny, the acting was spot-on, the cinematography was great (surreal primaries and pastels of the 1960s), even the score and lyrics were good! The audience was laughing from start to end. Larry Blamire, Jennifer Blaire, Dan Conroy and Trish Geiger were on hand for the Q&A (also very funny). And the film has special treats like animation from Ray Harryhausen, and cameos from movie icons like Dick Miller and Kevin McCarthy. Go see this movie when it comes to your town, buy it when it comes out on DVD!

This movie is a great spoof to the old sci-fi 50s movies. James Karen and Brian Howe play two great characters. From the opening song to the end 'bell routine', it had me laughing the whole way through. It is full off wit, play on words, and great color saturation. The cheesy special effects make it even more funny, especially with the makeshift spacecraft in the opening scene. The idea of hiding the foreheads is hilarious since it is painfully obvious who has been attacked and who hasn't. The best characters are the sailors who have great chemistry on the screen. If you like Larry Blamire and old sci-fi flicks then you'll love this movie. It's a must see for the whole family.

Trail of the Screaming Forehead is (I think) the 4th movie from the mind of Larry Blamire, and it's subject matter is the most eccentric yet. Basically it apes the B movies from the 1950's yet again, with the Blamire twist of more than one strand of plot happening at the same time. So this time we see a female scientist tampering with nature - she's trying to prove that human intelligence is housed in the forehead not the brain, while at the same time, as fate would have it, alien foreheads from another galaxy are invading and taking over the minds and bodies of unsuspecting humans!

The familiar cast from previous movies all return again, and not only that, they come back in this movie (See what I did there?). By now you'll have your favourites, for me it's Alison Martin, who is absolutely hysterical once again this time as the loopy librarian, and Jennifer Blaire, who again looks amazing, plus she's a very good actress and singer so I am surprised she's not seen more often. But all of the cast are great and play everything to perfection.

If anything lets the film down it's the plot, which hinges on anything associated with the forehead, so unless you find this concept funny in it's purest abstract form, you might find parts of the film bewildering. I mean, there's only so much laughter that can be extracted from the subject of foreheads! But they make a very brave attempt. There's also a slight shift in the parody aspect, as there are no more bad special effects, these have all been replaced by adequate special effects, so the humour comes from the script which is littered with just as many of the trademark stilted funny lines as before, in fact this time it feels like EVERY line of dialogue has something silly planted in it, so there's much fun to be had just by listening. I'm amazed that the cast manage to say some of them without getting them wrong.

If you've seen the Lost Skeleton movies and would like more, then this delivers, but for newcomers to this niche genre, I wouldn't start with Screaming Forehead, as it's just too plain odd to grab you as quickly as the previous three Blamire epics. Worth seeing though.