82 - Headspace

    I have some strongly mixed feelings about this movie.  It's a bit low-budget, but they did a great job with the limited resources.
    The opening shot of the movie is really nicely done.  Then we jump back in time to an idyllic family birthday party for a kid.  The mother gets an unexpected nosebleed.  Then that evening, she's found having killed and possibly eaten part of their dog.  During the night, the father comes in, wakes up the boys, and has them pack up to leave.  Their mother poses a risk to them.  As they are set to leave, the father shoots the mother.
    We jump forward about 10 years, if not a little more.
    At this point, the plot deals with one of the sons having a strange existence.  He seems to have unpredictable headaches.  His brain doesn't work the same as other people.  It's all very mysterious, until around the half hour mark, and then there's a massive change in the tone of the movie.
    It turns into a monster movie.  We get to see people killed off by monsters that look pretty cheap (actually, I kept thinking that the monster costume looked like something from Tales From the Darkside).  Despite this change to the movie, it remains pretty interesting.  There's a lot of overly dramatic yelling, but it doesn't feel too bad, since everyone seems to be confused and a bit disturbed.
    There was a pretty long sex scene, which felt very out-of-place.  I'm not sure why it was there, either.  The main character spends the whole thing peeking in on his friend, so it has a creepiness that also didn't feel fitting.
    Then came the ending.  The ending never felt like it was earned.  The setup, and the nice sense of mystery didn't deserve this sort of ending.  It wasn't a horrible decision or anything, it just wasn't up to the level it should have reached.  I think a quality ending could have really made the whole thing hang together nicely.

    The movie also has a lot of familiar faces in it - Olivia Hussey, who played Audra in IT.  William Atherton, who I know best as the bad guy in Real Genius.  Sean Young has a brief part.  The memorable Udo Kier shows up as a reverend.  I always remember his appearance in the Masters of Horror episode Cigarette Burns.