Here we have yet another Full Moon Entertainment production from Charles Band. Doing the directing is Richard Elfman, the brother of Danny who does the music here along with Richard Band who is a frequent contributor to Full Moon and his brother Charles. It’s a friggin’ family affair here. The plot centers around three nerdy teenagers who are killed by members of a street gang named The Vipers. The main stars though aren’t really the three boys or the members of the street gang.
Starring as Mr. Sumatra is Julius Harris (Live and Let Die, Super Fly, and Black Caesar) in his final film roll. Mr. Sumatra is an ex Haitian police officer who runs a news stand. After Tommy, Billy, and Freddie are murdered Sumatra performs a voodoo ritual and reanimates the boys as shrunken heads, hence the title. Meg Foster (They Live, The Lords of Satan, and 31) is Big Mo, the crime boss who gives The Vipers their marching orders. Starring as Sally is Rebecca Herbst who is most well-known for starring as Elizabeth Webber in the soap opera General Hospital. Now Sally is Vinnie’s girlfriend, but she secretly has a crush on Tommy, even after he is reduced to a shrunken head, she still helps him get revenge on Vinnie and the rest of Big Mo’s gang.
Now the three shrunken heads aren’t just your normal run of the mill shrunken heads that you can pick up at Toys R Us for ten bucks a pop, these guys have superpowers. Tommy shoots electricity, Bill is a vampire shrunken head, and Freddie unleashes a switchblade from his mouth. Shrunken Heads isn’t going to blow your mind. If you know anything about Charles Band or Full Moon you know what to expect. And Shrunken Heads delivers. Unfortunately this is probably one of Full Moon’s best films to never get a sequel. For a film that had a difficult time with funding, Shrunken Heads looks like an 80’s superhero film. Only problem is it was made in the mid 90’s. I will go with three Folger’s coffee cans out of five for this surprisingly fun dark comedy from Uncle Charlie Band. This one come with a huge your mileage may vary (YMMV) warning.
I remember quite liking this one when I saw it eons ago. I concur that it's better than it ought be.
ReplyDeleteDude - You sold me on this one multiple times. Looks like fun nonsense. And Rebecca Herbst? Love her from GH. I'm in.
ReplyDeleteJoe, I like her too and she looks very nice here but I think she's only like 16 or 17 so she's a very young Elizabeth Webber.
ReplyDeleteCerpts, even though this was made in '94 it looks like a superhero movie directed by Joel Schumacher and now that I've looked it up the Batman movie that has the same color pallet as Shrunken Heads is from '95 a year AFTER this was made. Still feels like an '80s movie to me.