Skull Heads (Video 2009) Poster

(2009 Video)

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5/10
More of Your Standard Full Moon Stuff
gavin694210 December 2009
Warning: Spoilers
The film resolves around Naomi Arkoff, an emotionally backward young woman (Robin Sydney), who lives in a castle in Italy with her mother and her aggressive father, along with a dark secret hidden within the castle. The girl longs to visit the outside world, and the closest she is able to come to this is when a film crew arrives to use their castle for a backdrop.

"Skull Heads" is a 2009 drama/horror film written, produced and directed by Charles Band and distributed by his company Full Moon Features. As with other Full Moon films, the quality is on more of a cheese level, and there's a focus on small, doll-like creatures. In this case, "skull heads"... which have no real purpose to the plot, aside from showing up at the end for a bit of a twist that wasn't even really necessary. Like "Dangerous Worry Dolls", Band actually had a decent story without the need for dolls or other creatures. He could have perhaps been taken more seriously by making a straight story.

There are some good elements to this movie. It is humorous if you recognize that Full Moon films are a special kind of picture. There's a bestiality joke or two in there. But mostly, it's recycled Charles Band at its best. The same castle he used in countless films for over twenty years now (his family's real Italian castle). The same Richard Band score from countless other films. And Robin Sydney, who seems to be his regular go-to girl now. Not that I'm complaining.

Robin Sydney gets nekkid! Now, that's all fine and good. She's a beautiful woman (and really nice, too... I encourage everyone to meet her). It's just odd that she chose to do so now, after years of being in these films. I hope she isn't trying to get noticed. We love you, Robin, with or without your clothes.

The best thing I can say about "Skull Heads" is that it has awesome bonus features with Jeffrey Combs, Barbara Crampton and Stuart Gordon being interviewed by William Shatner. It's pretty bizarre to see all these people in one room. I presume this is cut from another DVD (the Shatner Christmas special?), but if you haven't seen it, it's really a gem and I'm excited that it made the disc.

A reviewer from France commented that, "Instead of watching this try blowing yourself". And, typically, I would give a similar assessment. Except that I knew going in to the film that I was going to get pretty much exactly what I got. And with that mindset, it's not all that bad. Certainly not half as bad as "Gingerdead Man". I laughed a bit, I enjoyed some alcoholic beverages, and it went alright. You might want to do the same, but only if you go in prepared.
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3/10
Thanks, Full Moon
Heislegend12 November 2009
Warning: Spoilers
No, not thanks for a good movie. Thank you for so consistently showing me what true crap can be. And while I'm thinking about it, what's up with your weird, almost fetishistic, obsession with small weird things? It seems like pretty much every Full Moon production I've ever seen revolved around small, odd creatures. A unique gimmick, to be sure...but isn't there more to making movies?

Oh right...a synopsis.Basically this is a "criminals run afoul of a weird family" kind of movie where, of course, the criminals have the tables turned on them. The extra bit of spice thrown in are the "skull heads", tiny spirits (ok...really they're just crappy little dolls) who are supposed to protect the castle the family lives in (huh?). You might be wondering why a European castle is occupied by a crass American white trash father and his inexplicably hot and intelligent wife, but you really SHOULD be wondering why the hell your DVD player is still on.

I think I've already given this movie more time than it's worth. Don't watch it. Period.
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3/10
Charles Band should be banned
JoeB1312 May 2010
Warning: Spoilers
I think once upon a time, this guy had something, when he produced things like the original puppet-master series. He did passable direct to video (now I guess direct to DVD) horror.

This movie is just a confused mess. The big shock reveal is that (spoiler) Naomi's parents are brother and sister. Of course, even an inbred retard could have figured that one out in the first few minutes. Oh, and the brother has a thing for sheep, apparently.

They have these puppets that are like the ones in puppet master, except they don't do anything particularly interesting.

The plot (again, VERY predictable) is that a group of art thieves want to raid the place, they pose as movie producers, and hilarity ensues. But the whole thing is rather boring.
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2/10
Weird, but not good weird.
MikeHunt10754 November 2009
Warning: Spoilers
When I was reading that this movie is made by the same people who made the Puppetmaster series, I thought this may be a cool little movie to check out. How wrong and mislead I was.

The film is about a family that live in a castle somewhere in Italy. They are somewhat a family something like the Addams Family but not as bizarre as more just insane. The father of family does not take kindly to strangers, and wants his free spirit daughter to be kept isolated from the outside world. However the castle is visited by 3 people who claim they want to inspect the castle for a Hollwood film, the father says no, but the daughter ends up inviting them over for dinner, and there real agenda begins to unfold. A story that is told by the mother to the three is that the castle is protected by these guardian angels known as The Skull Heads. And they have the ability to bring back the dead if necessary, but will not harm anyone unless they are evil.

Now if that plot sounds stupid, it's because it is. These Skull Head puppets they use in the film almost have no purpose at all in the film, they look silly, and if they decided to cut there scenes out, and just call the movie something else, it might make a little more sense then why the whole movie is supposed to be based around these things that have probably a total of 5 to 10 mins in the whole movie.

Fans of the Puppetmaster series, like myself, will be really disappointment in this movie. It wont surprise me if anyone who watches this movie will see the end credits start rolling, leaving you sitting there thinking, "Is that it?" it's like someone pulled the plug on making the rest of the movie and printed what they had done so far for a release. I highly doubt it will get a sequel as this one is not going to make very much from sales and will not generate much interest from anyone who doesn't know it's relation to the Puppetmasters. However, even the puppetry in this movie from 2009 is a really poor effort compared to even the original Puppetmaster movie... I think even Howdy Doody looked more appealing then the things in this movie.

The acting of the film is also off. The father seemed to be trying to act like Robert England, but not doing a good job of making his character believable enough, you hate him one minute, then not the next, and it really felt out of balance for a horror movie. The mother was also the same, she does things that makes her seem sweet and kind, then other things that make no sense why she is so snobby. The daughter is just weird going from normal to a little girl to a nut case and round and round. The uncle is something you expect to go a different way by the end, but doesn't, the chefs of the house do a decent job for there role, and the 3 hollyweeders who come to check out the place seemed OK for a while, then got too goofy by the end... tho the end of it was really goofy anyway so i don't expect any other actor would have taken these roles seriously either.

Overall, it might sound good to try and take a family like The Addams and incorporate PuppetMaster into it, but this movie will show you exactly how not to do it. The plot is weird, things don't make sense, things where not needed, like the Skull Heads themselves and the daughters time wasting nude scene, the acting goes from decent to bad, too many things left unanswered, or just should not have been there in the first place if it doesn't play out later, I could go on, but just take my word, if you are going to check this film out, don't have high expectations, it is a real let down.

What they should do, is cut out the highly unneeded and useless nude scene, give it a PG rating and let.... no, hang on, even kids would find this movie stupid.
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Skull Heads is the best film I've ever see (but, that's because I just drank a family sized bottle of robitussin)!
kylemacabre4 November 2009
Warning: Spoilers
OK, first things first. "Skull Heads" is redundant. Most skulls are located in the head. That said, this movie-film is idiotic-stupid. There's a bratty 30 year old daughter who actually slaps herself in the head and murmurs "I'm so stupid" over and over again. A retarded half brother who cries over his beloved lamb (lunch). A snobby mother who seems more white trash than upper class. And the Dad (he's a real piece of work) who seem to have gone to the dad from Texas chainsaw massacre school of acting. It kind of reeks of regional theater at the community center in Coos Bay, Oregon or Flagstaff, Arizona. The movie puts on all these airs, Poe is recited by people who couldn't deliver a line to save their career. Oh god, it's awful and someone spent money on this. Instead of watching this try blowing yourself.
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2/10
Yeah...
BandSAboutMovies26 August 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Written, produced and directed by Charles Band - I mean, it has small puppet-like killers and how can we even keep track of the demonic toys, devil dolls, worry dolls and skull heads at this point; also why was this not called Skull Headz and part of Full Moon's urban films? - this movie starts by having Naomi Arkoff gettingis tortured on a rack for having a cell phone. Obviously, the Arkoff family is non-traditional and they also live in a castle in Italy, which would be the other Charles Band leitmotif.

Those little tiny Skull Heads protect the Arkoff family. Originally, the Romans buried the dead in catacombs and built the home that they live in to guard against grave robbers. And the little guys were created by witchcraft to keep people from messing with the dead.

Can you guess that the Hollywood producers who come to film the castle really want to steal what's inside the tomb? Also, you may not realize it, but you're going to watch a family drama that goes on for nearly an hour before the occult comes in, which is...well, it's exactly the kind of movie I expect from this studio.

Beyond finding this movie under another title - Devious - this also shows up in a cut-down remix within Full Moon's The Haunted Dollhouse. It may actually be better in this short format because it cuts out all the real people and gets us to what we really want: Skull Heads.
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2/10
Great concept, Poor execution
mrbiteypants-954249 February 2024
Warning: Spoilers
Loved the concept for this movie and the skull heads themselves, But god, This was such a boring, weird, gross, and lousy movie. I don't mind twist endings but this movies twist ending was disappointing. That fact that Naomi wanted to leave so bad at the beginning, But then right at the end didn't, makes no sense whatsoever. Not to mention, the skull heads were barely in the damn thing, they didn't even kill anyone. I'm a huge full moon fan, Na do love a lot of their movies. But this had to have been the biggest disappointment from full moon, That I've seen so far. The movie gets 2 stars for pity.
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5/10
SCREAMS IS THE MUSIC OF THE DEAD
nogodnomasters23 April 2019
Warning: Spoilers
This is a Charles Band film. He has made over 300 horror films (Puppet Master, Killjoy etc.) and has a cult following. There are three characteristics of his films:

1) comedy 2) Bad props 3) pretty topless women (Robin Sydney in this case)

An odd-ball American family lives in a castle in Italy. The brother Peter (Giacomo Gonnella) is a bit of a half-wit. The parents are strict on Naomi (Robin Sydney) who we first see on a torture rake for having a cell phone...something she considers normal. Three outsiders show up claiming they want to shoot a film. They are told of the "Protectors" or skull heads who watch over them.

This film has been around under different titles and is on at least two multi-packs that I know about. The acting is typical for this type of production. The props were indeed cheesy. The dialogue, I liked at times as mom read Poe as if she had it memorized "And all I loved, I loved alone..."

Guide: F-bomb and Nudity
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