After his daughter was killed by a monster, a beefy barbarian type dedicated his life to killing monsters, keeping their heads as trophies. Years later, he gets his revenge against the one that killed his child, but when he brings its head back to his cottage, things don’t go well. The magic poultice he has been using to heal himself from all the otherwise mortal wounds he receives fighting monsters—and yes, this includes werewolves—ends up reanimating the head, which crawls off in search of a body—any body—and revenge. Yes, THE HEAD HUNTER is, despite its Fantasy trappings, pure Horror movie.
The drawbacks? It’s a little slow; the pace really doesn’t pick up until the monster’s head starts moving around on its own. And while actor Christopher Rygh is fine in the lead role, he has the whole movie to himself. (His daughter is seen briefly at the beginning, otherwise this is a one-character show. Unless you count the reanimated head.) This, and the film’s short runtime and sparse dialogue—this one could have been done as a silent film and it would have worked just as well—limit the amount of character development he can be given. Lastly, the movie’s micro-budget means that none of the fights with monsters (save for a brief struggle with the head that has reanimated his dead daughter’s bones, which is really just Rygh wrestling with a mannequin in dim lighting) or any of the other action, is seen onscreen. That said, the filmmakers made the most out of every penny they had to spend. THE HEAD HUNTER is simply gorgeous to look at, and what little there is in the way of FX is well done.
Yeah, you’ll like this one, if you don’t expect too much from it in the way of bells and whistles.