Head of the Family is an American 1996 B movie black comedy released by Full Moon Features. It concerns a Southern couple who blackmail a family of mutants to get money and revenge.[1]
| Head of the Family | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Charles Band (as Robert Talbot) |
| Screenplay by | Benjamin Carr |
| Produced by | Charles Band Kirk Edward Hansen |
| Starring | Blake Adams Jacqueline Lovell J.W. Perra Bob Schott Alexandria Quinn |
| Music by | Richard Band Steven Morell |
Production companies | Full Moon Entertainment Tanna Productions |
| Distributed by | The Kushner-Locke Company |
Release date |
|
Running time | 82 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Plot
editHoward is the meanest nastiest thug in town, a Harley riding criminal with an attractive wife named Loretta. Loretta's problem is that she is having an affair with Lance, owner of the town diner and Howard is getting suspicious.
Driving back from one of their nightly flings, Lance witnesses the local family of weirdos, the Stackpools, dragging a man from his truck and into their house. Seeing this as an opportunity, Lance discovers the Stackpools' terrible secret. They are quadruplets, and each was born with one exaggerated human faculty: One is extremely strong, one has extremely well-developed senses, one is extremely attractive, and one is extremely intelligent. The whole family is run by the intelligent one, the titular "head of the family": Myron. Little more than a giant head with hands in a wheelchair, Myron psychically controls his other siblings, but seeks more. When idiotic locals fall for his trap, he experiments on their brains, trying to find a normal body to house his superior intellect.
Lance blackmails the Stackpools with their secret, getting them to kill Howard. He also demands $2,000 a week in cash, since the Stackpools are rich in oil and coal, among other things. Eventually Myron tires of Lance's bottom-feeding, and captures him and Loretta, to get them to destroy the evidence of their secret. To force Lance's hand, he puts Loretta in a mock play of Joan of Arc in the basement, complete with a burning at the stake. Otis, seeing the "pretty girl" in trouble, carries her off before she can be hurt, and burns the house down. With the Stackpools and Lance dead, the ever scheming Loretta realizes that Otis Stackpool, as the sole survivor, is heir to the family riches. She marries him, inheriting all the Stackpool fortunes and becoming Loretta Stackpool. The ending, however, suggests that Myron is still alive and is controlling Otis from the shadows.
Cast
edit- Blake Adams as Lance
- Jacqueline Lovell as Loretta
- J.W. Perra as Myron
- Bob Schott as Otis
- Alexandria Quinn as Ernestina
- Gordon Jennison Noice as Howard
- James Jones as Wheeler
Sequel
editPlans for a sequel titled Bride of the Head of Family date back to as early as 1997, when Charles Band first mentioned it in the Videozone for The Creeps. stating that it was intended as Full Moon's next release before Curse of the Puppet Master.[2] This project never materialized.
Promotional material for a new version of Bride of the Head of Family was released on February 14, 2020. This was promoted as a part of the Deadly Ten series[3] and was set to be directed by Charles Band. The plot of the film will follow the events of the previous film.[4]
References
edit- ^ Robert Firsching. "Head of the Family". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2016-01-16.
- ^ "Videozone | the Creeps | Horror Comedy | Rhonda Griffin | Justin Lauer | Charles Band". YouTube. 19 September 2022.
- ^ "Bride of the Head of the Family". deadlyten.com.
- ^ "Bride of the Head of the Family (2020) - Movie". Archived from the original on February 16, 2023.