Headspace (2005)

25-year-old Alex Borden is handsome, charming, and intelligent. In fact, he may be too smart for his own good as his life is swiftly becoming a living hell. Alex's nightmare begins when he ... See full summary »

Director:

Andrew van den Houten

Writers:

Steve Klausner, Troy McCombs (story),

Stars:

Olivia Hussey, William Atherton, Sean Young

Cast

Credited cast:
Olivia Hussey	...	Dr. Karen Murphy
William Atherton	...	Dr. Ira Gold
Sean Young	...	Mother
Mark Margolis	...	Boris Pavlovsky
Larry Fessenden	...	Father
Erick Kastel	...	Harry Jellenik
Dee Wallace	...	Dr. Denise Bell (as Dee Wallace-Stone)
Udo Kier	...	Rev. Karl Hartman
Christopher Denham	...	Alex Borden
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Karen Anderson	...	Desk Nurse
Jeanette Arnone	...	Mother (KGB Lab)
David Austin	...	Female Creature
Elwaldo Baptiste	...	Highwater, Guard #1
Teodorina Bello	...	Hospital Cleaning Lady
Stephen Benson	...	Social Worker

Storyline

25-year-old Alex Borden is handsome, charming, and intelligent. In fact, he may be too smart for his own good as his life is swiftly becoming a living hell. Alex's nightmare begins when he meets Harry, a mysterious artist and chess-master. Alex becomes alarmed when his intellect mysteriously begins to grow, and so do the horrors that invade his nightmares, and soon his waking hours. Long-suppressed memories surface and Alex must face the terrors of his violent past, a vanished older brother, a father who abandoned both his sons, and a mother who was viciously murdered. The visions intensify and he begins to experience intense headaches that ultimately cause him to blackout. But it is only the beginning of Alex's calamity. Friends and neighbors are disappearing, and people are whispering rumors of a serial killer. Menaced from all sides by the forces of evil, Alex must overcome his past and contain his own deadly urges so he can hopefully discover what demons, both real and imagined, ...

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Plot Keywords:

chess | male nudity | homosexual | bare breasts | church | 

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Taglines:

Fear. It's All In Your Head.

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Genres:

Horror | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong horror violence/gore, sexuality and language

Details

Official Sites:

Official site Official Soundtrack site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

18 September 2005 (USA)

Also Known As:

Headspace: El rostro del mal

Filming Locations:

Katonah, New York, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Modernciné, Modern Headspace Productions LLC

Technical Specs

Runtime:

89 min 84 min (Director's Cut) 95 min (International)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Goofs

When Alex discovers his dead brother, he throws up in the sink then stumbles over the body, and picks up a blue bottle containing alcohol. In the following scenes, that same bottle reappears then disappears in the spot where Alex moved it from.

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Connections

Followed by Fractured Skulls: The Making of Headspace (2006)

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Soundtracks

"WHAT IS IT"
Performed by Phonodrive
Under License From Sonic Boom Records
Written by Peter Oertl and Niclas Ulitzka
Published by Tunefish / Universal Music Publishing

User Reviews

Your eyes are bleeding...

HeadSpace There is always a certain urge, controllable, yet always persistent in everyday thoughts that deviates from the norm, sets itself at a distance and realizes the ridiculousness of common event. The urge, it takes it's shape as a distortion, an unrealistic fascination that changes our perception of a constant moment. This quandary of the human mind is a focus of the horror genre.

It takes a lot of guts, so to say, to step into the horror genre, but not a lot of wit. Anyone is capable of tricking someone else, easy to pop out behind a closed door, simple even to cue the wolf's howl on a dark moonlit night. The movies, then, that truly stand out in horror, are those that not only stay on a well-founded formula, but continue the internal analytic deviation in the voyeur's eyes by stretching the limits of what is believable.

Then, there are the movies, such as Houten's HeadSpace, starring Christopher Denham, that go and above and beyond the dilemma of how to make a monster unbelievably horrific, but to make the story real, to take back that previously forsaken realm of storytelling. Without abandoning the human emotions of empathy, sympathy, and character attachment, HeadSpace delivers a full force horror entourage. The most actually interesting thing about the story, aside from the numerous sub-plots, is that the story on paper, might even sound believable for a moment. The only thing bringing us away from the dangerous precipice of the "normal" belief suspension commonly used in film, is that it is indeed, only a movie.

The story follows Alex, a mid-20's inner city male. The striking yet correlated traits of confused innocence, uncouth arrogance, selfless helplessness, stand out amongst the youthful characters he surrounds himself with. He is a homesitter, and artist, who collects unemployment, and drinks himself silly some nights, while still maintaining certain hidden truths about his life and future. The trouble begins one day while playing chess in the park, but by the time the story ends, we're taken into a world where we are all just pawns to a game of life and death played in realms we do not belong.

My advice for approaching this film, is to pay attention to nuance. The dialogue is phenomenal for character development, the most crucial part of a horror/slasher film, and the plot that intertwines religion with metaphysics and science, is genius, but don't forget to watch everything else. The score is great, although not the best, and the cinematography is simple and effective.

"Checkmate." 10/10