SeeQuant
Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction
Ricardo Daly
The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.
Zlatica
One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.
VideoKidVsTheVoid
This wildly imaginative, endlessly clever, candy colored, twisted, hilarious, gross-out, underground (maybe literally) sci-fi comedy is a one-of-a-kind wonder. Essentially the idea is a Jetsons-ish live action family TV sitcom satire set in an intangible time and place of some far off, distant dimension or universe where every daily necessity or modern convenience is pumped through a complex system of tubes. Oh, and everyone is careful not to fall off "The Edge." The basic plot setup is an intentional cookie cutter television sitcom template involving the father, Henry Hollowhead (John Glover) who works for "United Umbilical", bringing home his new slimy boss (Richard Portnow) for an impromptu dinner, leaving the homemaker mother, Miriam Hollowhead (Nancy Mette), reeling with the frantic task of managing her three stock character type children while trying to cook up an impressive feast. The inspired fun and lunacy comes from how this simple premise is warped around, and manifested within the novelty of the created universe: The mother wrangles tentacles and squirts out doughy goo in the kitchen; the eldest son practices his bagpipe/keyboard/trombone/live-chicken-creature instrument for his big gig; the youngest son picks fat insects off the family "dog" ("he's infested") to use in his new "Splat Spray Game" with his troublemaking buddy Joey (pre-teen cynic, 80's cult regular Joshua John Miller); and their middle child daughter, a pre-fame Juliette Lewis, sprays her face with cosmetic machines in the bathroom, getting ready for a party. A whole system of amusing fictional terminology and lingo is even created (the daughter wants to use the mother's "Softening Jelly" and they threaten to discipline their children by sending them to the "Penetration Box") leaving the deduction of which up to the viewer's imagination. Another delicious, bizarre and wonderful conceptual element is what lay beyond the walls of the house and what the outside world is like. The only scene that takes place outside the fantastical home is when the youngest son and his friend venture out through an abstract dark void to make their way to the main pipe station, to fill a list of ingredients for Mrs. Hollowhead. Along the way, they encounter a void bum, a team of "Reamers," that are dressed up in grey, brush outlined pipe cleaner tutus, and Stationmaster Babbleaxe (Anne Ramsey), who speaks with subtitles that even translate her grunts into insults (This idea might have been used due to the fact that because Ramsey suffered from throat cancer she had to have parts of her jaw and tongue removed, and as a result it affected her speech. She died shortly after this production and the film is "Lovingly Dedicated" to her.). This was Thomas R. Burman's, a long time special make-up effects artist who has worked on everything from The Thing With Two Heads (1972) to My Bloody Valentine (1981) (he even worked with Anne Ramsey before on Throw Momma From The Train (1987)), first and only, so far, directed feature, but let's hope it is not the last. Lisa Morton co-concocted and wrote the great script in collaboration with Burman as a project for Burman to direct. Morton kept a journal during production which can be found online at Morton's site (www.lisamorton.com).A good printed VHS and Laserdisc version was released by Image in November of 1989 but since then the film seems to have become public domain, because several super cheap video labels have released their own VHS and DVD versions with badly blown up pictures of Juliette Lewis on the cover, to cash in on her fame, and wrong credit listings. The film's original title was "Life On The Edge," but it was changed, and the film was cut and re-scored by the producers (they even added a horribly silly/stupid hip-hop/rap song to the credits). But even with those forced butcheries, the film remains astonishing. We would all lead happier, more exciting lives if more films like this got funded. Absolutely not to be missed! Highly Recommended!
BA_Harrison
Imagine a bizarre fusion of Terry Gilliam's Brazil and TV sitcom I love Lucy. Now add a dash of Cronenbergesque body-shock horror and a soupçon of sixties sci-fi idealism. The result might look something like Meet The Hollowheads, the only directorial effort (to date) from movie make-up maestro Tom Burman. And then again it might not.Set in a strange world where all of life's necessities are supplied (and disposed of) via tubes, where strange creatures are used both as food and household tools, and where clean living wholesome folk are driven to violence, Meet the Hollowheads is definitely a film that needs to be seen to be believed.Henry Hollowhead (John Glover), loving husband and father of three, is United Umbilical's top meter reader. Hoping for a promotion, he brings home his new boss, Mr. Crabneck, to meet his family and stay for dinner. But Mr.Crabneck proves to be a less than perfect house-guest, insulting Henry's youngest son, and leching after both Henry's tasty wife and his jail-bait daughter (played by a very sexy and very young Juliette Lewis). Soon enough the situation turns ugly and the Hollowheads are forced to fight back.Extremely imaginative and downright freaky in places, this movie is certainly not going to be to everyone's taste, but those with a taste for the unusual and absurd should really give this one a try, if only to witness the sight of Juliette Lewis singing and dancing whilst her (real-life) brother plays a 'half-mutant-chicken/half-trombone' musical instrument.And if that isn't enough to tempt you, the film also contains these treats: Ms. Lewis trying on a range of garish but very-body-hugging dresses, Ms Lewis feeding her grandpa green goop though a tube while he gropes her, Near Dark's Joshua Miller playing 'Splatspray' with huge lice, Bobcat Goldthwait (credited as Jack Cheese) talking normally, and Anne 'Throw Momma From The Train' Ramsey (in her final role) requiring subtitles due to her throat cancer.Quite insane and quite possibly brilliant (but don't quote me on that), Meet The Hollowheads is well worth checking out if you love obscure cinematic oddities.
snapper-1
I must say I was laughing a lot and frightened a bit...but in a good-natured way...and most of all I was simply mesmerized by the brilliantly amusing storyline and wonderful special effects that used real full-sized movie sets and none of the cheap, too-obvious digital graphics used by all Sci Fi movie-makers of today.This is a must-have Sci Fi movie for those who enjoy the eclectic, the bizarre and the esoteric worlds of anywhere else but earth. My best guess is that the Hollowheads live in a society on a distant planet that exists totally underground in a large population, a very large "city" with miles of tunnels, single-family homes, ultra modern conveniences using pipes that bring in food and every ingredient needed for life's daily needs.Why does an entire civilization live beneath their planet's surface? Who knows? It is never explained; but then an explanation is never necessary either. The Hollowhead underground world is very well conceived and becomes as reasonable to the movie watcher, as does our own reality here on the surface of the earth appear normal to us.Meet the Hollowheads with sexy Juliette Lewis as daughter Cindy Hollowhead, and John Glover and Nancy Mette as Mr. and Mrs. Hollowhead...as normal as any U.S. television family out of the 1950's...help to bring off this caricature of life as we thought we knew it, with good-natured humor, a zesty cast of fascinating characters and an alien lifestyle as crazy and fun as any which has ever been brought to film.My suggestion: This is a must-have video for you and your family.Enjoy!
dacecto2
The first time I watched this movie, I wasn't in the mood for camp. What a mistake! This is campy and bizarre, right up there with movies from Tim Burton but stranger, if you can believe that. Condiments are delivered through tubes and food is kept alive in cabinets. Furniture is straight out of the Jetsons and makeup out of the eighties. The kitchen even has a creature that heals black eyes -- while your child is strapped into what looks like an evil torture chair, screaming. Oh yes, and no house is complete without a seeing eye.Definitely recommended. Not exactly fine cinema, but it's got some really worthwhile elements. I bought it on laser disc when I saw it on clearance at Camelot years ago -- I don't know if you can still buy it. Good luck.
