TRAIL OF THE SCREAMING FOREHEAD

"Don’t dawdle, Amos".

"Don’t worry, honey, I’ll be gone before you know I’m back ...".

Yes, it’s Larry Blamire time again (DARK AND STORMY NIGHT), where terrible gags and fast-paced homages to cheesy B-movies of yesteryear are the order of the day...

Sarah (Susan McConnell) runs Longhead Bay’s friendliest B&B. She sees her good-natured husband Amos (Daniel Roebuck) off one morning to fetch bread, ready for a meal she’s preparing for guests they expect that evening.

Amos – imagine Ned Flanders made flesh – takes a shortcut through the nearby woods and stops to stoop and look a little closer at something strange lurking in the undergrowth. Uh-oh ...

Following the amusingly animated opening titles sequences, complete with its inappropriately sugary theme song, we meet scientist Sheila (Fay Masterson), delivering a lecture to fellow academics, in which she claims to have discovered that the root of human knowledge lies not in the brain but in the forehead. Funding professor Dr Applethorpe (H M Wynant) rubbishes this theory and storms out.

Later that evening, Sarah welcomes Applethorpe and local librarian Millie (Jennifer Blaire) to her dinner table. Travelling fishermen Dan (Brian Howe) and Dutch (Dan Conroy) arrive shortly afterwards, looking for somewhere to stay for the night. They’re invited in to dinner, along with Amos – who’s now returned, complete with monotone voice and curious-looking forehead. He takes Sarah down to the toolshed at the end of the night and introduces her to a new alien forehead of her own ...

Meanwhile, Sheila is hard at work in her laboratory with goofy assistant Phillip (Andrew Parks). She’s fairly certain she’s invented a serum, which she calls foreheadazine, which can distil the most intelligent glands of the forehead. But, without funding from Applethorpe, Sheila is stuck for a subject to test her newfound discovery on. Until Phillip steps up to the plate. Again, uh-oh ...

Elsewhere in this small coastal town, Millie shares an alarming discovery of her own with new beau Dutch: several of the locals have been renting out books on foreheads from the library. "You don’t suppose there’s anything wrong with their foreheads", she wonders aloud, "like a forehead disease going ‘round?"

One by one, the townsfolk begin to become drone-like – and it’s left to Dan, Dutch and Millie to put the world to rights.

TRAIL OF THE SCREAMING FOREHEAD is a gleefully daft, surprisingly accurate throwback to naff sci-fi serials of the 1950s. Blamire loads his script with innocent gags that come thick and fast throughout, all delivered with knowingly exaggerated performances from the game cast.

Scenarios are colourful, editing is sharp and Chris Ainscough’s score does a great job of keeping with the B-movies homage vibe. We even get Dick Miller in a cameo role.

The pace is breakneck, the FX are wilfully bad, the acting – even Blamire’s own, as a shady nightclub owner - is deliberately dire.

But, as with DARK AND STORMY NIGHT, the sheer enthusiasm and boyish mischievousness of it all will probably win you over. And, besides, where else will you find a sci-fi horror pastiche that is likely to appeal to your kids and your grandparents in equal measures?

4 Digital Media’s screener disc was a DVD-R affair offering nothing in the way of extra features or even menus.

It did house the film though, in a decent, colourful anamorphic 2.35:1 transfer with solid blacks and no digital noise to speak of.

English 2.0 audio was good throughout.

I’ve no idea if the retail disc contains any extra features.

TRAIL OF THE SCREAMING FOREHEAD is innocent fun that is not likely to offend anyone, anywhere. It’s energetic, stupid and clever all at the same time. It comes mildly recommended.

Review by Stuart Willis