Trophy Heads (2014)

This is one of many movies that I have to credit my friend Jeff Burr with making me aware of, as I had no idea of its existence until late summer of 2016, when he and I had one of our traditional meetups at the Barnes and Noble in Chattanooga and he gave me the DVD, along with a lot of other movies he wanted to get rid of. As I've said before, whenever he and I get together like this, we do a sort of trade where I let him borrow a number of my DVDs and Blu-Rays he's interested in checking out, while he gives me a bunch of stuff he bought, watched, and decided he didn't want anymore. It was his idea to start this tradition, and he's told me I don't absolutely have to watch everything he gives me (mainly because, when I watched the batch of stuff he gave me in 2016, much of it was mind-numbing to get through), but I can't help but feel an obligation to do so when anyone gives me something. Fortunately, while I didn't out-and-out love it and, once this review is done, I'll probably never watch it again, Trophy Heads wasn't absolutely dire. The thing about it is that it's an almost no-budget, shot on digital movie with a premise that's geared for a very specific type of audience, namely those who are fans or, at least, have a general knowledge of both Charles Band's history and the scream queens featured here; if you don't fall into either of those camps, this movie won't do much for you, and it's also not something I can recommend purely for gorehounds, as there's very little of that. As for me, I'm not that big a fan of the stuff Empire Pictures and Full Moon Pictures churned out, and while I certainly know of most of the actors who feature here, I'm not completely into them, so my feelings toward this flick are, "Okay, that exists." There are moments that are funny enough and the premise is okay, as well as genuinely disturbing in many ways (which makes me question whether or not it can be called the celebration of scream queens it's said to be), but in the end, it's simply not a movie that was made for me.

Horror movie actor Darcy DeMoss is chased down and murdered by two people, one wearing a mask and the other an older woman who's filming the whole thing. Her head is sliced off with a sickle, after which its wielder, Max, makes a trophy out of it and hangs it up on his wall. Darcy is the first victim in a sinister plan that was hatched three months earlier, when Max, a recluse who still lives with his mother, found himself stuck in a rut. A rabid fan of horror and exploitation movies from the 70's and 80's, Max's days initially consisted of nothing more than sitting in his room in the house's basement, watching and re-watching his old VHS tapes of his favorite movies, lamenting how the movies had been forgotten, that the scream queens who starred in them were getting older and fading away, and, as a result, he himself was fading and becoming irrelevant. But, thanks to his mother's encouragement, Max came up with a truly hideous plan to "immortalize" his beloved actors and their movies. He created a makeshift prison in the basement and, with his mother's help, began abducting the women, planning to force each of them to reenact scenes from a specific movie of theirs and ultimately kill and mount their heads on his wall. Now that he's collected Darcy, he's set his sights on Brinke Stevens, Linnea Quigley, Michelle Bauer, Jacqueline Lovell, and Denise Duff. Some of these women are still acting, others have moved on to other professions, but none have any idea about what's coming their way.

Like I said up above, Charles Band is not a guy I'm that big a fan of, nor am I that keen on many of the movies his various production companies have produced since the 80's. Granted, if given the choice between his stuff and Troma, I would go with him, as I absolutely cannot stand Troma or Lloyd Kaufman, who I think is a total sleazebag asshole, and I can say Band has been involved with some good movies, particularly those directed by Stuart Gordon, as well as flicks I enjoy like TerrorVision and Scott Spiegel's Intruder, but on the whole, Full Moon Pictures' output is not my cup of tea. Besides that, there's also the fact that Band has proven himself to be something of a scumbag, having ripped off both people he's worked with and customers (something I've also heard about Kaufman). I know for a fact that Jeff isn't too fond of him, as he had to put up with him when he directed two of the Puppet Master movies, and has said he's more of a really bad businessman rather than a director. Finally, as you saw in the image of the movie's artwork, Fangoria described Trophy Heads as Band's way of celebrating and immortalizing "his beloved scream queens of yesteryear," but, after having watched the movie, I say, "Well, this is a weird and kind of fucked up way of going about that," which I'll get into later.

Speaking of fucked up, that's definitely one way to describe our protagonist, Max (Adam Noble Roberts), but a better one would be if Norman Bates were a big horror movie fan and his mother were still alive. The stereotypical obsessed fan who lives with his mother, Max's life had initially been reduced to continuously watching his video tapes of B- and C-level horror flicks from the 70's and 80's in his den in the basement, feeling that the shelf-life of his passion was quickly running out due to the various movies being forgotten and the dying careers of the scream queens. Feeling he needs to do something major in order to preserve it all, Max, after his mother offers her encouragement, comes up with his bizarre and ghoulish idea of abducting various women from his favorite horror movies, imprisoning them in a dungeon-like chamber he constructs in the basement, and then forcing them to reenact scenes from their movies. He knows the movies so well that he decides not to recreate the scenes down to the very last detail but, rather, "reimagine" them in a means of "artistic expression," describing it as performance art. Not only does Max have no qualms at all about what he's doing, despite acknowledging at one point that it's not "normal," he also proves to be quite sadistic about it, as he seems to really enjoy terrorizing the women and, in the case of Linnea Quigley, threatens the life of an innocent bystander who got abducted by mistake to force her to go along with his game when she refuses to, only to trick her into killing the woman herself. And he's a lot smarter than you would expect, as he planned for his victims possibly escaping their cells and using a ventilation duct in the room to escape, where he laid another trap.

Like Norman Bates, Max hears voices, but rather than that of his mother, it's those of his victims after he's murdered them and is turning their decapitated heads into trophies. He argues with them while explaining his motives, justifying what he's doing by saying he's creating an art piece and is immortalizing them in his own way. However, despite claiming to Michelle Bauer's head that he's doing it for them and that his possibly becoming immortalized in the process is just an after effect

his ego would appreciate, it really is all for him, as he tells his mother at the beginning that it's about his life slowly rotting away, which he must do something about. He really is "striving for greatness," as he tells Michelle. Also, when having these conversations, the subject of his relationship with his mother sometimes comes up, but Max refuses to be drawn into the argument, saying he's perfectly happy with the choices he's made in his life. This suggests we could be seeing a part of Max's psyche that's having doubts about what it is he's doing and the life he's living, but he's trying to beat it back down whenever it comes up. In any case, he does succeed in completing his collection of scream queen trophy heads by the end of the movie, and also plans to share it with the world through life masks he's made of them.

Speaking of Max's mother (Maria Olsen), she's more than willing to do anything for her son, as she's been totally devoted to him ever since her husband left the picture (the way she says that when talking with Max suggests he may not have left in a good way, if you get my drift). Seeing the sorry state he's in, she promises to do whatever she can to help him out of his funk, telling him she knew when he was born that he was destined for greatness. When he comes up with his plan, she doesn't question what he's up to one little bit, instead going along with his murderous scheme and aiding him in every conceivable way, from filming the reenactments and murders to taking part in setting up the traps and even becoming involved with the killings in some instances. She even gets beaten over the head with a piece of wood by Jacqueline Lovell at one point but still manages to help her son out when she knocks him senseless as well. But, as much as she loves him, and as much as Max appreciates her help, her attempts to hug, pat him on the head, and other such babying actions don't sit well with him, as he always pulls away, telling her he doesn't like it. Max tells his trophy heads she always treats him like he's a little kid, but they say that's hardly the worst aspect of their relationship, although he, of course, refuses to listen.

Since we don't get much of Darcy DeMoss before she's killed, the first of the scream queens we really get into is Brinke Stevens, who now works as a massage therapist and is abducted in the middle of a job by Max and his mother. When she finds herself in the makeshift prison, she's wearing a skimpy, slave-girl outfit and also learns she was abducted along with Julia, the woman she was giving a massage to. After being shocked and put off by how Linnea Quigley, who's captured shortly afterward, is now a born again Christian and major prude, and being aggravated by Julia's ditzy attitude, Brinke is the next one to be taken from her cell. Initially, she gets really mouthy with Max, but becomes terrified when she sees Darcy's severed head hanging on his wall, before finding herself outside in the woods. Max intends to make her reenact a scene from her movie Slave Girls from Beyond Infinity, where he dresses up as the film's antagonist, Zed, and puts her into a Most Dangerous Game situation, giving her thirty seconds to run for it before he starts chasing her (in the actual movie, it was thirty minutes, but because he only has four acres of property to work with and has never hunted before, he augmented it). He also makes it clear he has no intention of giving her any possible chance to escape, like in the movie. When he lets her go, she doesn't get far before he starts shooting at her with a crossbow, and while she briefly fights back and shoves him to the ground, he manages to kill her with an arrow to the back. Later, when he's preparing her head, her disembodied voice calls him out on how ridiculous the whole thing is, and when she's mounted, she continues to gripe about the situation.

Julia (Irena Murphy) is a woman who was very much in the wrong place at the wrong time, as she was getting a massage from Brinke when Max and his mother came for her, so she was taken as well. She finds herself locked up in a cell, naked save for a pair of panties, and faced with the knowledge that she's more than likely going to be murdered. Not only is she not at all happy about her predicament, she ends up annoying Brinke when she dumbly points out the obvious while she's trying to get Linnea up to speed on what's going on, and after Brinke is taken, she's stuck listening to Linnea yammer on and on about how she came to find God. Eventually, she tells her to stuff it, saying she doesn't care to listen to her, as she doesn't buy into her beliefs, not that it makes any difference. Following Brinke's demise and Michelle Bauer taking her place in the dungeon, Julia is the one who gets her up to speed on what's going on. It's also at this point that Linnea's prudishness about profanity makes her break, as when she tells her to stop cursing, Julia yells, "Fuck! Fuck, fuck, fuckity fuck! What are you, my mother?" And then, when it comes time for Linnea to get it, Julia gets pulled in as well, with her life being threatened to force Linnea to go along with what Max has planned. Worst of all, Linnea is tricked into beating Julia to death when Max puts her in the same type of outfit and mask he was wearing earlier and has her stumble out of the darkness in front of her.

Linnea Quigley is the scream queen in the film whose life has taken the most radical departure, especially given how sexual and salacious her most famous roles tended to be, as she's now a born again Christian who goes by the name of Sister Quigley. She's first seen acting as a Jehovah's witness, knocking on people's doors and asking if they've been bathed in the blood of Jesus Christ. She gets various doors slammed in her face as a result, and when she later talks with the other members of her congregation, she admits she's been having some nasty thoughts about certain people. When she gets frustrated, she doesn't say anything worse than, "Fudge!", and while she comes close to telling off a passerby who said to them, "Fuck off and die, you bleeders," she's reeled back in by Brother Humphrey. While walking along the street, she's abducted by Max and his mother, waking up to find herself imprisoned in their basement along with Brinke and Julia, both of whom are put off by her prudishness. Not only does she chastise them for their use of profanity but also for Julia's being naked, despite her not being able to do anything about it, and believes she and Brinke were up to something nasty when the latter mentions she was a "client." She even asks Max's mother if she's been bathed in the blood of Jesus, and after Brinke is taken to be murdered, she drives Julia crazy by going on about how she came to find God, not comprehending or understanding why she's so irritated with her. After Michelle Bauer is captured, Linnea is chosen to be the next victim, but when Max talks with her before getting on with it, she tells him she refuses to take part in his game, invoking her faith to give her strength. Even when Max threatens to shove her head into a drum full of water, Linnea refuses, but when he shows her footage of Julia, who's going to have acid poured onto her face when a counter reaches zero, she has no choice but to go along with it. She's forced to wander through a large, pitch black room, trying to find Julia before the timer runs out, all while Max continually rushes at her from the darkness and scratches her face, his way of replicating a scene from Creepozoids. After he does it twice, Linnea is so riled up that she attacks the next figure she sees emerge from the dark, bashing their face in with the flashlight she was given and cursing them out. It's only then that she realizes she just killed Julia, before she herself is killed and her head mounted on Max's wall. Even after she's been beheaded, her disembodied voice continually goes on about how she found God, much to the others' aggravation.

Michelle Bauer is first seen selling her own brand of smoothies near a beach and boardwalk. She also tries to sell autographed pictures of herself and movie posters like she's at a convention, but the customer we see her interacting with doesn't go for it (incidentally, said customer is David DeCoteau, who directed some of the movies featured here, including those Michelle was in). She's then abducted and finds herself in the basement with Julia and Linnea. As with Brinke, she's put off by how Linnea has changed, and then, learns from Julia the cliff-notes version of what's going on, becoming terrified when she sees footage of Brinke being hunted down and killed. However, Michelle's turn doesn't come until after Max abducts Jacqueline Lovell and Denise Duff, and not before she has to put up with their arguing about their approaches to improv and their individual choices in movies, appearing not to grasp the concept that they're probably going to be murdered soon. When it finally comes time for her, Michelle finds herself caught up in a reenactment of Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama (which I've never seen but have known about since my high school years due to the Horror Movie Survival Guide), where Max's mother rolls a number of bowling balls her way, forcing her to dodge them. One ball hits her in the ankle, breaking it and making her totally helpless as Max closes in for the kill. After she's murdered, her disembodied voice argues with him about what it is he's doing and why he's doing it, leading him to talk about his motive and how he feels he may become great as a result of it.

Jacqueline Lovell and Denise Duff meet each other when they both audition for a movie being directed by Stuart Gordon. Though they exchange pleasantries, talking about how they've both been on CSI, there's obviously some hostility between them and neither of them get the role. They then both get messages about a potential audition and are lured to what was once Brinke's massage parlor. Denise is the first one to arrive, followed shortly thereafter by Jackie, who goes into Max's "office" in order to do some improv. Unbeknownst to her, the figure lying underneath the blanket she's asked to play off of is an unconscious Denise, and once she's done, Jackie is hit with a cattle-prod and abducted. When the two of them awaken in Max's basement with Michelle Bauer, they initially ignore her saying that four others were abducted and killed before them, as they end up getting into an argument over their individual improv choices and approaches to the material. They stop long enough for Michelle to fully explain what's going on, only to get into another argument over the clips of their movies being played on the monitors in the room. It really gets heated when Denise makes some disparaging remarks about Jackie's movie Head of the Family, questioning its standing as a cult classic, while Jackie tells Denise that the Subspecies movies aren't much better and she should get over herself. After Michelle is taken away, Jackie uses the end of a small pail's handle to pick the lock on her cell, and is talked into helping Denise escape as well, though only when she says she's great at improv. Unfortunately, they find the metal door locked, forcing them to escape through a ventilation duct. During their time crawling through the vent, they continue to argue, with Denise getting on Jackie's nerves when she asks why she's being so hostile towards her and Jackie snapping back at her. They come upon a dead-end and try to go back, only for some trap doors to land them in the large, dark room where Linnea and Michelle met their ends. Jackie is tied to a stake by Max's mother, though she manages to escape and beat her senseless, after which she stumbles across Denise, who's strapped to a chair and has had fake fangs glued into her mouth. She manages to temporarily stop Max when he tries to reenact a scene from one of the Subspecies movies, but when she's trying to free Denise, she's stabbed from behind by Max's mom, who then awakens Max after he was knocked out and the two of them close in on and kill Denise. As you might expect, she and Jackie continue arguing even after they're behead, with Denise still having the awkward lisp caused by the fangs.

As I've been saying, we don't get much of Darcy DeMoss, as she's chased down, beheaded, and mounted on the wall right after the opening credits, but when her head's being prepared, her disembodied voice talks with Max, being the first to criticize him for not faithfully replicating the scene from the movie (in this case, it was Alien Abduction: Intimate Secrets), as well as getting annoyed when he doesn't get her eye color right, something she brings up later on when talking with Brinke's voice, talking about the relationship he has with his mother, and criticizing him for being unable to remember a line from The Silence of the Lambs. Her actual abduction is the only one not shown, but a video that plays on the monitors down in the basement shows she was apparently taken while she was out jogging.

Stuart Gordon has an extended cameo here playing himself, albeit a very bored, frustrated, and wholly indifferent version who's holding auditions for his newest film. After he scolds one of the auditioning women for referring to his movie as a "piece of shit" and being akin to yet another Paranormal Activity movie, he sits in on their various readings with his casting director, sipping his coffee, which he says, "Tastes like somebody pissed in it," and is completely impatient and unimpressed with their performances. At one point, he falls asleep and the casting director wakes him up (when he does, he yells, "Cut!"), rebuffs one woman's complimenting him for Re-Animator, and when Jackie reads for him, he quietly comments to the casting director about how she's had some work done. Ultimately, he goes with Robin, a total airhead bimbo who spent the time before her audition talking on her cellphone and snorting while laughing, and when she did read, she said "Santa" when she should've said "Satan!" He happily hugs her after casting her, saying she knows how to project, and takes her out to lunch.

Finally, I have to mention Carel Struycken, who appeared as Lurch in the 90's Addams Family movies and would go on to have a role in Doctor Sleep, as he has a brief but memorable appearance here as Brother Humphrey, part of Linnea's congregation. When he and another member, Sister Jasmine, are sitting on a park bench with Linnea, he asks a guy who walks by them if he's been born again, and when he responds with a not-so-nice remark, Humphrey smiles and says, "Bless you, son." He also stops Linnea when she goes to chew him out for it, saying, "They are lost, and we are found," before they all hold hands and say, "Bless the Lord."

While not great, I can say that Trophy Heads is one of the better-looking Full Moon movies I've seen, undoubtedly benefiting from being shot on digital. If you know me, you know I'm usually not crazy about that kind of look anyway, as I just find it unappealing and cheap-looking (though, I guess the latter isn't a fair criticism, as they obviously had almost nothing to work with), but I'd take it over a lot of the Full Moon movies made in the 90's which, even on DVD, tend to be of a crappy, faded, almost VHS-like quality. I can also appreciate the

movie's fairly rich color palette, with lots of fairly deep blues, purples, and greens in the scenes that take place in Max's basement. Speaking of which, there isn't much in the way of sets here, with the most prominent ones being Max's den, where he keeps all of his video tapes and watches them on a two large TVs, as well as where he hangs his trophies on the wall; the dungeon-like, prison room where he has three barred cells, monitors that play scenes from the women's old movies, as well as the footage of their deaths, over and over again, cameras that

keep an eye on the prisoners' every move, a section of wall with handcuffs and other such objects hanging on it, and a ventilation shaft that's ultimately revealed to be just another trap; and a very large, dark room where many of the women are forced to reenact their movies before being killed. Other than that, we just get some scenes set in and around Los Angeles, like the spot near the beach where Michelle Bauer is abducted, Brinke Stevens' massage parlor, the patch of woods

where Max stalks and ultimately kills her and Darcy, and the place where Stuart Gordon holds auditions. The movie is so low budget that we never see an exterior of Max's house, nor do we get a look upstairs, and we have no idea where it is in relation to where the women are abducted, or that dark room where many of them are killed, for that matter.

The low budget is probably why there's not as much gore as you might expect. The only murder you see onscreen is that of Darcy DeMoss at the very beginning and the beheading there involves a not so good digital spurt of blood. After that, the film always cuts before someone is actually killed, though you do get plenty of shots of the severed heads, mainly when Max is turning them into trophies, using real eyes from a palette, and after he's hung them up on the wall.

You also get a glimpse of Darcy's headless body right before Brinke is put through her torment, as well as wounds such as arrows being shot into Brinke's back and scratches on Linnea's face, but otherwise, nothing much to write home about in the long run. This is what I meant when I said I can't recommend this movie purely from a gore effects standpoint.

Much of the movie's humor comes at the expense of the scream queens, as it makes a point of going into how some of them have just plain not aged well physically, none of them have the careers they once did, and many of the movies they're well known for actually pretty shitty; also, it it mainly involves them taking shots at each other in that respect (and themselves, for that matter, given how they must have known what they were getting into beforehand; plus, a lot of these actors are known for not taking themselves too seriously in reality).

There's also some dark humor in just how bizarre and twisted this plan of Max's is, as well as how severely disturbed he himself is, primarily in the many moments he converses with the women's disembodied voices after he's killed them, sometimes struggling to get their heads right to hang on his wall. And the movie pokes a bit at Hollywood in general during the section featuring the women auditioning for the thoroughly uninterested and lethargic Stuart Gordon, who

ultimately chooses one of the worst actors for the part, likely just based on her looks. While I never laughed out loud, there were some lines and moments that did make me at least smirk or chuckle slightly, and it seemed like everyone involved was enjoying themselves, which helps make it more appealing to the viewer.

However, a major problem with the film is how repetitive it is. For 87 minutes, all you see is Max and his mother go out, stalk and abduct various scream queens, imprison them in the basement, and then put each of them through deadly reenactments of scenes from their movies, before they're killed and their heads mounted on Max's wall, with him hearing and conversing with their voices each time. It's lather, rinse, repeat like that until the end of the movie, when he's killed them all, mounted their heads, admires his life masks of them, and prepares to

enjoy some of his mother's brownies. And that's another thing: there's no payoff whatsoever. You'd expect, at some point, that one or more of the scream queens would manage to fight back against the two of them and either do them in or simply escape, and it seems like that's going to happen with Jacqueline Lovell and Denise Duff near the end, but nope. The women die, the killers win, and that's it. There's no progression of the story, no climax, nothing, and it leaves you wondering, "Seriously?"

Also, I don't see how this movie "celebrates and immortalizes" the scream queens featured in it. I'm sure the women were up for what Charles Band had in store for them and enjoyed doing it (some of them even did an audio commentary with him), but like I said, this movie really makes them come off as old, out-of-work, and, in some cases, untalented, and that's before they're each humiliated, terrorized, and ultimately killed and made into heads on a mantel by a psycho fan of their old movies. I would think having some or all of

them escape the clutches of their captors, turn the tables on them, soundly defeat them, and get away would be a far more apt way of celebrating and empowering them, as it would make them come off as badasses. Again, you think it's going to go that way near the end of the movie, when Jacqueline Lovell manages to escape the stake she's tied to and gives Max's mother a firm beatdown before rushing to save Denise Duff, and before that, you have the moment when Linnea Quigley finally

snaps and whales on the next figure that comes at her from the darkness, all while cursing crazily. I think it would have been cool if that latter moment had been a turning point where Linnea, after saying, "Screw this," stays a badass for the rest of the film, acting more the way you would expect, and helps the other scream queens to escape. But, no, Band had other ideas, apparently.

After an opening credits sequence featuring someone fawning over and pulling apart a series of videotapes, along with shots of the tapes themselves, the movies on them, and a random look at AV cables (also, the title comes up before the credits are over, not near the beginning or at the end, as you would expect), the movie opens in the middle of the woods, late at night, where Darcy DeMoss is seen running down a road, dressed in a white nightgown. Ditching the high-heels she's in,

she sees her pursuer, someone holding a flashlight, appear in the trees, when a van pulls up in front of her. She flags the van down, but it becomes clear the driver, an older woman, isn't there to help, as she jumps out of the van and films what's going on with a digital camcorder. The person pursuing Darcy is shown to be wearing an alien mask, with a light hanging around their neck, and as Darcy pleads with the woman to help, her pursuer pulls a sickle out from

behind his back. Darcy yells, "This wasn't even in the fucking movie! He looks ridiculous under that thing!", but her criticisms fall on deaf ears, as do her pleas. The man swings the sickle and decapitates her, the older woman getting it all on film. He takes off his mask, revealing himself to be Max and the woman his mother. Once he's satisfied that it was done perfectly, he tells his mother to get the body bag ready, while he takes the head. After kissing him on the cheek, and being rejected for it, Max's mother goes to get the

bag, while he looks at the beheaded corpse on the ground and smiles happily at the sight of his handiwork. Following that, clips of a sensual movie featuring Darcy's voice (likely Alien Abduction: Intimate Secrets) are seen playing on a monitor, while Max's mother vacuums and cleans up some barred cells in the room. 

Elsewhere, Max prepares Darcy's head while having a conversation with her disembodied voice, telling her his intention is to "reimagine" rather than recreate scenes from the movie as a performance art piece. He then goes to give her some eyes, but finds he can't remember what color her actual ones were, much to her derision. With no help coming from her, he goes with a pair of brown eyes and shoves them in. When she brings up the unhealthy relationship he has with his mother, he

refuses to be baited, saying he's happy with his choices in life. He then lifts her head up and, looking at it, believes it's not bad work, though she doesn't agree. He tries to do something to fix her eyes and, again, feels that it looks good. As he says, "It's not bad. It's okay for a first effort. It's a... fledgling killer's first, um...", only for Darcy to deride him for blanking on a line from a movie as well known as The Silence of the Lambs. She tells him, "Believe me, you are no fucking Hannibal Lecter," to which he retorts, "Well, you're no Jodie Foster,

so right back at ya!" Following a brief moment where his mother checks in on him (which she did earlier when she heard him talking), Max tells Darcy's head that he admires her, thinks she's a beautiful woman, but warns her to stop with the criticizing, lest he sew her mouth shut. After a fade to black, he hangs her head on his wall, promising to do better next time, and kisses her cheek for an uncomfortably long time.

The film then flashes back to three months earlier, showing how Max's life revolved around nothing more than sitting down in his little den in the basement, watching the same movies on VHS over and over. His mother comes downstairs with a plate of food for him while he's watching Slave Girls from Beyond Infinity in nothing but a muscle shirt and red underwear. Noticing how depressed he looks, she asks him what's wrong and he motions towards the TVs (he's watching it on two

sets), saying, "They're disappearing. We're losing 'em." She doesn't understand what he means and he shows her a bunch of VHS tapes, telling her they don't make such tapes anymore, and also pulls out a Beta tape, which he has no way of playing. He becomes frustrated with her when she still doesn't get it but then, when she tells him how he's been the most important thing in her life ever since his father "left," he elaborates on how the women in the movies he likes are disappearing, as is his

whole life, since that's all it revolves around. He then mentions how he has to do something really creative and important that will be remembered, again saying his whole life is dying and slipping away. His mother, in turn, tells him that she's always known he was meant for great things, that greatness comes from small, out of the way places like their home, and she believes in him. After she leaves, saying she's going to go upstairs and make him some brownies, he, initially, doesn't seem to have been all that moved by her words.

But, as he continues watching the movie, he suddenly pauses it and looks at the VHS box. Appearing to get an idea, he gets up, selects some DVDs of his favorite movies from his collection, and looks through them with a very happy, elated expression on his face. He cradles them in his arms, while continuing to look at the paused image on his televisions. Some time later, his mother comes downstairs with a package he got in the mail, but finds he's not in his den. She then hears the sound of sawing in another room in the

basement and walks in there to find him building something, specifically a set of iron-barred cells. When she gets his attention, he takes the box, saying it's something he's been waiting on, and when she asks, he says he knows what he has to do. He removes a set of lacquered plaques from the box and shows them to her, also telling her he's going to need her help. She tells him she'll help him in any way he needs her to.

With that, we get back to the actual narrative, with the two of them making their way to the building where Brinke Stevens now practices her massage therapy. They walk through the main door and Max's mom heads through the door that leads beyond the office. Deeper in the building, Brinke is giving a massage to a young woman named Julia, when she hears a noise in the next room. She calls but gets no answer, and starts towards the door to see who it is. However, she doesn't get far

before Max's mother shocks her with a cattle-prod, knocking her unconscious. Panicking, Julia sits up, demanding to know who they are, but is punched out. After fading to black, we cut to Linnea Quigley, who's going door-to-door as a Jehovah's witness, asking people if they've been bathed in the blood of Jesus Christ. Every person she visits slams the door in her face, sometimes before she's even able to complete her speech, ultimately frustrating her to the point where she growls, "Fudge!" She's

then sitting on a bench in the park with Brother Humphrey and Sister Jasmine, telling them about how badly things went and how she's been having some very "uncharitable thoughts" about certain people. Then comes the moment where Humphrey gets badly told off by a passerby but doesn't get mad, assuring Linnea that the man is simply lost, while they are found. You then see that Max and his mother are watching from nearby, the latter commenting on how Linnea looks nothing like her picture... which is from 1985, and then noting that she has definitely changed. Max

says he wants to wait until she's alone, not wanting to make the same mistake they made with Julia, and they get their chance when they see Linnea walk off without Humphrey and Jasmine. They rush to head her off and, in the next scene, they pull up beside her in the van as she walks down the side of the street in a small neighborhood. Max jumps out of the passenger side, wearing a very 80's style suit, and Linnea, naturally, asks him if he's been bathed in the blood of the Lord. He tells her, "I've seen a bright, golden light that's shone me the way, and I'm gonna share that light with you,"

before yelling for his mom, who comes up behind Linnea and throws a hood over her head. Max quickly incapacitates her with the cattle prod and they stuff her into the van and get out of there before anyone sees them.

Linnea awakens in one of the cells in Max's basement, being filmed by video camera placed all around the room, as clips from her movies play on the monitors. She yells, "Gosh! Darn! Get off me! No!", before realizing she's not being attacked anymore. When she sits up, Brinke does the same in the cell next to hers, and Linnea asks why she's there and wearing the revealing, fur slave outfit she has on. Linnea then notices she's had a change of clothes herself, before seeing Julia in the cell

next to Brinke's. Brinke has to explain that Julia was a client in her massage therapy, as well as dispell the nasty idea Linnea gets about it, while Julia mentions that Max and his mother didn't give her a costume. Brinke tries to explain to Linnea what's going on, but has to deal with Julia causing an argument when she feels the need to elaborate on what Brinke means when she said they're not the first. Also, Linnea proves herself to be quite the prude when Brinke says "fuck," to which she

responds, "Quigs, what the flying fuck are you talking about? Have you lost your goddamn fucking mind?" Finally, after some more aggravation, Brinke points out the monitors, which Linnea sees is playing her death scene in Creepozoids. Max's mother walks in and gives each of them some food, ignoring Julia's complaining that she can't eat what she gave her because she's vegan, Brinke's saying she and Max won't get away with what they're doing, and Linnea's need to ask if she's been bathed in the blood of the Lord. When

she's gone, Brinke points their attention back to the monitor, which is now playing Slave Girls from Beyond Infinity, before it switches to Alien Abduction: Intimate Secrets. Linnea recognizes Darcy DeMoss in the film, when it switches to footage of her out for a jog in the park, where she's tripped and abducted by Max and his mother, having a hood draped over head and being carried into the van. It then shows her being put into a dress while she's still unconscious, her waking up and finding herself in the cell, and the footage of

the "reenactment," ending with her beheading. Linnea has difficulty grasping the idea that what they just saw was real, but Brinke assures her it was. Suddenly, the lights go out and the sound of struggling, screaming, and the cattle-prod zapping is heard.

Brinke is awakened by Max, finds herself tied to a chair in his den, and is spun around, forcing her to face him. Looking to her right and seeing a television playing one of her movies, she proceeds to lambast Max for what he's doing, asking him how many people he thinks he can abduct before he's caught, when he turns on a light above a section of wall. Said light illuminates Darcy's head mounted on it, much to Brinke's horror, and she begins to struggle in the chair, saying this can't be real. But then,

Max's mother turns the chair around again, forcing Brinke to see Darcy's headless body lying on a table. Just as she's processing it, and after Max smiles insanely at her fear, Brinke is blindfolded again by his mother. When the hood is taken off, Brinke finds herself outside, tied to a tree. Max is also there, dressed like the character Zed from Slave Girls from Beyond Infinity and wielding a crossbow. Brinke is flabbergasted by this, while Max says it would've been better if it were

nighttime but he couldn't get it to work. He then tells her he's going to give her a thirty second head start before coming after her, even though, to be true to the movie, it should be thirty minutes. Max says, "This is an artistic recreation! Besides, I only have four acres here, and I've never actually hunted before." Brinke tries to figure out what the deal to getting her freedom is, since in the movie, she's allowed to go free if she survives until morning, but Max simply rips off the ropes and tells her to start running. Frightened, she takes off into the

woods, going as fast as she can in her bare feet, but it doesn't take long for Max to catch up to her. He fires an arrow, which misses her, sticking into a tree to the left of her. She hides behind the tree and sees Max standing ahead of her. He points and fires again, missing her once more, and when he lowers his crossbow, she sees he's recording everything with a digital camera hanging from around his neck. Frustrated, she rushes him and shoves him to the ground, before limping back down the path. Unfortunately, Max stands, points, and fires,

hitting her right in the middle of her back. She drops immediately and Max, very pleased with himself, walks over to her body and nudges her to make sure she's dead. His mom joins him and they prepare to get her back in the van.

When we next see Max, he's preparing Brinke's head, putting a pair of eyes into it. Her voice criticizes his performance and costume in the reenactment, but he says the idea was to "reference" the scene, not replicate it, adding, "It's performance art. It's about transformation. I'm not some fanboy! This isn't some ultimate cosplay trip!... I'm creating art!" He then struggles to get the eyes right but then, his suddenly calm expression suggests he succeeded. Meanwhile,

down in the prison, Julia is getting to know Linnea really well, whether she likes it or not. Having had to listen to her describe her spiritual transformation over the last few hours has proven to be too much for her to endure, to the point where she asks Linnea if she thinks it would be possible for her to knock herself unconscious by slamming into the bars. When Linnea doesn't get the hint, Julia says she can't tell her life story just because they're stuck in the prison together, adding that she doesn't believe in

what she's talking about anyway. Linnea only takes that as a sign of her possibly being an atheist, and when she randomly asks if she's happy, Julia tells her, "Well, Linnea, let's review. I go to give myself a little treat, a massage. Next thing you know, I'm kidnapped, by a couple of bloodthirsty maniacs, locked, naked, in a fucking dungeon whose toilet facilities consist of a bucket. Chances are I'm going to be murdered in the near future. On top of which, there's you." Back with Max, he's just finished hanging Brinke's head next to Darcy's, when his

mom comes in with a tuna-fish sandwich for him. After she admires the work he's done on the heads, complimenting him on the smile he gave Brinke, he tells her they're going out again after lunch. She kisses him on the cheek, which he, naturally, doesn't care for, and after she leaves, he starts hearing the voices again. Brinke tells him that just because she's smiling doesn't mean she's happy, while Darcy tells her at least her eyes are right. Max suggests that if they start acting happy on the outside, they'll feel the same way on the inside, to which Brinke retorts, "Does that apply to disembodied heads whose smiles have been stitched in place?" Max answers, "Why not? Besides, what do you have to be unhappy about?"

The film cuts to a boardwalk near the beach, where Michelle Bauer gives a customer one of her own brand of smoothie, but fails to sell him any autographed pictures of herself or posters. After the customer leaves and she counts up her money, Max and his mother are revealed to be watching from nearby. With his mother filming, they walk up to her stand and, after she greets them, Max zaps her with the cattle-prod and she slumps over onto her table. After a transition,

Michelle finds herself in one of the cells and, as scenes from Sorority Babes in the Slimbeball Bowl-O-Rama play on the monitors, she futilely calls for help over and over. Julia then tells her the walls are soundproof and points out the cameras that are filming her every action, adding, "Think about that when you go to use the facilities." Michelle tries to calm herself, when Linnea tells her the Lord is with them. Perplexed, Michelle makes the mistake of asking Linnea what's happened to her,

but Julia stops her before she can launch into her life story again. She gives Michelle the rundown of what's going on, adding that she and Linnea are likely next, whereas she has no clue what they're going to do with her. As Michelle tries to figure out a way to escape, she finally notices the outfit she's wearing. Julia tells her, "That's SOP. Everybody gets a change of clothing, except for yours truly."  Also noting that her hair is in a ponytail, Michelle comments how they're not even following the movie properly, with Linnea adding that they're

taking a very liberal approach. That's when footage of Brinke's death plays on the monitor, horrifying Michelle even more. Linnea suggests they pray, when the lights go out, Max's voice is heard saying it's her turn, and the sound of screaming and zapping can be heard again. When the lights come back up, Michelle finds herself completely alone in the room, as Julia was taken as well.

Like Brinke, Linnea is unmasked in Max's den. She keeps her eyes closed, afraid of what she'll see, but Max implores to do open them and look up; when she does, she sees Darcy and Brinke's heads on the wall, and then, Max pops up next to her, wearing some sort of animal mask. Terrified, Linnea starts praying, refusing to listen to Max, until he tells her he's going to have to gag her, which he doesn't want to do. He then tells her, "Now, in a little while, we're gonna leave here, and

we're going to go to an alternate place in time, a narrative landscape I'm sure you'll recognize, and we're going to explore that landscape together." Linnea refuses to go along with it, saying she'll pray for him but won't participate in his sick games, adding that he may as well kill her already. Frustrated, Max grabs her from behind and shoves her head towards a large drum of water, saying he doesn't want to do this and implores her to agree to what he's asking. Even with that threat hanging over her, Linnea

refuses. Max, letting go of her, turns her around and has her look at a monitor showing video feed of a table in another room. He contacts his mother on a walkie-talkie, telling her to go ahead with something, and as they watch, she places an uncooked chicken on the table and turns a small lever. A sizzling liquid falls on the chicken, dissolving it in seconds, revealing itself to be a powerful acid. Despite this, Linnea again says he can do whatever he wants with her, but Max tells her the acid isn't meant for her. He again contacts his mom, and this time, the feed shows Julia tied to the table, her face underneath the spot where the acid pours. As she struggles, Max's mom activates a timer that starts counting down from ten minutes, and as Linnea cries, Max throws the hood back over her head.

When the hood is taken back off, Linnea finds herself in a large, dark, smoke-filled room, the only light being a large shaft beaming down on her. She's also still tied to the chair from before and with the counter now on her right. With less than nine minutes left, Max tells her that if she doesn't find Julia within the allotted time, the acid will fall on her. Linnea asks what will happen if she does find her but Max, still wearing his animal mask, steps back out of the darkness and repeats what he already told her, adding, "That's all there

is, Linnea." As she cries helplessly, he unties her from behind and she scrambles to free herself, when the light goes out completely and the place is pitch black. Finding a flashlight beside the counter, she takes it and tries to find her way through the darkness, pleading with Max not to go through with his plan. Suddenly, the flashlight illuminates Max, who rushes at her and scratches her with the fake claws he's wearing on his hands, leaving three, bleeding marks on the side of her face. Now in pain and approaching hysteria, Linnea walks into

the dark, calling for Julia, as well as for Max, telling him he can't do this. She stops in the middle of the blackness while scanning the place with her flashlight, quietly sobbing as she does so. Throughout it all, she can heard the digital beeping of the timer as it counts down, and then, when she turns to her right, Max pops up in the darkness, yells at her, and slices the other side of her face. Yelling in pain, Linnea falls to the floor, touching the scratches, when she looks to her left and sees

the timer on the floor; there are only fifty seconds left now. Sobbing at how hopeless it seems, Linnea spots a figure that looks like Max emerging from the darkness across from her. As the timer heads to and reaches zero, Linnea angrily rushes at the figure, knocks them to the floor, and bashes the head in with the handle of the flashlight, yelling, "You motherfucking son of a bitch!" She hears the buzzer that signals the timer has reached zero and turns around, only to see Max, still wearing his

mask and outfit, and his mother walking towards her. Turning back to the figure on the floor, she removes the mask to reveal Julia's smashed in face. Horrified at she's done, she apologizes profusely to her, as Max takes out his sickle and swings it when he reaches Linnea.

Now, Max has Linnea's head on his wall, and as he looks through some files, Brinke's voice talks with her, saying she thinks Max did a nice job with her hair. When Linnea still comes off as ashamed of it, Brinke asks if she's still "Sister Quigley," explaining that to a confused Darcy. Linnea tries to tell Darcy the specifics of how her transformation came about, and Darcy tries to involve Max in their conversation too, but he says he has work to do, continuing to go through the files. The film then cuts to a place where people are auditioning for Re-Possessed, a

new film being directed by Stuart Gordon. As everyone stands out in the lobby, going over their lines, Gordon and his casting director come out, sending away everyone who's not auditioning for the role of a mother in her 30's. Among the women who stay behind are Robin Sydeny, an airhead who's doing nothing but talking on her cellphone and constantly snorting while she laughs, Jean Louise, who clearly can't stand her, and Amy and Jessica, the latter of whom, after being scolded for going to light a cigarette, makes the faux pas of

referring to the movie as a piece of shit and says as much to Gordon, unaware of who he is. Also there are Jacqueline Lovell and Denise Duff, who don't recognize each other at first but, when they do, they exchange niceties, though there's some obvious passive-aggressive tension between them, especially when Jackie comments on the fact that Denise is auditioning for someone in their 30's. The two of them go over the line, "Get thee behind me, Satan," but while Denise says it

with conviction, Jackie does it in a rather sexual manner, much to Denise's confusion. As for the actual auditions, Jean Louise gives a very dramatic reading of the line, but Gordon is more interested in whether or not the place has any Splenda for his coffee; Jessica, after having already made a bad first impression, makes another mistake by first not reading the line exactly as it's written, and then does it in such a lackluster way that Gordon is revealed to have been asleep the whole time; Amy,

after the casting director is unable to get her last name, "Paffrath," right, wrongly says, "Get me behind thee, Satan,"; Robin says, "Get thee behind me, Santa," which leaves Gordon and the casting director speechless; Jackie's sensual reading of the line only leads Gordon to ask the director if she's had work done; and Denise is cut off before she can even read the line in full.

Out in the hall, both Jackie and Denise act all confident about their chances of landing the role, only to be crushed when they learn Gordon went with Robin, despite how awful her reading was. After Gordon and the casting director leave to have lunch with her, the other women go home angrily. Jackie and Denise consider getting some coffee together, when the latter's cellphone chimes and she finds another audition has been set up for her. Rather than tell her where the audition is, Denise quickly leaves the premises... and as soon

as she does, Jackie gets a similar text. Later that day, Denise stops by the building where the auditions are being held, unaware that it's actually where Brinke practiced her massage therapy. She has an awkward encounter with Max's mother at the front desk, as she doesn't get what Denise means when she asks for any "sides," and then tells her that it's going to be purely improvised. She sends Denise through the door and, as she smiles evilly, knowing what's in store, the movie cuts to black. Afterward, Jackie shows up for the

"audition," and Max's mother gives her the whole deal of it being improvised before sending her on in. Like Denise before her, Jackie is a little put off by a skeletal anatomy chart hanging right next to the door but goes in anyway. Inside, she meets Max, who tells her what they're doing is an indie project with lots of improv, a performance art piece. Jackie is excited by this and he says they're going to start right up with an exercise. He then turns on a light in a corner of the room, illuminating what's clearly

a body lying underneath a cover. Though initially stunned by this, Max tells her it's just an assistant who's helping with the exercise. He tells her to act as if it were someone whom she was estranged from for many years and she just found they'd died. Since he doesn't ask for it to be done in any particular way, Jackie decides to go for the jugular: "You fucking cunt! Why didn't you die twenty fucking years ago?! Why do you think I came here for?! To cry over your fucking body?! Fuck you for

all the hell you put us through! You put Mom in an early fucking grave because of all your selfish bullshit! All the, 'Me, me, me!' Can you hear me down in hell, you worthless bitch?! If I could've given my little finger to save you, I wouldn't have. This is for you!" She ends it, telling Max she could do it funny too, and he compliments her on her work, before zapping her unconscious. He calls his mother in, asking for her opinion, and she says she liked Denise's performance better. Denise is revealed to be the figure lying under the blanket. Max feels both of their choices were really good, before preparing to get them to the van.

Back to the dungeon, we have Denise's audition playing on the monitor (a much sadder and more poignant version of the same scene), as Jackie awakens in a cell to find herself in different clothes, as well as with a metal collar around her neck. Recognizing Michelle Bauer in the cell next to hers, she then sees Denise in the other one, as she wakes up, rubbing her head. Michelle tells them how there were four victims before them that are now dead, but Jackie's attention is captured by Denise's weepy monologue, which is still going on.

After the moment where she got the cattle-prod, the two of them get into an argument about the nature of improv, and even after Michelle reiterates what she said before, it only gradually hits both of them. Michelle goes on to explain what's happening, having to shut Denise up when she starts arguing that she was never truly a scream queen, and while Jackie is initially incredulous, Michelle points out the monitor, which is now showing some of the movie clips from before, and tells them how Max shows the movies he plans on

recreating. She also describes how the chosen one is taken from her cell and that Max records everything, including what they're doing at the moment. She goes on to name the past victims and says that they're next, to which Jackie retorts, "Screw that!", while Denise mentions how she never actually died in any of her movies. While Michelle notes how Max wouldn't care about that, Denise and Jackie get into another argument about the fact that Denise played a vampire in one of her movies, meaning she would have to be dead, technically. Jackie also

notes how she never died in any of her movies either but, again, Michelle says that won't matter much to Max. Denise sees that they're playing a scene from one of the Subspecies movies (a couple of which I have seen myself, by the way), specifically where the vampire, Radu, is about to stab Denise's character, only to be stopped by the rising sun. Jackie notes how she did a movie on that same set, only for Denise to remark, "I guess it pays the bills," when she describes how she was half-naked

with little monsters running around in said movie. It then starts playing a scene from Head of the Family, which Denise is taken aback by, and, as she watches the scene where Jackie is tied to a stake, she's rather skeptical when Jackie tells her it's something of a cult classic. This leads into yet another argument, which Michelle tries to break up due to the seriousness of the situation, but they ignore her, as Jackie tells Denise that her Subspecies movies are no different from the stuff she did, despite what she might think. Jackie tells Denise to go fuck herself when she brings up how she hasn't made any sequels to her movies, when the monitor starts showing scenes from Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama, after which the lights go out and Michelle is taken.

Like Linnea, Michelle ends up in the dark room, lying on the floor while being illuminated by a shaft of light coming down from the ceiling. Sitting up, she peers through the dark and yells for Max. Not getting an answer, she gets to her feet, when the light goes out. A little more panicked, she pleads for the lights to be turned back on, when a bowling ball comes rolling towards her. She dodges it and yells frantically for Max to stop, when more balls come at her. Back in the dungeon, Jackie looks for a way to escape her cell, thinking

Max and his mother are too busy with Michelle to be keeping an eye on her and Denise. She smashes the small pail in there, pulls out the handle, bends it to where it's straight, and uses it to pop open the padlock securing a chain around the door. She's about to make a run for it, when Denise pleads for her to free her too, saying they'll definitely kill her if they come down and find Jackie gone. Jackie hesitates, but when she tells her she's really good at improv, she lets her out.

The two of them run for the door, only to find it locked; also, because it's metal, they can't break it down. Meanwhile, Michelle is still having bowling balls rolled her way by Max's mother and is having a harder time dodging them; at the same time, Max is approaching from the darkness, wearing a mask and wielding a club. Michelle is so distracted at the sight of him that she doesn't see his mother roll another ball right at her ankle. It hits her dead on and she falls to the floor,

clutching her ankle, and crying that she thinks it's broken. Max moves in for the kill and Michelle tries to stop him, though she admits she has nothing to say that will make him hesitate; rather, she just doesn't want him to kill her. As he gets closer, Michelle gets more frantic, tearfully telling him to stay away, screaming, "I don't want to be in your fucking movie!" That's when he brings the club down on her.

Trying to find an alternate escape route, Jackie, who's, again, starting to get annoyed by Denise, spots the grating covering a ventilation duct in the wall, but finds her improvised skeleton key won't open it. Spotting all sort of items like blades, handcuffs, and such hanging on a piece of wall, Jackie grabs something to help pry off the grating; Denise says she would help but she has carpal tunnel, going on about just how bad it is, much to Jackie's irritation. She becomes more frustrated when she's

unable to budge the grating from the one end, hurting the side of her arm when she rams it, and snaps at Denise when she tries to suggest what she should do next. Ignoring her mentioning that she was thinking about curing her carpal tunnel with surgery, Jackie finally manages to rip the grating off. Elsewhere, Max is preparing Michelle's head and conversing with her voice about how he's striving for greatness in what he's doing. He elaborates, "The point is I saw some people that I cared about very much, and they were being forgotten. And I

decided I wanted to do something about it... And if that meant I was remembered also, well, maybe, that's just my ego too. But, it wasn't ever about me." Telling her the people he felt were being forgotten were her and the others specifically, Max lifts Michelle's head up and says, "Michelle, I don't believe what the priests say about life eternal. We all die. But we're not all immortal, only the special ones, and now you and the girls... you'll live forever. You'll never be forgotten. People will

remember this, people will remember what happened to you, for all of time... thanks to me. Thanks to me." He then stares at the head for a little bit. Denise and Jackie, meanwhile, are crawling through the ventilation shaft, with Jackie snapping at Denise for talking about how they've been going for a very long time, saying this shaft must be bigger than any shaft that could possibly fit under any house. Denise asks why she's being so hostile towards her and Jackie, in turn, gives her a half-hearted apology so they can just keep moving.

Max is watching one of the Subspecies movies in his room while eating some dinner, as Linnea tells him about how she found God. Max's mother comes in and tells him that Jackie and Denise are in the vent. He says he figures that, since they took them together, they should go together. Max intends to finish eating and takes his mom's offer to fix him some pudding for dessert, but he recoils when she pats him on the head. After she leaves, he tells the girls how she still treats him like he's a little boy, but they say that's hardly the most

unhealthy aspect of their relationship. Max tells them he has no time for this, as he has to get ready for Jackie and Denise... and, fortunately, his pudding comes in a plastic cup, so he can take it with him. At that moment in the vent, Jackie apologizes to Denise for what she said about her vampire movies, but when Denise doesn't apologize for what she said about her movies, Jackie angrily mutters, "Fucking stuck-up bitch!" They then reach the end of the shaft, but it's blocked. Jackie tries to push it loose

but it doesn't work. In the large, dark room, Max's mom finishes setting up for the two girls, while Max himself, seeing that they're at the right spot in the vent, contacts her and asks her if she's ready. Dressed up all in black, with a hood on top of her head, she says she is and picks up a large cross that's standing across from a pyre she's also erected. With no other choice, Denise and Jackie start crawling backwards through the shaft, arguing about whose fault it is, to the point where it gets physical, with Denise

punching Jackie's rear end while she reacts with a kick. A trap-door opens beneath Jackie and she falls through, landing in the room. When she awakens, she sits up and sees the pyre. Getting to her feet, she turns around and sees Max's mother. She warns her to stay away, when she pushes a button on a remote, which reveals the collar that's been around Jackie's throat this whole time is a shock collar. She uses it to subdue Jackie long enough to where she can whack her in the face

with the bottom of the large cross. Denise, meanwhile, is still in the vent, calling for Jackie, when a trap-door opens underneath her, plunging her into the dark room. When she sits up, she sees Max, who's dressed up to look like Radu, and he zaps her with the cattle-prod, knocking her out.

Jackie comes to and finds herself tied to the large stake in the middle of the pyre (her reaction of, "The fuck?!", is pretty funny). She sees Max's mother approaching her while holding a camera underneath a cross and asks if she's really going to start a fire, as it would burn the place down along with her. She tells Jackie the pyre is wired to electrocute her to death instead and she, in turn, becomes hysterical, screaming, "If I could get my hands on the motherfucker who wrote that fucking script! I'd kill that bastard!" She begins to struggle,

wrenching the stake back and forth, and when Max's mother tries to stop her, she headbutts her, knocking her to the floor. Jackie manages to free her hands and climbs down from the pyre, before grabbing one of the large pieces of wood lining the stake. She whacks Max's mother in the head with it repeatedly, "Here, you sadistic fucking bitch! You are a bad fucking mother!" She runs off, leaving her unconscious, with a bloody face. Meanwhile, Denise awakens strapped to a chair across from a coffin lying on the floor. She also

realizes there are fake vampire fangs glued into her mouth, creating a lisp when she speaks. She calls for Max, who she thinks is inside the coffin, and she's right, as he starts rising up, still dressed as Radu. But, before he can fully rise, Jackie rushes in and repeatedly slams the front part of the coffin's lid on his head, knocking him out. She then rushes to free Denise, telling her to help her in doing so, and again, Denise wonders why she's so hostile towards her. When she sees what's

happened with her and the fake teeth, Jackie finds it amusing and gives Denise fake sympathy about her predicament. Denise sees something behind Jackie and tries to warn her, but she doesn't get the hint in time, as Max's mother comes in and stabs her in the back. She collapses to the ground, while Max's mother goes over to the coffin and awakens Max. When he learns she's still filming everything, he decides to go on with it and, after clumsily climbing out of the coffin, he and his mother menacingly approach Denise, who tries to argue that she never died in any of her past movies. Like Michelle predicted earlier, it doesn't work, and Denise suffers the same fate as everyone else.

Even in death, Jackie and Denise continue to argue, as Jackie says she looks very "romantic," while she, still lisping, snarls, "Why don't you go fuck yourself, Jackie?" Michelle asks if they're going to have to keep listening to their squabbles, while Darcy tells Denise they all have their crosses to bear, before apologizing to "Sister Quigley." When she hears that, Jackie asks what the deal is, and the other girls immediately stop her, as they don't want to hear Linnea's story again. Linnea says it's fine, but then starts to ask if Jackie or

Denise want the comfort of the Lord, only for the others to stop her again. Max reveals that he's made a life-mask of Linnea's face and has done the same for the rest of them, saying they can share everything with the world now. Jackie and Denise mention that they don't understand why he's doing this and Max says, "What don't you understand? We all want to hold on to what we love, and to share it, and for it to go on forever." Looking at Linnea's life-mask, he adds, "That's all I ever

wanted for you girls... to go on forever, just the way I remember you. Just the way I've always loved you. And now, you will... sort of." His mother comes in and calls to him. When he looks up at her, the heads all turn and look as well. She says she's making some brownies and, like before, asks if he wants nuts or no nuts. He smiles and answers, "Nuts, Mom. Nuts."

If you know anything about Charles Band, you know that his brother, Richard, often does the music for both movies he directs and movies produced by his production companies and Trophy Heads is no exception. His main theme for it is a soft, understated piece that has a sort of mischievous plucking sound accompanying a somewhat poignant melody that somewhat evokes the pathetic sad nature of Max's existence and the madness it's led to. Though the main theme itself is only heard in full during the opening and ending credits, its motif runs through the score as a whole, namely in the scenes where Max is preparing the heads and in the flashback to when he first came up with his gruesome plan. The music for the suspense and kill scenes is a bit more standard, although it does the job, and for Linnea Quigley, Band makes use of a stereotypical church organ to drive home her faith (it's played purely for comedy, and is heard in spurts accompanying the moments in her introduction where front doors are repeatedly slammed in her face). He also comes up with some unsettling bits of music for the scenes that have an underlying disturbing nature to them, such as a weird sound right before the women's voices speak to Max. Not much else to say about the score except that, if nothing else, it is appropriate for the movie it accompanies.

Trophy Heads is definitely a movie that will only work for a certain niche who really enjoy the movies by Charles Band, Empire Pictures, and Full Moon, as well as those who know and love the women who star in it; if you're not among those groups, or if you're like me and only having a passing knowledge or interest in them, it's unlikely you'll really enjoy it. It certainly does have its good aspects, such as the potential of the premise, the surprisingly effective performances of the actors, some well-done instances of comedy and humor that take a bite out of the movie business, an okay music score, and a look that's not bad, considering the very tiny budget they had to work with. But, personal preference aside, the way it goes about "celebrating" the scream queens it features isn't all that flattering and could have been done better, there's not much here for gorehounds to enjoy it purely on that level, and, above all else, it's so repetitive and the story leads to absolutely nothing in terms of a resolution, which will not sit well with some. In other words, just know who you are if you decided to go into this.