Hey folks, Harry here - and this is a look at a film that a friend of mine made. MASKHEAD is directed by Scott Swan, Drew McWeeny's writing partner (the brains behind the team, obviously) and sometimes contributor to the world of general fandom. Scott happens to be a dead ringer for Orson Welles. So when I got his DVD in the mail, his first directorial feature - I figured... ok. Let's see if he has the talent of Orson Welles.

Well, that's up to debate, but this film - as debauched, as terribly perverse as it is... has intellect running through it. Scott Swan knows what he's doing here. The basic framework of the film revolves around a group of sick fucks, that have made ads to recruit people for various Porn Productions... he uses the "interview" porn technique, where you have the girl or the guy on a couch, being interviewed by a couple of bubbly gals. The various "subjects" run the gamut from 1st timers to experienced porn types. We progress from the interview to various fetish specific scenarios involving the "subjects". These are very kinky and probably specific to the mind of Scott Swan, who generally seems normal in the real world. Definitely more normal than his writing partner, who I could tell endless stories about. But Scott lets these girls and guys get into the "kink" they're demonstrating, and then MASKHEAD walks onto set. He reminds me a bit of the killer in 8MM, that sort of Mega-Gimp-Sadist. The scene of the girl in the clown make-up... when she sees him off camera... the look is genuine. It is disturbing. The level of torture and torment. Well, it is genuinely stomach turning. Is it real? Well, that's a question you have to ask yourself a few times during the movie.

The real question is... will you see any of these people again? In that way, it reminds me of TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, but definitely a few steps below that. But the film is effective in the realm of shock and disgust - you will want to turn away from what you're watching, there are things so awful, you'll kinda wish you could unsee them. At the same time, this is the sort of thing you watch with a very select crowd - and only if you're the sort of person that can look at something and not get all high and mighty about it's moralistic value in modern society. This is a very ugly thing. Hilarious at times, but without a doubt it is tremendously fucked up.

As I watched it, I found myself wondering if I should ever let Scott Swan within striking distance again. This is the sort of film that Herschell Gordon Lewis became known for. It is very much in that tradition. And it looks like it was probably a lot of fun to shoot.

That said - if you ever have the opportunity to see it, see how much of it you can take. If you can get through this without looking away, you should probably be in a padded cell. There were several times where I didn't feel comfortable looking at the screen further. It genuinely disgusted me at multiple junctures. But then, I'm pretty sure that was the intent.

Last night on Twitter - several friends of mine were in Los Angeles watching MASKHEAD. I decided to watch it sandwiched between Criterion Blu-Rays of HOWARD'S END and WINGS OF DESIRE. Surrounding such ugliness with sublime beauty and innocence... it felt right. But you should know... I'm betting there's less than 10,000 readers of this site that will genuinely be able to take watching this from beginning to end. For most of you, it will come across as pure trash. But you know what they say about trash, one man's trash is another man's treasure.

Mr Swan has shown the capacity to shock, disturb and captivate. I hope he finds some modicum of success with MASKHEAD, because I feel he could have the ability to sharpen his abilities a bit, with a real budget there's no telling what he could do. But I bet it would be interesting.