2 out of 5

Director: Archibald Flancranstin

Non boogeyman / supernatural horror has a common theme: that of a character trying to do the right thing the wrong way. This is part of the story of Header, a low budget presentation of the Edward Lee novella. ATF agent Cummings has a sick wife who needs her prescriptions paid, and ATFing apparently doesnt pay all that much cash. So our agent starts doing light drug runs on the side, only he still needs more money, and so gets in deeper… Along the way, he starts investigating some disgusting crimes in the area, something the locals apparently call a Header. (The other reviews will tell you what this is, but the film also offers it up pretty quick.) A just released simple-minded con stays with his equally simple-minded grandpappy, and for various reasons they go on a Header kick. So: for low-budget, the acting, editing, and gore is done well enough. The splicing of shots and sounds the director does is a tad annoying, but its a cheap effect put to as good as use as possible. On the plus side, for the degrading subject matter, the film is …mostly… respectful. These are backwater folks, and while some are more backwater than others, theyre all treated to more flushed out characters than wed usually get for this kind of film. The grand-dad and ex-con are hard to understand sometimes, with their thick accents, and are not sympathetic exactly, but… weirdly human. However, lets not distract from the main problem: the good guy doing bad theme is hard to balance. It might work in a short novel, or in a 30 minute Tales From the Crypt episode, but over the course of the movie, it loses credence, and you dont find yourself caring too much about anyones story when theyre making such disgusting decisions. A respectable attempt at this story, but the film is probably an example of why Lees books are optioned but never made: youd read it, but watching it is a different story.