3 out of 5

Director: Chris Prynoski

Quirky to the unaware, and blast-yer-socks-off accurate to Mignola fans, Amazing Screw-On Head suffers only because it’s obviously a pilot for a show that never was. The plot’s too insane to do anything but say it straight – Abe Lincoln’s secret agent is Screw-On Head, whose head screws on to various bodies depending on what’s needed. Screw-On Head fights monsters the government doesn’t want us to know about, and in this 22 minute episode, he fights a corpse-smoking Zombie who’s trying to find a document that will help with world domination plans. Whuzzat? Yes, it’s a comic, and this accounts for the amaaaazingly unique style and palette chosen, which is – as fans will account – like the artist’s (Mike Mignola) visions splashed on the screen and animated. The punchy humor is also a trademark, and can be found in Hellboy – another Mignola creation, of course – and would’ve worked exceedingly well in an ongoing show. That’s really the only complaint here. Had this been stretched into a movie… 5 stars. Had it been an ongoing show… 5 stars. The abbreviation of everything boiled down to 20 minutes makes this more herky-jerky in terms of pacing than it would be if you could tune in next week. At least the DVD has some great extras.