Baghead (2023) is an international co-production, based on the 2017 short film by Alberto Corredor (directing) and Lorcan Reilly (script). This feature length version stars Freya Allan, Jeremy Irvine, Ruby Barker and Peter Mullan.
Baghead (2023) is a slightly odd pick for this website because it’s not really a British movie, although the main characters and most of the cast are British. It’s an international co-production, based on a short by an Irish writer (Lorcan Reilly) with a Spanish director (Alberto Corredor). However, the UK is listed as one of the three countries of origin, and it stars British actors, so I thought it might be of interest to readers of this blog. Truth be told, I was actually quite keen to review it because I think it’s been unfairly underrated, and I want to play my part, however modest, in redressing the balance.
The basic plot is quite intriguing. When her estranged father dies, Iris (Freya Allan) inherits a rundown pub in Berlin called the Queen’s Head. Locked in the basement of the pub is an immortal witch who sits in the dark with a bag on her head, waiting for visitors. She can bring the dead back to life, but only for two minutes at a time, with terrible consequences if you try to outstay your welcome. The latter point didn’t stop Dad (Peter Mullan) from trying to monetise the situation; apparently, before he died, he was charging people thousands of pounds to go down into the basement and speak to their lost loved ones. Before Iris gets chance to discover this for herself, she’s surprised by a visit from would-be punter Neil (Jeremy Irvine) who wants to talk to his dead wife. Suffice to say, chaos ensues.
Weirdly, more than one review of Baghead took issue with the fact that the Queen’s Head is in Berlin, as if it didn’t make sense for there to be a British pub with a Scottish landlord in Germany. The truth is, there are venues like this all over Europe, including the King’s Arms in Nürnberg, the Fox and Hounds in Frankfurt, and the Shakespeare Pub in Hannover – all real places! – and it doesn’t take a genius to work out that the Queen’s Head is either a watering hole for expats or a theme bar for tourists.
A less baffling complaint, again raised by multiple reviewers, is the fact that the core premise of Baghead is very similar to one from horror sensation Talk to Me (2023). The similarities are unfortunate because few films would be flattered by the comparison; Talk to Me has 94% on Rotten Tomatoes and is widely regarded as one of the best horror movies in its year of release. However, that doesn’t mean that Baghead is guilty of copying. The original short movie was doing the rounds in 2017, and, while I’ve not seen it, at least one contemporary reviewer mentions the basic premise – including the two minute time limit – so they don’t seem to have copied the idea from Talk to Me.
Also, while the stories are similar on paper, the two films develop them in very different ways. The events of Talk to Me take place in wider society and are visibly set in the social media age, with obnoxious young people filming everything on their smartphones. Baghead has just three main characters and is mostly set in one location, which makes it feel more timeless. Not in the sense of it being an enduring classic; just in the sense of it being less obviously new. The most conspicuous piece of technology is a VHS cassette, and, with minimal changes, the same script could have been performed as a stage play thirty years earlier.
So, with that out of the way, what is Baghead actually like? As I teased in the opening, I definitely had fun with it. The first two times that Iris goes down to the basement, the script throws up some genuine surprises that I enjoyed very much, leaving me keen to see where the story would go next. The first encounter is especially creepy, thanks to some very competent horror staging and a brilliant performance by Julika Jenkins. The exposition in the latter part of the film isn’t very organic – someone turns up and simply explains the history of the pub – but, on the plus side, at least it gives you a clear answer to the core mystery of the film. I didn’t predict how the story would end and found it surprising but satisfying.
All in all, it’s definitely true that Baghead isn’t as good as Talk to Me, but the vast majority of horror films aren’t, and that doesn’t stop this one being an entertaining hour and a half. I wouldn’t call it a classic, but it’s a very serviceable genre film with solid execution, and I would gladly recommend it to any horror fan.
About the author
My name is Ellis. When I’m not reviewing movies, I write short stories about ghosts.
21st Century British Horror 
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