Head of the Family (1996)

**_Sort of a hard R-rated version of “The ’Burbs”_**

This is a mid-90’s cult flick from Full Moon that comes in the tradition of The Addams Family, The Munsters and the aforementioned “The ’Burbs.” The difference is that it surprisingly includes lots of female nudity and several simulated sex sequences, mostly involving blonde Jacqueline Lovell, who plays Lorretta. Meanwhile the titular Myron Stackpool (J.W. Perra) is a knockoff of Marvel Comics’ MODOK, a character that debuted in 1967.

It’s weird how the movie is so obscure because it’s very creative and entertaining. I never heard of Jacqueline until seeing it last night and she’s actually an adept actress, very natural, not to mention stunningly winsome. I felt bad that she degraded herself by appearing in the sleazy sex sequences and, at the climax, fully nude. The movie didn’t need this. Less is more.

A handful of years later she reflected that she was weary of doing films where producers just wanted a bunch of nude or sex scenes. She was done with flicks where there was a nude/sex scene every 15 minutes and wanted to go up the ladder, not back down. In other words, her flirtations with softcore erotica were a strategy to get into the biz, but her heart wasn’t really into it, and she understandably wanted to grow from there.

The movie is hard to rate because it does deliver the goods for what it is, it’s the softcore porn scenes that I wasn’t anticipating and can do without. They ruin it. Of course, lots of guys will be attracted to it for that very reason. I’m a dude, I ‘get’ it. I’m all for depicting feminine beauty in film, but there’s a way to keep it classy and there’s a line that crosses into off-putting sleaze. This crosses that line.

It runs 1h 22m and was shot northeast of Los Angeles in Glendale and Monrovia.

GRADE: C