Baghead (2023)

"Iris" (Freya Allan) unexpectedly inherits a dilapidated pub from her estranged father (Peter Mullen) and is actively encouraged to just sell it by the solicitor (the always good at the creepy characters Ned Dennehy). She decides to spend a night - along with some VHS instructions - in the place to think on things and encounters the enigmatic young "Neil" (Jeremy Irvine) who offers her £4,000 so he can talk to his wife in the cellar! She tells him to come back next day, asks her lawyer pal "Katie" (Ruby Barker) to come and stay and before too long reckons she could be on to a cunning money-making wheeze. He comes back and to the cellar the three head. Two chairs and a great big hole in the wall greet them, followed by some filthy and scrawny fingers as the eponymous woman emerges from the darkness and... Yikes! Rather than being scared witless, "Iris" does a wee bit of research and concludes that she can control this scenario and make loads of cash too. "Katie" isn't so easily convinced and the lovelorn "Neil" is clearly working on a solution that will work more permanently for him! There are some startlingly stupid decisions made by the characters in this film, and some of the (sparing) visual effects are the stuff of the "Exorcist" from fifty years ago, but as a low-budget enterprise it is no worse than your standard Blumhouse fayre that trot in and out of our cinemas every few weeks. The acting is all adequate, as is the writing and the story has it's moment of intrigue as it develops. Though I'll never remember watching it in a fortnight, I quite enjoyed it for the ninety minutes leading to a denouement that I did rather like.