"Headspace" is a strange little creature feature that I decided to give a rent when I saw it at the video store. The film centers around Alex Borden, a normal guy in his mid-twenties living in New York City. While Alex may appear to be normal, but his life is slowly spiraling out of control. After meeting a mysterious artist/chess-master, Alex begins to gain more and more knowledge and becomes smarter and smarter, to the point where it's no longer for his own good. Something is causing him to tap into a different region of his brain, and he suffers from horrible headaches and night terrors because of it. After being referred by Dr. Bell (Dee Wallace-Stone, of "The Hills Have Eyes" and "E.T".), Alex visits a psychologist, Karen (the lovely Olivia Hussey, of "Black Christmas" and "Romeo and Juliet"), who studies patients similar to Alex. But soon after, people around Alex begin to die in horrible ways, all murdered by a savage, unseen beast. Is any of it related to Alex's troubled childhood? Or what really is happening to him?
I mainly decided to rent this film because, 1) the cover art was creepy, and the back of the box had nothing but praise for the film, and 2) Olivia Hussey and Dee Wallace-Stone were listed in the cast. While the film wasn't a complete waste, it wasn't wonderful either. The storyline to the film may sound interesting, and I thought it did myself. While it is interesting, it's also a little bit cloudy and some things are far too unclear, left without any explanation at all. The problem with this is that these elements in the story need some type of explaining, because otherwise they make little to no sense. The plot is a little convoluted, but this film does have some good offerings too. The cinematography is nice and stylish, and the creature in the film is presented realistically. It's normally difficult to make a monster movie where the monster itself is presented in a way that doesn't throw all logic out the window, and this film succeeds at that. The monster isn't too overdone and it's believable enough.
There is quite a good amount of gore in the film as well, there's more than plenty of monster mutilations to please all of those gore hounds. The film boasts a mildly impressive cast, including two well-known actresses in the horror genre. The lead, Christopher Denham, who plays Alex is convincing in his role as the troubled young adult. Dee Wallace-Stone has a fairly small role as a doctor, and is also excellent in her short on screen time. And Olivia Hussey, who starred as the lead in my favorite horror film of all time, "Black Christmas", plays Alex's doctor/friend. She is given very little to work with, but she is also wonderful in all of her scenes (which also wasn't a whole lot, I would have liked to see her a little more often). The film's surprise ending caught me off guard, and while it took me a minute to understand what had happened, it was a fitting way to conclude the story.
All in all, "Headspace" is a just about average monster movie. It's not too overdone and is far from being corny, but the plot becomes a little cloudy at times and is hard to follow on some occasions. It does boast some very good actors though, and plenty of monster-murders for anyone who enjoys a good creature feature. I'd say it's about average, but I have to admit it was better than I was expecting. Trust me, there's much worse out there. Worth a rent if you're into this kind of stuff. 5/10.
