Studiocanal to expand short film Baghead into a feature

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

There's another BAGHEAD coming to the horror genre. Jason Voorhees' THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN inspired look in FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 2 has earned him the nickname "Baghead Jason" (also "Sackhead Jason"), and in 2008 Jay and Mark Duplass worked with Greta Gerwig on a horror comedy called BAGHEAD. Now director Alberto Corredor is working with Studiocanal to turn his short film BAGHEAD into a feature.

The short version of BAGHEAD, which has a running time of 15 minutes, has been making the festival rounds since 2017. It features 

a mysterious figure called Baghead, a diminutive wrinkled up person who is able to manifest the dead and bring them back to our world for short intervals. People seek out the mysterious medium to reconnect with lost loved ones. Once in contact with Baghead however, the title character’s true powers and intentions are revealed and there is a high price to pay for its contact with the deceased. 

Corredor will be directing the feature expansion of his short, and will also serve as an executive producer alongside Lorcan Reilly, Vertigo's Roy Lee, and Alibi's Jake Wagner. The feature will be produced by The Picture Company's Andrew Rona and Alex Heineman. Didier Lupfer and Ron Halpern will oversee the project for Studiocanal.

Deadline's report on the feature plan is somewhat confusing, because they mention that it will build on the short's story while taking "a SAW-like approach, adding in supernatural elements." That's an odd sentence, because it seems to imply the supernatural elements would be inspired by SAW, which wasn't supernatural, and the BAGHEAD short already appears to have supernatural elements anyway.

A trailer for the short BAGHEAD can be seen below. We'll be keeping an eye on the feature version as it moves forward.