Bad Hair is a horror/comedy set in 1989's LA about an unassuming but ambitious young broadcaster Anna(Elle Lorraine) who gets a weave in order to further her career. Although she begins to climb the ladder thanks to her new look there is an unforeseen and terrifying price to pay.
Lorraine is an incredibly emphatic lead, careening from terror to avarice to humor with surprising ease. She's a wonderful match for the odd genre-bending tone of the film and never sacrifices real emotion during the more heightened or absurd moments of the plot. The supporting cast is absolutely stacked with talent- Laverne Cox in a delicious turn as Virgie the dark magic hair dresser, Vanessa Williams as Zora the new corporate head of Anna's network, Lena Withe and Yaani King as VJs, Blair Underwood as Anna's professor uncle- on and on. Even to relatively small cameos the cast is packed with talented actors you'll recognize and it's a pleasure to see such a wealth of almost entirely black talent, save for James Van Der Beek in a brief role as a sneering executive.
Shot with a grainy quality that conveys the period and a solid soundtrack, the film delivers fully on it's horror premise, provides enough moments of absurdity to relieve tension, and works slightly as social commentary. Whatever the central metaphor is its not particularly clear or carried through to completion but it doesn't really matter. It's packed full of ideas, scares, and laughs with enough behind it to have some teeth.
An ambitious, messy, fun genre-bending horror film more akin to the bizarre, lyrical In Fabric although it will most likely be(unfairly) compared to Get Out.
Currently streaming on Hulu.
See It.
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