Meet the Hollowheads

Plot synopsis:
In a strange, dark world full of pipes, tubes, corridors and a mysterious "edge" that naughty children are threatened with being thrown over, the Hollowhead family lives in a brightly lit, colorful happy home, until some clogged tubes, an imposing boss, and a little too much softening cream bring it all crashing down on them. Henry Hollowhead informs his wife that his new boss will be coming to dinner, and she graciously agrees to make it a memorable one. He hopes to take advantage of this chance at getting a promotion at United Umbilical by impressing his boss over a delicous dinner. Meanwhile, Billy Hollowhead and his best friend are making a mess in the bedroom with Billy's new splat-spray game, using the family pet's parasites as ammunition. Older sister, budding beauty Cindy Hollowhead is raving about the upcoming party, and her brother Bud is practicing just a little too loudly on his electro-chicken-accordian instrument, which he will be playing at the same party. Mr. Hollowhead and boss Mr. Crabneck arrive just in time to see the succulent Cindy leaving for the party, and Mr. Crabneck wastes no time in showing his slimey side to both daughter and mother. Dinner begins, with some idle chitchat about work, degrading into a discussion of the dangers of rationalism, and finally coming back to Mr. Hollowhead's desired promotion. At this point, Mr. Crabneck informs them that he is a very very very lonely man, and the only chance Henry has at getting promoted lies with Miriam, and her willingness to ease his boss's loneliness. Unable to restrain himself further, Mr. Crabneck attacks Miriam's neck while Henry ponders a way to get noticed at work. She fends him off with the help of her well-adjusted youngest son Billy, until Henry joins in and together, the three subdue Mr. Crabneck. It takes a few tries, as Mr. Crabneck is a tough crab to crack, but they finally knock him out and hide him in the kitchen just as the police arrive with daugther Cindy. The party has been raided by police after the party-goers tapped into a highly restricted tube, and Cindy was taken into custody under the intoxicating influence of two pounds of softening cream. Oldest son Bud returns after having been booed out of the party because of his new songs, and Mr. Crabneck wakes up once more before finally expiring at the sight of Cindy's drunken state. But, instead of throwing the body over the edge, they throw him in the regeneration chamber, revive him, and put him in the basement with Grandpa, who they are secretly keeping alive despite the law. Problem solved, promotion secured, and pervert safely locked away, the family reminds each other how important family is, because the family that slays together, stays together. And remember kids, just say "No!" to butt polish!

Tags: absurd, cult, psychedelic

Review:
A little-seen offbeat sci-fi/horror/comedy/something-else movie..
Imagine a bizarre fusion of Terry Gilliam's Brazil and TV sitcom I love Lucy.
Now add a dash of Cronenbergesque body-shock horror and a soupçon of sixties sci-fi idealism.
The result might look something like Meet The Hollowheads, the only directorial effort (to date) from movie make-up maestro Tom Burman.
And then again it might not.Set in a strange world where all of life's necessities are supplied (and disposed of) via tubes, where strange creatures are used both as food and household tools, and where clean living wholesome folk are driven to violence, Meet the Hollowheads is definitely a film that needs to be seen to be believed.Henry Hollowhead (John Glover), loving husband and father of three, is United Umbilical's top meter reader.
Hoping for a promotion, he brings home his new boss, Mr. Crabneck, to meet his family and stay for dinner.
But Mr.Crabneck proves to be a less than perfect house-guest, insulting Henry's youngest son, and leching after both Henry's tasty wife and his jail-bait daughter (played by a very sexy and very young Juliette Lewis).
Soon enough the situation turns ugly and the Hollowheads are forced to fight back.Extremely imaginative and downright freaky in places, this movie is certainly not going to be to everyone's taste, but those with a taste for the unusual and absurd should really give this one a try, if only to witness the sight of Juliette Lewis singing and dancing whilst her (real-life) brother plays a 'half-mutant-chicken/half-trombone' musical instrument.And if that isn't enough to tempt you, the film also contains these treats: Ms. Lewis trying on a range of garish but very-body-hugging dresses, Ms Lewis feeding her grandpa green goop though a tube while he gropes her, Near Dark's Joshua Miller playing 'Splatspray' with huge lice, Bobcat Goldthwait (credited as Jack Cheese) talking normally, and Anne 'Throw Momma From The Train' Ramsey (in her final role) requiring subtitles due to her throat cancer.Quite insane and quite possibly brilliant (but don't quote me on that), Meet The Hollowheads is well worth checking out if you love obscure cinematic oddities..
A Fabulous Sci Fi Movie...fun family viewing, great escapism..
I must say I was laughing a lot and frightened a bit...but in a good-natured way...and most of all I was simply mesmerized by the brilliantly amusing storyline and wonderful special effects that used real full-sized movie sets and none of the cheap, too-obvious digital graphics used by all Sci Fi movie-makers of today.This is a must-have Sci Fi movie for those who enjoy the eclectic, the bizarre and the esoteric worlds of anywhere else but earth.
My best guess is that the Hollowheads live in a society on a distant planet that exists totally underground in a large population, a very large "city" with miles of tunnels, single-family homes, ultra modern conveniences using pipes that bring in food and every ingredient needed for life's daily needs.Why does an entire civilization live beneath their planet's surface?
Who knows?
The Hollowhead underground world is very well conceived and becomes as reasonable to the movie watcher, as does our own reality here on the surface of the earth appear normal to us.Meet the Hollowheads with sexy Juliette Lewis as daughter Cindy Hollowhead, and John Glover and Nancy Mette as Mr. and Mrs. Hollowhead...as normal as any U.S. television family out of the 1950's...help to bring off this caricature of life as we thought we knew it, with good-natured humor, a zesty cast of fascinating characters and an alien lifestyle as crazy and fun as any which has ever been brought to film.My suggestion: This is a must-have video for you and your family.Enjoy!.
What A World!.
This wildly imaginative, endlessly clever, candy colored, twisted, hilarious, gross-out, underground (maybe literally) sci-fi comedy is a one-of-a-kind wonder.
Essentially the idea is a Jetsons-ish live action family TV sitcom satire set in an intangible time and place of some far off, distant dimension or universe where every daily necessity or modern convenience is pumped through a complex system of tubes.
Oh, and everyone is careful not to fall off "The Edge." The basic plot setup is an intentional cookie cutter television sitcom template involving the father, Henry Hollowhead (John Glover) who works for "United Umbilical", bringing home his new slimy boss (Richard Portnow) for an impromptu dinner, leaving the homemaker mother, Miriam Hollowhead (Nancy Mette), reeling with the frantic task of managing her three stock character type children while trying to cook up an impressive feast.
The inspired fun and lunacy comes from how this simple premise is warped around, and manifested within the novelty of the created universe: The mother wrangles tentacles and squirts out doughy goo in the kitchen; the eldest son practices his bagpipe/keyboard/trombone/live-chicken-creature instrument for his big gig; the youngest son picks fat insects off the family "dog" ("he's infested") to use in his new "Splat Spray Game" with his troublemaking buddy Joey (pre-teen cynic, 80's cult regular Joshua John Miller); and their middle child daughter, a pre-fame Juliette Lewis, sprays her face with cosmetic machines in the bathroom, getting ready for a party.
A whole system of amusing fictional terminology and lingo is even created (the daughter wants to use the mother's "Softening Jelly" and they threaten to discipline their children by sending them to the "Penetration Box") leaving the deduction of which up to the viewer's imagination.
Another delicious, bizarre and wonderful conceptual element is what lay beyond the walls of the house and what the outside world is like.
The only scene that takes place outside the fantastical home is when the youngest son and his friend venture out through an abstract dark void to make their way to the main pipe station, to fill a list of ingredients for Mrs. Hollowhead.
Along the way, they encounter a void bum, a team of "Reamers," that are dressed up in grey, brush outlined pipe cleaner tutus, and Stationmaster Babbleaxe (Anne Ramsey), who speaks with subtitles that even translate her grunts into insults (This idea might have been used due to the fact that because Ramsey suffered from throat cancer she had to have parts of her jaw and tongue removed, and as a result it affected her speech.
She died shortly after this production and the film is "Lovingly Dedicated" to her.).
Burman's, a long time special make-up effects artist who has worked on everything from The Thing With Two Heads (1972) to My Bloody Valentine (1981) (he even worked with Anne Ramsey before on Throw Momma From The Train (1987)), first and only, so far, directed feature, but let's hope it is not the last.
Lisa Morton co-concocted and wrote the great script in collaboration with Burman as a project for Burman to direct.
Morton kept a journal during production which can be found online at Morton's site (www.lisamorton.com).A good printed VHS and Laserdisc version was released by Image in November of 1989 but since then the film seems to have become public domain, because several super cheap video labels have released their own VHS and DVD versions with badly blown up pictures of Juliette Lewis on the cover, to cash in on her fame, and wrong credit listings.
The film's original title was "Life On The Edge," but it was changed, and the film was cut and re-scored by the producers (they even added a horribly silly/stupid hip-hop/rap song to the credits).
But even with those forced butcheries, the film remains astonishing.
We would all lead happier, more exciting lives if more films like this got funded.
Fun, creatively-zany sci-fi fantasy.
This is sort of like a lite version of BRAZIL; which takes a standard 60s sit-com plot of a middle-class working father who has to impress his boss with a dinner at the family home; and sets it in some futuristic/alien world.It has quite impressive production values, great set design, and a fairy tight little script.All the child actors especially show a lot of enthusiasm and great personality.Very enjoyable if you like escapist storytelling.
It would probably make an enjoyable rainy-day video for the family during holidays..
Life in a biomorphic future.
This strange little gem combines the biomorphic machinery of Giger with the surreal dadaism of Terry Gilliam and the sugary family life of "Leave it To Beaver".
The Hollowheads live in a future world after overpopulation and economic collapse has forced everyone to live in inside giant tubes over vast factories, where pre-processed food is pumped in through pipes, and normal animals and plants have disappeared, replaced by selectively bred genetically-engineered mutants.
Biomorphic machines are used as medical equipment, food sources, and even musical instruments.
Yet the family lives in a 50's style nuclear family with touches of 80's extravagance (gotta love the bubble dress!).
The household machinery and factory equipment is very reminiscent of the industrial scenes in Terry Gilliam's "Brazil".
The Hollowhead family have striven to maintain civilization, while the managers of the ruling factory, United Umbilical (with a Staley-eqsue swastika-like logo), ruthlessly manages its employees with animalistic lust.
"Meet the Hollowheads" is one of those films you will recognize more and more as its predictions start coming true..
Very worthwhile bizarre flick..
The first time I watched this movie, I wasn't in the mood for camp.
This is campy and bizarre, right up there with movies from Tim Burton but stranger, if you can believe that.
Condiments are delivered through tubes and food is kept alive in cabinets.
The kitchen even has a creature that heals black eyes -- while your child is strapped into what looks like an evil torture chair, screaming.
Oh yes, and no house is complete without a seeing eye.Definitely recommended.
I bought it on laser disc when I saw it on clearance at Camelot years ago -- I don't know if you can still buy it.
Good luck..
Simply crazy.
This movie is not good or bad its just plain crazy.
It takes place in another universe where people get everything given to them through tubes.
Its craziness does it good though, it could have cult potential if it were more widely known.
The movie features a cameo by the hilarious Anne Ramsey (Throw Mamma From The Train)and very young Juliette Lewis before her breakthrough role in "Cape Fear." Its a silly crazy piece of work, could be worth a see to some people.
Crazy AND worthy..
If you're expecting a serious, normal movie, than this movie is definitively not for you.This is a very colorfull movie with a real twist of humor, basically anyone who spent his or her childhood poring thru sci-fi publications and who is a fan of people like Monty Python will like this movie.
Although the sci-fi backdrop of this move is very enticing it is just that, a backdrop, on the front you have a simple minded story of a simple guy who is tryign to escalate the corporate ladder in a very imaginative alternative-society world (think of THX1138 in LSD) and the misfortune that hits him and his family when he brings his new boss home for dinner....
this movie has no teaching at all, and it will only be worth a laught, still the humor is not toughtfull but rather on the sillyness, clownsy side.
After all this moviebeign worth only a laugh has a "something", so it's already on my permanent collection list along with "tank girl" and "the little shop of horrors"..
and I don't like them.
This is certainly one cheery little pile of glop but, with its rainbow-dessert/Good n'Plenty visual design, it is hard to digest and rather nausea inducing.
It's like a bad dream channeled through a nether world where the brains of Terry Gilliam and Steven Spielberg (in his Goonies phase) connect.
Meet the Hollowheads?
More like the Jetsons-meets-Brazil-meets-a-hamster-habitrail...
well, it's certainly not the usual "meetings" I'll grant that.
But it's all contrived weirdness and goopy effects, and worst of all not funny.
There's no wit, just a lot of Sid & Marty Kroft-like ('Lidsville/H.R. Pufnstuf', etc.) goings on that might appeal to kids.
There's even a section with Anne Ramsey that is so badly acted and recorded that it required post-production sub-titles in order to figure out what was being said (granted Miss Ramsey died, presumably before she could loop her dialogue).
There's also a cheesy 80's-cliche guitar & synth music score that ironically dates this futuristic film.
Or maybe it's not futuristic, but an alternate universe...
being the same place where this film came from, like some of the actors listed: Shnutz Burman, Lightfield Lewis, Shotgun Britton and Jack Cheese (yes, these are the actors names not their characters).
Yet it was probably a blast to make, at least for the Burman clan: from the credits it appears the entire Burman family tree worked on this.
Then again, Tom Burman is a make-up artist, so this may be the finest directorial achievement of any make-up artist in Hollywood history.
now let's put a Key Grip in the directorial chair and see what one of THEM can do..
In a weird future where tubes provide all of lives necessities (and also seem to provide the basis for almost all of the slang that the Hollowhead children use) Meet the Hollowheads creates one of the most unique worlds ever captured on film.
The films basic story is one of those classic old chestnuts that has been used on virtually every family sitcom.
Dad brings the boss home for dinner and wants everything to go right to secure the big promotion.
Of course the boss turns out to be a jerk (and eventually much worse) but the family tries to keep the strained smiles on their faces despite his behaviour.
Although this film has amazing production design too often is comes across as odd and simply not funny.
From the crushing of live creatures to make children's snacks to a tentacled monster who is kept in a fridge so its limbs can be hacked off for dinner there is no shortage of bizarre sights (I won't even get into the family dog or the bizarre means of feeding Grandpa) but only some of it is amusing.
The whole film comes across like David Lynch directing an episode of 'The Jetsons'.Obviously a lot of care went into this film and the acting is first rate.A very young Juliet Lewis may rate the box cover but special mention must be made of both the criminally under-rated John Glover and the remarkably sleazy Richard Portnow.
Although they were great there really was no weak link in the film.
I just wish that after the writers had created this amazing world they would have spent just a little longer figuring out what they wanted everyone to do in it.Style is important but it is not enough on its own to carry the film.
This movie is worth watching for anyone who likes new worlds but do not expect a masterpiece, its more of a interesting misfire.
The potential was there but they were never able to bring it to the next level..
I wouldn't have given this movie more than a five if it hadn't been so inventive.
The mother and daughter both gave fabulous performances, but I can't say the same for the rest of the crew.
The sets were overcolourful and far too "Saved By The Bell" for my tastes.
I would have liked this movie even more if we'd been allowed to have seen more of the world in which the Hollowheads live in.
Very inventive, and a few good lines.
But for the most part, the awful oversaturated sets and nauseatingly bad acting just kind of brought it down.
A few moments made me feel as if I were riding a bad haunted house.This would be an interesting movie to remake with better production values..
MEET THE HOLLOWHEADS is an oddball surreal sci-fi comedy made on an indie budget.
The whole story plays out in a single room where a quirky family play with futuristic technology and overact terribly.
This reminded me of the fake sitcom in NATURAL BORN KILLERs but even more OTT, if that's possible.
The only actor I recognised was Juliette Lewis, popping up near the end for another over the top role..
I watched this movie by accident one day on a local channel.Other than having some cool people in it like Juliette Lewis and Bobcat Goldwaith it's just nasty.I realize it was done in the cheesy eighties when standards were lower and hair bigger but please.Was this the first thing Juliette ever did?I feel bad for her.This movie puts the P in pedophile with a 14-15yr old Juliette getting it on with a fat old cop,& a line like well ma-mm you may want to have her drained.And reamers?We all know what that means.The men are creepy.The boys run into creepy older men everywhere they go.I also realize Juliette was in a lot of weird stuff like Natural Born Killers and that Kalifornia movie where she and Brad Pitt are serial killers.In Natural Born Killers she's part of incest.These are just horrible movies.This one makes me wonder if Disney was involved since they are so pedophiles.The whole movie just made me wretch with a weird dance scene in Juliette's older brother's room.The weird creatures and having to go clean grandpa's bathroom and feed him,gross.Also the fact that the boss basically tries to rape the mother in the kitchen in front of all of them and then they all join in to kill him brutally in front of their young son is not family material.I'm sorry but this movie is awful and ought to be condemned.Boy Juliette and Bobcat must've really needed work.That one kid and the father have always given me the creeps anyway in all they've done.It's the twisted eyes and the way they talk.Anyway, this movie should be rated R and pulled for good.I cannot imagine it made much money.It is just gross in every way.