BAD HAIRCUT (2025)
Official synopsis: When a college kid goes to a new place to get a haircut, he discovers that his barber is a psychopath.
Writer/director Kyle Misak’s horror comedy Bad Haircut is an unadulterated blast. Featuring a truly likable nerd character as the protagonist and a wonderfully bizarre villain — Spencer Harrison Levin as college student Billy, the former and Frankie Ray as hair stylist Mick, the latter — the independent film has the look and quality feel of a much larger studio production. The opening college party scenes introduce Billy and his two buddies Sonny (Beau Minniear) and Dee (R.J. Beaubrun) quite nicely, and set up the trio for a day meant to take Billy from awkward to cool, but that will instead send Billy down a dangerous path once he is left alone with Mick and realizes that the barber has some tendencies that continually escalate in being disturbing. The production values are all super, the performances solid throughout, and the direction highly impressive. Levin and Ray have excellent chemistry together, with Billy’s nervousness playing off of Mick’s eccentricities and violent inclinations marvelously. Bad Haircut, like its protagonist, has a big heart. Rich with weirdness, humor, suspense, and unpredictability, the film is certain to be a crowd pleaser. Personal bonus points for having two Seinfeld alumni in the cast — Larry Hankin and the voice of Kevin Dunn!
THE RESTORATION AT GRAYSON MANOR (2025)
Official synopsis: The Restoration at Grayson Manor focuses on Boyd Grayson, an Irish playboy who delights in bringing men home to his sprawling family estate for sex, just to spite his legacy-obsessed mother, reminding her she’ll never get the grandchildren she craves. When an accident leaves him incapacitated, Boyd finds himself handless, helpless and at the mercy of her care.
Body horror! Gothic elements! Familial squabbles! Mad science! A possible ghost? Irish queer horror comedy The Restoration at Grayson Manor has all this and more. The result is a thoroughly entertaining slice of genre cinema.
Keyboardist Boyd Grayson (Chris Colfer) is the sole heir to his family’s name, which irks his mother Jacqueline (Alice Krige) to no end. Boyd isn’t much interested in carrying on the family name, as he prefers hookups with random men from his audiences to any sort of familial legacy. When Boyd loses his hands in accident to save his Jacqueline from certain death — quite ironic, as viewers get to know these two characters — Jacqueline hires Dr. Jeffrey Tannock (Daniel Adegboyega) — a physician with cutting-edge experimental technology involving prosthetic hands, as well as a questionable past — and nurses Lee (Declan Reynolds) and Claudia (Gabriela Garcia Vargas). There’s spite, suspicion, and double-dealings aplenty in director Glenn McQuaid’s The Restoration at Grayson Manor, which he cowrote with Clay McLeod Chapman. The ensemble cast members go all-in with the absurdity and insanity on display, and McQuaid paces the proceedings impressively. The humor comes dark, dry, and acerbic. The practical effects on display are calculated to make viewers squirm, and the CG effects also add to the fun — viewers with fond memories of old-school horror movies that featured disembodied hands with minds of their own are sure to get a kick out of the film’s updated spin. The Restoration at Grayson Manor has plenty of bite to it, and the film is destined to please unsuspecting audience members as it travels the film festival circuit.
Bad Haircut and The Restoration at Grayson Manor screen as part of Fantastic Fest, which runs September 18-25, 2025 in Austin, Texas.
