“There’s a killer in Texas,” the song on the radio sings as “Head Cheese” opens. Yet, by the time this creepy, offal-tinged short from directors Justin Meeks and Duane Graves oozes to its conclusion, it’s obvious that at least this killer, if not the viewer, believes that he’s the Evil One himself. Legend (Meeks) is his name; a brooding loner obsessed with masochistic visions who combs the back woods exterminating human waste and exploring the detritus that they leave behind.
This evil ode to darkness is more a provocative, quasi-blasphemous character study of this tormented serial killer than a story-driven narrative. Accompanied by an ominous, vaguely threatening voice-over, the film festers with violent and disturbing imagery that hearkens back to the films of Richard Kern and the “height,” as it was, of the New York Underground movement.
Yet, Meeks and Graves are Texas filmmakers; their well done and surreal portrayal of evil on the prowl as rancid as armadillo road-kill. “Head Cheese” is a head trip.
