‘Bad Hair’ weaves a tale of satisfying comic horror
You’ve heard of “The Stepford Wives.” Are you ready for “The Stepford Wigs”? From Justin Simien, the writer-director of “Dear White People,” comes “Bad Hair,” an African-Americancentered “hair horror” film to rival any hirsute demon out of J-horror.
“Bad Hair,” which opens to the tune of “I’m Your Puppet,” is set for the most part in 1989. The film taps into a true existential reality: the pain and anxiety hair has given many members of our society, specifically the people, not all of them Black, who are on familiar terms with such products as hair straighteners, hot combs, weaves and wigs.
Anna Bledso (Elle Lorraine) had a traumatic experience in her childhood involving a hair straightening product that left her with a severe scalp burn and clumps of lost hair. As a young adult, Anna is an assistant to an executive at a primarily Black cable TV production company and had helped develop a popular music-video-based show titled “Culture.” One of the show’s VJ stars is a former production assistant named Julius (Jay Pharoah). Anna and Julius have had a thing going on. Anna’s longtime boss Edna (Judith Scott) steps aside to let Zora (Vanessa Williams), a former model with flowing locks, take the reins. Zora wants to reinvent “Culture” and find new on-air talent. The only thing holding ambitious Anna back in this world in which image is everything is her “nappy” hair.
But inspired by a makeover achieved by her Janet Jackson-like music idol Sandra (Kelly Rowland), Anna, whose family is full of Ph.D.’s well-versed in African-American folklore, including a story about a bewitched “moss-haired girl,” is persuaded to pay a visit to wig sorceress Virgie (a spooky Laverne Cox). Virgie sews a wig made from possibly demonic hair onto Anna’s head. At first, the results are positive. People are enchanted, Zora and Julius included. Anna gets a shot at being on-air talent.
But then some very bad things happen. The first involves the “thirsty” wig and Anna’s would-be rapist landlord. “Bad Hair” definitely has its moments. The special effects, which turns wigs into giant, tentacled monsters, especially, are a blast. But in addition to recalling the recent British offering “In Fabric,” “Bad Hair” is so derivative it might be called “Invasion of the Follicle Snatchers” or “Little Shop of Hair-ors.”
Lorraine, of TV’s “Insecure,” brings genuine vulnerability and appeal to Anna. What “Bad Hair” lacks in originality, it makes up for with the special effects of Bryan Christiansen and Dan Schmit and comic turns by the likes of Lena Waithe as an overall-clad, on-air personality named Brooke-Lynne and Dawson himself James Van Der Beek as a devious TV mogul.
If you’re a comic-horror buff, you should check out “Bad Hair” because, you know, “Hair” today, gone tomorrow.
(“Bad Hair” contains extreme violence and profanity.)