Piranha Pictures, 2002

the plot: Noble (Wauer) spends his days sulking about in his newly-rented hotel room. But his boring life gets interesting when mysterious notes begin appearing under his door and he starts dreaming of an eerie man wearing a bone-white mask (Mr. ?). A pair of crooked cops soon pay Noble a visit, looking for a woman (Rochon) who rented the hotel room before him. After the cops leave, Noble receives another visitor, this time the equally eerie Riegert (Parker), an umbrella-toting weirdo looking for the same woman. Riegert convinces Noble to search for the woman, and Noble’s quest soon leads him to a group of freaks producing a pirate TV station that specializes in fetish videos, porno flicks and, to Noble’s horror, snuff films. As Noble tries to ingratiate himself with the gang of murderous auteurs, he catches brief glimpses of his mystery woman. But each time he sees her, the man in the mask is close behind. Desperate to find the woman before further harm comes to her, Noble finds himself trapped in a tangled web of thuggish cops and vicious killers, a web he can’t escape without shedding some blood—possibly his own.

why it’s good: Don’t let the grainy video and dubious sound quality fool you—“Shockheaded” is a pretty solid low-budget shocker. Borrowing heavily from David Lynch and David Cronenberg, writer/director Eric Thornett imbues “Shockheaded” with a surreal, creepy atmosphere that makes it not only watchable, but compelling. The cryptic Mr. ? looks delightfully weird in that white mask (which adorns the cover of the DVD), and there are a few good jump scares, especially one scene in which Noble discovers a nasty surprise under his bed. The acting ranges from so-so to terrible. Most of the cast members are relatively inexperienced, with the exception of B-movie scream queen Debbie Rochon, who’s been in more cheesy flicks than you can shake a bloody knife at. There are some flubs, of course, but the clunky dialogue and other missteps are par for the course when it comes to micro-cinema. “Shockheaded’s” only real flaw is its sudden departure from unsettling surrealism to out-and-out action flick. In the last 20 minutes, Noble arms himself with a gun that never empties and rains holy vengeance on his tormentors, revealing himself to be not only an excellent marksman, but also a decent kung-fu fighter. It feels pretty silly, but you’ll find yourself watching regardless.

why you should own it: If you’ve got 90 minutes to kill and feel like giving a decent piece of low-budget cinema a chance, “Shockheaded” is worth a rent. The film is available on Netflix, and the DVD features commentary by Thornett and Wauer, deleted scenes and an additional short film