Bad Haircut [Fantastic Fest Review]

by Mike McGranaghan

The title Bad Haircut refers not to an unsatisfactory coiffure but rather to the salon experience had by the central character. This gonzo horror-comedy, which screened at Fantastic Fest 2025, is the kind of thing that zigs when you think it’s going to zag, and zags when you think it's going to zig. It also introduces one of the most delightfully repulsive villains of recent times.

Billy (Spencer Harrison Levin) is a nerdy yet good-hearted college student. Thinking a new look might improve his luck with the ladies, he allows his friends to talk him into going to an exclusive barber shop that only the coolest people know about. The proprietor, Mick (Frankie Ray), is very unusual, to say the least. Imagine a cross between Captain Jack Sparrow and Liberace with a touch of Twisted Sister's Dee Snider tossed in. Billy feels uncomfortable with Mick’s weird vibe and grows even more so after discovering the barber has a young woman named Sam (Nora Freetly) locked in a cage in the basement.

Writer/director Kyle Misak combines oddball humor with wicked violence in Bad Haircut. One minute you’re laughing and the next you’re gasping at the events taking place. The plot continually throws in new complications for Billy to contend with, none of which you can see coming. Once Mick’s complete plan for Sam becomes clear, an unexpected hint of sympathy even comes into play. The film’s finale goes for broke in the madness department, pitting the characters against each other for a brutal face-off.

Frankie Ray is truly a marvel. He makes Mick so skin-crawlingly irritating that you spend the whole movie waiting for him to get his comeuppance. If the sound of nails on a blackboard was a person, it would be Mick. But Ray wisely never loses the guy’s humanity. Yeah, he does terrible stuff. Seriously terrible stuff. He’s oddly charming in moments, though, and that makes him feel like a more human sort of monster.

At 110 minutes, Bad Haircut is a tad too long. A bit of trimming during the first act would have tightened the pace. The movie is nevertheless darkly funny on a consistent basis, with some pleasingly demented plot twists to boot.

---