[Fantastic Fest 2025]: Bad Haircut

Frankie Ray & Spencer H. Levin as Mick and Billy

Having had its world premiere at this year’s Fantastic Fest, Bad Haircut directed by Kyle Misak initially appears like the typical young adult comedic coming-of-age set up – a bullied nerd is persuaded into getting a makeover by his friends in order to attract girls. However, once the aforementioned nerd takes a seat in the makeover chair, it becomes a little less The New Guy (2002) and a little more The Silence of the Lambs (1991).

After being mercilessly humiliated at a college party, Billy Crumpus (Spencer Harrison Levin) allows his best friends Sonny (Beau Minniear) and Dee (RJ Beaubrun) to take him to their barber in order to freshen up and hopefully complete a make-over transformation which will in turn score him some cool points with his fellow college goers. Already feeling anxious about a change, Billy is even more unsettled as he is introduced to the eccentric barber Mick (Frankie Ray) who strangely charges pittance for his services and does not accept tips. Once Billy is left alone with Mick, he is soon drawn into a bizarre and dangerous situation in which he must use his own wiles to escape.

Even before viewers are made privy to the developing grotesquerie that Bad Haircut descends into, the characters and their situations are immediately proved to be not only worthy of our empathy and instantly likeable but the film is instantly witty and sharp with its comedic timing. And so when Billy’s plight soon comes to fruition, the audience is already hooked in. Spencer Harrison Levin manages to play the “loser” protagonist without being grating and offers a sense of endearment to the role. MVP is Frankier Ray as unhinged barber Mick, who seems to have crafted his role as a strange yet utterly coherent cross between a member of The Rolling Stones and the unnerving serial killer Buffalo Bill from The Silence of the Lambs. 

With the perpendicular story of a missing girl running in the background of Billy’s story, we soon realise he has a bigger problem than just a makeover gone wrong to contend with, and whilst Bad Haircut does nothing new in the genre of kidnapping hijinks, it does build tension, cut with genuinely funny moments, and viewers can’t help but root for Billy and his trio of hapless heroes. With glimmers of 2007’s Superbad, Bad Haircut is a comedy-horror with a wonderful balance of humour, heart and guts. 

3.5 Screams out of 5