Bad Hair
Picturehouse Entertainment | Release Date (Streaming): October 23, 2020 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
61
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 23 Critic Reviews
Positive:
16
Mixed:
5
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
SlashfilmBen PearsonJan 24, 2020
Part Brian De Palma flick, part Invasion of the Body Snatchers, part Dracula, and part Stepford Wives, Bad Hair filters its influences through Simien’s hyper-specific passions and unique sensibilities to become a singular horror comedy from a singular filmmaker. Read full review
80
VarietyAmy NicholsonJan 25, 2020
Costume designer Ceci’s ensembles and Scott Kuzio’s production design are spot-on. Just as impressive is Simien’s steady handle on his serio-comic tone, at once sly, resonant, and horrific. Read full review
75
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiOct 30, 2020
Bad Hair is about 10 minutes too long. You don’t salivate over Anna’s home life as much as you do her office from hell, and a few of those scenes could have been trimmed. Nonetheless, it’s nice to see horror let its hair down again. Read full review
75
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenOct 29, 2020
Bad Hair really needs a loud, live audience, preferably around midnight, to reach its full potential. But it’s a fun, guffaw-producing horror comedy even without that. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperOct 22, 2020
With a running time of 1 hour 55 minutes, Bad Hair might have benefited from a quick trim (sorry), and it’s a real mess at times, but you won’t soon shake off its genuinely scary and originally twisted delight Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneKatie WalshOct 21, 2020
While Bad Hair is more humorously incisive than truly terrifying, Lorraine, in the leading role, sells it, while Simien creates space to discuss the ways in which women enforce unfair standards of beauty on each other in a white patriarchal society, using the horror genre as a blunt but effective tool to clear the path. Read full review
75
The PlaylistGregory EllwoodJan 24, 2020
Simien’s strengths come to the forefront once again and that’s what makes it so difficult to pinpoint why the final product doesn’t exactly gel together as it should. Read full review
70
The New York TimesTeo BugbeeOct 22, 2020
Despite the potentially heavy (or heavy-handed) material, Bad Hair is self-consciously and pleasingly campy, and it delivers a new cinematic monster: the sew-in weave. Read full review
70
TheWrapMonica CastilloJan 28, 2020
The movie is front-loaded with exposition, but once the action gets going and the narrative pieces fall into place, “Bad Hair” is a creepy movie with thoughtful political twists and thrilling supernatural turns. Read full review
70
Screen DailyAnthony KaufmanJan 25, 2020
Though it’s all a bit ridiculous—and Simien, in certain instances, acknowledges the humour in his horror—the film is anchored by Elle Lorraine’s breakout performance. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleJenny NulfOct 21, 2020
Simien’s efforts are valiant and, above all else, wholly original, so when he decides to ramp Bad Hair into overdrive, it’s easy to forget about his unintentionally hollow metaphor. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyDavid CanfieldJan 24, 2020
You sense Simien’s pushing into uncharted territory. Yet his distinctive gifts as a director are increasingly relegated to the margins, propelling a narrative that works better in theory than execution. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Jan 24, 2020
The impression is of a provocative logline that Simien never quite figured out how to expand into a satisfying movie; once you get the thrust of the story, it’s mostly repetitions on a theme. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreOct 25, 2020
Bad Hair and its follicles are on their firmest ground just poking at the prejudice, pressure and unnatural (but admittedly lovely) beauty that women feel compelled to pursue to get noticed, get ahead and get theirs. The supernatural element feels unnecessary, save for the finale. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comOdie HendersonOct 23, 2020
Where Bad Hair is not so successful, however, is in reckoning with the hornet’s nest it kicks regarding its subject matter. At almost two hours, Simien has time to interrogate the natural vs. processed hair argument instead of only hinting at it occasionally. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineSteven ScaifeOct 19, 2020
The film has an exciting, lived-in quality that elevates what are otherwise some markedly unsteady attempts at horror. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyJan 25, 2020
There's definitely a tighter, more disciplined movie trapped in here begging for a more rigorous edit. Like a head full of split ends, it needs trimming. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubShannon MillerOct 26, 2020
While the comedy aspect of this Sundance standout works in parts, the horror of it all suffers from knotty reasoning and an unclear thesis. Read full review
50
Film ThreatNorman GidneyFeb 6, 2020
While the first act is slow but promising, the second and third acts don’t move any faster. Read full review
50
The Film StageMatt CipollaJan 26, 2020
Bad Hair has some nice directorial details. It also has lots that lack sufficient motivation, and Philip J. Bartell’s editing often borders on the hyperactive. As far as nutty ideas go, this one could have used some conditioning. Read full review
50
IndieWireEric KohnJan 24, 2020
Bad Hair has plenty to say — about the plight of black women in particular and blackness in popular culture in general — but his movie can’t settle on laughing off the conflict or regarding it with dread. Instead, it settles on lingering in the knotted chaos, hoping that the message still burns. Read full review
37
Washington PostAnn HornadayOct 21, 2020
Bad Hair is a good idea buried within a scattershot, ultimately mediocre movie. Read full review
0
New York Magazine (Vulture)Angelica Jade BastienOct 30, 2020
Bad Hair surprised me, ranking as the most stunning floundering of filmmaking in 2020 — a failure of empathy, intellect, and morality that I haven’t been able to shake. Read full review
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