I have had The Amazing Screw-on Head in my Netflix queue for so long I had completely forgotten about it. In fact, I had no idea why I put it in there at all or what it even was. Then I saw the words "Mike Mignola" on the sleeve and I remembered: I must have put this on after seeing Hellboy. This animated short (22 minutes) was a pilot created for the (then) Sci-Fi channel in 2006. It is based of the single issue comic of the same name created by Mignola in 2002. The show was never picked up, which is fine, because this episode is just about perfect.
Screw-on Head is a robot (voiced my Paul Giamatti) who works for the Lincoln Administration (as in Abraham Lincoln.) Lincoln assigns Screw-on Head the task of hunting down Emperor Zombie. Zombie was a former Manservant of Screw-on Head, whose "taste for ancient, forbidden knowledge" led him to the dark side. And somehow made him into a Zombie. Zombie now views Screw-on Head as his rival and he has a "petty vengeance fetish" against all of Screw's subsequent Manservants. Assisting Emperor Zombie is a cannibal, a werewolf, a mummy, and Patience, Screw's former love whom Zombie had turned into a vampire. This sets up the worlds first Zombie/Robot/Vampire love triangle. Take that Stephanie Meyer. Screw-on head and his Manservant (the 7th since Zombie) track the motley crew to the Temple of Gung, where Zombie plans on summoning a Demigod. The Demigod is a weird frog/dog combo that looks to be straight out of HP Lovecraft.
Obviously I loved this. How could you not love something that combines Zombies, Werewolves, Robots, Vampires, Cannibals, and Abraham Lincoln. It's like Night at the Museum directed by Wes Craven. Highly Recommended.
5 comments:
Absolutely essential viewing. Much better than the Hellboy animated episodes that were released on DVD.
The comic is also steller!
I need to track down the comic- I have never read it. I LOVED this short- such a happy 22 minutes!!
"Obviously I loved this. How could you not love something that combines Zombies, Werewolves, Robots, Vampires, Cannibals, and Abraham Lincoln."
Indeed! How could you not love it? I'll have to actually watch this one. It's too intriguing. I liked Hellboy, too, believe it or not!
Well, the Hellboy animated movies were ok, but the Amazing Screw-On Head feels more akin to Mignola's work. I mean, it looked like Mignola did the animation.
I missed this one I have to check it.
No surprises the Sci Fi channel passed on it through... they were well on their way to become the 'direct to video crap' channel by then.
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