This weave is killer! From writer and director Justin Simien comes a new horror film, Bad Hair, about a young woman in 1989 with ambitions of becoming a TV star who transforms her look to make it big in an image-obsessed world. Only problem is, her new hair may have a mind of its own.
In the first official teaser for the upcoming satire, Laverne Cox’s character, Virgie, is seen waxing poetic about the weave she’s putting on Anna (newcomer Elle Lorraine), suggesting that it may have mystical powers. “Some clients swear this stuff is magic,” she says. The clip then cuts to Blair Underwood as Anna’s father, lecturing her about natural beauty versus vanity.
While speaking with 360aproko, Simien revealed the movie was inspired by the discovery of Asian hair-possession horror movies, like the 2005 South Korean film The Wig. But in order to translate something like that for U.S. audiences, Simien knew he had to root it in the Black female experience.
“This is my way of writing a love letter about all of the BS that Black women have to go through,” Simien says, explaining that he was raised by “a village of Black women” in Houston after his father died when he was younger. “So, I named all the women in this story after my mom and my aunts.”
In addition to starring Lorraine — who, based on early reviews, is posed for a breakout moment — Cox and Underwood, the ensemble cast features James Van Der Beek, Jay Pharoah, Kelly Rowland, Lena Waithe, Michelle Hurd, Robin Thede and Vanessa L. Williams.
“It was really a pleasure putting the cast together,” Simien says, adding that everyone who joined shared in the same deep, passionate conversation about “what this movie would mean and how it will serve the social conversation happening right now.”
