I'm having an increasingly difficult time believing any movie where characters get trapped in a cliched horror situation and react like they've never heard of zombies or Jason. I don't care how stupid I look, if I'm out in the woods and some creep's hanging around, I'm building a fort out of knives and a gun out of other guns.

Or better yet, I'm leaving. Immediately. Maybe the characters of 2008's Baghead aren't as obsessed with horror movies as I am, but they sure could have acted a little more scared.

Ross Partridge convinces his three friends, all unknown actors, to spend a weekend at his cabin writing a screenplay that'll be their big break. Once in the woods, Greta Gerwig's vision of a man with a bag on his head inspires their horror script--but soon, a bagheaded stranger appears at the cabin with no intention of letting them get home.

Baghead sounds like a low-budget horror movie and is often described as an indie parody of those films.

In reality, it's a mild comedy featuring tons of drunk-acting, rampant sexual jealousy, and a guy who looks so much like a Belushi, his chromosomes have probably been sued for trademark infringement by the DNA-CIA, a group so secret that even talking about them can get you--looked at strangely, that is, because of course no such group exists. Excuse me, I have to give myself a heart attack with untraceable poison now.

Written and directed by up-and-comers Jay and Mark Duplass, Baghead shows more promise than execution. The dialogue is loose and natural but rarely especially funny. Likewise, the characters never fully emerge despite some interesting dynamics between them.

Or despite spending so much time talking to each other that by the end they should all look like that guy who drank from the wrong cup in The Last Crusade. Along with its 8-year-old's allowance of a budget, all that gabbing points to some deep indie roots.

Mashing a serious indie project up with The Blair Witch Project is an interesting choice, which is code speak for "try harder, dummies." That the Duplass brothers turn that into a decent flick is a triumph. Not a huge triumph, mind you. A triumph along the lines of going to the mall for a pair of shoes, successfully buying those shoes, and being told how cool your shoes are. By someone you want to think your shoes are cool.

Baghead is a little funny, a little scary, and a little insightful. It may not sound like much, but between this and word on Cyrus, the Duplasses are worth keeping an eye on.