Inspired by psychological studies on sleep deprivation, BACK OF THE HEAD is the story of Richard, a young man who becomes the willing subject of a dream-deprivation study in an older man's house. Already a walking corpse at the start of the film, Richard begins to hallucinate as a result of not getting to dream while asleep. Though it subtly deals with sexual repression and the complexity of the human subconscious, BACK OF THE HEAD is ultimately about control; the older man is an overpowering symbol of oppression, keeping the young protagonist from functioning normally and causing him to lose control of himself.