You're just in time for the Word of the Week! For once I didn't make it up myself, so you won't look foolish when you nonchalantly drop it on the artier know-it-alls in your orbit. The word is "mumblecore." It refers to a burgeoning class of independent film typified by a dirt-low budget, a cast of friends essentially playing themselves, and a lo-fi, improv-friendly script about not much that still manages to be compelling thanks to its authentic aesthetic. Boston filmmaker Andrew Bujalski is considered the mumblecore pioneer (maybe you remember 2002's "Funny Ha Ha" or 2003's "Mutual Appreciation"), and now fellow practitioners Jay and Mark Duplass (2005's festival darling "The Puffy Chair") are back with the scary, deadpan "Baghead," a genre-tweaker that might be mumblecore's most visible entry yet.

"Baghead" opens abruptly, with four people attending one of those screenings after which the director offers pompous answers to questions that the audience feels pressured to ask. (Oh, you've been there.) Our quartet is made up of out-of-work actors, and they're sparked enough by the gritty, romantic, and classically titled DIY "We Are Naked" to retreat to a cabin where they hope to come up with their own cinematic calling card. The Elvis-haired Matt (Ross Partridge) seems to be the leader of the group, which also includes Matt's occasional girlfriend Catherine (Elise Muller), an autumn-chicken blonde with disturbingly glossed lips, as well as the shlubby Chad (Steve Zissis), who nervously adjusts his peninsular hairline to woo the adorably uninterested Michelle (mumblecore muse Greta Gerwig). She, of course, wants Matt, but comforts Chad, in a most uncomfortable way, "You're like my best friend but like my brother."

Booze ensues, followed by flirtations, jealousies, and screenplay ideas. Matt hits upon the notion of a slasher film after Michelle tells of a weird dream (or maybe it wasn't?) featuring a guy with a paper bag over his head, and what began as a talky love-trapezoid comedy morphs into a "Blair Witch"-y horror flick when members of the painfully self-aware party go missing after this sack-topped individual seems to actually materialize from the surrounding woods. "Baghead" elicits some real chills, the nauseating (literally; that's not a dig at quality) handheld camerawork revealing all that's required to creep one out but not enough to give up the ghost. Um, I mean baghead.

Though the denouement is inevitably anticlimactic, veering off into an annoyingly mawkish Scooby-Doo direction, the lean and clever resourcefulness preceding it renders this mumblecore movement (also known as "Slackavetes," after the patron saint of independent chatter) some of the more interesting filmmaking going. "Baghead" essentially blends the squirmy, relatable navel-gazing of Linklater with some of the joltier Craven clichés, and while gore aficionados will fret the lack of splatter, those inspired by the increasing accessibility of self-expression - as well as anyone subconsciously nostalgic for the Unknown Comic - will be totally won over.

Writer-director Steven Conrad's frustrating "The Promotion" stars the thoroughly underrated Seann William Scott (you know, Stifler from "American Pie") as Doug, a mild-mannered assistant who believes he's "a shoo-in" for managership of his own supermarket. Thwarting his foregone conclusion, however, is the great John C. Reilly as Richard, an equally meek Canadian transplant who's hoping to scale the same corporate ladder. With calming narration from Doug, "The Promotion" observes as these two polite milquetoasts engage in passive-aggressive one-upmanship in pursuit of their dream job.

"The Promotion" was clearly intended as a comedy, but filmmaker Steven Conrad doesn't seem to have the stomach for the cruelty necessary to wring laughs out of his drones' dull yet familiar lots. The fact that Conrad's poorly paced film still works is due entirely to his game, gifted leads and their patience for their genuinely likable characters, as well as a supporting cast that includes Lili Taylor, Jenna Fischer, Jason Bateman, and SNL's Fred Armisen. The humor in "The Promotion" is found in subtle throwaways, like one man's unfortunate KISS tattoo and another's klutzy firewalking, as well as Richard's hilariously awkward propensity for saying the wrong thing - and just a little too much of it - at the wrong time. 

Baghead

(R), written and directed by Jay and Mark Duplass

Opens Friday

The Promotion

(R), written and directed by Steve Conrad

Screens Saturday and Sunday at the Dryden