Terrifying Images Recommend This Shudder Enigma

Regardless of its title’s oddly soiled undertones, “Daddy’s Head” is a cerebral metaphor about working by change and processing grief. A minimum of, that’s what it needs to be in idea.

Like phrenology (the outdated observe of mapping cranium bumps to diagnose diseases elsewhere within the physique), Benjamin Barfoot’s second characteristic suggests an arcane technique to the author/director’s insanity. This remixed successor of each the 1998 household drama “Stepmom” and the horror basic “The Babadook” can really feel like blindly fingering throughout another person’s scalp at instances. It begins as a easy story a couple of younger widow (Julia Brown) elevating her orphaned stepson (Rupert Turnbull) after a automobile crash kills her husband (Charles Aitken), however the plot takes on a monster mythology that’s nearly too esoteric to understand.  

The script’s symbolism is annoyingly dense to decipher, and the opaque high quality Barfoot’s story develops because it progresses will solely fulfill some style audiences. Nonetheless, “Daddy’s Head” provides sufficient bone-chilling imagery — usually delivered through razor-sharp bounce scares — to make Shudder’s newest headscratcher value a watch and a suppose. In case you can settle for early on that this creature characteristic isn’t actually going anyplace outdoors the partitions of the gorgeous property the place its set, then you definately’ll discover loads about this middling horror effort that’s upsetting in a method you’ll really like. 

Laura by no means wished to be a mother, however she did wish to marry James. A heat and good-looking architect, who the viewers meets as a bloody bundle of a gauze mendacity on his hospital deathbed, the deceased’s persona and legacy washes over practically each scene. James designed the putting nation house the place his small grieving household nonetheless lives and, in that method, Laura and the younger Isaac exists very a lot inside his head. Huge glass home windows and a misty yard evoke the sinister sense of somebody watching their strained connection from afar. Disembodied voices that sound like Isaac’s departed father bother the boy too, however what’s he listening to? Is it an angel? A ghost? Or one thing… else?

When James’ greatest good friend Robert (Nathaniel Martello-White) involves test on Isaac, Laura, and their predictably wigged-out canine, he says the supernatural presence they’re feeling is almost certainly a symptom of shared loss. Actual or imagined, the existence of this otherworldly spirit is the principle dramatic query in “Daddy’s Head” — and once more, it doesn’t get answered nicely. However what Barfoot is prepared to indicate of the sickening shapeshifter which will or is probably not residing within the vents and lurking round James’ yard grave is appetizing and, in choose scenes, even scrumptious. 

An particularly sturdy marriage between sensible and VFX horror lures a grotesque being out from the shadows simply whenever you want the scares to reach. It has James’s face, however pores and skin like a Xenomorph and a physique like a werewolf. The voice is distorted sufficient to offer away that this couldn’t probably be the actual James, and but, Isaac’s dogged willpower to guard the creature is fueled by its haunting professions of affection for the kid. That psychological manipulation is the best weapon working towards Laura and Isaac’s more and more strained connection — however even full belief appears unlikely to save lots of the reluctant mother-son duo from an antagonist that appears to each be hiding inside and present as a part of their mausoleum-like partitions. 

The eerie out of doors lighting and ultramodern manufacturing design create a memorable surroundings that must be serene and is as a substitute splendidly disrupted. The titular “Daddy’s Head” is certainly disturbing, grinning from ear to ear (though it doesn’t at all times appear to have these?) because the monster sprints between rooms earlier than returning to a captivating and distinctly geometric lair within the woods. For a time, these parts work so nicely, there is usually a temptation to carry your breath between scenes. Sadly, Barfoot solely reaches the halfway level on his film earlier than his greatest execution stops and his strongest concepts are left to suffocate.

Throughout a Q&A on the “Daddy’s Head” world premiere for Improbable Fest, Barfoot spoke briefly about not wanting to offer an excessive amount of of his story away by dissecting it. That’s an affordable sufficient place to carry, however possibly a misstep with framework that’s directly mind-numbingly easy and bafflingly incomplete. Starring actress Brown pushes the emotion onerous — to her efficiency’s melodramatic detriment at factors — and child actor Turnbull matches that vitality. He’s one thing of a small revelation right here (suppose Cameron Crovetti as Ryan in “The Boys”), however not even an outright prodigy can carry out a plot that doesn’t exist. The pair’s rigidity is palpable all through; it’s simply not clear wehre that feeling ought to go. 

That mentioned, Barfoot achieves some genuinely spooky moments (have you ever seen the THING within the header picture for this overview??) and, approached in the correct spirit, they’re value watching this Halloween. “Daddy’s Head” isn’t more likely to stick round as a movie that style followers will revisit usually, however so far as haunting and half-baked ghost tales, Shudder subscribers may do worse than this sort-of-good-sort-of-bad ache within the neck.

Grade: B

“Daddy’s Head” premiered at Improbable Fest 2024 on September 22. It streams globally on Shudder October 11.

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