DADDY’S HEAD (2024)
New streaming on Shudder!
Directed/Written by Benjamin Barfoot.
Trailer: https://youtu.be/J9aJCu30R_g
After a tragic accident, James (Charles Aitken) is left on life support. This leaves the decision to pull the plug in the hands of his second wife Laura (Julia Brown). When she does so, she must come to a decision whether or not to care for Isaac (Rupert Turnbull) James’ son from his previous marriage. Laura stews on the decision as both her and Isaac attempt to come to grips with the loss of James. But not long after James is buried behind the home in a private garden, Isaac begins seeing a strange dark form with a face that looks very much like his father roaming outside of the woods. When Laura and Isaac go to investigate, they find a twisted cabin in the woods—a cabin Isaac attests that his father built. Is this strange creature with his father’s head all in Isaac’s imagination? Or has James somehow returned from the dead?

DADDY’S HEAD is an intense examination of grief and loss. It deftly delves into a no win situation where everyone is hurt and angry at a sudden tragedy that was out of both Laura and Isaac’s hands. It also tries its best to come up with a scenario where this family unit of two can still survive. James was the lynchpin of the family. Laura never wanted kids and seems to treat the dog with more affection than she does Isaac. Having lost his mother to an unnamed tragedy, Isaac obviously bears resentment that his father remarried and is hesitant to go to Laura in his time of need. As the rift between the two surviving members of the family widens, this strange monster is introduced that will either pull them further apart or push them back together, which proves to be the main challenge for our two protagonists in DADDY’S HEAD. That’s a pretty mature and emotionally sophisticated attempt to make a monster movie.

To DADDY’S HEAD’s benefit, the cast is quite phenomenal. I’ve said it before, when I see a film starring a young actor I hesitate because, for the most part, these little thespians usually just don’t have the range or life experience to work with complex emotions. But young Rupert Turnbull carries a lot of emotional baggage in this one, exemplifying the normal confusion one might experience having lost a parent at such a young age. While much of his time is spent distracting himself in a pocket video game his father gave him, his pointed questions about life and death, and conflicting emotions about his stepmother are communicated through sullen looks and some wonderful dialog. The other half of the emotional heft is carried by Julia Brown, who plays a rather unlikable role, as she is debating about taking care of this child she never wanted by herself or sending him to a foster home. Yes, this could be seen as selfish, but Brown plays this bravely by taking this huge decision on by being honest with what she is willing to do herself. Sure, a fairy tale would have Laura take care of Isaac and they live happily ever after, but this is no fairy tale, and it’s a stronger, more powerful movie for it.

Now, this is a slow burner, focused mainly on the drama between Laura and Isaac, with strange events culminating in the background at first and then exploding all over the place into the last act. There is a good hour of peppering in the monster bits and pieces before you really get to actually see the monster—though it never is revealed completely. But the snippets we get of the monster is downright terrifying. The design of the monster is pretty brilliant. Though we don’t ever see James, we do see plenty of videos and pictures of him, so we know his smiling face. Not unlike the SMILE movies, this film takes full advantage of the uncanny effect a Joker-faced grin and gives the monster a wide-eyed, stretched, and maniacal smile stretched across its face. Throw in some deft shadowing and that is one terrifying creature that’s bound to stick with you.

Though this film has a slow start, filmmaker Benjamin Barfoot knows how to keep things moving by peppering in monster strangeness in with the dread. While we do get an idea of what the monster is and how it came to have James’ face, nothing is spoonfed to us and very little is explained to our pair of grieving survivors. It’s all done in a way that makes this 90 minute flick feel even shorter, like a nice compact little dose of horror that you didn’t know you needed. Barfoot not only delivers scares, but is able to pack each one with tragedy and emotion. It’s not an easy skill to master, but Barfoot did it in DADDY’S HEAD. While the drama is thick, so are the solid scares. A true sense of what-the-fuckery abounds in DADDY’S HEAD, especially during the terrifying climax. This is a definite recommend.

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Music Written by Tim Heidecker
Music & Arrangement by Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy https://youtu.be/PDySbxQgZMg
(I do not own this music)