Daddy's Head

The standard feature of the low budget production is the one or two shooting locations. In Daddy’s Head writer/director Benjamin Barfoot has got himself two bangers with an isolated luxury steel and glass home in the forest and deeper into the forest, a strange shaped wooden structure.

After an intro that becomes clear at the end of the film. The set up is familiar with the death of a loved parent leaving their offspring to the care of a stepparent they don’t get on with. Here successful architect James (Charles Aitkin) has died after a car accident leaves him braindead. He leaves son Isaac (Rupert Turnbull) and wife Laura (Julia Brown).

The two don’t get on and adding to the complications James’s will states that he be buried in the garden next to his first wife, Isaac’s mother. There’s also the matter of the estate which is considerable and Isaac’s care. Being at a pre-teen age, social services are involved, though Laura says she can look after him.

Things don’t go to plan at all with Isaac making no effort to work with Laura. Laura herself later admitting she married James, with no interest in Isaac.

Further complications arise with the noises in the house and the discovery of a strange shaped wooden folly deep in the forest. That, Isaac is convinced, was built for him by his father. He also claims that his father is still alive.

The film is mostly a two hander with only Robert (Nathaniel Martello-White) and social worker Mary (Mary Woodvine) coming to the home as support for Laura and to check on Isaac, respectively. There’s a hint of a possible extra marital affair between Laura and Robert though never fully developed.

The big obstacle to the enjoyment of Daddy’s Head could be Isaac who in the long line of stroppy step-kids nears the top for most obnoxious. Where there should be some sympathy for a child whose lost his parents, there isn’t. There’s actually more for Laura who has a sense of guilt and responsibility, appearing to at least be making an effort, even if through the bottom of wine bottle.

That aside the film looks excellent which after a slow start, begins to layer on the dread with a solid sound design and glimpses of the monster, to the eventual denouement. It plays more on psychological level than outright horror though there are a few jumps and enough blood letting to satisfy the gore hounds.

Daddy’s Head premiere’s exclusively on Shudder on 11 October 2024.