‘Daddy’s Head’ Review: Truly Terrifying Images Recommend This Maddening Enigma from Shudder

Despite its title’s oddly dirty undertones, “Daddy’s Head” is a cerebral metaphor about working through change and processing grief. At least, that’s what it wants to be in theory.

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Like phrenology (the outdated practice of mapping skull bumps to diagnose illnesses elsewhere in the body), Benjamin Barfoot’s second feature suggests an arcane method to the writer/director’s madness. This remixed successor of both the 1998 family drama “Stepmom” and the horror classic “The Babadook” can feel like blindly fingering across someone else’s scalp at times. It starts as a simple story about a young widow (Julia Brown) raising her orphaned stepson (Rupert Turnbull) after a car crash kills her husband (Charles Aitken), but the plot takes on a monster mythology that’s almost too esoteric to grasp.

The script’s symbolism is annoyingly dense to decipher, and the opaque quality Barfoot’s story develops as it progresses will only satisfy some genre audiences. Still, “Daddy’s Head” offers enough bone-chilling imagery — often delivered via razor-sharp jump scares — to make Shudder’s latest headscratcher worth a watch and a think. If you can accept early on that this creature feature isn’t really going anywhere outside the walls of the stunning estate where its set, then you’ll find plenty about this middling horror effort that’s upsetting in a way you’ll actually like.

Laura never wanted to be a mom, but she did want to marry James. A warm and handsome architect, who the audience meets as a bloody bundle of a gauze lying on his hospital deathbed, the deceased’s personality and legacy washes over nearly every scene. James designed the striking country home where his small grieving family still lives and, in that way, Laura and the young Isaac exists very much inside his head. Massive glass windows and a misty backyard evoke the sinister sense of someone watching their strained connection from afar. Disembodied voices that sound like Isaac’s departed father trouble the boy too, but what is he hearing? Is it an angel? A ghost? Or something… else ?

When James’ best friend Robert (Nathaniel Martello-White) comes to check on Isaac, Laura, and their predictably wigged-out dog, he says the supernatural presence they’re feeling is most likely a symptom of shared loss. Real or imagined, the existence of this otherworldly spirit is the main dramatic question in “Daddy’s Head” — and again, it doesn’t get answered well. But what Barfoot is willing to show of the sickening shapeshifter that may or may not be living in the vents and lurking around James’ backyard grave is appetizing and, in select scenes, even delicious.

An especially strong marriage between practical and VFX horror lures a grotesque being out from the shadows just when you need the scares to arrive. It has James’s face, but skin like a Xenomorph and a body like a werewolf. The voice is distorted enough to give away that this couldn’t possibly be the real James, and yet, Isaac’s dogged determination to protect the creature is fueled by its haunting professions of love for the child. That psychological manipulation is the greatest weapon working against Laura and Isaac’s increasingly strained connection — but even complete trust seems unlikely to save the reluctant mother-son duo from an antagonist that seems to both be hiding within and existing as part of their mausoleum-like walls.

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The eerie outdoor lighting and ultramodern production design create a memorable environment that should be serene and is instead wonderfully disrupted. The titular “Daddy’s Head” is indeed disturbing, grinning from ear to ear (although it doesn’t always seem to have those?) as the monster sprints between rooms before returning to a fascinating and distinctly geometric lair in the woods. For a time, these elements work so well, there can be a temptation to hold your breath between scenes. Unfortunately, Barfoot only reaches the midway point on his movie before his best execution stops and his strongest ideas are left to suffocate.

During a Q&A at the “Daddy’s Head” world premiere for Fantastic Fest, Barfoot spoke briefly about not wanting to give too much of his story away by dissecting it. That’s a reasonable enough position to hold, but maybe a misstep with framework that’s at once mind-numbingly straightforward and bafflingly incomplete. Starring actress Brown pushes the emotion hard — to her performance’s melodramatic detriment at points — and kid actor Turnbull matches that energy. He’s something of a small revelation here (think Cameron Crovetti as Ryan in “The Boys”), but not even an outright prodigy can perform a plot that doesn’t exist. The pair’s tension is palpable throughout; it’s just not clear wehre that feeling should go.

That said, Barfoot achieves some genuinely spooky moments (have you seen the THING in the header image for this review??) and, approached in the right spirit, they’re worth watching this Halloween. “Daddy’s Head” isn’t likely to stick around as a film that genre fans will revisit often, but as far as haunting and half-baked ghost stories, Shudder subscribers could do worse than this sort-of-good-sort-of-bad pain in the neck.

Grade: B

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

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