Filmmaker Benjamin Barfoot brings eerie atmosphere and new nightmare fuel in the form of a terrifying creature in Daddy’s Head, and an exclusive new clip introduces just one of many bone-chilling scares.
Daddy’s Head debuts exclusively on Shudder on October 11.
In the film, “In the wake of his father’s untimely death, a young boy is left in the eerie solitude of a sprawling country estate with his newly widowed stepmother. Struggling to navigate the overwhelming task of parenthood, his stepmother grows distant, leaving their fragile bond at risk of collapse. Amidst the growing tension, the boy begins to hear unsettling sounds echoing through the corridors and is soon haunted by the presence of a grotesque creature bearing a disturbingly familiar resemblance to his late father.
“As the boy’s warnings are dismissed as the imagination of a grieving child, the sinister entity tightens its grip on their crumbling lives.”
Julia Brown, Rupert Turnbull, Charles Aitken, and Nathaniel Martello-White star.
Watch the new clip below, which sees Laura (Brown) woken in the middle of the night by strange sirens. It’s worth noting that Laura and Lewis (Turnbull) live in the middle of the woods, with no nearby neighbors. Naturally, the atmospheric, dreamlike wandering into the woods results in a terrifying encounter.
In my review from Fantastic Fest, I wrote, “Barfoot draws from folk horror, both in setting and storytelling, for his unique creature feature. That means that the horror builds slowly, relying on atmosphere and the isolated, stunning wooded setting to create unease as Lewis and Laura struggle with their loss.” And, “Whether you’re on this movie’s wavelength or not, one thing is certain: Daddy’s Head is creepy as hell.”
“Daddy’s Head is a very important film for me as it intertwines personal feelings about family, grief, and trauma with my desire to experiment with the horror genre,“ Barfoot previews.
Matthew James Wilkinson and Patrick Tolan of Stigma Films produced Daddy’s Head.
Those seeking a good scare this Halloween season won’t want to miss Daddy’s Head when it arrives on Shudder tomorrow.