Fantastic Fest 2024 kicked off in Austin last night, which also means, more or less, that horror movie season has officially started. So what indie and foreign horror flicks will grab the festival audience’s attention this year? One frontrunner there is “Daddy’s Head,” the sophomore feature from English director Benjamin Barfoot.
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“Daddy’s Home” is a departure in genre for the self-taught Barfoot, his first horror film after splashing onto the British indie cinema scene with his 2017 directorial debut “Double Date.” But the set-up for the film sounds like one honed by a horror regular: a young boy grieving for his recently deceased father discovers his house is haunted …by a creature with eerie similarities to his Dad.
Here’s an official synopsis for “Daddy’s Head,” courtesy of Shudder:
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.
“Daddy’s Head” stars Julia Brown, Rupert Turnbull, Charles Aitken, and Nathaniel Martello-White.  
Barfoot writes, directs, and edits “Daddy’s Head,” and composes music for the film’s soundtrack. Producers on the movie include Matthew James Wilkinson and Patrick Tolan.  
“Daddy’s Head” has its world premiere at Fantastic Fest on September 22. Then it premieres on streaming exclusively on Shudder on October 11. Watch a trailer for the horror film below.