Shudder Original Horror Movies dad's head It received rave reviews upon its release on October 11, and was hailed as a deeply unsettling portrait of the horrors of grief. The horror-focused streamer has built a reputation for releasing very worthwhile movies under his name. dad's head It's the latest addition to an already strong pedigree. The film tells the story of a young boy and his stepmother who lose their beloved breadwinner who becomes the target of a mysterious shape-shifting being. It attracted attention for its eerie atmosphere, powerful performance, and scary creature design. After a grief (and monster)-fueled frenzy threatens to destroy an already fractured family, writer-director Benjamin Barfoot delivers a surprisingly hopeful ending.
dad's head It unfolds almost like a dark fairy tale, centering on Isaac (Rupert Turnbull), a young boy who has just lost his father James (Charles Aitken) in a devastating car accident, having already lost his mother a few years earlier. James' new wife, Laura (Julia Brown), tries to comfort Isaac, but he has trouble coping with his own grief as he spends the night in a wine-drunk haze. Soon, Isaac encounters a strange creature that bears an uncanny resemblance to his deceased father's face, and attempts to lure the grieving boy into the woods and into strange geometric wooden structures. Convinced that his father has returned in a new form, Isaac almost gets caught up in whatever plans his father has for him.
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Climax of Dad's Head
As it reaches its peak dad's head, Laura is pushed over the edge when the family dog is found dead and her helpful friend Robert (Nathaniel Martello-White) is attacked and nearly killed when Isaac lures him to the creature's lair. Finally, she decides she can't be the mother Isaac needs and decides to give up custody of the child. Soon after, the creature infiltrated Isaac's room, and Laura caught the creature in the act, briefly knocking him unconscious as it slammed the door.
Isaac finally recognizes the monster's identity and asks Laura for help. After recovering from a head injury, Laura stumbles into Isaac's room, discovers the kitchen knife that was missing at the beginning of the film, and stabs the monster repeatedly, causing him to flee. The scene ends with Isaac yelling Laura's name as she stares blankly ahead in shock.
The Moving Coda of Dad's Head
Rather than show the audience the immediate aftermath of the attack, Barfoot instead changes the action entirely, with a young man (James Harper-Jones) sitting in the remains of Isaac's childhood bedroom, staring into the vent where he met the creature. Next, the young man walks through the woods near his house, discovers the dilapidated ruins of the creature's lair, and finally goes inside. In an inner room, he finds a photo of Isaac's father and a strange, faceless skeleton belonging to the creature, which appears to have died from its injuries. He studies the empty space where the face should be and leaves. Finally, he goes back inside and knocks on his mother's bedroom door, asking if he can come in. When his mother wakes up, the audience learns that it is a slightly older version of Laura. It's actually Isaac and the two stick together after their unsettling ordeal.
For a film that deals with such scary, surreal imagery and heavy themes, this final scene is a surprisingly hopeful and even optimistic coda to the story. This means that Isaac and Laura bonded over a terrifying experience, and that Laura was able to find the deep well of strength she needed to step up and become his mother. Rather than being torn apart by the entity using his grief, Isaac seems to have grown into a young man who carries the scars of his experiences but does not allow them to destroy or define him. The significance of the creature's skull fits well with the film's larger ruminations on grief. It never goes away, but over time its impact on a person's life may diminish. This allows Isaac to see the monster for its true form. It was not his father as he had hoped, but a faceless creature who sought to adopt his face for his own purposes.
Barfoot leaves much to be desired. dad's head There is room for interpretation. The monster's true intentions for Isaac are never fully revealed, and the impact this experience will have on Isaac's future life is only hinted at. Through its quietly hopeful ending, the film suggests that grief and loss are inevitable, but everyone has the ability to choose how to move forward from the experience. Will you let them define it, or will you integrate it and move on?
After such a dark and scary film, it was a smart idea on Barfoot's part to end the story with a ray of hope. There have been numerous horror stories dealing with the topic of grief in recent years, many of which include: oil field or pet cemetery, See their characters consumed by it. dad's head Grief differentiates itself by choosing a different path that can unite as much as divide.
