“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.

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.

Matthew James Wilkinson and Patrick Tolan of Stigma Films produced Daddy’s Head.

Benjamin Barfoot is a self-taught filmmaker from Torbay, Devon. Beginning with animation films as a child, he quickly moved onto video where he taught himself an array of skills from cameras and editing to animation, visual effects and sound design. Moving to London with a short animated film he had made at home, he was nominated for a Broadcast Young Talent Award and began cutting his teeth in London with everything from film trailers, motion graphic promos to documentaries for BBC. Whilst between these jobs, he continued to create his own work, experimenting with dark animated shorts to fully improvised comedies that he shot and edited.

It was these comedy films, created with his friend and collaborator Danny Morgan, that eventually lead to his directorial debut, Double Date. Released in 2017 to cinemas nationwide, the film saw him shortlisted for a BIFA for best debut director, whilst winning best international feature at Strasbourg that year. Benjamin also worked with the band Goat on the soundtrack. The success of this musical collaboration inspired him further to experiment with music production whilst developing his own original screenplays. Daddy’s Head is Barfoot’s second feature; He wrote, directed and edited the film, as well as composed the soundtrack.