content warning: gore, death by suicide

In Head Count, Evan goes to visit his brother in the middle of the desert. He runs into Zoe and her friends, who invite him to join them for a party at their rental house. They take turns reading scary stories around the campfire. Evan pulls up a poem from an anonymous story website that warns of what happens if you call out a creature’s name five times; that creatures name is the name of the poem. Now strange things are happening.

Head Count is not a bad film. It has a large cast and everyone finds a clear personality to stand out. That’s impressive since it’s pretty standard horror/slasher territory: this guy likes food, that girl is in everyone’s business, that guy’s mean to everybody. The cast under the direction of Elle Callahan finds so much more to play with. This kind of clear character development and believable interaction makes it much easier to invest in the stakes of a violent horror film.

There are some interesting concepts at work here. This is an attempt at psychological horror following the beats of a slasher film. Instead of a new death at the moments you expect, there’s a bizarre illusion that the characters witness. Maybe someone falls and doesn’t remember it happening. Maybe someone sees one of their friends in two places at once. Maybe a light goes out with no explanation. The element start to stack and layer as the characters become more aware of something happening.

The recurring use of five is an effective visual motif. The symbol Evan discovers the morning after telling the story has five points. Evan hooking up with Zoe makes it so there are five couples staying at the house. Objects start gathering in fives as well, intentionally or not. It’s a constant reminder to the audience that something will happen. It’s just a matter of when.

Head Count feels like a film that would work better as a short story. It feels a little too obvious onscreen. Something replacing or appearing as people you know is a horror staple. It’s also rarely the entire source of scares. The substitutions act perfectly normal in this story until they’re confronted by the real person; then they disappear. There’s more of a concept left unexplored in the losing control of your own body angle but remembering everything. The alternate theory of the character hallucinating because they’re too drunk or high is far more believable than what the visuals show onscreen.

Technically, the quality of the filmmaking is good. My terrible eyes were able to make out all the details onscreen, no matter how dark it was supposed to be. That already puts it above so many other horror films. The sound design (also by Elle Callahan—she wears many hats on this production, including producing and writing the story) is excellent and I especially like the score by Hannah Parrott. I just wish more happened sooner in the story.

The third act starts to lean into the supernatural angle of the creature a bit more. It’s a massive escalation that feels out of place when so little happens before. Horror films typically have this level of growth going into the second act, not the third, and it makes for an unbalanced experience. It does finally start to payoff with some big scares and some great visual gags. It’s just a big shift in style and pacing.

Head Count isn’t bad. The technical quality is better than a lot of horror films with a similar budget. When the action finally picks up, there are some good scares. It’s definitely a horror film more interested in telling than showing. The suggestive nature of the story is clearly intentional, as when the action is shown, it’s clear as day and quite brutal.

Head Count is currently streaming on Netflix.

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