4th Movie "Darlin’” by The Headless Critic

Darlin’ – 2019

Production by: Hood River Entertainment
Distribution by: Dark Sky Films



A decade ago they took her family, two years later she took them back. Raised in the wild a feral teenager is dropped off at a hospital covered in filth, naked except for a wrist band that says Darlin’ (Lauryn Canny). Taken in by The Catholic Church The Bishop (Bryan Batt) and his obedient nuns rehabilitate Darlin' in the ways of Christ. Her progression learning to speak and live in a civilized world happens at a rapid pace motivated by her rabid desire to remove the devil inside her. The Woman (Pollyanna McIntosh) who raised her and her upbringing in the wild remain present in this once feral child as the return of the sins from her past are due. “Don’t mess with mother’s nature.”

With the passing of prolific thriller author Jack Ketchum last year, the star of two of his stories made into movies Pollyanna McIntosh writes and directs her own sequel to her iconic cult horror character known simply as the Woman. Darlin’ is a sequel to Ketchum’s Offsping 2009, and The Woman 2011. If you haven’t seen either of those films I highly suggest you watch them. Offspring is an excellent story of a lost, feral family finding food. It’s director Lucky McKee taking over the sequel and directing The Woman that finds a perfect harmony of Ketchum’s stories at McKee’s direction that is horror movie magic.

Star of both Offspring and The Woman and a first time feature film writer and director Pollyanna McIntosh stays credible to Ketchum’s characters as she takes over writing and directing her own feature in his universe. The magic of Ketchum and McKee collaborating is lost under a different pen and directorial eye, reverting back to more of an Offspring feel than the dark film with comedic undertones that McKee directs in The Woman. Lauryn Canny makes perfect offspring to McIntosh’s Woman being perfectly withdrawn and ferociously feral. After seeing this outcome I could have used more of The Woman in this Darlin’ sequel and a lot more of her going feral on the new world we all now live in. Perhaps if there’s another sequel.

Available Now on VOD

3 out of 5 Headless Critics