phancy.com - horror reviews - MOH 2019

Head Count



IMDb Info

Release Year: 2018
Runtime: 1h 30min
Country: USA
Language: English
Genre Tags: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Plot Summary: A group of college students on a weekend getaway accidentally summon a supernatural entity intent on using them for its deadly ritual.

Poster - Title Card


phancy.com rating:

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Outside Reviews:

Dennis Harvey
Film Review: ‘Head Count’

“Head Count” is a trickster film in which reality becomes increasingly debatable. Callahan has a real knack for creating an unsettled atmosphere — it’s already there in the movie’s very first shot, long before anything “happens” — and Michael Nader’s screenplay is very sharp about keeping its cards close to the vest. It’s not until just past the halfway point that the protagonists realize they may be experiencing … impersonators, of themselves, a discovery that naturally induces much paranoia, disbelief and eventual escalating violence.


Andy Crump
One of the biggest horror-movie scares of the year happens during a game of “Never Have I Ever”

Writer-director Elle Callahan plays with that formula in her debut feature, Head Count, which opened in select theaters and popped up on VOD and digital platforms today. Set against the seemingly safe splendor of Joshua Tree in California, the film gathers 10 millennial-aged characters in a rental house for some carefree vacation festivities. But there’s an 11th in their midst: The Hisji, a malicious shapeshifting entity inadvertently summoned at the start of the film by Evan (Isaac Jay). Evan, who begins seeing doubles of his friends everywhere, slowly starts to suspect that the Hisji isn’t a harmless creepypasta after all. His pals think he’s a major buzzkill... that is, until about 45 minutes into the film, when a casual game of “Never Have I Ever” goes fearfully awry.