Year: 2017
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Killer Dolls
Plot:
After hearing about a haunted doll, a pair of amateur paranormal investigators decide to steal the doll and bring it back to their lab to study it for their show, but the more they’re around it the more they realize the stories about the doll’s powers might be true and try to stop it.
Review:
For the most part, this one was an interesting enough effort. One of the film’s best aspects is how the low budget on display serves as a method of enhancing the atmosphere throughout here. The first scene featuring the doll among the family in their tight, cramped apartment has a great life to it with the strange lighting keeping the real content hidden away, while the later attack where it stalks the strange coming over to shoot with them carries the atmospheric lighting to a greater degree highlighting the doll running around out of eyesight tormenting her. A supposed ritual with a friend that causes some incredibly chilling scenes and visuals as they get in over their heads with all the demonic whispers and voices going on through the scene which sets up the stellar and over-the-top finale showcasing their descent into an atmospheric take on an alternate dimension. The final act of stopping the doll is rather fun, and with the doll’s look being incredibly creepy-looking there are some enjoyable elements to be found here.
That said, there are quite a few major problems with the film. Most of the issues stem from the outright infuriating leads that border on making this unwatchable. The impression given here is that the two and their banter is supposed to be funny yet they come off as being utter morons with the questioning of the actions they bring up making the viewer wonder why they’re still friends or how they’ve survived in the world as long as they have. The arguing is even worse, displaying a juvenile outlook that further questions their survival skills while also highlighting the major factor in their sheer unprofessionalism. Arguing openly in front of clients leads them into dangerous situations against their knowledge that results in their death because of how unprepared they are and in general mocking the attitudes and lifestyle of the people they’re coming to for expert guidance which is nearly unacceptable in a professional sense. Combined, that makes for a really troublesome duo that we’re supposed to be following.
The other real issue with the film is the low-budget aspects that do this one some rather problematic features. There are not too many sets or locations, and the ones that look flimsy and about to fall apart, the concept of a paranormal museum takes up a single corridor and a room shown from two angles since it can’t fit more than two people in the space as well as the props they’re looking at. These here really showcase the overall cheap look of the film that’s even further enhanced by the technical limitations with the sound and general photography. There are times when the dialog is completely stripped out of the scene despite taking place in a situation that should feature ambient noise or just disappears altogether as if is so low it ends up rendering this hard to hear. That the lighting is so dark that it’s impossible to tell scenes of what’s going on, which is enough to lower this one altogether.
Overview: *.5/5
A watchable indie killer doll effort, this one isn't as bad as it could've been but does have some big issues holding it back more than anything. Give it a shot if you're a fan of these kinds of indie efforts or are curious about it while most others out there might want to heed caution with this one.
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