Director: Scott Jeffrey
Year: 2021
Country: United Kingdom
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Killer Dolls
Plot:
Struggling with oncoming dementia, a woman and her daughters decide to visit a remote house in the countryside to help establish a semblance of normalcy for her, but when she brings a doll home from a curio ship finds that a deadly secret about her past tied to the doll is about to be revealed.
Review:
This was a fairly fun if slightly flawed genre effort. One of the finer points to this one is the rather solid starting point that features a fairly relatable situation to string a fine series of genre antics off of. The idea of the initial dementia prognosis at the very beginning and getting an impression of that through the various doctor visits with the hallucinations and visions offer a great idea of the type of setup this is going for, giving this a nice bit to understand what’s going on while going for a nice interconnecting storyline involving the daughters squabbling over her treatment. As they tend to argue over everything in what’s supposed to be a sensitive situation with her condition giving us a nice dramatic touch for their characters, there’s a lot to like here with the central setup with everything coming together in fine form.
As well, this one brings out a lot of fun when they acquire the doll and set off on a series of incidents that question if the doll is real or not. That it plays nicely with the idea of the doll influencing her behavior’s deteriorating condition with everything taking place under the guise of the doll not being genuine but rather her mindstate causing it all gives these scenes a nice change as it carries along. This final half gives everything a lot more context as the series of reveals and twists that come about offer up the kind of strong follow-up to these ideas which not only has some great touches but there’s also the solid stalking and action featured here which focuses on some likable factors once the doll is revealed to come to life. These all manage to come together giving this one some worthwhile features.
There are some factors involved with this one that hold it down. The main drawback is the absolutely glacial pacing that goes on for the first hour as very little of genuine genre material happens throughout here. That this is understandably spent on time honoring the dementia prognosis, the sisters squabbling over her treatment, the idea of her getting better because of the doll, and various other subplots in play here, which doesn't leave a lot of time to spend on the doll actually running around doing it’s thing which causes a lot of the running time to go by with a loose genre atmosphere. It’s not until the final act that this one starts to get going which is a bit disappointing with the potential there to get something far more impactful about the situation only for everything to be a bit underwhelming.
The other issue here is that, while the finale gets some great action to go along with everything, very little of it makes sense. As we’ve spent the entire time going through the dementia plotline where we’re never sure about the validity of the claims about it being a doll or the dementia manifesting itself, it leaves so little room for anything else to develop that it all feels rushed with little build-up. The realization of the original ownership of the doll is fine enough but to expand on that with even more about the cult supposedly involved here or what the doll’s connection to it all comes across as completely out of nowhere with very little emphasis. Combined with the generally silly look of the doll due to its low-budget origins, these all lower this one overall.
Overview: ***/5
Really solid killer doll effort with some issues, a few drawbacks with its pacing and a confusing finale holds this back from the upper parts of where this could’ve been in the genre. Those with an interest in this style, are curious about it, or are fans of the creative crew will have a lot to like here while most others turned off by these factors should heed caution.
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