A lot of critics say that modern horror films aren't scary, or that they lack the charm that pre-2000 horror films had, however this film is an outright "fuck you" to those critics. due to the film being directed by James wan, the same man who directed saw (and recently Insidious) you would have thought that it would be well know and a horror icon like jigsaw or Jason voorhees' hockey mask, but for some reason this Amazing horror film has gone almost un-noticed among the horror genre. but luckily i stumbled across a video which listed it among someones favorite horror movies and after watching the trailer for the film i immediately began seeking it out on eBay and eventually had it on DVD.
After finally getting round to watching the film i found myself afraid of dolls for close to a week... seriously... this film scared the fuck out of me. Creepy ass dolls, creepy ass plot, creepy ass locations and a shit load more creepy ass stuff. One of the many great features this film has to offer is the fact that it starts with a bone chilling opening and doesn't waste time trying to bring you to the edge of your seat like a lot of other horrors do. (normally taking half the film) another feature that makes this film as petrifying as it is is the unbelievably creepy yet simple theme tune that pops up all throughout the movie in different ways. a couple more positive things about this film have to be the designs of the dolls, especially the rocking chair clown, the other thing being the Incredibly intense ending sequence that takes place in an amazingly designed abandoned theatre.
[Spoiler Alert]
but alas, i move onto the negatives that burden this film. first of all i would like to address the annoying parts of the opening scene, i.e the perfectly sane girlfriend of the main character talking to herself/the doll, i don't know about the other viewers of this film but i felt that her acting was way to cheesy but thankfully she wasn't around for long... next, Jamie Ashen's Huge tolerance to gore, towards the end of the opening scene, when he sees his wife's mutilated face he steps back a little and stares in shock... my reaction was bigger than his at this point in the movie, i yelped. if it had been me in the movie i would've puked, screamed and pissed myself if I came across someone who was missing a tongue and had their jaw shattered in the last 3 minutes. another minor set back to this movies appeal is the almost constant gray tone that effects everyone and everything throughout the whole movie, seriously it makes the whole film seem cold and dull when in actuality it has an amazing plot and a great twist at the end that everyone seems to be hating on.
other than these few minor setbacks i really don't see anything that bad about this movie, also the film holds a couple of my favorite horror movie scenes such as the crawl space scene and the hotel scene, both showing the main antagonist, Mary Shaw. overall I'd give this movie 7/10 and would defiantly suggest it to all horror fans out there! please comment and suggest other movies that you'd like to see reviewed!
