Horror is a hard genre to crack but it is also one that benefits from creative or budgetary restrictions. Filmmakers have found away to make terrifying movies with just about anything. You don’t need lots of money to do this but you need to find a way to use your limitations to your advantage. An effective horror director can make something as commonplace as a door creak become the sounds of nightmares. No matter how much it costs, when a horror movie really works, it works. You can deprive your audience of sleep and make them never forget the scares that they just saw. It will grab a hold of your brain and won’t let you go. The Devil Dolls is not a perfect horror movie but it definitely shows off the potential of its cast and crew.
The
Devil Dolls (previously known as The Worry Dolls) is the story of Detective
Matt Williams, played by Christopher Wiehl, a detective who helped in the hunt
of a notorious serial killer named Henry Leonard Bale. In the aftermath, the peaceful
southern town starts experiencing a series of random, brutal murders. Matt
quickly discovers that these killings are all connected to a set of ancient
dolls known as Worry Dolls, which were given to Bale as a young boy. With both
the town and his young daughter’s lives in the balance, Matt must quickly find
the dolls and break their curse.
As a
film, there is a lot to appreciate about The Devil Dolls. I felt a connection
with the characters and wanted to see where the story took them. The worry
dolls as a concept were very interesting to me. Christopher Wiehl does a great
job as an average detective who is forced to investigate these brutal and
supernatural crimes. I thought the young actors in the film were very good but
a little bit underwritten. The film moves at a mostly reasonable pace and
focuses on character and scares in a way that not a lot of mainstream horror
movies do.
I also
really liked the film’s combination of voodoo horror and slasher elements. You
don’t see that a lot in horror these days and I think it really worked well
here. The blend of supernatural and
realistic crime added a lot to the suspense of the film. Director Padraig
Reynolds finds a great way to stage and use gore in this film. The kills in
this movie are unsettling and terrifying. The camera work and cinematography of
this film adds to the tension and atmosphere of the film. Every shot works in a
discomforting way and really takes advantage of its southern setting in a way
that you don’t see a lot of in horror films.
The only
weak link in my opinion is the script. The story itself is interesting but the
execution script wise is a little iffy. It is not terrible but I felt that it
is not up to the quality of the cinematography or atmosphere of the movie. I
felt that given how unconventional the background of the movie is that the
movie would be a little less straightforward in how it handled things.
Sometimes the characters did things that were a little foolish but made sense
in the context of the story. With a little bit of a stronger script, I think
this movie could definitely be a lot more memorable. It’s not a deal breaker
but it does drag the film down a bit.
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