Rent The Doll Master (2017)

Spoilers follow ... - The Doll Master review by NP

What begins as a potentially interesting micro-budget project soon becomes something of a slog, with a collection of some extremely monotonous-sounding characters. Norman (Tony Fadil) is a mentally disturbed ‘shut-in’ who lives with his solitary friend Hugo. Hugo, of course, is a doll which may or may not be alive. Norman talks to Hugo, makes him tea and toast, and the initially imaginative direction suggests other dolls and mannequins dotted around the rooms may also have corporeal existences.

Hugo is stolen and Norman is lured into a television ghost-hunting reality show recording, lead by Sarah Sarah Rose Dentonand peppered with some rather dull characters. “Well, we, er, yes, so we’ve had incidents. I know that you’ve, um, come to do this doll mystery thing, so …” says the man who has allowed this team into the ‘creepy’ vaults. Johnny Rorie Stocktonstrikes up a friendship with Norman, which is bizarre given the way Johnny was the man who tricked Norman into coming here: the man responsible for the cruelty inflicted on this unstable character.

“I mean, well, what you’ve got to remember, you know, er, stuff like that, so …”

Quickly, things dissolve into a kind of found-footage tangle where everyone talks at the same time. The only entertaining character is the amusingly detestable Malik (Jon-Paul Gates), who usually ends most sentences with ‘d’you know what I mean?’

These, and most other scenes, are wearisome to watch, punctuated with shots of Hugo’s face, ‘watching’. The acting really isn’t that bad, but what doesn’t help any performance is that there’s no depth, no character and nothing to persuade us to invest in them, just a series of tantrums and confrontations. It’s all sadly rather gloomy and flat.

Written, directed and co-produced by Steven M Smith, with very effective music by Felipe Téllez, this successfully avoids greatness on a number of levels, but has a few redeeming moments. The mix of real mannequins and actors creates a sinister world of the dolls, although their backstory is pretty impenetrable.

Just awful - The Doll Master review by AER

amateur hour - this film feels like somebody's played a very bad joke on you. don't waste your time. warning - this contains lethal-strength Jon-Paul Gates.