The Toymaker

After the modern day setting of the first two films this prequel takes us back to Nazi Germany to tell the origin story of Robert the doll. The first film didn't offer a lot of explanation for the doll's reanimation but a glimpse of a sinister toymaker character at the end of the first sequel promised an expanding of the mythology and this third film delivers that. We are introduced to a mysterious book the Nazis want which brings toys to life and we get to know the origin of the Toymaker character and how he first brought the doll to life. Its not without its flaws mostly due to the rough edges you expect from a low budget indie film but there is more effort to provide an actual story in this film which is much needed after the bear bone story of the first two films. The acting is also an improvement on the previous films. A solid 6 out of 10 for me.

Terrible fake accents and budget ageing makeup. Set in WW2 but modern things still left on the set like a Visa credit card sign in the shop and modern toys 😂

The acting was surprisingly good. The special effects with the dolls are terrible. However this movie is worth watching to see the worst old man make up I have ever seen in a movie. And it is one of the few movies I have ever seen blood flow that you can see through. Obviously more coloring needed to be added to the corn syrup.

Saw 'The Toymaker', being fond of horror/thriller regardless of budget (even if not my favourite genre) and being intrigued somewhat by the idea. Being behind on my film watching and reviewing, with a long to watch and review list that keeps getting longer, it took me a while to get round to watching and reviewing it.

Giving 'The Toymaker' a fair chance with being interest and apprehension, it turned out to be far better than expected. Won't say that 'The Toymaker' is a great film because it isn't (pretty weak actually) and the potential, while not wasted, is not fully lived up to. Considering the large number of films seen recently being mediocre and less and wasting potential, was expecting worse and was relieved that while wanting in a fair few areas it was actually marginally better than most recent low-budget viewings.

'The Toymaker' started off quite reasonably, the first twenty minutes or so starting the film off on a promising, unsettling and atmospheric note that really does intrigue.

Production values did have some eeriness and nowhere near as cheap as expected, and the music, which not the most memorable in the world, didn't detract from the atmosphere.

The setting is effectively spooky. There are a few spooky and suspenseful moments.

However, the story was severely wanting in especially the second half after starting off promisingly for the first twenty minutes. It is very disjointed, extremely padded with so many scenes that add nothing and gets dull and uneventful too early after the promising start. The final third especially loses atmosphere, one loses interest and things start to not make sense and gets increasingly jumbled. Too much of the film is vague and doesn't explore some elements and story strands enough (motives are underexplored or absent for example), some dropped soon after being introduced, go nowhere or serve much point.

Ending is unsatisfying, on top of feeling hasty there are too many loose ends hanging in the air. Got the sense that the writers didn't know how to end the film. Would have liked much more tension and suspense (which were generally very lacking), scares could have been more consistent and much more (what there was was predictable and cheap) and generally weren't surprising enough.

Found too the script to lack natural flow and with a lot of cheese, repetition and padding going on, and the characters bland with some adopting some annoying and not always logical decision making. The support acting in particular is even more problematic than the second half's storytelling, at best it was poor and too often terrible.

Overall, weak but could have been worse. 3/10 Bethany Cox

Good movie to watch for especially the horror scenes and also the robert toy the movie is well set in nazis period of drama the movie is good to watch.