Finders Keepers

Woman buys house then realises it is haunted. Or something is. She has a child, in this case a daughter, but if you've seen a similar offering in which the woman has a son or the man has a son, or there is a family or a whole bunch of them, you might be forgiven for experiencing a sense of déjà vu. Guess what comes next, and you get only the one guess. Of course, murders, lots of them!

There is no secret about the root of the evil as from the off we are made aware of the reason the house is haunted, there had been a massacre there, one committed by a ten year old boy, who also murdered the two police officers who were sent to investigate the initial disturbance, or whatever it was.

Kylie Rogers who plays Claire was only 10 years old when this film was released. If her role does not constitute child abuse then an adult willingly sitting through 80+ minutes of this constitutes self-abuse (no, not in that sense, you reprobate). Indeed there is no sex to speak of in this film, not that a rape, an orgy or even a knee trembler could have made it appreciably worse.

This film is so painfully awful. Basically, a family is murdered by their son who is possessed by a doll. 5 years later a divorced mother and her 9 yr old daughter move in. The kid finds the doll and then this absolute lazy joke of a film starts.

In short, both parents are going through a tough time with the divorce and now their 9 year old is throwing tantrums and being the most irritating rude child you could imagine. The daughter in this movie is just a brat, plain and simple. The director wants you to feel sorry for her but she screeches her way through an hour and half that I'll never get back.

There is a rinse and repeat in the film about 10 times. In short, everyone the little brat comes into contact with whether directly or indirectly, verbally or visually, she kills them. Well the doll kills them. So anytime someone appears on screen that's not her mother, father or Tobin Bell who is wasted in this movie by having 2 scenes as a child psychiatrist, they are gonna die. Some of them, under the same circumstances as people earlier in the film. Honestly it is laughable how both parents after finding out about at least a dozen murders don't decide to something other than stare in disbelief at their annoying little psycho daughter.

Save yourself the time and watch any other horror you come across

Finders Keepers attempts to capture some of the essence of classic puppet/children horror, with the first person camerawork reminiscent of the Puppetmaster or Chucky films. However, its heavy reliance on the supernatural element detracts from a firm grounding of reality that could have made the story more compelling.

Despite a surprisingly high body count, the low-budget film fails to evoke any genuine terror or fear. The only real layers to the film are Tobin Bell's role as a child psychiatrist. His character's accusations of child abuse against Alyson (played by Jaime Pressly) are the only moments the film tries to explore deeper themes.

The story revolves around a young girl, Claire (Kylie Rogers), who discovers a Muneca, (a South American Voodoo doll) while moving into her new home named Lilith. It's discovered that possessing someone else's Muneca brings bad luck, and as the film progresses, the doll begins to feed off and possess Claire's emotions attempting to merge her soul with its own.

The most notable death scenes in the film involve a few cats skinned in the backyard and a woman who gets set alight after being doused in gasoline However, the reasoning behind the ensuing killing spree wis just simply because.

Going way back to films like Chucky, whose origins are tied to a murderous killer's soul, this Muneca seems to embody a more generalized supernatural entity that isn't explored.

The killings, while trying to be unique, don't really begin until the latter half of the film, which feels a little drawn out and slow. Furthermore, the visual effects in the final stages of the film where dark clouds manifest in the corners of the attic comes off as cringe.

In summary, Finders Keepers offers little more than the experience of a forgettable B-grade horror film. It lacks depth, clarity, and narrative flow, leaving you pondering how you might have better spent your precious time.

3/10.

I happened to learn of this film while checking a trailer for another (good ol' YouTube recommendation). Apparently, it's an original TV film made by a channel called Syfy, a fact made obvious by the lighting and cinematography, and perhaps the fact that NONE of the main characters are credited here on IMDb without clicking the "see full cast" link!

Anyways, nothing original about the story... violent murder in a house, reasons unknown, evil haunted doll recovered, rinse and repeat. Deja-vu? Bluntly so... I must say I liked the acting, especially by 10 year old Kylie Rogers as little Claire. Having to play such a role when you're only 10 isn't easy (though not half as challenging or impressive as other young lead roles like in Mama or The Ring), and I think Rogers showed some real talent.

The story develops nicely, but not more than that. The doll is pretty creepy though! Not easy presenting scary dolls nowadays after the high raft set by Saw and The Conjuring. Certain scenes were really amateur, for instance when one of the characters trips on a wire it is painfully visible that she simply ducked and rolled down the stairs... Why give stuntman Steve Austin the first credit when other stunts were so miserably performed? Beats me.

All in all, this is the kind of film you can definitely enjoy, but only if you set your Horror meter to mediocre and below. I enjoyed watching it, and I liked the fact that it lacked any sex, gore or extreme violence, making it suitable for younger Horror fans. It isn't terrible, but it's far from great. As always, I recommend you ignore my (or anyone else's) opinion and judge for yourselves!

My hopes were not too high before watching this but I was surprised that it is actually pretty good.

It's a familiar tale, family move into a house with a horrible history and bad things happen. We have seen it all a hundred times but thanks to a good cast and some nice directing this still manages to satisfy.

There were a number of well handled tension filled scenes that prove that horror isn't and shouldn't be all about the gore. Although it's fairly predictable I still felt pretty tense at times watching it. The cast all did a good job but a special mention must go to the little girl who plays the young daughter Claire ( Kylie Rogers) who is genuinely chilling as the possessed girl.

For a small budget horror film this is a good film and is certainly on a par with many of it's higher budgeted rivals.