The Doll

I picked this movie for the a long weekend's choice as it's said that the 3rd sequel will be released this year. I believe I've watched it few years ago but not sure it was memorable enough to make me intentionally re-watch it in 2022. The Doll (2016) is one of those cheesy creation by Indonesian that finally caught my full attention in the last 10 mins (at least) after the appearance of Sara Wijayanto, tbh. I decided to grasp the entire lame conversation and plot in the first 20 mins but still can't help dozing off because its raw execution of scenarios, irrational bridging, or even the poor roles. So, I jumped the cursor to the last 20 mins and finally, a fruitful stories to witness.

I usually don't count the stars I gave to rate a film but as a proud Indonesian, I felt obliged to address my reviews for a better execution of horror movies in the future, especially in collaboration with the best production house and movie stars like this one.

1st star = for the actors choice and location 2nd star = for the adopted and adapted scenes from conjuring series. Yes it was smooth anyways, but I love horror genres and conjuring universe is one of a hail series deserved to re-watch, thus I recognized "that" parts you used and re-created 3rd star = for the special effects and logical impact during the thrilling scenes only 4th star = for a light moral value by Mrs. Sara as usual. I love DMS, might this be a biased comment but her narratives were virtuous for us who still alive.

I previously planned to watch the 2nd sequel, The Doll 2, but seeing the first one was kinda like this, I might re-think first.

I liked this movie. Yes, The Doll is scary. Valeria Lukyanova is great in this movie, but honestly so is Anthony del Negro. The outwardly cold psychopath that Natasha turns out to be, in the movie is placed into the context of two ordinary kids who live together. Anthony goes through a breakup, gets dumped, and Natasha is pretty much terrifying. This movie is sort of like a serious attempt at making the Movie 43, with Emily Rose, into a horror film, if the lead actress was'The Human Barbie'. I think that The Doll might be the beginning of something wonderful! I'll tell you how I take my coffee, with Valeria Lukyanova in it.

Yes, there were Puppet Horror movies well before Annabelle and there will be more in the future. But this seems to be quite inspired by that universe (string of movies). Horror movies will be horror movies and either you like some of them no matter how much cliche is thrown into the mix or you will be utterly annoyed by watching.

Hide and seek is one thing, when your doll is playing that game with you, you should consider consulting someone who knows what is up. And while there are western influences as I already said, you can also see that it does have its own mythology when it comes to ghosts, respect for the dead and the other/under-world. There have been worse movies out there, but there have been way better horror movies too (and no that is not a pun for the sequel)

With the exclusion of Chucky, I've always found tales revolving around creepy possessed/supernatural dolls to be quite scary, be it in text or on the screen. Dead Silence by James Wan (the Wan and only) is one of my favorites and the famous namesake of Anabelle was in my opinion the best and most horrifying feature of the film. Therefore, after the Netflix buzz around the new Sabrina film, I was quite excited that the first two titles were also available, so I could watch them in proper order.

The vast majority of features in The Doll are truly great. The story is interesting, compelling and suspenseful. The pace is right on the spot from the exposition and build up, through the overture and to excellent final plot twist (which succeeded in catching me completely off guard despite it being rather cliché). The antagonist is terrifying despite rather sloppy CGI (which is only apparent enough to be noticeable during the final scenes). The scenes are well made and compelling. The characters are authentic, realistic and relatable and the acting is professional and on the spot despite being less than impressive. Even the soundtrack is awesome.

On the other hand, I couldn't ignore the less enjoyable features, especially the vast amounts of all too familiar clichés, some of which had been specifically taken from the "The Conjuring" anthology. Additionally, there's the exaggerated use of cheap jump scares, despite the fact that they were well executed and absolutely achieved their goal of making me jump in my seat. Also, I personally found the gory parts to be completely unnecessary, not being a fan of gore and excessive amounts of blood for their own sakes. Some films are based on those features and are made specifically for fans of gore, but this one isn't and has absolutely no reason to attempt to be. However, the worst feature of the film is by far the complete lack of logic and realism in some of the scenes, all for the sake of fitting the plot. Like a guy suffering multiple deadly stab wounds only to shake it off when necessary, then collapsing exhausted when the plot needs him to. A very amateurish feature in a film that's otherwise anything but.

All in all, The Doll is an excellent film which for me delivered everything I hoped it would, and then some. While not a masterpiece it's good enough to be considered great and one of the best Horror films I've watched this year (and by far the best Indonesian Horror film I've watched to date, though I haven't watched that many). I can only hope the next two titles of the trilogy are as entertaining and terrifying.

I don't speak Chinese yet It's evident how hilariously bad the actors are. The script is so inept that it makes you laugh at how bad it is and the CG is on the level of Birdemic.

I would describe this as 'The Room' of the horror genre.

It's so bad whilst trying to treat it so serious that it because a barrel of laughs!