Curse of the Witch’s Doll is a film containing far more intelligence and innovation than you’d think from simply watching the trailer or looking at the poster. It’s being sold as a conventional evil doll movie but, through a series of twists and turns, it turns into more of an anthology consisting of three distinct segments, all tenuously connected by the titular witch’s doll.
Having each segment organically flow into the next is actually a pretty great concept, but sadly, the execution lets it down. The individual stories feel disjointed and the pace stalls every time the film shifts gear as it begins telling a new story.
Despite the fact that it looks less like an ancient relic of evil and more like something you’d find in a pound shop during the week leading up to Halloween, the doll itself is striking and mostly used to great effect. The qualifier ‘mostly’ is there because there are a few instances where the film lingers just long enough for us to notice how bad the motion-tween effects used to animate the thing’s face are, but for the most part, the doll offers some legitimately startling moments.
One thing that would have benefited the production greatly is a better performance from Claire Carreno, who portrays the witch. Her role mostly boils down to providing the doll’s vocals and, whilst her acting is completely in line with the wooden, emotionless delivery found from the cast throughout the film (suggesting a strange directorial decision rather than a low quality of actor), the doll could have really come to life if the actor behind it had an interesting voice and was willing to chew the scenery a bit more.
The film is largely an impressive effort from its micro-budget and first-time filmmakers, but all of their hard work is frustratingly ruined by a complete and utter lack of anything close to a satisfying resolution or conclusion to any of its three narratives. It’s almost like watching a parody of Lost, where every time the audience asks a question, the film responds with a shout of “Look, over there” before trying to distract them with a proverbial smoke monster until the clock runs out. The film’s final moments are so cack-handed that the nasty taste left in your mouth completely overwrites any positive memories you had of what preceded it.
And that’s why Curse of the Witch’s Doll is so incredibly frustrating. Despite also being known as Conjuring the Witch’s Doll, this isn’t, like so many of its peers, a simple cash-grab designed to make money out of people confusing it for another film. A great deal of effort and talent seems to have been spent on making the most of limited resources.
If you’re a big horror fan and you consider the journey more important than the destination, you should consider checking this one out. If, however, you find the ending to be arguably the most important part of a film, then beware: not only does this film not manage to stick the landing, but it doesn’t even try to land in the first place. It just flies until it runs out of fuel, crashes into the ocean and leaves us to search for the black box. Roll credits.
CURSE OF THE WITCH’S DOLL / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: LAWRENCE FOWLER / STARRING: HELEN CREVEL, PHILIP RIDOUT, LAYLA WATTS / RELEASE DATE: FEBRUARY 6TH (US)
