Writers: Danny Kolker, Christopher Wiehl
Director: Padraig Reynolds
I always list writers before directors on this site, partly because a bad script trumps good direction. That’s certainly the case with The Devil’s Dolls (aka Worry Dolls).
The story starts with a young woman being about to meet a gruesome end at the hands of serial killer Henry (Matty Ferraro). With the help of police officer Matt (Christopher Wiehl) she manages to escape and Henry is killed. But obviously that’s not the end of the story.
Amongst Henry’s possessions are a set of small, voodoo style dolls that we’ve seen him fiddling with earlier. Due to Matt’s rather lax approach to crime scene protocols these end up in the hands of his young daughter, Chloe (Kennedy Brice). Chloe then turns the dolls into jewellery that is sold to local residents, thus spreading them and their bad mojo around the town.
‘Bad mojo’ is a bit of an understatement as the recipients go onto commit some violent and apparently motiveless murders. Chloe meanwhile has become incredibly sick; Matt needs to solve the case before she dies.
There’s a germ of an interesting idea here, but the storytelling is simply awful. It’s essentially a series of blood-filled murder scenes with no narrative drive. What it does have is cliches galore: driller killer, cop with a broken marriage and cute daughter, strange symbol drawn in blood, old mystic woman who explains everything in an infodump… There’s an attempted twist at the end but it doesn’t really make sense.
In the film’s favour it looks great. Reynolds comes up with some great shots and the cinematography by Adam Sampson makes the most of these. Acting is so-so: young Brice is excellent as Chloe but I found Wiehl flat and frankly dull. Tina Lifford does a good job in a poor role, she deserves better. The music by Holly Amber Church is classic horror complete with “Wheep! Wheep!” stabbing – it’ll probably appeal to some people but I felt it was trying too hard.
There are some genuinely creepy scenes in The Devil’s Dolls, but they’re few and far between. It’s well directed and well shot but – unfortunately – the bad script wins hands down.