Mandy the Doll

If you like nothing happening for a long time, if you like two short movies suddenly being in the main movie but also being bad, and if you like one actor inexplicably being unable to be heard for a good chunk of time boy do I have the movie for you.

I'm giving it a couple bonus stars for the funny part where they drop a camera off a balcony and then a lady lays down in the grass and we're supposed to think she fell off the balcony. It's a very funny scene.

Other than that, though, it's not funny, it's not scary, and it's not good by any stretch of the imagination. Give this one a hard pass .

There are quite a few horror films of this type around - very low budget and low on gore. As independent films go, this is technically very good with some fairly convincing acting.

It isn't, however, very frightening. Dolls can often be unnerving. Mandy the doll is an unsettling looking prop, and efforts are made to give her a degree of apparent mobility; but she/it isn't quite enough to fill 90 minutes of film.

I'm glad films like this are made, and it's unfortunate that anything with a less-than-stellar budget gets slated for that very reason. What are you supposed to do if you have an idea for a film? Realise that you don't have access to millions of pounds, so you don't bother pursuing it? Director Jamie Weston and the cast and crew (including briefly, Louisa Warren who has directed a number of similar projects) should be commended for producing something they are passionate about. My score is 6 out of 10.

Okay a slight plot variant from perhaps the standard haunted doll format.

-1 for not very convincing special effects / non-existent

-1 for really uninspiring dialogue / writing

This film has absolutely no redeeming features. It is so badly acted that it's excruciating, the camera work is amateurish, the music I don't remember it. So I give it 1 star, giving zero wasn't possible.

Initially when I sat down to watch the 2018 horror movie "Mandy the Doll", I have to admit that I figured that this was going to be just another run-of-the-mill low budget horror movie with a killer doll or possessed doll. And God knows there are many of those movies out there. And since I had never heard about this 2018 movie from writer Shannon Holiday and director Jamie Weston I opted to give it a fair chance and the benefit of the doubt.

The script was okay, but nothing out of the ordinary. It was a semi-watchable movie, albeit a rather forgettable one. So it wasn't as if Shannon Holiday conjured up something grand for director Jamie Weston to bring to the screen.

Something that did work out well enough in favor of the movie, was the fact that I was not familiar with a single actor or actress on the cast list. Yeah, I do enjoy watching new and unfamiliar talents on the screen whenever I watch a movie. The acting performances in the movie were fair.

This movie is hardly one that warrants more than a single viewing.

My rating of director Jamie Weston's 2018 movie "Mandy the Doll" lands on a generous three out of ten stars.