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.

I didn't expect much from Jamie Pressly as a serious actress but I must say she wasn't terrible, not great but better than expected at least.

Story albeit predictable is somewhat enjoyable BUT yeah the big issue here is not the acting or or the plot which from a killer doll movie you really can't expect much from anyways.

Looking at the cover of course it made me think "ooh wee another killer doll movie like Chucky, this can be good fun if nothing else".

BUT, the doll doesn't actually move on screen it's all done behind camera or shot in a way where you can only see for instance a knife being moved around and the stabbing victim etc, you don't actually get to see the doll doing of the stabbing or making any funny remarks (like Chucky would have) while doing it.

Had it shown that this would have been a vastly more enjoyable experience, I understand that it would be hard to make it look realistic but I'd rather have them do it poorly looking than just to avoid it completely.

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

For SyFy, Finders Keepers is not so bad and is a long way from their worst. As a movie in general though, it does have some good things and looks like some effort went into it but it doesn't quite come together. Starting with the positives, the movie actually looks good(and for a SyFy movie that is quite a compliment), with some very effective lighting, crisp editing and unobtrusive camera work. The music does create some atmosphere, not an exceptional one by all means but it fits the movie and doesn't try to be too obvious, the doll is very creepy-looking and there are some scary moments. A few performances come over quite well, the best of the lot coming from Kylie Rogers who is both adorable and terrifying, while Jaime Pressley is a sympathetic and somewhat touching mother figure. Most of the acting is not particularly strong, consisting of a lot of under-acting with Patrick Muldoon phoning it in, and Tobin Bell is wasted.

Finders Keepers as said has some moments that are scary and suspenseful, they only came in spades rather than the movie being continually creepy. Most of the movie was lacking in scares and atmosphere for me, it was more predictable than suspenseful, the gore and scare factor were too toned down a lot of the time and a lot of moments that should have been scary came across as silly instead. The characters are almost impossible to root for and connect with, they are very underdeveloped and you get frustrated with how stupid some of their actions are as a consequence perhaps of focusing too much on the relationship between Rogers and Pressley's characters and side-lining everybody else which was a large part of why most of the acting did not register.

The direction is technically competent but when it comes to maintaining momentum, atmosphere and making the characters and chemistry interesting it fails, and the dialogue is often horrid, the worst of which enough to make one cringe. The story had bags of potential and effort clearly was made to it with a very original idea, but it was a case of trying to do too much and not explaining enough, making it feel muddled and underwritten. Some of the plot twists border on idiotic, as seen in the senseless ending, and the story feels too padded out in places. And I wish they did more with the doll, it is a very creepily-designed character but there is a real sense that the writers weren't sure what it was, offering at least four different explanations as to what it really was but it was never made clear which one it actually was. Overall, for SyFy Finders Keepers was watchable but was in personal opinion was very lacking. It is not as though there isn't any talent on display here because there is, it is such a shame that that just didn't come across here. 4/10 Bethany Cox

Alyson (Jaime Pressly) and her daughter Clair (Kylie Rogers) move into a home, but unknown to them, it has an evil past. The people who lived there before them were murdered by their 8-yr old son who had become possessed by an evil doll. Now, Clair has become possessed by the same doll, which she found inside a vent in her room.

I have to say I was impressed by Jaime Pressly's acting in this. This is the first time I've seen her in a straight out dramatic role. Granted, I haven't seen that many things with her, but she was very good in this. However, I didn't like her hairstyle. The front of it wasn't bad, but the almost shaved back of her head was very odd to see on a woman, and they must have had about 4 different scenes where they had a close up of it. Kylie Rogers did a very good job as well as the troubled and possessed Clair. Patrick Muldoon portrayed Alyson's ex-husband. I haven't seen him in anything since Starship Troopers. He was more of a side-character in this, as the movie was much more focused on Pressly and Rogers.

I gave this a 4-star rating. I wouldn't want to see it again, because I'm not a fan of possession movies, but I enjoyed it enough to sit through it. I have to say that parts of this kind of reminded me of The Conjuring. For something from the SyFy channel, this was surprisingly watchable.