Marronnier

OK...you remember those movies in high school film classes? Remember the ones that tried really hard to be creepy and gory with ketchup and jump cuts? Those movies were TEN TIMES BETTER than this one. There is no telling what is going on at any point in the movie. This is for sure though: there's a girl, this guy kills girls and turns them into dolls, and the dolls come to life. I'm really disappointed, because being an avid horror fan who's always looking for a new and unique scare, I really thought this had potential. NO. The film work is juvenile at best, and the plot is so incoherent that it's difficult to even pay attention. You want a bottom line? Here's my advice: watch Puppetmaster.

Shot on a poor-looking video, the editing, scripting and plotting of this movie are staggeringly bad. The use of music is also atrocious, music library stuff plugged in randomly and starting and ending without any logic. There's some sped-up footage of teeth-brushing, and a conversation is also fast-forwarded through.

In the opening, a woman leaves a successful date to be hit on by a stranger, then abducted by men in a van who dismember her with piano wire. A doll later on is supposedly a likeness of her, but isn't by a longshot. One of the dolls is named Marionnier (I thought this might be a person who manipulates a marionette, but no). One of the abusive guys gets strung up by rope after he attacks a woman, and attacked with huge shears and a sledgehammer. A woman turns into wax in a lake and is then sculpted into a doll.

All of this may sound very good, but it is so incompetently executed, you're better off spending your time elsewhere. Go revisit Child's Play or Dolls.

Before you condemn this film to video hell, it's worth noting that it WAS an amateur film, I'm pretty sure it was a student film, inspired by the works of legendary horror manga artist Junji Ito. He worked with the kids on the movie also, but not in a big way.

I personally felt this film was quite enjoyable, and weird enough to be interesting.

Basically if you enjoyed other bizarre Japanese horror movies, and in particular the other films based on the works of Junji Ito then you'll probably like this one. Just don't expect production values equal to that of Uzumaki etc...