O Assassino dos Brinquedos

Attractive blonde psychiatrist Sarah Carter (as Kate Kovic) reluctantly agrees to investigate the case of supposedly "multiple personality" disordered convict Magda Apanowicz (as Christine Solter). Scheduled to be lethally injected in one week, we don't know if the convicted woman is pretending or really possessing herself, a young man nicknamed "Fish" and his mentally challenged younger sister. After a few meetings with Apanowicz, Ms. Carter becomes convinced she is innocent. Now, it becomes a race against the execution clock. Carter begins investigating "The Toyman Killer" who apparently killed the "personalities" inside Apanowicz' head (among others), with help from likewise unmarried police detective David Haydn-Jones (as Ray Santana)...

At the opening crime scene, which occurred six years earlier, we meet Mr. Haydn-Jones and fellow officer Tom Butler (as Dennis Turbinado). Watch as Haydn-Jones checks the wrist of one of the victims. A stickler for details would make a mental note of this and wonder whether he was checking for time, the fish tattoo or the bracelet. Also of interest is why what he saw made the detective angry. But, don't expect any explanation of minor details. A major detail would be the general release of Apanowicz, should she be declared not guilty due to her mental problems; certainly, you would expect the young woman to remain in a psychiatric facility for a period of time. However, director Farhad Mann and the cast perform very well, especially in the basement.

****** The Toyman Killer (7/20/13) Farhad Mann ~ Sarah Carter, David Haydn-Jones, Magda Apanowicz, Tom Butler

Dr. Brazier asks psychologist Kate Kovic (Sarah Carter) to evaluate death row inmate Christine Solter (Magda Apanowicz) who is set to be executed in 7 days. Dr. Brazier believes that she is innocent despite her confession.

This is set up for Apanowicz to do some crazy character work. I'm reminded of Edward Norton in Primal Fear. It's nowhere close to that. She is not given the opportunity. The production is not much more than a TV movie of the week. It's not the worst thing in the world. There is a good amount of doubt about the Solter character but the tension is kept at a low simmer. A plot device is needed to ramp up the intensity. This movie lacks that and it never truly takes off.

The writers of this movie should go practice before they make any attempts at writing a movie script again. We basically knew the killer from the first time we saw the person, but that's not the worst part. The story is unbelievable and badly disjointed, and the acting isn't much better. Now, we have seen several of the actors in other stuff, so we blame the direction and the writing. There's only so many ways you can dress up a turd.

There are a few brighter spots; the trailer was so good we actually stuck with the movie, even though my husband kept pleading for me to turn off the TV ( I kept hoping the suspense of the trailer would manifest itself, but alas!). Also, the girl on death row actually delivered a pretty good acting performance in spite of the circumstances. And we have reenacted several of the worst scenes today, to our mutual great amusement.

I think the worst part of this movie is the lack of suspense. You would expect it to be exciting at least, but even the great reveal is just blah.

And that kind of sums up the whole thing: blah.

Watching the TV spots really played up the psychodrama angle. But that's a small part of it. The movie isn't particularly scary. But that's okay! Both of the lead actresses are in fine form here. (And underrated in my humble opinion.)

At the end of the day it is light fluff. Nothing to take very seriously. Looking back this movie is refreshing. In that the plot was different enough. Now LMN keeps churning out movies about psycho nannies etc. or obsessed teens and authority figures. While I'm a sucker for that subgenre it is getting a bit stale. Consider this one of the decent entries.