After moving into a new house, a man and his wife looking to settle down in a new neighborhood after his promotion finds themselves continually coming upon a strange doll from his job, and when they discover the strange secret behind it calls upon a spiritual healer to save themselves.
This one might be somewhat formulaic but still has some enjoyable elements. The film does really well with the idea of building up what is really wrong with the doll and whether it's alive or not. The opening scene of the children recounting their history with the doll and how it continually reappeared around the house before attempting to injure the son sets the stage for the later scenes of the couple encountering the object. Based on the intriguing idea of coming into their lives through his job when he destroys the sacred tree, the supernatural action that results from this setup offers some fine chills here. From her continually being spooked by strange noises or the wind manipulating doors around them to the devilishly creepy game of hide-and-seek it continually seems to want to play, these scenes manage to offer up some genuinely thrilling moments. The thrills are no less intense once the film brings in the spiritual healer. There are some great scenes here that rightfully encourage her into the story, as the spirit attacking her while taking a bath or during their attempt to sleep at night despite both instances having found nothing attacking her while checking up on what's happening are given genuine and logical cause for concern. The rituals that are performed during the communication session provides a great starter for the occur later on at the house where there's the introduction of the possession angle. Targeting the mediums' young daughter as a playmate or coercing friends to commit harm to themselves signals the start of the more terrifying actions in the house such as the bats attacking the couple to the spirit targeting and then possessing the wife in order to launch several gruesome actions all in the name of revenge. The exorcism that follows is just as enjoyable and has a lot to like about it, which along with the fine gore in the bloody kills gives the film plenty of positive points. There are some pretty big flaws with the film. Among its main issues is that most of the scares here, while generating a fine horror atmosphere and come off well in concept, just seem wholly familiar and routine in execution. The idea of the cursed doll creating terror by opening locked doors, slamming windows or breathlessly whispering in the darkness do manage to provide some fantastic horror ideas only because that's how the majority of the genre's films work. Also not helping these scenes is the absolutely awful and laughably bad CGI work, which reduce many supposedly chilling scenes into obvious CGI-rendered sequences. These issues are rather problematic and troublesome overall. Still, the biggest problem in the film is the overall lagging story. This rambles on far longer than it really should, introducing plot-points that either doesn't need to be there or just rambles on way too much in the finale. Overall, there are a few flaws that do hold this one back.
Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Language.
