Hey, a ventriloquist movie. This is gonna bring me back to my Twilight Zone days.
This is a movie from James Wan, the guy that directed Saw, The Conjuring, and both awful Insidious films. Hey, he at least gave us Saw.
So we have a couple, Jamie and Lisa Ashen, and somebody shipped them a doll. Jamie goes out briefly and Lisa is in the room with the ventriloquist dummy. Well, she goes and dies. When Jamie gets back, he hears her voice, and when he pulls the bed sheet off, there she is dead, and without a tongue. Needless to say, he gets questioned by Detective Lipton, played by Donnie Wahlberg, or as I fondly remember him as I Dudditz from Dreamcatcher.
Jamie finds in the case, it says “Mary Shaw & Billy” and of course before Lisa died, she said this whole cute spiel. “Beware the stare of Mary Shaw / She had no children only dolls / And if you see her in your dreams / Be sure to never ever scream.”
Jamie comes to his dad’s house, where we meet his dad, Edward, and his stepmom, Ella. Jamie is not a fan of his dad’s. We find out that his mom committed suicide when he was young, and then the second wife left. So there’s some solid family history there. Edward is played by Bob Gunton, who also played the warden in Shawshank Redemption.
Jamie is in a Motel room. The awful neon light is shining in through the window. Bill’s eyes are moving. Haha, and now the doll said his name. And there in the corner of the room is presumably Lisa. It gets all intense, and he turns the light on, and nothing is there, just the doll.
I want to focus on the film, I have only seen it sleepily once before. I will provide updates if needed, and then wrap this up.
Jamie found Mary Shaw’s grave, it was somewhat hidden. This cray lady Marion is telling him to bury the doll. Jaime finds Billy’s grave and tries to bury him.
The whole flashback scene with Mary Shaw performing is absolutely fantastic. It’s charming, witty, and even intense. We learn from Marion’s husband, Henry who is the mortician in town, that Mary’s final wish was to have all 101 of her dolls buried when she died and she herself wished to be turned into a dummy. Awesome.
It just finished. I forgot just how much I enjoyed this movie. Damn memory!!!
In conclusion, there is a twist ending of sorts if you wish to call it that. And it’s good and reasonable. It’s one of those movies that you are constantly peeling away layers as you get more back story and motives. And sometimes you get so engulfed in peeling back those layers, you don’t think about the obvious. That’s where the genius lies. This had a really good creepy atmosphere throughout, and even more importantly, did not rely on stupid jump scare tactics. As you know, I am not a fan of lazy scares. Was it scary? Not really, I could see kids and maybe teens or some people who just can’t handle horror movies being frightened. The story is the shining star here. The dolls and Mary Shaw really are awesome. The leads are serviceable as well. At the end of the day, I have to give this a 7.1 without any regret. I recommend this for those seeking a fun story. The makeup is cool as well.
Final Rating: 7.1
All the pictures used in this blog are for review purposes. They are the property of:
- Universal Pictures
- Twisted Pictures (uncredited)
- Evolution Entertainment (uncredited)
Please go find a copy and support the creators.