SPOILERS WILL ABOUND HERE. TURN BACK IF YOU DON'T WANT THEM PLEASE
This movie combines all of the worst aspects of what is wrong with horror and Hollywood writing, in general, in 2016. It's a mediocre, unoriginal and bland thriller that relies on generic jump scares to create most of its' tension. After, at the least, maintaining a clear narrative the movie unleashes on of the most ridiculous twist endings since HIGH TENSION.
Lauren Cohen stars in this movie from Universal (that signifies how far they have fallen from their glory years of horror). She is an American girl who has moved to England to escape some dark moments in her life and take a job as a nanny. Only this is no ordinary nanny job, she is to watch a doll. As if that wasn't bizarre enough, the "parents" of this doll have a laundry list of very particular rules for the nanny to follow. Almost immediately, they leave her alone with the doll. Of course, like most of us would do, she doesn't take these duties seriously at first, ignoring the doll and going on about her life isolated in this country home. Then, things start to go weird, as items disappear and finally she is trapped overnight in an attic.
After these events, our heroine starts to take the doll seriously and realize that there is a spirit in the house who demands care of the doll or will unleash devilish tricks on her. Most of us have an innate unsettled feeling with dolls and mannequins and the movie does a good job of playing with this fear. There are some genuinely creepy scenes where the doll will unnerve even the most jaded horror fan. Unfortunately, the movie falls down generic Hollywood horror traps far too often, though, as almost every real "scare" in this movie is the most boring of boring types -- the jump scare. Yes, the music ratchets up, the mood intensifies and the camera zooms in slowly only for something to jump out at us with a loud noise, accompanied by jarring music. It's such lazy film making.
Lauren Cohen doesn't help much here, either. She's a pretty face that most know from THE WALKING DEAD, but even as an ardent fan of that show, I found her to be a generic actress there. Try as the show might to make Maggie interesting, Cohen just brings no real emotion to the role. Here, it's much the same. She's the pretty girl next door and that's about it. It's hard to feel much for her because the actress has done nothing to bring sympathy to the role.
Still, all things considered, for the first 75 minutes or so the movie has done an average job of presenting an, at least, entertaining (if unmemorable) thriller, then we get to the twist. Hollywood seems to have a fascination with the twist and I think that horror falls into this trap the worst. This is the most horrid kind of twist. Look at a classic twist like THE SIXTH SENSE. The viewer can go back and re- watch the film and there is ample evidence everywhere that the viewer could have seen this coming. The twist does something to support the previous narrative and make it all the more impactful.
Too many amateur writers seem to feel it is okay to just pull the rug out from under the viewer and say "Aha, I got you". No, you didn't "get" anyone with this ending. You spent all of this time building a tense mood around a spirit who may be possessing this doll, then soiled all over it. There are so many things the writer could have done intelligently with that premise, but the real threat is much more generic. What was the point of having a doll in the first place? Why all the rules? Why the doll? Why bother? You could have done a ghost story and left out the twist. You could have done a creepy mystery guy movie and left out the doll. By combining these, you've only created something ludicrous. It's tempting for a writer because an unintelligent viewer will typically confuse an out of nowhere twist with good writing, but this just isn't the case. A twist means nothing if you didn't support it along the way, build towards it and use it to bring meaning to what has come before. Otherwise, all you've done is left one narrative unfinished and tacked on a different story at the end.
This movie combines all of the worst aspects of what is wrong with horror and Hollywood writing, in general, in 2016. It's a mediocre, unoriginal and bland thriller that relies on generic jump scares to create most of its' tension. After, at the least, maintaining a clear narrative the movie unleashes on of the most ridiculous twist endings since HIGH TENSION.
Lauren Cohen stars in this movie from Universal (that signifies how far they have fallen from their glory years of horror). She is an American girl who has moved to England to escape some dark moments in her life and take a job as a nanny. Only this is no ordinary nanny job, she is to watch a doll. As if that wasn't bizarre enough, the "parents" of this doll have a laundry list of very particular rules for the nanny to follow. Almost immediately, they leave her alone with the doll. Of course, like most of us would do, she doesn't take these duties seriously at first, ignoring the doll and going on about her life isolated in this country home. Then, things start to go weird, as items disappear and finally she is trapped overnight in an attic.
After these events, our heroine starts to take the doll seriously and realize that there is a spirit in the house who demands care of the doll or will unleash devilish tricks on her. Most of us have an innate unsettled feeling with dolls and mannequins and the movie does a good job of playing with this fear. There are some genuinely creepy scenes where the doll will unnerve even the most jaded horror fan. Unfortunately, the movie falls down generic Hollywood horror traps far too often, though, as almost every real "scare" in this movie is the most boring of boring types -- the jump scare. Yes, the music ratchets up, the mood intensifies and the camera zooms in slowly only for something to jump out at us with a loud noise, accompanied by jarring music. It's such lazy film making.
Lauren Cohen doesn't help much here, either. She's a pretty face that most know from THE WALKING DEAD, but even as an ardent fan of that show, I found her to be a generic actress there. Try as the show might to make Maggie interesting, Cohen just brings no real emotion to the role. Here, it's much the same. She's the pretty girl next door and that's about it. It's hard to feel much for her because the actress has done nothing to bring sympathy to the role.
Still, all things considered, for the first 75 minutes or so the movie has done an average job of presenting an, at least, entertaining (if unmemorable) thriller, then we get to the twist. Hollywood seems to have a fascination with the twist and I think that horror falls into this trap the worst. This is the most horrid kind of twist. Look at a classic twist like THE SIXTH SENSE. The viewer can go back and re- watch the film and there is ample evidence everywhere that the viewer could have seen this coming. The twist does something to support the previous narrative and make it all the more impactful.
Too many amateur writers seem to feel it is okay to just pull the rug out from under the viewer and say "Aha, I got you". No, you didn't "get" anyone with this ending. You spent all of this time building a tense mood around a spirit who may be possessing this doll, then soiled all over it. There are so many things the writer could have done intelligently with that premise, but the real threat is much more generic. What was the point of having a doll in the first place? Why all the rules? Why the doll? Why bother? You could have done a ghost story and left out the twist. You could have done a creepy mystery guy movie and left out the doll. By combining these, you've only created something ludicrous. It's tempting for a writer because an unintelligent viewer will typically confuse an out of nowhere twist with good writing, but this just isn't the case. A twist means nothing if you didn't support it along the way, build towards it and use it to bring meaning to what has come before. Otherwise, all you've done is left one narrative unfinished and tacked on a different story at the end.