Movie Review: Curse of the Witch’s Doll is an Old School Atmospheric Horror Show!

 
The longer time I spend in the horror biz, the more I see some truly ground breaking, heartfelt, monster masterpieces. Let’s see if Curse of The Witch’s Doll (or as it’s sometimes known The Witch’s Doll…or, and this one happens to be my favorite due to it’s sublime creativity, Conjuring the Witch’s Doll) is one of those…
Curse of The Witch’s Doll in war torn 1940’s Europe, a Adeline and daughter seek shelter in a house deep in the woods. Everything would be fine and dandy for the duo except a seemingly living doll inhabits the dwelling as well, and after Adeline’s daughter goes missing after a rousing game of hide n’ seek, it’s up to our heroine to break a centuries old witch’s curse, find her daughter, and put that evil six feet under!
Comprised of a more subtle and dramatic story line than you would expect, Curse of The Witch’s Doll is a bit of a pleasant surprise. Strong acting from lead Helen Crevel as Adeline, coupled with a narrative dealing with loss (Adeline is without her husband as the picture begins, and loses her daughter soon after), and an emphasis on ghost story trappings rather than over the top bloodshed make for a unique bit of low budget fright film fun. Also of note are some nice cinematography and a strong mythology behind the titular creature. That’s not to say that everything is peachy in living doll land.
The biggest draw back to this film is that it’s pacing is off. At an hour and forty minutes things do get very slow here and there which hurts the overall mounting suspense and scares the picture has to offer. If this film were ten to fifteen minutes shorter I think it would be much, much stronger and the scares more effective.
There is one other thing I’m on the fence about…I’m not sure if the doll featured in this film is too ridiculous looking for it’s own good, or just flat out over-the-top awesome (and as a side-note, I have no clue where that doll in the poster art came from, because it doesn’t even look a single p.h. like the one in the film). This opinion fluctuated as I watched the film, and I think I’ll just leave it as “your mileage may vary” and let you fine fiends decide…
Curse of The Witch’s Doll is a much better film than you may anticipate from it’s multitude of schlocky titles; it’s a old school spook show with a reliance on atmosphere and ambiance over non-stop blood and gore and a strong human element to boot!