The Curse of the Witch Doll Legend has it that an ancient witch cursed a doll centuries ago, a curse that would bring misfortune and tragedy to anyone who possesses it. This cursed doll was said to have possessed supernatural powers, able to manipulate the world around it and bring harm to its owners. The story begins with a witch who was once revered in her community for her magical abilities. But as her powers grew, so did her thirst for more. She delved into dark magic, practiced forbidden spells, and eventually became consumed by her own greed and desire for power. One day, the witch created a doll, molded in her likeness and infused it with her own dark energy.

Movie Review – Curse of the Witch’s Doll (2018)

Written and Directed by Lawrence Fowler.
Starring Helen Crevel, Philip Ridout, and Layla Watts.

SYNOPSIS:

After a series of inexplicable events, Adeline Gray believes a haunted doll possesses the soul of a vengeful Witch. To have any hope of being reunited with her missing daughter, she knows she must defeat the evil curse of The Witch’s Doll.

It’s not hard to put a finger on what makes Curse of the Witch’s Doll so bad. What is hard is condensing its flaws into a concise, non-rambling review. Nevertheless, I will do my best.

The movie gets off to a bumpy ride right from its opening shot – a fade in on the eponymous witch’s doll. Though the director clearly thinks that this doll is creepy enough to carry the film’s supposedly scary moments, I doubt anyone else would think likewise. After all, it looks more like a discarded prop from Robot Chicken than it does the host for a 15 th century witch’s soul.

Perhaps if the film had tried harder to make the actions of this doll a little more threatening, then it’s cartoonish features could have been forgiven. Alas, the doll does little more than slam doors and move around off camera – hardly enough to imply that it is a threat to any of the film’s protagonists.

Speaking of protagonists, there is not a single compelling performance in the entire movie. To be fair, there isn’t the abundance of over-acting that usually populates cheap horror movies, but there is a whole lot of under-acting. After Adeline’s (Helen Crevel) daughter Chloe (Layla Watts) goes missing, one would expect Adeline to appear distressed, scared, and perhaps even manic as she searches for her missing child. Instead, Crevel plays her with relative indifference, as if she has misplaced a watch, rather than a family member.

While the acting may be consistently poor, the direction is simply inconsistent. The story meanders as if searching for a purpose. When it finally arrives at one, a pointless twist pulls the rug out from under its own feet, spiralling the film back into chaos from which no sense of order could ever be retrieved.

Even simple things, such as the colour and lighting of a scene, change on a whim. The number of times where a character’s face gets obscured by a shadow that has no right being there, or a pink lit room loses its rosy tint for no good reason, is nigh uncountable. Or at least, a count would require me to re watch the film; something I’m not going to do.

There was a point during Curse of the Witch’s Doll where I had the thought, At least there’s only a few minutes left. I had every reason to think such a thing: the film had reached an apparent climax, and things were beginning to wind down after a truly abysmal and lazy twist. Ten minutes later, the film was still going, and I decided to get up from my seat and check the timestamp on the video. I had seen fifty minutes, and there was another forty to go. I let out a sigh, sat back down, and trudged through the molasses thick quagmire that was the movie’s second half. By the end, all I felt was pain.

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ / Movie: ★

James Turner is a writer and musician based in Sheffield. You can follow him on Twitter @JTAuthor

User Reviews

Curse Of The Witch's Doll is an odd film, it's set across three generations and arguably tells three connected stories. Trouble is they aren't connected in an interesting way and none of them are even remotely enjoyable.

We see a woman during the 1940's fleeing the bombings with her daughter, a psychologist with a horrifying secret and your usual ghost hunters investigating an abandoned asylum.

The one thing I will say is that the doll in question is genuinely scary, that thing is deeply disturbing which begs the question why they use a different one on the front cover.

It's about half way through when it all falls apart, you can pinpoint the exact moment. Don't get me wrong it wasn't going anywhere special anyway, but it was at least heading for something generic instead of the mess it wound up as.

Curse Of The Witch's Doll is notable only for the doll itself, nothing else is memorable or entertaining.

That doll is horrifying

Cover art is deceptive

Falls apart irreparably

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

We need a spinoff from this with that doll, made by different people who know what they're doing.

A large part of me actually wanted to enjoy 'Curse of the Witch's Doll'. The idea for the story was so intriguing, it looked pretty creepy with a very unnerving-looking doll and the cover, while suggestive of the film being derivative of 'Annabelle', was good-looking.

'Curse of the Witch's Doll' was not a terrible film and had its moments and good things. Another good thing is that despite any fears it is not a carbon copy or rip-off of 'Annabelle', despite its deceptive advertising indicating this. Those moments and good things conversely were too few, and not enough to save the film from not doing anywhere near enough with its concept. A shame because there was a decent film in 'Curse of the Witch's Doll'.

Some of the first half actually was pretty good. There are unsettling moments, and a real creepiness and suspense. The doll agreed is genuinely eerie as is the music score.

Moreover, 'Curse of the Witch's Doll' has a slick, atmospheric and unsettling visual look. The acting is better than average generally.

There are issues with the pace though. Creepiness and suspense don't come consistently in the first half, there are dull stretches and it does take a little too long to get going. The characters are sketchy in development, and there is very little interesting or explored with the witch's character or back-story.

Do have to agree that 'Curse of the Witch's Doll' falls apart in the second half, where the creepiness and suspense is minimised further and things get duller, weirder and sometimes plain silly. The ending is one rushed and incomplete anti-climax, where it doesn't really end or resolve much needed questions leaving things hanging in the air.

Overall, lacklustre and doesn't do enough with the promise that it had. 4/10 Bethany Cox

It seems like I go into a lot of movies with low expectations because the times I do go in expecting a movie to be fantastic I'm always disappointed. And when I go in with very low expectations I'm pleasantly surprised. Curse of the Witch's Doll was one of those times. I really think the cover does it a bit of a disservice. Going from the cover (and title) it looks like an Annabelle clone. That couldn't be farther from the truth.

Unfortunately I can't say too much about Curse of the Witch's Doll because there are quite a few twists and turns that were genuinely surprising and I'd hate to ruin anything. I will only say one thing. The first 'twist' made me roll my eyes a bit but I can guarantee you. stick with it. I promise it's worth it. The pacing is perfect, it always keeps moving forward with no lags at all. This is a movie that relies on acting, atmosphere and mood to scare you and it does it well. I never felt like they were going for the easy scare.

The cinematography is excellent with some truly beautiful and original shots. Combined with some decent CGI the movie is worth watching for that alone. Particularly one scene near the middle. It's a very simple shot but the way its done is just. perfect. The make-up effects are decent. I'm a little torn on the doll itself. I kept going between creepy and goofy. Although there were some genuinely creepy moments with it. There were a lot of times when they didn't go for the obvious jump-scare and used a more subtle effect. I liked that a lot. The sound design was excellent as well. The music is moody in places and only comes to the forefront during the action sequences and never telegraphs the scares. They also mix sounds in very well with the music to give you hints or to just make it creepier.

The acting is great all the way through. Everyone puts their hearts into it and it shows. The dialogue flows smoothly and naturally. There is one speech in particular that Adeline says that I really, really loved. Adeline's words and actions feel very real. You really invest in Adeline's character and, frankly, I was upset with her and for her. The finale of the movie was a bit abrupt. The switch in styles was surprising but understandable. It just left off of one part abruptly so you're a little unsure of what happens next. I mean, you have a pretty good guess but I would have liked a few things cleared up.

I would have liked a bit more information on The Witch. There is absolutely no backstory for her. I would have liked to have known a bit more with that. Presumably she was hung as a witch but how did the doll end up where it did? Was it in the same place? It's hard to say and with the Witch having an obvious French accent I think those parts should have been explained more. Even if it's just through the trusty "ye olde journal" source. All in all I did enjoy it. Enough to want to watch it again and possibly buy it to keep.

Disclaimer: Received from October Coast for review consideration. This in no way affects our reviews.

Adeline Gray (Helen Crevel) and her daughter Chloe (Layla Watts) go to live in a safe manor away from the bombings in England 1942. The place is owned by Arthur Harper (Philip Ridout). Adeline and her daughter see and hear an ugly doll, we see briefly in the first scene as belonging to an accused witch in 1660. We get a twist at about an hour, one that has been done too many times, although I didn't see it coming.

The film wasn't very scary. The witch wasn't developed and neither was the doll. I assumed it was simple revenge against all of mankind 350 years later. Dialogue was dry and characters didn't grab me.

Guide: caught 1 F-word. No sex or nudity.

This was really creepy, yes storyline was confusing many times. But it had a very scary doll. To me it was around a B like the Annabelle Creation grade. I dont see how a doll with that creepy okward big eyed werid mouth cant be scary. The way it shows up out of the blue, the way its eyes turned white. The witch, it makes it at the end like itcan be some sequel coming up what i hate or had a problem with is it gets confusing really bad i didint understand much. What was happening some, but i was enjoying the awesome creepyiness that it was.

But i know most people anymore are very,very picky on what they like in horror. Even some dumb movies that gave effort most hate. But i love the freakiness of the doll here, its a freaked up doll. But what happened to the mary woman if she was the main character all along? But how it ends but kills the cool jerk guy, and probably the girl that was with him. Most horror dont most like the stupid BLairwitch or the dumb movie I HATE VVITCH or WITCH that was messed up and confusing and cant understand most the words in it even on 100 on the big screen still cant understand it. THE boy people love really? They hate this. At least it had a scary doll, some spooky scenes effort. The storyline was alover but i really love this movie. Otherscan spit alover it, but the doll is creepy if it was real and that it be great if it was in peoples house. See for themselves. But i love this movie dispite what people say.

ALl i know is i love this movie. Spooky okward storyline but great spooky doll. I loved it i just i love it. I dont know i jsut i really like this movie. Doll is creepy as hell. Even spookier way spookier than the look of Annabelle it has the face a mother could love. lol

This is the type of movie you get when on a limited budget. Not much horror for a horror movie, but more of a slow burner thriller. It is watchable and the 3 different time periods worked o.k. Acting was decent enough considering the budget restraints they had to pay them with. I'd say give it a shot, just keep in mind this isn't Annabelle.

This was a good movie until about the last 10 minutes or so. I was hoping to see the reason behind the doll being cursed, although you get just a glimpse of it in the beginning of the movie. There are two twist you don't expect, the first one was good, I thought the movie was going to get even better from there, then the writer blacked out came to and rushed the ending by writing a ridiculous (75 Years Later) 'lets go check out the asylum that just closed down' ending that had no substance. The ending just left you hanging, what a disappointment.

It was a cheap copy of Annabelle. Acting was really really bad, the doll was everything but scary. Storyline was confusing. I don't recommend at all. This movie is very cringy. I laughed a lot with the doll's face.

Mother and daughter move into creepy manor during WW2. There are 3 stories here including a 10 minute epilogue and the problem is none of them are really resolved. So anytime this really gets going it sort of goes in a different direction with mixed results. Frustrating really because there is certainly some good work here with good acting, direction, setting and a really creepy doll. Overall a decent low budget effort that could have been excellent if the story had just come together a bit better.

I went into this knowing it was going to be a low budget indie film. So all the symptoms are there: mediocre acting, cheap special effects, cheap set designs, amateur writing, etc. However, I do appreciate the attempt to make something great, and with a bigger budget I believe this could've been much better. Still, there are a few negative things to get out of the way. The actors are clearly trying their best, and they aren't terrible by any means, but it ultimately ends up feeling like a local amateur stage play. Also, I don't understand why this movie had to be a period piece, especially considering the budgetary restraints. The best compliment I can give to the flick is that the doll looks great. It's genuinely frightening and the CGI effects on the doll are decent enough, once again considering the low budget. I also did enjoy some of the music, and the story was at least interesting enough to keep me invested throughout.

All in all, if you're a fan of independent low budget slow-burn horror, you may enjoy this. Otherwise, you might be better off skipping it.

This is a strangely structured film that takes in period horror and flirts with found footage. Slightly over-long, but very well acted, and a central doll that is genuinely quite scary on occasions.

I like that 'Curse of the Witch's Doll' aims to try something different, both with the horror elements and the story itself. This is a rare occurrence where a bigger budget might have benefited that ambition - as it is, some of the very talky scenes outstay their welcome a little.

It's surprising how little the doll actually features, but when it does, and considering it is only a prop, it is surprisingly effective. A definite case of less is more. My score is 7 out of 10.

It seems like I go into a lot of movies with low expectations because the times I do go in expecting a movie to be fantastic I'm always disappointed. And when I go in with very low expectations I'm pleasantly surprised. Curse of the Witch's Doll was one of those times. I really think the cover does it a bit of a disservice. Going from the cover (and title) it looks like an Annabelle clone. That couldn't be farther from the truth. The age of the daughter is off as well. I think this would be better served with a revamp of the cover to be more accurate.

Unfortunately I can't say too much about Curse of the Witch's Doll because there are quite a few twists and turns that were genuinely surprising and I'd hate to ruin anything. I will only say one thing. The first 'twist' made me roll my eyes a bit but I can guarantee you. stick with it. I promise it's worth it. The pacing is perfect, it always keeps moving forward with no lags at all. This is a movie that relies on acting, atmosphere and mood to scare you and it does it well. I never felt like they were going for the easy scare.

The cinematography is excellent with some truly beautiful and original shots. Combined with some decent CGI the movie is worth watching for that alone. Particularly one scene near the middle. It's a very simple shot but the way its done is just. perfect. The make-up effects are decent. I'm a little torn on the doll itself. I kept going between creepy and goofy. There were some genuinely creepy moments with it. There were a lot of times when they didn't go for the obvious jump-scare and used a more subtle effect. I liked that a lot. The sound design was excellent as well. The music is moody in places and only comes to the forefront during the action sequences and never telegraphs the scares. They also mix sounds in very well with the music to give you hints or to just make it creepier.

The acting is great all the way through. Everyone puts their hearts into it and it shows. The dialogue flows smoothly and naturally. There is one speech in particular that Adeline says that I really, really loved. Adeline's words and actions feel very real. You really invest in Adeline's character and, frankly, I was upset with her and for her. The finale of the movie was a bit abrupt. The switch in styles was surprising but understandable. It just left off of one part so abruptly that you're a little unsure of what happens next. I mean, you have a pretty good guess but I would have liked a few things cleared up.

I would have liked a bit more information on The Witch. There is absolutely no backstory for her. I would have liked to have known a bit more with that. Presumably she was hung as a witch but how did the doll end up where it did? Was it in the same place? It's hard to say and with the Witch having an obvious French accent I think those parts should have been explained more. Even if it's just through the trusty "ye olde journal" source. All in all I did enjoy it. Enough to want to watch it again and possibly buy it to keep.

Curse of the Witch's Doll

In an attempt to avoid a bombing in her home town Adeline Gray finds shelter in a derelict, creepy manor in the woods with her young daughter. But when Adeline’s daughter goes missing during a game of hide-and-seek, a series of inexplicable events lead her to believe a possessed doll holds a vengeful soul; the soul of a murdered Witch. As Adeline’s desperate search for her daughter continues, it soon becomes clear; to have any hope of being reunited, she must defeat the curse of The Witch’s Doll.

One day, the witch created a doll, molded in her likeness and infused it with her own dark energy. She used her powers to enchant the doll, cursing it with a spell that would take effect once it fell into the hands of an unwitting victim. The doll was passed down from person to person, bringing a trail of misfortune and tragedy wherever it went.

Tráilers

Its owners would often experience strange occurrences, from unexplained accidents to extreme bouts of bad luck. Some even claimed to have seen the doll move on its own, its eyes glowing with an eerie light. As time went on, the curse of the witch doll became well-known, and many tried to dispose of it. Some burned it, others buried it, but somehow, the doll always found its way back to its next victim. The cursed doll seemed to hold a supernatural power over its owners, ensuring that it would never be truly rid of. The legends surrounding the cursed doll became so widespread that it caught the attention of paranormal investigators and thrill-seekers alike. People from all over the world traveled to see the legendary witch doll and witness its alleged supernatural powers firsthand. Whether the curse of the witch doll is true or merely a folklore, its tale continues to intrigue and terrify many. The idea of a cursed object holds a certain fascination, and the mystery surrounding the doll's powers adds to the allure. In the end, the curse of the witch doll serves as a cautionary tale, a reminder that the pursuit of power and the practice of dark magic can have dire consequences. It serves as a warning to those who seek to manipulate the mystical forces of the world, that they may fall victim to their own greed and bring about their own downfall..

Reviews for "The Witch Doll's Curse: Exploring the Psychological Effects"

1. Matthew - 1 star - Honestly, I was really disappointed with "Curse of the witch doll". The storyline was weak and predictable, and the acting was subpar. The scares were cheap jump scares that didn't really have any lasting impact. Overall, it felt like a low-budget horror film that tried too hard to be scary. I would not recommend it.

2. Emily - 2 stars - I had high hopes for "Curse of the witch doll" as I enjoy supernatural horror movies, but this one fell flat for me. The pacing was slow and the characters lacked depth, making it difficult to become invested in their struggle against the witch doll. The special effects were also underwhelming and didn't enhance the horror element. It's a forgettable movie that didn't deliver on its potential.

3. Michael - 2 stars - "Curse of the witch doll" had an interesting premise, but the execution was lacking. The dialogue was often cheesy and the acting felt forced, which made it hard to take the movie seriously. The scares were also predictable and didn't offer anything new or innovative. I was left wishing for a more engaging and original horror experience. Unfortunately, this movie didn't deliver.

4. Sarah - 1 star - "Curse of the witch doll" was a complete waste of time. The plot was unoriginal and uninspired, and the characters were one-dimensional and boring. The film relied too heavily on jump scares and failed to build any genuine suspense or terror. I was hoping for a thrilling and chilling horror movie, but all I got was boredom and disappointment. Don't bother watching this one.

The Witch Doll's Curse: A Crossroads of Folklore and Horror