Don’ Look Away review.
A killer mannequin is on the loose in this spooky season release. An overly serious tone ends up playing in the movie’s favor.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
Don’t Look Away
Directed by Michael Bafaro
Written by Michael Bafaro and Michael Mitton
Starring Kelly Bastard, Michael Mitton, Colm Hill, Rene Lai, Abu Dukuly, Brittany Pilgrim, Sophie Thom and Jason Haney
Don’t Look Away Review
Some movie plots create a swift and permanent divide between potential viewers. Take for example…Don’t Look Away’s story about a killer mannequin. To a large portion of movie fans…they’ll never touch a concept so silly. Others (me included) run for them. It makes the task of reviewing such films a bit interesting. An inherent bias for off the wall concepts in horror may lead to an easy curve. People who aren’t interested in movies about killer mannequins (or pinatas, or animatronic Santas) probably aren’t reading this review…so I think it serves the opposite purpose. As a connoisseur of inanimate object horror…I’m positioned to be clear in explaining if Don’t Look Away is a good version of the idea.
Frankie (Kelly Bastard) becomes wrapped up in a massacre without a natural explanation. The culprit…a mannequin. Her problems are only beginning when the mannequin strikes again…wiping out anyone it comes across. Now, it has its sight set on Frankie and her friends.
Frankie is in a bad place from the moment Don’t Look Away begins. She hits a person with her car at the site of the mannequin’s first attack. It’s an unavoidable accident…the man she hits is fleeing the killer mannequin and runs directly in front of her car. As if dealing with the man’s death (accidental as it may be) isn’t enough…she sees the mannequin in her rear-view mirror…and becomes the object of its stalking obsession.
It’s a difficult situation to be in. Who is going to believe that a mannequin is stalking you? Who is going to accept that a mannequin massacred a club full of people? Well…Don’t Look Away doesn’t waste much time solving that problem. Jonah (Michael Mitton) is the first of her friend group to recognize that her story isn’t as crazy as it sounds. The mannequin stalks him all over town. The rest of her friends are confronted by the truth almost immediately as well. They struggle with it…but only for as long as it takes for the mannequin to up his body count.
Sure, it’s a silly premise. But it’s also an unmistakably fun one. Watching the mannequin creep up on people…teleporting its position to wherever the camera revealing it will find the most impact…it’s fun. The movie itself doesn’t play any of this as a joke. Don’t Look Away isn’t a comedy…at least not in an overt way. It can’t help but be a little funny when people turn a corner, and the mannequin is standing there watching. Or when someone sees it and yells in a rage after it slaughters a loved one. Intentional or not, it’s a riot. It gets more comedy mileage out of treating things seriously than it would with campy jokes.
The nature of the mannequin’s movement ensures the kill shots always happen when we aren’t looking. They find a way to deliver fun and unexpected deaths without relying on the usual tricks. There are some creative and wildly entertaining deaths throughout Don’t Look Away. The characters aren’t privy to the title of the movie that they’re in…so it takes them a while to figure out that the mannequin can’t move (and kill) when someone is watching it.
There is some light investigative horror work. Looking into other people’s history with the mannequin is a sensible move…as is trying to find a way to destroy it once and for all. Although it’s mostly played out in the background…the results of the investigation occupy a large part of the third act. It moves the story in a surprising, and exciting, direction.
Don’t Look Away doesn’t go for the easy laughs when it can…but it finds genuine fun through how seriously it takes the material. Creative deaths add to the overall package. It plays out in some expected ways but throws enough curve balls, and enough murder, to keep things lively. Even if its antagonist is anything but.
Scare Value
Don’t Look Away succeeds by doing the opposite of what your instincts would tell you to do. I’d like to see the comedic version of its killer mannequin story…but I doubt it would end up more entertaining than the serious version we got. Surprising and creative deaths and an unexpected conclusion to the investigation make this killer mannequin movie one to keep your eye on.
3/5
Don’t Look Away Links
Rent/Buy on VOD from Vudu and Amazon
