THE DOLL MASTER

In a museum lives and works a doll creator, Mrs. Im. Through an online ad, a group of young people is invited to participate in a selection to become models for the dolls created by the artist. A presence looms in the museum, it is the ghost of a doll seeking revenge that will soon reveal itself to the museum's guests. And with the appearance of a strange and enigmatic child, strange events and mysterious deaths will haunt the young people's weekend. What was supposed to be a fun trip will turn into a nightmare... Asian films, as often happens, hide surprises, their quality is undisputed and apart from a few products that are not up to par, horror lovers can delight in excellent genre films. "The Doll Master" is one of those films that might alienate fans of high splatter content films, but we still recommend giving this work a look, which uses the classic canons of the thriller to stage an intriguing ghost story populated by one of the most exploited figures in the genre: the doll. Who does not remember the demonic spirit of Brad Dourif trapped in the reassuring body of the doll Chucky and the puppets of the series "Puppet Master"? To cite more recent productions, we recommend the excellent "Dead Silente", where a ventriloquist buried with her hundred dolls makes them instruments of revenge against those who had outraged and mocked her in life. These are just some of the many titles that have dolls as protagonists, but there are also hundreds of titles in which our silent friends appear in bedrooms, on sofas, from baskets full of toys, embodying that sense of unease that emanates from the fixity of their glassy eyes and that accompanied our childhood fantasies. Dolls in Korea, as in many European countries, are treated as true works of art, there are artists who seek in them the perfection that is lacking in humans, creating true masterpieces. "The Doll Master" takes us to a remote location in Korea where a real museum has been erected. Inside lives and works Mrs. Im, considered a true artist, her peculiarity is to create dolls inspired by living people and seeking in the almost maniacal detail a sort of extreme realism. The film has a prologue that takes us to a remote village where the legend tells of a doll with human features who falls in love with her creator and kills out of jealousy. The ghost in question haunts the museum where Mrs. Im and her assistant Choi live. A self-proclaimed photographer, a model, a student, a writer, and a sculptor, aspiring models for Mrs. Im's creations, find themselves spending a weekend in the museum. Already in the first hours, strange episodes make the atmosphere extremely unsettling. The appearance of a mysterious mannered child and the discovery of one of the guests' corpse will be the beginning of a nightmare. One by one, the guests will die in strange and inexplicable ways, and the presence of the spirit of the doll from the legend will become more and more consistent, until it becomes from an intangible presence to a tangible threat. This Korean product takes the now overused schema of the giallo "Ten Little Indians" by Agatha Christie and transforms it into an atmospheric horror, but don't worry because scenes for strong palates are not lacking. Even if from the beginning we are aware of the presence and actions of the vengeful ghost, surprises will not be lacking. This film is well directed and well acted. Surely the setting and the stunning and at the same time unsettling protagonists help a lot. But a certain accuracy in outlining the characters and some successful visual solutions make this film an extremely enjoyable product.