KILLER UNDER THE BED
US, 2018, 90 minutes, Colour.
Kristy Swanson, Brec Basinger, Madison Lawlor, Chris Prascus, Ashlee Fuss, Kristin Carey, Frederick Dawson.
Directed by Jeff Hare.
There has been a tradition of films about murderous dolls. That is the classic British 1940s Dead of Night. In the 1970s there was Anthony Hopkins in Magic. However, in the 1980s, one of the most murderous of dolls, Chucky, took the limelight and has appeared in quite a number of sequels. In a way, the murderous doll in this film, The Voodoo Baby, is a Chucky story for the mid-teens audience, especially for girls who are at the centre of the plot. Adult audiences will probably find it rather trite, not well acted, highly contrived.
Kristy Swanson, not one of her best performances, loses her husband in an accident, has to move house with her two teenage daughters, resuming her career as a dentist. The older daughter, Chrissy, is athletic and dominant. The younger daughter, Kilee, resents the move as distancing the memory of her father.
The usual aspects of the new school, the mother in her new job, a surprising character, Tina, who is the local bully, with a disciple in tow, who demands $100 protection or Kilee’s jacket. In the meantime, one of the dentists resents the mother’s arrival. Then there is the history teacher in Kilee’s class who has an eye on the student – something of an indication of predator.
The film opens with a young woman frightened, going into a shed, terrified and later taken to an asylum. However, when Kylie goes into the shed, she discovers The Baby Voodoo hanging, a nurse around its neck. She seeks information online and finds details about curses. The rest of the film, she pins pieces of clothing, notes on the doll in crucial places, Chrissy getting pains in her leg, bully Tina becoming lips disfigured, the English the history teacher really turning into a predator, the rival doctor at the dentistry becoming surprisingly agreeable then hyper- aggressive. Of course, Kylie wants to reverse some of her decisions, seeing the dangers.
She goes to the asylum, is advised by the traumatised woman that the doll has to be killed, by hanging. Kylie tries to bury the doll which takes on a life of its own, extremely mobile. Clearly, this is leading to a confrontation in the house, the teacher present, the two sisters fighting, Chrissy possessed by the doll, the mother taking matters into our own hand and she and Kylie hanging the doll.
Very much for the mid-adolescent audience.
