As a long time fan of Charles Band and his separate and distinct genre of horror films over at Full Moon Direct, I have come to expect certain elements in all the films that are released from this powerhouse entertainment company.
Anything coming from Full Moon Direct is definitely an acquired taste in most viewers eyes, however the 2013 "Trilogy Of Terror" release was a bit of a boring ride for me. The reason being was mainly that for the first two segments of "The Haunted Dollhouse" the dolls were rarely seen. When they were they were very detailed as usual, but without more appearances, they lost their effectiveness of what a viewer would expect, especially giving the name of the film.
Well, that and "The Haunted Dollhouse" being compiled from three sets of abridged footage taken from these past films, "Skull Heads" 2009, "Dangerous Worry Dolls" 2008 & "Demonic Toys" 1992.
I really caught myself laughing pretty hard and rewinding one of the first scenes that the dolls were in from "The Protectors" where you could see the "Puppet Master" bringing the doll into the room and moving the strings off in the left corner of the screen, very sloppy work and blatantly not intended to be in the film itself.
The segment, "Worry Dolls" housed a few very unnecessarily over the top scenes in my book, but I am certain that many true Band fans didn't mind at all. On the other side of the coin, Jessica Morris (Role Models, CSI: NY) did a kick ass job playing Eva, especially when the doll completely consumed her. A+ on transforming into a psycho-chick dead set on violent revenge.
I enjoyed the final segment the most, "Dangerous Toys" only for the fact that it reminded me of why I began my fascination with Full Moon's work. Originally released in 1992, it was a prime example of what I think of when I hear Charles Band or Full Moon Direct.
All in all, don't check this film out, I don't recommend it whatsoever. Because if you have already seen the three films that makes up "The Haunted Dollhouse" it's a very redundant waste of time. Along with that, if you haven't seen any of those films, you would do best to check them all out one by one in their entirety. Full Moon threw the sheets over our eyes with this one, just to get some more renters to scoop it up for a night, making more money for them.
