MORGAN: KILLER DOLL (USA 2025) - MINI REVIEW
I could think of worse birthday gifts than a killer doll.
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Darcy wants to rekindle her long-lost friendship with Astrid, and surprises her with a life size ragdoll for her birthday, all the while confessing her true feelings. However, the feelings are not reciprocated.
Rejected, Darcy sets herself alight. After her funeral, a series of strange killings commence when the ragdoll comes to life in Darcy’s desperate attempt to prove her undying love for Astrid.
Billed as a mockbuster, this title from The Asylum seems a bit more polished and, dare I say it, entertaining than their usual output. Now I know that immediately most of you are going to say “this is rubbish - 1 star or 0 stars” etc. because let’s be honest, those types of comments are clickbait.
But that’s a little unfair for this title. There are quite a few moments in this film where it’s potential really shines though.
Now, it’s obvious what the inspirations for this movie are. M3gan immediately comes to mind, and since that was inspired a little bit by Chucky, there is elements of Child’s Play in this movie too. In fact, it’s more Child’s Play and less M3gan.
There are no killer robots in this movie, and there is no deadly AI. My guess is that’s more of a budget constraint than a creative decision. What we do have here, unfortunately, is a standard slasher doll film.
There is one stage in the movie where it threatens to do exactly what I expected it to do, which was also what I think would have been the better storyline. There is a discussion about voodooism, and while I know that people would have definitely compared it to Child’s Play, I think adding a supernatural element to this movie would have been more fun.
Instead, the movie rips an ending right out of the Chinese horror movie playbook and goes all Scooby Doo. That means we end up with an overtly long final third that adds so many plot holes to the story, that I don’t blame the 1-star user review scores. The ending of this movie really sucks.
However, I do think there are a lot of positives. The cast is mostly attractive, the acting is actually really solid, the first two thirds of the movie kind of made sense and the creepy look of the doll was nailed. It’s ugly, but that’s the point.
But then add in the unnecessary and unexplained killing of the maid, the fact that Astrid’s so-called friends are anything but actual friends, goreless kills where it’s obvious the production crew doesn’t want to mess up the house and clean it, the strange skull CGI in the immolation scene, a massive plot hole about Darcy needing to eat and go to the toilet, the fact that Fiona doesn’t question why the doll has her phone, and two very out of place exposition scenes - one at the funeral and another right at the end of the film - and what we are left with is a film that’s probably only really worth that 1 star everyone is desperate to give it.
Horror fans might get a kick of our Harry “Friday The 13th” Manfredini’s music score, but I’ll be honest, I hardly noticed it. And I definitely didn’t make the link between what I did notice and the composer himself.
It’s hard to escape the fact that the movie is a labour of love though. There is a lot of care, attention (somewhat) and passion in the end product, which is why it deserves a higher ranking than what most users will give it. This isn’t classic cinema, it’s late Friday night “let’s stream a movie off Tubi” kind of cinema, and that’s still fun cinema.
I give this 2 ghosts out of 5.
GENRE Horror Comedy
DIRECTOR Jose Prendes
STARRING Shelby Wright, Bix Krieger, Michael Paré
ORIGINAL TITLE Morgan: Killer Doll
ALTERNATIVE TITLE N/A
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN USA
RELEASE DATE 13 June 2025
