At an antique store, Trish Keller (Andrea Walters) puts a dime in one of those gypsy fortune telling / palm reading machines, which accurately predicts she's pregnant; something she just found out herself earlier that same day. Her husband Bobby (Philip Boatwright) tries it out and is told to "beware of dark days ahead." That fortune also comes true when he dies in a mysterious fire. Now pregnant, alone and strapped for cash until the slow-moving lawyer can work out all the details of Bobby's inheritance, Trish is forced to leave her apartment and move in with two other girls. But hey, things could be worse, right? Sure they can... especially seeing how Trish has also recently attracted a psycho stalker, who calls her up to say things like "I'm always watching you!" in a distorted, childish voice.
The psycho eventually moves beyond mere threats, goes to Trish's old apartment and murders the new tenant living there (Desireé Pennoyer), thinking it's her. Rightfully beginning to fear for her life, Trish immediately vacates her home. With nowhere else to turn, she goes to stay with her bitter former sister-in-law Anna (Jennifer Davis), who briefly tries to help her before disappearing from the rest of the film. Trish's weird-acting brother-in-law Dillon (William Dance) shows up and since I've already uttered the "i" word (inheritance, in case you missed it), I'm sure you can predict how this pans out without even seeing it.
The first thing that needs to be pointed out is that despite the title and misleading advertising art, this is NOT a killer doll movie a la CHILD'S PLAY (1988). A regular doll is simply used by the killer as a calling card to announce he's around. The film is also completely dry in regards to the sex and violence that fueled other direct-to-video films from this same time. There's no nudity, barely any blood (aside from a throat slash that is seen for like a split second) and not even any profanity. This thing would probably be hard pressed to get a PG-13 rating nowadays! In a cheap movie kind of way, it's competently made with a coherent plot, attempts at generating suspense and an OK unknown cast. What ultimately sinks it is the sheer predictability of the whole thing. It's also slow-moving, the scant action / horror scenes are very poorly edited and the killer has a laughable monologue at the very end that goes on for over five minutes!
I've seen this listed as being shot-on-video elsewhere but that's not really the case. For some reason, only the first scene was videotaped and the rest is shot on film. The fortune telling machine itself is well-designed. If the gypsy inside - Madame Zerba - sounds familiar it's because she was voiced by Lilyan Chauvin. Chauvin (who passed away in 2008) is well- known to horror fans for playing Mother Superior in the notorious slasher SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT (1984).
This is among a small handful of American genre films from the decade that was never actually released in the U.S. but *was* released elsewhere. It received VHS releases in Spain under the title Muñeca Mortal ("Deadly Doll"), in West Germany as Killer Puppe ("Killer Doll"), in Greece as I koukla tou mystiriou ("The Beautiful Doll Mystery"), in Brazil as Zerba - O Enigma ("Zerba - The Enigma") and in several other countries. Sure it's hard to find here in the U.S., but considering you can see pretty much the same exact film a thousand times over with better acting, writing and direction, higher production values, gore, sex, sleaze, your name it, there's no reason at all to seek this one out.
The psycho eventually moves beyond mere threats, goes to Trish's old apartment and murders the new tenant living there (Desireé Pennoyer), thinking it's her. Rightfully beginning to fear for her life, Trish immediately vacates her home. With nowhere else to turn, she goes to stay with her bitter former sister-in-law Anna (Jennifer Davis), who briefly tries to help her before disappearing from the rest of the film. Trish's weird-acting brother-in-law Dillon (William Dance) shows up and since I've already uttered the "i" word (inheritance, in case you missed it), I'm sure you can predict how this pans out without even seeing it.
The first thing that needs to be pointed out is that despite the title and misleading advertising art, this is NOT a killer doll movie a la CHILD'S PLAY (1988). A regular doll is simply used by the killer as a calling card to announce he's around. The film is also completely dry in regards to the sex and violence that fueled other direct-to-video films from this same time. There's no nudity, barely any blood (aside from a throat slash that is seen for like a split second) and not even any profanity. This thing would probably be hard pressed to get a PG-13 rating nowadays! In a cheap movie kind of way, it's competently made with a coherent plot, attempts at generating suspense and an OK unknown cast. What ultimately sinks it is the sheer predictability of the whole thing. It's also slow-moving, the scant action / horror scenes are very poorly edited and the killer has a laughable monologue at the very end that goes on for over five minutes!
I've seen this listed as being shot-on-video elsewhere but that's not really the case. For some reason, only the first scene was videotaped and the rest is shot on film. The fortune telling machine itself is well-designed. If the gypsy inside - Madame Zerba - sounds familiar it's because she was voiced by Lilyan Chauvin. Chauvin (who passed away in 2008) is well- known to horror fans for playing Mother Superior in the notorious slasher SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT (1984).
This is among a small handful of American genre films from the decade that was never actually released in the U.S. but *was* released elsewhere. It received VHS releases in Spain under the title Muñeca Mortal ("Deadly Doll"), in West Germany as Killer Puppe ("Killer Doll"), in Greece as I koukla tou mystiriou ("The Beautiful Doll Mystery"), in Brazil as Zerba - O Enigma ("Zerba - The Enigma") and in several other countries. Sure it's hard to find here in the U.S., but considering you can see pretty much the same exact film a thousand times over with better acting, writing and direction, higher production values, gore, sex, sleaze, your name it, there's no reason at all to seek this one out.