Finders Keepers

I happened to learn of this film while checking a trailer for another (good ol' YouTube recommendation). Apparently, it's an original TV film made by a channel called Syfy, a fact made obvious by the lighting and cinematography, and perhaps the fact that NONE of the main characters are credited here on IMDb without clicking the "see full cast" link!

Anyways, nothing original about the story... violent murder in a house, reasons unknown, evil haunted doll recovered, rinse and repeat. Deja-vu? Bluntly so... I must say I liked the acting, especially by 10 year old Kylie Rogers as little Claire. Having to play such a role when you're only 10 isn't easy (though not half as challenging or impressive as other young lead roles like in Mama or The Ring), and I think Rogers showed some real talent.

The story develops nicely, but not more than that. The doll is pretty creepy though! Not easy presenting scary dolls nowadays after the high raft set by Saw and The Conjuring. Certain scenes were really amateur, for instance when one of the characters trips on a wire it is painfully visible that she simply ducked and rolled down the stairs... Why give stuntman Steve Austin the first credit when other stunts were so miserably performed? Beats me.

All in all, this is the kind of film you can definitely enjoy, but only if you set your Horror meter to mediocre and below. I enjoyed watching it, and I liked the fact that it lacked any sex, gore or extreme violence, making it suitable for younger Horror fans. It isn't terrible, but it's far from great. As always, I recommend you ignore my (or anyone else's) opinion and judge for yourselves!

Woman buys house then realises it is haunted. Or something is. She has a child, in this case a daughter, but if you've seen a similar offering in which the woman has a son or the man has a son, or there is a family or a whole bunch of them, you might be forgiven for experiencing a sense of déjà vu. Guess what comes next, and you get only the one guess. Of course, murders, lots of them!

There is no secret about the root of the evil as from the off we are made aware of the reason the house is haunted, there had been a massacre there, one committed by a ten year old boy, who also murdered the two police officers who were sent to investigate the initial disturbance, or whatever it was.

Kylie Rogers who plays Claire was only 10 years old when this film was released. If her role does not constitute child abuse then an adult willingly sitting through 80+ minutes of this constitutes self-abuse (no, not in that sense, you reprobate). Indeed there is no sex to speak of in this film, not that a rape, an orgy or even a knee trembler could have made it appreciably worse.

For SyFy, Finders Keepers is not so bad and is a long way from their worst. As a movie in general though, it does have some good things and looks like some effort went into it but it doesn't quite come together. Starting with the positives, the movie actually looks good(and for a SyFy movie that is quite a compliment), with some very effective lighting, crisp editing and unobtrusive camera work. The music does create some atmosphere, not an exceptional one by all means but it fits the movie and doesn't try to be too obvious, the doll is very creepy-looking and there are some scary moments. A few performances come over quite well, the best of the lot coming from Kylie Rogers who is both adorable and terrifying, while Jaime Pressley is a sympathetic and somewhat touching mother figure. Most of the acting is not particularly strong, consisting of a lot of under-acting with Patrick Muldoon phoning it in, and Tobin Bell is wasted.

Finders Keepers as said has some moments that are scary and suspenseful, they only came in spades rather than the movie being continually creepy. Most of the movie was lacking in scares and atmosphere for me, it was more predictable than suspenseful, the gore and scare factor were too toned down a lot of the time and a lot of moments that should have been scary came across as silly instead. The characters are almost impossible to root for and connect with, they are very underdeveloped and you get frustrated with how stupid some of their actions are as a consequence perhaps of focusing too much on the relationship between Rogers and Pressley's characters and side-lining everybody else which was a large part of why most of the acting did not register.

The direction is technically competent but when it comes to maintaining momentum, atmosphere and making the characters and chemistry interesting it fails, and the dialogue is often horrid, the worst of which enough to make one cringe. The story had bags of potential and effort clearly was made to it with a very original idea, but it was a case of trying to do too much and not explaining enough, making it feel muddled and underwritten. Some of the plot twists border on idiotic, as seen in the senseless ending, and the story feels too padded out in places. And I wish they did more with the doll, it is a very creepily-designed character but there is a real sense that the writers weren't sure what it was, offering at least four different explanations as to what it really was but it was never made clear which one it actually was. Overall, for SyFy Finders Keepers was watchable but was in personal opinion was very lacking. It is not as though there isn't any talent on display here because there is, it is such a shame that that just didn't come across here. 4/10 Bethany Cox

If I had known beforehand that Finders Keepers was a made-for-TV movie, distributed by SyFy, I probably would have given it a wide berth. As such, the film is, for the most part, a rather tepid tale that provides very few scares—yet another in a long line of derivative horror films that revolve around a creepy doll.

Jaime Pressly stars as Alyson Simon, mother and estranged wife, who moves into a new home with her young daughter Claire (Kylie Rogers). Life takes a turn for the worse for Alyson, however, when her little girl becomes obsessed with Lilith, the strange looking doll hidden that she discovers hidden under a floor vent. It's not long before Claire begins to exhibit very strange behaviour while those around her start to turn up dead.

This plot is so well-worn that it practically writes itself, with the girl and the doll becoming inseparable while her parents try to figure out what the hell is going on. Several characters are introduced simply to become victims: Tobin Bell as child psychologist Dr. Freeman, Marina Sirtis as nosy neighbour Janine, and Justina Machado as occult expert Professor Elena Carranza, whose nasty death scene—eyes plucked out and set alight—is easily the highlight of this otherwise forgettable fright flick.

My hopes were not too high before watching this but I was surprised that it is actually pretty good.

It's a familiar tale, family move into a house with a horrible history and bad things happen. We have seen it all a hundred times but thanks to a good cast and some nice directing this still manages to satisfy.

There were a number of well handled tension filled scenes that prove that horror isn't and shouldn't be all about the gore. Although it's fairly predictable I still felt pretty tense at times watching it. The cast all did a good job but a special mention must go to the little girl who plays the young daughter Claire ( Kylie Rogers) who is genuinely chilling as the possessed girl.

For a small budget horror film this is a good film and is certainly on a par with many of it's higher budgeted rivals.