THE MANNEQUIN REVIEW
“A mélange of bad ideas that never fully deliver”
It’s become so much harder for horror filmmakers to find original ideas to explore in the genre, since not everyone can be a Zach Cregger or an Ari Aster or Osgood Perkins. That doesn’t stop other filmmakers from trying, and while the title for John Berardo’s effort might suggest a simple enough premise, it’s anything but, and that might also be its biggest hurdle.
The Mannequin opens in black and white in some undisclosed era (maybe the ‘50s?) where a model is being photographed and hit upon by a male photographer. She thwarts his suggestion to do some nudes, but soon after, she’s beheaded when he confronts her with an axe. Cut forward to present day, and we meet fashion stylist sisters, Liana and Sophia Rojas (Isabella Gomez, Gabriella Rivera), as they’re moving into the warehouse space we saw in that prologue. There’s a creepy mannequin still in the space, but they don’t think too much about it, until Sophia turns up dead. Crushed, Liana leaves the country to recover, and on her return, she reunites with some of her friends who suspect there’s more to the warehouse and that mannequin. Ya think?
Just from the title, one might assume that the mannequin comes to life and kills people, although there’s very little killing after Sophia’s death, which is done in such an enigmatic way, involving figures oozing black (presumably?) blood from their eyes and nose. Within 15 minutes, The Mannequin goes from being about a serial killer to being something more ghost-related ala The Grudge movies, but that latter comparison is not necessarily a compliment.
The movie only really has five main characters, including Liana’s friends, Hazel and Nadine (Lindsay LaVanchy, Shireen Lai), but these are characters with very little personality. I don’t like being jaded and cynical about L.A. or the young women that live there, but the women in this movie just seem to be typical Gen Z-ers, just talking a lot of nonsense. There’s a certain point where The Mannequin forgets its a horror movie, as the main women are just sitting around drinking wine and gabbing about one thing or another.
Because of that, those looking for scares or gore might be disappointed by the lack of much resembling horror during the movie’s first hour, though there are a few jump scares scattered within all the talking. Essentially, something keeps happening that drives the main characters to try to kill themselves or others, and it’s never quite clear what is happening. Even so, very little of the damage the women inflict on themselves and each other stick, and few of the actions by anyone in this movie ever really make much sense.
Instead of just going with the simplest idea i.e. a killer mannequin, The Mannequin instead steals liberally from so many other horror films, including The Amityville Horror, as far as the spirit of a killer returning in another form. But this isn’t just about that killer from the prologue, but also about his victims. After the women bring their friend Peter (Maxwell Hamilton) over to conduct a seance (ala Poltergeist and Insidious), that’s when things start coming together about what’s going on, but it still doesn’t make a ton of sense, especially when the truth about that mannequin is finally revealed.
Berardo is not a bad filmmaker, and his small cast are generally decent, but the movie mostly fails due to its weak script and storytelling. Other commendable aspects, like the moody score and striking sound effects, can only do so much, because the special makeup effects to create the small amount of blood seems half-hearted at best.
The Mannequin feels like the work of a filmmaker who watched far too many horror movies, then cherry-picked moments to throw together into what ends up being a mélange of bad ideas that never fully deliver.
Rating: 4/10
The Mannequin is available to buy and rent via regular VOD platforms.