RAGDOLL (2023)

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Directed by Ben Ivory.
Written by Ben Daly.
Starring Chrissie Wunna, Danielle Scott, Ruby Wunna, Benjamin Schnau, Connor Powles, Scott McGlynn
Check out the trailer here!!

Chia (Chrissie Wunna) moves in with her girlfriend Monica (Monica Rowe), despite the fact that her daughter Crystal (Ruby Wunna) disproves of her new relationship and wants her mom to reunite with her father. Upon arriving at the house, Monica and Chia find a large, human-sized ragdoll in the attic and think it’s a good idea to give it to Crystal. Little do they know, this doll is inhabited by an evil spirit bent on destroying this new family.

If you’ve seen any Blumhouse film or installment of the CHILD’S PLAY series in the last ten years, you’ve pretty much seen RAGDOLL as it doesn’t really bring anything new to the genre while stomping all over well tread horror tropes. It’s unfortunate because the scenario of a daughter having issues with her newly outed lesbian mother is ripe territory to plunder and utilizing the doll as Crystal’s pent-up rage at her parents’ divorce is a good premise to build a movie around. There is a scene early on where Chia and Monica are having sex and the door cracks open and the ragdoll peeks in. This COULD be a movie that boldly talks about current issues, utilizing metaphor and nuance to tell a story about a child’s crooked way of processing adult themes as she witnesses her mother having sex with another woman. I mean, how creepy would it be to have a little girl acting as the innards of a ragdoll going around killing people with cutlery. Sounds like something original and worth getting behind. Of course, that’s too much to ask of this low budget knock-off of a knock-off.

The performances are problematic in RAGDOLL. Chrissie Wunna is not a terrible actress. She’s actually quite personable, can turn on the water works, act scared and has a pretty smile. Most of the films she has been in haven’t required a lot of acting and relied on her to be the curvy British Asian hottie in such cinematic greats as SNAKE HOTEL, SKY MONSTER, AMITYVILLE SCARECROW 2, and a few films I’ve reviewed like THE NUTCRACKER MASSACRE and EXORCIST VENGEANCE. It’s great that this is a meatier role than she usually gets, but in RAGDOLL, Runna plays Chia as an extremely selfish woman where most of the story follows her as she tries to decide whether or not she’s a lesbian or not and failing to even try to consider how all of this is affecting her daughter. Mid-movie, Chia and Monica decide they’ve had enough stress with Crystal, so they get gussied up and go out to the clurb instead of focusing on making the family work. This film really has its morality off-kilter, which makes it easy to root for the possessed ragdoll.

The biggest problem is, and I’m going to try to be sensitive about this, Ruby Wunna who plays young Crystal is…let’s just say she’s not ready for prime time. She seems to be the daughter of Chrissie Wunna and it’s cool that Chrissie wants her daughter to be in films, but the younger actress seems to want to be anywhere but in front of the camera here. Every line delivery is monotone and flat, almost trance-like. It’s the reason I don’t like child actors for the most part, as they just don’t have that well of experience to draw from to get the emotions required. Maybe Ruby will have a great career and I hope that’s true if that’s what she wants, but this movie doesn’t show that. And when you’re distracted by the flat delivery from the actors, the movie has lost its hold on the viewer.

Granted, the filmmakers try to be coy and hint that Crystal is the killer, but its quite obvious from the first kill sequence, before Chia, Crystal, and Monica are introduced, that the doll is possessed. So while there might be doubt in who the killer is with the characters, it’s pretty evident that it isn’t Crystal. I appreciate the dark ending, but the road to get there is really rough. Had they kept it vague all the way through and ended with the reveal of the doll doing the killing or vice versa and the little girl was doing the killing as the doll, this movie might have worked.

I will admit, the ragdoll is creepy at times, but long unedited shots focusing on it ruins a lot of the suspense. Instead, we get no backstory on why the doll does what it does, some uninspired butcher knife kills, a very bad mom who sides with everyone but her own daughter in times of trouble, some rough as sandpaper acting, and a movie you can skip as you make your way through your Tubi queue.