Review of Shadow Puppets (2007) by Kylie B — 29 Dec 2008

It's as if the makers of this film read a horror textbook, and then attempted to distil it, there's so many horror clichés; the abandoned hospital/asylum, selective amnesia in victims, a faceless, shapeless monster, people who disbelieve what others say they see because "it's crazy" despite the improbability of the original situation, doors that won't open until the last minute, copious blood with no bodies.. I could go on. But does the inclusion of those things make this a bad horror film?

No. In fact, some of them could've made it a very good film. Instead, it's things like the writing and dialogue which makes this a bad film. The characters have up to three personality traits each; Amber is both crazy and horny (she's a nymphomaniac, you know), the Blalock character is both bossy and caring, and both of the black guys are violent, with one also being sexist and a right asshole (and the other dying too quickly for us to gauge anything else). This perhaps explains why some of them sometimes feel the need to state the obvious in the most obvious way possible. The actual plot as it unfolds isn't much better, it's pretty dull - but it could've worked better even without a major re-write if the characters had only been a bit more realistic and less like cardboard cut outs trying (and failing) to represent a 'cross-section' of society.