Don't Look Away (2023)

Here we go with an ultra low budget killer mannequin picture that's getting a digital release from Central City Media.

A large container lorry carrying nothing but a single packing case is hijacked. Soon whatever was in the crate has killed the thieves and the lorry driver has been accidentally run over by Frankie (played by Kelly Bastard. Yes that's her name.). She's so traumatised she drives home with her windscreen covered in blood (you would think the police who interviewed her at the crime screen would have at least offered to give it a wipe).

Frankie lives with Steven King. Yes that's the character's name  and when he isn't exposition dumping he's delivering dialogue lifted pretty much verbatim from Stanley Kubrick's THE SHINING. Do Warner Bros. know about this?

Frankie is sure she saw a mannequin standing at the crime scene. She goes to a disco without Steven King. She sees the mannequin again. Soon everyone at the disco is dead except the friends she went with, who are now targeted for a gory death by the mannequin. No-one ever sees it move but if you look away (aha!) it gets you, Dr Who weeping-angel style.

Feeling less like an well-rounded feature and more like a first year film student's attempt at making a horror movie (and a student who's a bit too obsessed with THE SHINING at that), DON'T LOOK AWAY engineers some highly atmospheric and spooky sequences that involve the mannequin. Unfortunately everything else is strictly amateur night, with little talent on display in either the acting or writing departments. The director himself turns up close to the end as a character who supplies minimal explanation as to what's going on and turns out to be rather older than the first year film student one might have been expecting. Fun if you're very forgiving and it's a very slow night.

DON'T LOOK AWAY is out on digital from Central City Media on Monday 25th September 2023