alexhiro I really liked "The Doll Master". The atmosphere is unique,as the story is set in an old house,in the forest, which is a doll museum. I enjoyed the way the first scene set in the past was connected to the last scenes: we can actually understand the motivations of some characters and the why they act in a certain way.One of the best k-horrors!

daretostruggledaretowin The Doll Master is the directorial debut of South Korean director Yong- ki Jeong. It is a story in the House on Haunted Hill (1959) format whereby a wealthy eccentric invites a group of unwitting outsides to their manor for twisted reasons that they're less than upfront about.In this case the eccentric rich person is some sort of doll maker who adorns her house with creepy, life-sized dolls. Every room has some sort of doll in an unsettling pose. Of course, it isn't long before people start dying and you can guess the rest.This film was not entirely thrilling as it was a hackneyed, cliché premise and the acting and filming weren't entirely impressive either. Worth a watch if you're in for some light entertainment a la Steve Beck's remake Thir13en Ghosts (2001), but hardly an earth-shattering experience.This review originally appeared at http://paranoidcinephilia.blogspot.com

SGhost Bought this quite cheap at a video-store and since I've always been fascinated by dolls I simply had to buy it!The film starts out a bit slow, but here you really get to know the characters and their personalities. Then when it starts to speed up you'll be introduced to the horror and how scary dolls really can be. You'll cover your eyes and ears during some parts. The tension is extreme throughout the movie and it constantly changes your perception of the horrors that the characters encounter. What I mean by this is that once you think you've figured out how the horrors can take place, the movie throws something different at you to make you think different.It's a little reminiscent of The Grudge, and adds a new twist to the "evil doll-genre". All the actors did a great job, but the once who really stand out are the guy who invites everyone to the mansion and Yu-Mi. Especially Hae-Mi as Yu-Mi delivers a stunning performance.The story is very strong with a lot, and I mean A LOT of twists as well as impressive writing. The plot throws something different at you every 10 minutes or so, never leaving you bored or making you take your eyes off the screen.Only watch this if you want to enjoy a rich story, get freaked out, scared out of your mind and love dolls!10/10

JoeytheBrit Here we have the perfect example of a novice writer and director (Yong-ki Jeong) who, bereft of original ideas, draws on every genre film of note in the mistaken notion that all the classic aspects of old favourites bundled into one movie will add up to a kind of genre mega-movie. So we have a creepy wheelchair-bound woman in black, an old-style lift with security shutters, a maze-like cellar filled with spooky passages, a dungeon in which is chained an Oldboy lookalike, a bunch of young kids ripe for slaughtering, a creepy little girl, a monster with long black hair covering much of her face, murderous dolls and a vampire in a flowing black cloak…Well, OK, I made that last bit up, but you get the idea…The central theme of the story – which someone elsewhere has pointed out is curiously close to the concept behind the Toy Story flicks – is a good one, and a degree of poignancy is occasionally attained on the rare occasions that writer/director Jeong can tear himself away from providing repeated LOUD NOISES and jump cuts in his unwavering desire to cram as many cheap scares as he can into the mercifully modest running time. But such brief poignant moments are outnumbered ten to one by those that are either illogical or just plain stupid. Twice, chained people are free with one bound with no explanation as to how they achieved such a feat, and our nominal hero is an undercover cop who manages to remember his undercover handcuffs but leaves his undercover keys back in his room and has to nip back to get them in the middle of the action. He does give his suspect a gun to keep them company while he's gone though…I could go on in the same fashion that the film's conclusion does but that would be cruel. The only positive points I can make about this mess is that the life-size dolls look pretty cool, and the heroine has the cutest smile…Do yourself a favour – if you want to watch a film about rampaging dolls rent a Chucky movie; they're trash too but at least they are up front about it