A quartet of crooks - Ray (Angelique Taylor), Frank (Philip Andrew Rogers), Judith (Petrina Richardson) and Davis (Jack Granville) - are to steal a certain box out of the local police station's evidence room for a client that pays them handsomely. Now thnis shouldn't be too big a problem since their mastermind, Lawford (William Marshall)  is actually a police officer who can open doors for them. Unfortunately, the police station isn't unmanned and Franmk gets trigger happy and shoots two officers (Jon-Paul Gates, Sean Abbott), and Davis is wounded in the process. Still, they get away with the box to meet with their buyer. Only Lawford gets a bit greedy and wants to look inside the box to see if they can sell the content themselves to a higher bidder - but all that's in the box is an old doll. When the buyer, a certtain Bannister (Christopher Morley) arrives at the scene, he's shocked that the box has been opened as he claims the doll was possessed by the spirit of his deceased yet homicidal daughter Molly (Tiana Rogers), who might possess someone or something else once out in the open. Bannister locks them all (himself included) in to not let Molly escape while our crooks think he's crazy playing an evil game with them. However, Molly has since possessed a mannequin  (/Audrey Perkins), and she's already gearing up for a killing spree ...

Now of course, the limited locations of this movie as well as its small cast give away its modest budget - but what makes Bannister Doll Heist is that instead of shooting for the stars it tells a story within its limits and fares all the better for it, as instead of meaningless fireworks the audience is presented with a tight story with many a moment of suspense and quite some jump scares, a fittingly palpable feeling of claustrophobia, and also some solid character work. And add to that a grounded and relatable cast and you've got yourself a pretty cool genre ride.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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